- Dec 24, 2021
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: COMETH THE ADVENT CALENDAR
It may not be an original idea but it is something I intend to do every year until we get to around 8 December and I realise it’s way too late to start. Well, there’s always next year. Never fear. Followers on Twitter will have noticed that I actually did get round to it this year and this morning posted the 24th in my Fifty3Fridays 2021 Advent Calendar of great songs; the great being in the ears of the listener, of course. I am just here to offer an opinion, though always ho
- Dec 17, 2021
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: MY FAVOURITE MONKEE
Like your favourite Beatle, growing up in the sixties we all had our favourite Monkee. Mine was woolly-hatted guitarist Michael Nesmith who we sadly lost last Friday, aged 78. While you might not immediately think of The Monkees TV show as a kind of cultural milestone, it was a true ground breaker that over time elevated the band from a bunch of actors playing at being a pop group, put together to cash in on Beatlemania, to icon status. The first episode was shown on New Year
- Dec 10, 2021
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: IT’S CHRISTMAS!!
OK, Noddy, we hear. Shame we can’t get your Nuts in Sainsbury’s any more. It just ruins my fortnightly shopping experience. With the big day looming yet still plenty of shopping days left for those stockings to be filled - physically or digitally - with some musical niceties, it seems as good a day as ever to lay some Christmas tunes upon you. Before you reach for the panic button, I won’t be dusting off my collection of 10 Christmas curios of old again; though if you wish to
- Dec 3, 2021
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: THE ROADS WE TRAVEL
It has always struck me that songwriting is much like a journey. There’s a linear progression running through a song through which the story unfolds but often unexpected diversions along the route of travel. You may get there in the end but perhaps not precisely as the crow might have flown. Not that such birds necessarily fly in straight lines, I’m told. There’s just not usually that much in their way; well, apart from wind turbines, drones, cables, towers maybe. A songwrite