Saturday, December 17, 2016

I like Morrissey, why is everybody pushing me towards The Smiths?!

Note to self
I am not a fan. I lack this „feature”. I do however like music very much. All kinds of music. I listen to everything. I like to listen to albums, not just singles. I like to read about music and musicians. I am also interested in the artwork of an album. I like to go to concerts, even if I don't know anything about the performer of the night. As a matter of fact, I have discovered lots of bands and singers during a live show. It is all about the connection between the artists and the audience. When I don't like a concert or an album, the feeling is very strong, it's painful. My whole body aches, I get bored and it takes a while to recover. Music was always present in my life, it helped me get through very difficult times. But even though I like music so much, I was never the fan of X, Y or Z... I never really understood how can somebody „fell in love” with an artist, that is a person you know only from TV, radio or news articles. Is it really that easy to love somebody?! I was always amazed when my friends would tell me: „Oh, I love X so much, he is so gorgeous”. How can you LOVE a complete stranger?! I still don't get it! I am not the kind of person who collects photos with artists. I don't have many autographs either. I have a few autographs on books and albums, but getting autographs was never a goal to me. But I do listen to their music, I do read their books, and that's good enough for me. I don't expect anything from an artist, I don't fantasize about that artist life. I don't necessarily want to meet an artist I admire, though I am happy if it happens. But I enjoy the art even if I don't cross paths with the artist. THAT'S ME.

Last year, I discovered Morrissey's music. I went to his concert in Bucharest and my life changed. For me, everything started with the album „World Peace Is None Of Your Business”. I liked all the songs on this album. They are all so... visual... like paintings. Each song creates a short movie in my head. The lyrics are powerful. I even tried to create videos (or slideshows, to be more specific) for some of the songs. It is just my small tribute to this huge artist who changed my life by reminding me what is the true power of the written word, and how important it is to speak out. To me, „World Peace Is None Of Your Business” is the path that led me to Morrissey's music, and it will always be the most important album of his. Through it I discovered a whole new world.

But... since october 2015, each and every time I talk to my friends about music and about Morrissey, there is always someone who tells me: „You have to listen to The Smiths, those are his best albums”. Well, just between you and me and the lamp post... I have! I have listened to The Smiths, I have listened to his solo albums, I have watched videos of The Smiths and I have seen videos of Morrissey post-Smiths. I like The Smiths' songs, but I prefer the versions from his solo-years. When I first listened to the song „Still ill”, it was the version from the DVD „25Live”. I absolutely loved it. Then, I looked for the Smiths song and... well, I kind of... disliked it. The same thing happened with „How Soon Is Now”, „There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”, etc. The truth is, I will always prefer the versions from his solo years. Well, try and say these things to a Smiths fan... he will probably have your head... But... to me... Morrissey IS NOT The Smiths. Morrissey is the artist who showed me that pop music can be intelligent and it can open your mind. And also, Morrissey is the artist who made me aware of the fact that there was a band called The Smiths. Because that's the pure and honest truth: I found out about The Smiths thanks to Morrissey, not the other way round.

Morrissey in Bucharest (review): http://thisleftfeelsrightablogaboutmusic.blogspot.ro/2015/11/my-first-morrissey-concert-bucharest.html

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Morrissey dreaming

Morrissey - November Spawned a Monster 


Sleep on and dream of love / Because it's the closest you will / Get to love”






Sunday, November 13, 2016

Remember #Bataclan (13.11.2015)

„I have found, you see, throughout my rather silly life, that there is very little difference between religion and racism. Both are the exact same torrent of intolerance”. (#Morrissey - „List Of The Lost”)



Sunday, November 6, 2016

Monday, October 31, 2016

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

The saddest photograph of all....

