One of the funny things about having grown up in the era before the internet is that some things that were absolutely normal when you were growing up are now a world away from the experience of people today. It’s like that old internet meme showing a cassette tape and a pencil and saying “are …
Author archives: jpm
Three songs about… oppresive regimes – why Bjorn Ulvaeus and John Lydon are strange bedfellows
On the face of it, the Walker Brothers; Public Image Limited and ABBA don’t make the most expected of bedfellows but if you dig a bit deeper they do have something quite remarkable in common – songs about the dreadful actions of repressive regimes. You might expect it most from Public Image Limited. After all …
The importance of deep roots
As the years go on, it becomes clearer and clearer that the ups and downs of living life can feel a bit like a plant trying to survive in the desert. While it can be pretty sunny a lot of the time, the conditions can also be quite hostile a lot of the time and …
Make Love Your Goal – a case for the greatest love song ever
Love has been at the heart of popular music since way beyond the birth of pop in the 1950s, probably way beyond the days of the folks wandering around with lutes in the 1350s. There may well be as many different perspectives on love as people who have ever walked the earth, maybe more as …
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Sea glass
If I were a better writer than I am, or maybe a different one, then I’d be able to write a powerful poem or song about Sea glass. If you’re not familiar with it, Sea glass is those little multicoloured gems of glass that you find on beaches, the kind of thing that excited five-year-olds …
Love – the beginning and the end
What happens when you walk away from the big relationship in your life, the one that people know you and love you for? This was the challenge for John Lennon in 1970 when his divorce from the Beatles was public and he had to answer the question ‘what next?’ By 1968, John Lennon was in …
Three songs about… Domestic Violence
It’s probably safe to say that the subject of Domestic Violence is probably about as far away from the She Loves You/I Want To Hold Your Hand axis that lies at the backbone of modern pop music. But the ability of songs to capture and convey complex emotions is quite remarkable. The plotline of ‘…Boy …
The most psychedelic album of the 1960s…
When you’re looking to pitch the most psychedelic album of the 60s, there are a few obvious starting places, such as the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper album (though worth noting that the Beatles themselves described Revolver as their ‘LSD album’). Where you probably wouldn’t look is from a manufactured-for-TV group producing high pop songs for pre-teens. …
If you’re looking for a reason…
I spend my days collecting smithereens. I find them on buses, in department stores, and on busy pavements. At restaurant tables I pick up the leftovers of polite conversation. At railway stations, the tearful debris of parting lovers. I pocket my eavesdroppings and store them away. I make things out of them. Roger McGough