Tonight, while coming home from a training session, after the sweat and the toil of hauling iron around a park, without a mask (because exercising in a mask can't be done, especially when you get all huffy), in the drizzle, a song came on the radio.
Safe from Harm by Massive Attack?
What ever happened to Massive Attack?
Music, as most people know, is really important to me. I need it in my life. I have a song in my head most of the time. I make up lyrics to many songs, when I don't know what the real lyrics - mondegreens I think they're called. (My friend Glen Waverly has a classic one. For years he was trying to find out what a "spigger" was after hearing the song "Losing My Religion". He'd misheard, 'It's bigger...". I still laugh at that one - occasionally calling him 'Spigger" because it's cute. In his defence, English is his second language.)
But back to Massive Attack.
It's one of those bands nobody talks about any more, but they were seminal in the 90s. A mix of funk, a bit of soul and amibient sounds that you'd find in the chill out room in clubs. they're moody, they're deep and they get in your head and stay there. The sound is really interesting in that it's electronic, without being annoying. The lyrics are deep. There's often a booming baseline, never too fast, that takes you off to another level, holding the song together. It's quite magic.
I hear Massive Attack and I'm taken back to London, back to the back yard parties with a myriad of immigrant orphans, beer in one hand, cigarette in the other, searching for stars in the sky. There were always a number of accents floating about - Australian, Kiwi, South African, the odd Swede and Belgian, with a local or two for good measure. The parties would linger. The music changed at midnight from rock - Alanis Morrisette, INXS, Blur, Robbie Williams, The Verve, Four Non-Blondes - and go into something more mellow - and along with Morcheeba, Cafe Del Mar and whatever other chillout music, there was Massive Attack. The reverby sounds which you chill to - maybe even pass around a joint, but it's music to which you put the world to rights by, and you work out that things aren't that bad.
The Blue Lines album is still on high rotation in my collection. As is the Protection album. Songs like "Teardrop", "Unfinished Symphony", "Karmacoma" all have a special place on my musical bandwith. They're a unique band with a special place in my heart - mainly because they transport me back to my twenties quicker than any other music.
Saying that, of something freaky - on the weekend I went down to see my hairdresser who has just opened up a salon in Cheltenham. We're supposed to stay close to home. Cheltenham is a 45 minute drive away. This appointment was booked six weeks ago and I was starting to look like Stevie Nicks again. Under these circumstances, leaving the suburb is allowed - but it still feels a bit strange.Would I be stopped by the police? As a single, middle aged woman in a car by herself... probably not. Would I get COVID-19 - also probably not - my hairdresser and I were in the salon alone, both quite healthy, both wearing masks).
Did it feel a bit wrong to be out of my suburb when I was technically supposed to be a bit closer to home? Well, yes.
Regardless, what was the song that came on three times during the car trip?
Radiohead's "Paranoid Android"....
The iPhone music genie was having a laugh on Saturday.
Today's Song:
Safe from Harm by Massive Attack?
What ever happened to Massive Attack?
Music, as most people know, is really important to me. I need it in my life. I have a song in my head most of the time. I make up lyrics to many songs, when I don't know what the real lyrics - mondegreens I think they're called. (My friend Glen Waverly has a classic one. For years he was trying to find out what a "spigger" was after hearing the song "Losing My Religion". He'd misheard, 'It's bigger...". I still laugh at that one - occasionally calling him 'Spigger" because it's cute. In his defence, English is his second language.)
But back to Massive Attack.
It's one of those bands nobody talks about any more, but they were seminal in the 90s. A mix of funk, a bit of soul and amibient sounds that you'd find in the chill out room in clubs. they're moody, they're deep and they get in your head and stay there. The sound is really interesting in that it's electronic, without being annoying. The lyrics are deep. There's often a booming baseline, never too fast, that takes you off to another level, holding the song together. It's quite magic.
I hear Massive Attack and I'm taken back to London, back to the back yard parties with a myriad of immigrant orphans, beer in one hand, cigarette in the other, searching for stars in the sky. There were always a number of accents floating about - Australian, Kiwi, South African, the odd Swede and Belgian, with a local or two for good measure. The parties would linger. The music changed at midnight from rock - Alanis Morrisette, INXS, Blur, Robbie Williams, The Verve, Four Non-Blondes - and go into something more mellow - and along with Morcheeba, Cafe Del Mar and whatever other chillout music, there was Massive Attack. The reverby sounds which you chill to - maybe even pass around a joint, but it's music to which you put the world to rights by, and you work out that things aren't that bad.
The Blue Lines album is still on high rotation in my collection. As is the Protection album. Songs like "Teardrop", "Unfinished Symphony", "Karmacoma" all have a special place on my musical bandwith. They're a unique band with a special place in my heart - mainly because they transport me back to my twenties quicker than any other music.
Saying that, of something freaky - on the weekend I went down to see my hairdresser who has just opened up a salon in Cheltenham. We're supposed to stay close to home. Cheltenham is a 45 minute drive away. This appointment was booked six weeks ago and I was starting to look like Stevie Nicks again. Under these circumstances, leaving the suburb is allowed - but it still feels a bit strange.Would I be stopped by the police? As a single, middle aged woman in a car by herself... probably not. Would I get COVID-19 - also probably not - my hairdresser and I were in the salon alone, both quite healthy, both wearing masks).
Did it feel a bit wrong to be out of my suburb when I was technically supposed to be a bit closer to home? Well, yes.
Regardless, what was the song that came on three times during the car trip?
Radiohead's "Paranoid Android"....
The iPhone music genie was having a laugh on Saturday.
Today's Song:
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