„We are a doomed race, chained to a sinking ship, as the whole thing is a bad joke”.... ― Virginia WoolfMrs. Dalloway

Photo credit: Dana Oleinic

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Syd Barrett - Bob Dylan Blues (Lyrics)


Lyrics:
Got the Bob Dylan blues
And the Bob Dylan shoes
And my clothes and my hair's in a mess
But you know I just couldn't care less
Gonna write me a song 'bout what's right and what's wrong
Got God and my girl and all that
Quiet while I make like a cat
Cause I'm a poet, doncha know it
And the wind you can blow it
Cause I'm Mr. Dylan the king
And I'm free as a bird on the wing
Roam from town to town, get to get people down
But I don't care too much about that
Cause my gut and my wallet are fat
Make a whole lot of dough but I deserve it though
I got soul and a good heart of gold
So I'll sing about war and the cold
Cause I'm a poet, doncha know it
And the wind you can blow it
Cause I'm Mr. Dylan the king
And I'm free as a bird on the wing
Well I sings about dreams and I rhymes it with seams
Cause it seems that my dream always means
That I can prophesy all kinds of things
Well the guy that digs me
Should try hard to see
That he buys all my discs in a hat.
And when I'm in town go see that.
Cause I'm a poet, doncha know it
And the wind you can blow it
Cause I'm Mr. Dylan the king
And I'm free as a bird on the wing


Thursday, October 13, 2016

One man's meat is another man's poison: Dylan vs Morrissey in the press

So... Dylan won the Nobel Prize For Literature. The decision is understandable. It's getting harder and harder to read books, so why not turn to music?!
But this post is not about Dylan. It is about the way journalists react to such news.

FLASHBACK. October 2013. The journalists were outraged because Morrissey's „Autobiography” was published by Penguin Modern Classics. They were trully upset about Penguin Books’ choice to release it as a Penguin Classic. That’s the imprint reserved for classic classics, such as Tolstoy or Voltaire or Virginia Woolf or Albert Camus. But not for Morrissey! No way! I remember an article published by Boyd Tonkin of The Independent, with the headline “Morrissey gets what he wants, and Penguin Classics sinks in the Ship Canal”. Tonkin says the publisher has chucked “67 years of editorial rigour and learning out of the corporate window” just to “kowtow to the whims of a petulant pop icon”. Then, Brendan O’Neil of The Telegraph said that Penguin has “destroyed its own reputation”. And these are just a few examples.

BACK IN OCTOBER 2016.  Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize For Literature. Though 3 years ago almost all the journalists agreed that Morrissey is not fit to be a „classic”, today the same journalists see Dylan fit for the Nobel Prize. So, it is ok for Dylan to be in the same „boat” with George Bernard Shaw, Jean-Paul Sartre, Rudyard Kipling and William Butler Yeats, but it is the end of the world if Morrissey is published by Penguin Modern Classics.
I think the right word for all this is: hypocrisy.
If anyone can explain to me how does the brain of the journalist work, I'd be grateful! Thank you!



Related articles:

Books to read in 2016: Morrissey - „List Of The Lost”
My first Morrissey concert: Bucharest (14.10.2015)

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Morrissey - One Of Our Own (with lyrics) - new video

Morrissey - „One Of Our Own”, taken from the album „World Peace Is None Of Your Business”.
Pictures of: Brendan Behan, Charles Dickens, The Bronte Sisters, Goethe, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, William Blake.

Lyrics:
Standing at the stone
Of one of our own
He died saving my life
He took the lead
Aimed for my head
Such love shown I'd never known

Give me the gun
I love you
A job half done
Isn't done

Standing at the stone
Of one of our own
He took the plug
And he hit the rug
Such love shown I've never known
Now I don't want to know tomorrow

So, give me the gun
I love you
A job half done
Isn't done

Kneeling at the stone
Of one of our own
He took a round
And he hit the ground
He took the blast
His very last
I have no use for tomorrow

No use for tomorrow
No use for tomorrow
No use for tomorrow
No use for tomorrow
No use for...
No use for...
No use for tomorrow
No use for tomorrow
No...


Sunday, June 26, 2016

„Pay In Blood” - Bob Dylan

“Night after night, 
Day after day 
They strip your useless hopes away 
The more I take the more I give 
The more I die the more I live”

#Brexit

British humour.



