Somewhere Over the Rainbow 2


What was shaking in the 60s & still does it for me now would include Soft Machine only up to the 3rd album, Wild Man Fisher, Judy Henske & Jerry Yester’s ‘Farewell Alderbaran’, Bridget St John, Michael Chapman, Roy Harper (early stuff).
Its surprising when someone like Vashti Bunyan or Linda Perhacs appear & is lauded by Devendra Banhart etc……….I certainly cannot remember them from the late 60s/early 70s, although I confess to enjoying their work now!

Review of Jonny Trunk’s ‘The Music Library’.

This is a genre of music that I pride myself on having some expertise. There is a gap in the market & a real need for literature/research on library music.
This book, although it covers all the major library music labels & has beautiful illustrations, is really a graphic art book, not supplying any details about the actual music. As a coffee table guide to the graphics of the period it is fine. However, if like me you expected an analysis of the genre you will be disappointed.
Once again, I would state that although this type of music has become trendy, there is a dire need for written materials to substantiate the buzz that is going around.
Please note his radio programme on Resonance FM called O.S.T. is well worth a listen.

A Quiet Corner

This is a space to share what is good & avoid what is bad. For instance who would have told me when I was hitting the old hippie trail to goa & katmandu in the early 70s listening to ‘Trout Mask’ that in my fifties I would be chilling to les baxter & martin denny…………..

Librarians are Boring, discuss

Countries visited: france, belgium, germany, holland, switzerland, austria, italy, greece, turkey, iran, afghanistan, pakistan, india, nepal, saudi arabia. Holy cities with strong vibes: mecca/medina, benares (varanisi), meshed. Scary non-library situations: held at tank/gunpoint during revolution of generals in greece & being locked in a 4th floor windowless bathroom, while all hell was breaking loose in saudi arabia during 1st gulf war & lastly spending 4 years working in a prison library. Beat that Indiana Jones!

Favourite Gigs

starting with most recent, john renbourn @ fraser centre, milgavie on sat 14th jan 2006. Although people mistook the venue name as the more aptly named freezer centre, it was a cold night but a great underpublicised gig.Well done jason smith! I did enjoy seeing the other half of this tag team a few years ago in Bellshill Library.

Not long ago I caught jackie leven @ king tuts, this was the 2nd time I had seen him there in the same number of years.Immense. Talking of King Tuts, how I have enjoyed concerts there with my son, keith…e.g. roy harper & jimi tenor. I have actually seen jimi twice in glasgow different both occasions. Come back.
I cannot leave out the Instal festivals at the Arches…….I have only missed 1 since they started. Reminds me of the time I saw the edgar broughton band @ the Maryland, Glasgow. You had to be there……Out demons out!!!!!!!!!!!

Slight update: the books & the clogs again @ the Arches was the best of the year, so far.


to be continued................

Road to Katmandu



Just finished this title over the weekend. This is a remarkable achievement as I am usually such a slow reader. Although this book appeared in 1971,(re-published 2005), two years prior to me making the same journey, I enjoyed this title & I would recommend it to anyone, especially now that many of the routes mentioned are now closed.
My favourite descriptions are those of the whole time travel aspects of Afghanistan at that period. If you wondered what life was like in medieval times then Afghanistan in the early 1970s, was rushing headlong into c10th century.




Afghanistan: Grains of Sand

Afghanistan rushing headlong into the 12th Century­ -horses, oxen, sheep, bells & wooden lorries.
Lorries decorated with their versions of second-hand psychedelia. One main route connects big towns: Herat-Kandihar-Kabul.
One side of the road, Russian built, the other by the Americans,
the Russians the left, perhaps ?
Courted by both sides, but mistress of none ­- her virginity intact...


Border guards too funny to be taken seriously.
Cartoon characters in uniforms inherited from the Bolsheviks found dead at the Winter Palace,
but torn & tattered greatcoats do not disguise
a familiarity with weapons of warfare.
Pistols & rifles rejected from regular wars
find their way here.
Or were these weapons hand - made at home?
One learns not to argue with these men.
Baksheesh still smoothes my way through.

Step into the Afghan lunarscape­
- it is a long distance between towns,
towns, where Afghani ecologists re-cycle used tyres making beautiful footwear, buckets...etc..





Roadside hotel, bus broken down ­it's well below freezing
& too cold to sleep on the bus.
I walk inside a hotel & see
Afghani pilgrims overcrowding floor space on their way to Mecca. A wooden stove in the centre of the room is the only source
of heat & light;
I step towards the fire & the tribesmen stand aside & let me gain access to the flames, we sit & watch each other,


they are all red beards & toothless smiles,
sheep roam freely among sleeping herdsmen.
Some other pilgrims arrive slipping out of the snowy moonscape.
I had learned the rules of the game & stood back to let the new arrivals into the fire.



I had broken through the web of silence & I am immediately shown open affection, they take me to their hearts.
The sun comes up & we go our separate ways, I go east, they go west.

Further on through the Khyber Pass,
Panthan bandits shatter front & back windows of vehicle, fighting the same war our Victorian ancestors began,
don't they know there is no longer an Empire­
. ,
-proud to be proud, they will fight on until their death

the Russians were soon to learn this lesson....


Now the Soviets have taken over (at least they believe they have ), Will we see the first Afghan rocket on the moon?
Will the Afghanis throwaway their antique rifles
& learn how to push buttons & send forth nuclear weapons?

After five years of jihad, the holy war continues, with Soviet air attacks spitting fire over hillsides. Afghanistan is the Russian Vietnam,
a superpower fighting a superior guerilla defence.
The Mujahideen believe deeply in their cause
& launch rockets & mortars with a prayer to Allah.
Soviets no longer (did they ever?) believe in their mission.



Why this offensive attack on Afghanistan?
Almost all the Afghanis are in refugee camps in Iran or Pakistan. What does the U.S.S.R. want with an empty desert landscape?
To practice moon landings for their rockets?

.......

What floats my boat these days from a musical standpoint?

In the late 60s early 70s, who was organised enough to realise that there was greater music around than tinny trannies emitting tamla or mod tunes that would eventually drift into a mish mash of psychedelia. Even among this psychedelia we were limited to what soared out our transistor radios into the ether. I never heard the Red Crayola or the 13th Floor Elevators when I was a teenager, I listened to Radio Luxembourg, The Peel shows & anything else bringing this new psychedelia to a hungry audience.

I should have listened to the Real Soul of James Brown etc…instead of Motown. I didnt know! Who could guess that Krautrock would have such an appeal to me now?
An early fan of jazz, but one who quickly knew what he liked & with a disdain for what was ordinary. I never had the money during those tender years to buy the black, spiritual esp/verve/blue note titles. I knew there was something special about the radical champions of a kind of British jazz that is impossible to find nowadays under the radar……..e.g. Michael Garrick & all those guys featured on the superb Jazz Britania series. Big up Gilles Peterson for his push in this area as well as his grip on afro funk & brazilian grooves.
to be continued……….

Tea Time

Welcome to the sister site to 'Under the Radar & Off the Map'. I am in the process of bringing more beauty and love into this increasing dark world. If, like me, you suffer during the dark days of winter, then look no further we are going to paint rainbows all over your blues. My thanks to joni for giving me a rainbow maker & I am putting it to good use to brighten up our lives.