Given the horrendous unfolding world events at the start of March 2022, just sitting here writing a blog post to accompany the monthly playlist feels a rather privileged position to be in. People are fighting for their lives, losing their lives, refugees are fleeing across borders while property and architecture is bombed and obliterated at this very moment. With all that going on in the background, everything else we fill our time with, especially writing about music collecting and discovery like this, feels rather indulgent.
Still, we are all carrying on as normal because that is all we know. As someone who approaches his playlist curation as sonic diary entries, just as much as they are intended as wide-ranging journeys of discovery for those with similar tastes in melodically rooted thrill seeking, I had to resist selecting too obvious tracks nodding towards current events. With the fear of nuclear attacks feeling more real than any time in my lifetime, I kept thinking the obvious opening number should be Bob Dylan’s ‘A Hard Rains-A-Gonna Fall’ and perhaps following that up with Sting’s ‘Russians.’ I played Phil Ochs feeling certain that many of his sixties political songs would speak to me directly reflecting current fears and travesties. And they did, Phil remains one of the most undervalued topical songwriters that ever lived, but like the man himself in his classic ‘I Ain’t Marching Anymore,’ I chose to turn away.
Why did I make that choice? Well, if there is any point in sharing a few hours of music in March 2022 the only effective use I can settle on is that it might open a window of distraction, as well as maybe offer a bit of a lift. Let us try and not forget that is what music can do, I always believe the magic in the range of feelings and reactions it can spark is what makes it so endlessly addictive. And as always, there has certainly not been a shortage of supply in music for me to get excited about lately. It is not all upbeat, it never is with me I am afraid, you always need a bit of mellow calm introspection to contrast the louder faster stuff, but I believe it is all worth hearing and certainly never dull. Inevitably these days, there are a couple of nods to giants of the music world who left us this past month, news arriving of Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker and the far too young Mark Lanegan’s passing on the same day.
By the time I write the entry for the April playlist will things be better? We all live in hope, the idea that in the 21st century human nature has not evolved far enough to have learned to tackle any dispute without death and destruction does not fill me with hope. Yes, there are millions who do know a better way, but the universal truth is that those people are rarely the ones in power. As Phil Ochs once sang, “it’s always the old who lead us to the wars, always the young to fall.” Peace talks are continuing while bombs and aggression rain down on Ukraine from all sides. Watching on the news footage of an entire country’s architecture and cultural landmarks being obliterated should make us all appreciate the fleeting nature of all the culture we assume to be permanent. It is not, this is all just a temporary thing. So, whether you are attending a musical performance at a historical venue like the Royal Albert Hall, hustling to secure your tickets to see Paul McCartney at Glastonbury this year or simply filing your vinyl collection alphabetically on shelves at home, enjoy what we have right now for a little way east across the globe is the reality, this can all be gone in seconds.
Fruit Tree Records 