Monday, May 16, 2016

The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (30th anniversary) - new video

The Queen Is Dead” is the third studio album by the English rock band The Smiths. It was released 30 years ago, on 16 June 1986 in the United Kingdom by Rough Trade Records and in the United States on 23 June 1986 through Sire Records.

You can buy it here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Queen-Dead-2011-Remastered-Version/dp/B005NHX4MQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1463255179&sr=1-1&keywords=The+queen+is+dead
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-queen-is-dead/id800092985



Morrissey has commented:
"I would like to congratulate the Smiths, and also Stephen Street, and also Rough Trade Records for 30 fantastic years of sales for The Queen Is Dead, which is 30 years old in June. We have always been gagged, of course, but certain recordings rise with time, and The Queen Is Dead and also Meat Is Murder both had the courage to put the fullest meaning of British life into words and music. It was the hope of helping things to evolve, and the mobilized strength of both recordings for 30 years has been fully understood and appreciated by those with sensible passions. Central issues in 2016 England include an urgent need of social justice for animals as well as an obvious recognition of 'monarchy as anarchy' (therefore, something with no place in a democratic society). 
I am sorry that Warner UK or Sire US cannot provide any celebrations for the anniversaries of both recordings, but, perhaps some label bosses have their eye on a tatty OBE, and perhaps others simply have detachable heads. It would not quite be the Smiths if not classically ignored by the dried-out lawns of the establishment. I urged Warner UK to issue a special 'The Queen Is Dead' single release for the first week of June ... but ... brick wall.

Bleeding to death, I therefore have the restless gall to ask of you that, should you have 99 cents/pence, that you purchase 'The Queen Is Dead' track in the final week of May, thus possibly edging it into the corner of everyone's ear in the UK Top 100 - if only to let them know that we are still here and fully aware of the fox-fur on the hall-stand. I am sorry to ask more of you than you have already given, but we all do as well as we can in such ludicrous times. I can only ask.
http://true-to-you.net/morrissey_news_160513_01



Saturday, April 23, 2016

Morrissey - Mountjoy (new video)


Mountjoy” - written by: Morrissey, Boz Boorer
Album: World Peace Is None Of Your Business
Lyrics:
The joy brings many things
It cannot bring you joy 
Sons of mothers huddle  here 
Men and boys

1850 swung the doors 
And human sewage  swept inside 
Where victims speak in whines 
And where the hardened cried

I was sent here by a 3 foot half-wit in a wig 
I took his insults on the chin, and never did I flinch

A swagger hides the fear in here 
By this rule we breathe 
And there is no one on this earth 
Who I’d feel sad to leave

You see we all lose 
We all lose

What those in power do to you 
Reminds us at a glance 
How humans hate each others guts 
And show it given a chance

We never say aloud the things 
That we say in our prayers 
Cause no one cares

Many executed here 
By the awful lawfully good 
But the only thing that makes me cry 
Is when I see the sky

Brendan Behan's laughter rings 
For what he had or hadn’t done 
For he knew then as I know now 
That for each and every one of us 
We all lose 
Rich or poor, 
we all lose 
Rich or poor, 
they all lose


Sunday, March 20, 2016

Brian May si Kerry Ellis - Born Free (live in Romania, 14.03.2016)

Brian May: „So daily I make myself very unpopular with various people, who still believe animals were put on Earth to be used and abused at will by humans.
Human is the name we give ourselves, and there is an adjective derived from it, implying compassion, sensibility, fairness: the word “humane”. Throughout history man has tried to justify his behaviour towards fellow man and other animals.
As I write, millions of animals are suffering at the hands of humans.
Animal farming (read “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer) involves the abuse of millions of creatures every day that have senses and feelings similar to ours.

Ian Redmond OBE, the world-famous zoologist, says that a generation ago, any biologist attributing “maternal feelings and behaviour” to a mother monkey cuddling her offspring would be accused of anthropomorphism and never taken seriously as a scientist again.

