Song, by Toad

Hannah from Modernaire rather kindly sent through this George Orwell essay which I rather like, especially the bit about the Toad (I assure you there is no such thing as a ‘common’ Toad, whatever George may think).

Maybe we should all step away from these pernicious computer machines, and go and lark about, carefree in the springtime lushness.

The excerpt was from ‘SomeThoughts on the Common Toad’ and whilst I object to his scurrilous accusations of lower class toadery which, as a species, we vigorously refute, it makes a nice read. Orwell may have been a stodgy novellist, by which I mean that his intellectual achievements as a writer outsrip the actual enjoyment of reading his fiction, but he was a truly excellent essayist. Anyone who is yet to read “The Decline of the English Murder” should do so immediately. But this is not really a literary site, so let’s leave it to George, shall we:

“Is it wicked to take a pleasure in Spring and other seasonal changes? To put it more precisely, is it politically reprehensible, while we are all groaning, or at any rate ought to be groaning, under the shackles of the capitalist system, to point out that life is frequently more worth living because of a blackbird’s song, a yellow elm tree in October, or some other natural phenom¬enon which does not cost money and does not have what the editors of Left-wing newspapers call a class angle? There is no doubt that many people think so… People, so the thought runs, ought to be discontented, and it is our job to multiply our wants and not simply to increase our enjoyment of the things we have already. The other idea is that this is the age of machines and that to dislike the machine, or even to want to limit its domination, is backward-looking, reactionary and slightly ridiculous.

I have always suspected that if our economic and political problems are ever really solved, life will become simpler instead of more complex, and that the sort of pleasure one gets from finding the first primrose will loom larger than the sort of pleasure one gets from eating an ice to the tune of a Wurlitzer. I think that by retaining one’s childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies and – to return to my first instance – toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable, and that by preaching the doctrine that nothing is to be admired except steel and concrete, one merely makes it a little surer that human beings will have no outlet for their surplus energy except in hatred and leader-worship.”

There’s not a lot of music related to Orwell that I can think of, although I assume there must be loads out there. Animal Farm and 1984 have entered into the popular imagination such that people use metaphors from these books all the time, even if they have no idea where they came from.

For Animal Farm (tenuous, these two):
Cocorosie – Animals
The Beatles – Piggies
For 1984:
Alanalda – There is Always Someone Watching
Tina Turner – 1984
David Bowie – 1984 (Live)
For Down and Out in Paris and London:
The Divine Comedy – In and Out in Paris and London
There must be some more though, surely? Help me out here people.

Back in the days of CDs, vinyl and cassettes music collections were nice and neat: you had a collection of albums and singles and a small stack of accompanying compilations. On the occasion you found stray songs from compilations, poor albums, samplers and the like then they ended up on the compilations which became records in their own right, with an identity, an atmosphere and a rhythm.

Now, especially since I have started reading mp3 blogs regularly, I have hundreds of isolated songs which don’t belong with other songs. This is a bit odd. I don’t think it’s a good thing, but I’m not sure about that yet – maybe I’m just taking time to adjust.

So this post is about a few things I can’t honestly fit into a proper, coherent post, don’t really know what to do with, but would like you to hear because you might well like them. Musical pick ‘n’ mix, so to speak – the legacy of the digital age.

The Chaos Emeralds have a song on the Tough Love Records sampler.  I have listened to some of their other stuff and not been as impressed, but I like this one.  They’ve split up now anyway, so this song is rather orphaned.  Give it a home, Toadlings.
The  Chaos Emeralds- Furious Trims, Unhappy Haircuts

Parts & Labour (sunglasses recommended if you follow that link) are a group I read about recently on mp3hugger.com and, having really very nearly stopped the song after thirty seconds, was subsequently so impressed I bought the album.  So far the album has yet to grab me, so this song may also be left a little stranded.  It starts out like a dance nightmare, but the minute that guitar kicks in, I’m converted.
Parts & Labour – Fractured Skies

There is a new Blanche album, Little Amber Bottles, approaching on the 18th of June.  I first came across their brand of ramshackle gothic Americana when they supported the White Stripes at the Alexandra Palace down in London, and was entranced.  Their last album was no better than very good, but their recent EP was excellent and I am looking forward to the new record.  I don’t think I convinced the Loose Records chappie that I was important enough to merit an advance demo copy, so you may have to wait until my finances can afford a legitimate copy to hear more.  In the meantime, this is from the What This Town Needs EP.  Enjoy.
Blanche – Child of the Moon

Another one from mp3hugger, this.   I am not an enormous fan of their EP, but I like Alanalda for the following reason: they write current political protest songs.  Not generic ‘the war is bad’ ones, nor ‘the government are all liars’ ones.  But songs like this one, angry about the surveillance culture and the fact that we can all be tracked twenty-four hours a day, from CCTV to credit card transaction records, to mobile phone bills.  It is surprisingly rare to hear people write these sorts of songs and I think they’re important.  Is there anyone else you can suggest – people who read the news, get angry and write songs about it?
Alanalda – Always Someone Watching