This is no longer the case. Recent mapping of genomes has revealed the uncanny similarity of the human make-up to that of primates and only a little less closely to mammals such as mice and rats.

It is now accepted that the idea “humans think and behave rationally, but animals act just on instinct” is unsupportable”.
More here:
http://www.all-creatures.org/articles...


Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Heaven And Hell

The world is full of kings and queens/
Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams/
Its heaven and hell 



Remember Rory Gallagher (2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995)


One of our own :)

You’ve stayed true to the music that inspired you in the beginning.
Yeah, I think that you have to recognize the kind of source point that you have. Even though you develop as a player over the years and you get influenced by different things, you have to keep to the heart of what you started with, that kind of initial vision of music, you know? Obviously, it’s taken me this amount of time to learn a lot of different things about music and playing and so on, but I think I’m getting there slowly. [Laughs.]
You seem to gravitate toward roots American music.
Yeah. Even though I grew up in Ireland, where there’s a lot of folk music and traditional music is very close at hand, it didn’t initially appeal to me, even though I can see traces of it creeping in over the years in my songwriting and some chord patterns and some kinds of solos I do. But I wasn’t really turned on until I heard American music via Lonnie Donegan. You know, I heard him doing Woody Guthrie songs, Lead Belly songs. And of course, I heard Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochrane, the early rockers, Chuck Berry. So it was a mixture of folk, blues, and rock from America. I was only six, seven, eight, nine, at that age, and then I just followed it through and learned about all these artists. And I’m still discovering undiscovered people and learning. But it took me about a good ten or fifteen years to find out who was who in the whole spectrum of things – who were the originators or the prime movers, and who were the followers and copyists.
http://jasobrecht.com/rory-gallagher-the-1991-interview/

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Flashback: Meeting Yngwie Malmsteen in Romania (12.05.2015)

12 May 2015. Sunny day. Beautiful day. Tuesday. Bad luck. :)
I arranged for an interview with Yngwie Malmsteen. The local promoter agreed, the Artist agreed, the manager agreed. Everything was well. Or... so I thought. :)
If there is one thing that I hate the most in this world, is waiting. And I waited for almost two hours to meet Yngwie Malmsteen. When he finally came, his manager said he is too tired so... bye-bye interview for me. Now... that was frustrating! Instead, I got the chance to take a picture with him so that I will never forget this meeting. Well, I guess it's better than nothing!


Flashback: Morrissey in Romania (14.10.2015)


One of the highlights of 2015. You can read the concert review here: http://thisleftfeelsrightablogaboutmusic.blogspot.ro/2015/11/my-first-morrissey-concert-bucharest.html






Wednesday, February 17, 2016

If i want to whistle, I whistle

Sunset in Bucharest, Romania, 17.02.2016



You say that the day
Just never arrives
And it's never seemed so far away
Still I know it's gonna happen someday
To you
Please wait
Don't lose faith





Monday, February 8, 2016

Michael Graves (ex-Misfits) - Descending Angel

Michael Graves (ex-Misfits) sings „Descending Angel” (during Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg concert in Bucharest - 9.04.2012).
Enjoy!



Saturday, February 6, 2016

A Sunday morning song

Art work by Horațiu Mălăele, actor.



Song by Morrissey, taken from the album „World Peace Is None Of Your Business” (2014).



Wednesday, February 3, 2016

On (dead) musicians and the music industry

A text written by Răzvan Albu, a young musician from Romania (this is his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1530409957251679&id=1528674144091927)



2015 ended and 2016 kicked off in tune with the last 7-8 years: after wishing everyone a Happy New Year, media outlets resumed their favorite topics on financial/material losses and petty squabbles; “it’s worse than ever,” “hear ye, hear ye, Chinese stock market crashes,” “oh no, 95-year old multi-billionaire fucks underage girl,” and so on. Three days later, on January 4, I was done getting my share of pollution, terrorist and heartbreak-related news, and ready to get back to work. Nothing much has changed.

To be honest, I never really paid attention to the a.m. news, other than a scratch on the surface. I know just enough to be able to have routine conversations with colleagues passionate about such topics, without sounding like a complete idiot. “Socializing” is what it’s called, right?

I remain passionate about music. I read about it a lot, listen to it a lot and record sporadically. A while back I’d just blast some classic Motörhead and the bad news would fade away. Sometimes I’d be in the mood for Ziggy Stardust (in its entirety, not just the title track) and other times I’d watch Weiland’s unplugged concert with STP. Oh wait, these guys are dead. They all died between December 3, 2015 and January 10, 2016. But that’s ok. Young, fresh artists will catch up with them. 20 years from now Justin Bieber will be older and wiser and Lady GaGa will have completed her transformation into a Mercury/Bowie/Jagger hybrid; Maroon 5 still uses guitars; not to mention Rihanna, Beyonce and all these other gifted singers whose vocal range and technique far surpasses that of their predecessors. It’s not that bad, right?
Wrong, so fucking wrong.

Call me old-fashioned or whatever. Sure, our grandparents were shocked when Elvis and the Beatles took over the reins from Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra. The Sex Pistols and The Clash brushed Led Zeppelin aside (screw the overstatement) and brought civil unrest to England. For a while, Nirvana turned Guns N’ Roses into a pathetic gathering of little boys, and so on. It’s my time to get older, isn’t it? Not yet. Hopefully you already see the difference between then and now. If you don’t, let me spell it out for you: like them or not, the artists mentioned above are huge. Even after they fell from the charts, they remained icons and cult figures. Bowie’s last show took place on June 25, 2004 – that’s almost 12 years ago. He lost none of his relevance in the meantime and could’ve EASILY filled any stadium in the world a day before his passing without relying on labels, YouTube videos or ads. Word of mouth would’ve been sufficient and if you don’t believe me, I couldn’t care less.

Take Sia and Ellie Goulding off the charts for a year and no one will give a shit where they are or what they’re doing. Maroon 5 practically disappeared after scoring their biggest hit – that’s how much they mattered. Name *one* relevant artist that emerged since 2000. Ok, now name another five. Repeat the same exercise for the ’60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, hell, up to the mid-‘90s, and you’ll stay awake for most of the night. The “glorious then” vs. “inconsequential now” is a fact, yet people get fed the same crap – idiotic music with moronic lyrics, sung to perfection. Nobody pays attention to what’s playing, it’s just eye candy, music for driving and talking on the iPhone at the same time. Don’t get me started on the TV “talent shows” where boys and girls with attitude belch out high notes until their faces turn red, then hug their opponents when they’re kicked out of the contest because “it’s fair-play.” Hey, how about that time when Ozzy Osbourne kissed Bruce Dickinson on the cheek because Iron Maiden ranked higher than Black Sabbath on Billboard? Or remember when Ray Charles cried like a baby in front of Stevie Wonder because Superstition was such a good song? Me neither, because it never fucking happened.

The current state of affairs in music has nothing to do with lack of creativity; rather, it’s a consequence of the “music business” aka the idea that music’s only purpose is to create monetary profit for someone other than the artist. Nowadays people helming radio stations and record labels are businessmen/women, not music listeners with an affinity for good tunes. They could be bank managers, brokers, whatever, but just so happen to work in the “music business.” The problem is, they still have more money than 15-year old guitar prodigies who aren’t pretty or popular at school and will never play guitar outside of their basement. With money-grabbing animals at the helm of the “music business,” try to do anything other than music covers, TV contests or whatever is “fresh” in the mainstream at the time and you’re irrelevant. It’s not that people couldn’t make great music anymore. But who cares about the chubby, hairless bassist that smell of computer servers and writes prog-rock about his suicide 5 years from now? It’s no longer marketable nowadays. Robert Fripp? Gimme a break, label officials would laugh their asses off at him for writing “sounds” instead of choruses about how much money they make and how hot their girlfriends are. How do you sell “fat bassist” when that kid from The Voice has such fine clothes, chiseled features and sings The Show Must Go On slightly off-key? People no longer seem to understand that Bowie’s bad teeth didn’t matter. Long are the days when labels invested in artists with no money-back guarantee, simply because they sounded good and said something relevant.

These days, mainstream music has nothing to do with how *I* feel. It’s getting harder and harder to dig underground and find something that still moves me, musically. The few artists who could still say something to the likes of me are probably getting hungry as well… and a little bit of La Bamba may just bring them enough money to buy a house and a car – if they’re lucky.

This brings me to my favorite part, the part when I swear at (almost) everyone I know in the music industry. I have of a couple of these “professionals” in my Facebook list as well, but to be honest I can’t recall their names because they matter to me as much as Selena Gomez. I added them or they added me and I pressed accept because their profile picture had vivid colors, so they must’ve been important. Well, anyway, here’s a big FUCK YOU, you idiotic, moronic pieces of shit who “teach” struggling musicians what to do in order to “succeed in the business.” Fuck you from the bottom of my heart for destroying everything that was ever good in music, for pushing aside people who express their feelings through 15-minute songs without choruses in exchange for “artists” willing to sing, “So gimme that ‘toot toot’ / Lemme give you that ‘beep beep’,” because it sells.

YOU do the same harm to people as media outlets who intoxicate everyone with tragic news on January 1. YOU are the reason why the only thing that matters in 2016 is a sad Guns N’ Roses reunion. YOU are the reason why David Gilmour tickets cost $500 and YOU are the reason why I might actually buy them, for fear that he’ll die as well before I get a chance to see him and everything left in the world will be Justin Bieber with French fries and a Big Mac. Fuck YOU, your artists and the sad little fuckers whom you manipulate and control. Fuck you all.

https://www.facebook.com/razvan.albu



Monday, February 1, 2016

Salvador Dali in a TV Show, 1952. Surreal!







Salvador Dali in a TV Show, 1952. Surreal!
Posted by Romanian Artworks on Friday, December 12, 2014

New street signs for Facebook users

:)


Sunday, January 24, 2016

Books to read in 2016: Morrissey - „List Of The Lost”

I have never ever seen a book attacked by everybody for only one paragraph... How can this be? It is worse than judging a book by its cover... The same paragraph was quoted in all the articles. Suddenly, all the journalists became literary critics. Weird! We all know that people read less and less and less... And yet, the number of literary critics gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Today we have more literary critics than actual readers. Ain't that funny?!

Then, the author won the „Bad Sex In Fiction Award” (?!?), of course, for the same paragraph. So, I assume the judges at The Literary Review only read the reviews of this book. Anyway, it was good publicity for their event because all the newspapers wrote about it. Again. Talking about the same paragraph. Again and again and again...
Later edit --- On 5th december, The Guardian published the article: "Did Morrissey deserve to win the 2015 bad sex award?"... So the British press made this award possible by "killing" the book with bad reviews, and then they ask themselves "why"... No shit! Give me a gun! I want out! Quickly!

Why am I writing this? Because during the last 3 months I felt manipulated and I hate this feeling. I hate it when people try to control my thoughts. And this time, journalists struggled to present this book as the worst ever. I don't know why, but they were really aggressive on this subject. Why would anybody put so much effort into this?! I looked for a statement from Penguin (after all, they published the book), but I never found it. Too bad! Too sad!

Anyway, I read the book „List Of The Lost” last week. And I liked it! I recommend it. It is a book worth reading! Oh, one more thing: when you read it, use your brain. It is still legal and it does't hurt!

P.S. After reading all those articles about this book, I can't help but wonder: just how obsessed with sex British journalists really are?

Other articles:








Sunday, January 10, 2016

IRON MAIDEN - „EMPIRE OF THE CLOUDS”

According to Team Rock, „The Book Of Souls” is the album of the year! Up the Irons! \m/
The dreamers may die, but the dreams live on