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Thread: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace (Read 19762 times) |
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Kevin Cryan
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Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« : 20.12.07 at 12:07 » |
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Alan Barnes and Simon Wallace, both well known in this parish, have made their contributions to Boisdale Blue Rhythm Band's You Can't Do That!, a jazz CD that thumbs its nose at all those frame rules and regulations which deny us the right to smoke and drink.
Eighteen classics are topped and tailed by two new tracks deploring the ban on consensual smoking in public. Alan Banes and playwright, and regular frequenter of smoky places, Alan Plater, have composed the opener, I'm Going Outside, part of which goes:
I'm going outside, I may be some time
It was good enough for Churchill, but now it’s a crime
The puritans in Whitehall say I’m lower than slime
So I'm going outside and I may be some time
They've issued banning orders to the taprooms and clubs
You can only have a smoke if you’re in Wormwood Scrubs
The wagging of the fingers and the shaking of heads
Have sent us all a-scurrying to the cycle sheds.
Simon Wallace has teamed up with his regular writing partner, lyricist Fran Landesman, to come up with the closing track, The Last Smoker.
The last smoker stares hopelessly out in the rain
The last smoker is searching his pockets in vain
The smoke police are closing in, their sniffers never fail
If they detect a whiff of smoke, the culprit goes to jail
........
Even if you don't support the cause, the album, which has some terrific playing on it, and costs a mere mere tenner (an alternative use for that "ten quid from the bank"), is a really good buy.
Kevin Cryan
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=0#0  |
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naomi
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #1: 21.12.07 at 00:13 » |
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cf [as I think academics say] Francis Poulenc's atmospheric song "Hotel", a setting of Apollinaire, and best heard sung in a lightish baritone. I have copied the text from an extremely useful website called The Lied and Art Song Texts Page:
Ma chambre a la forme d'une cage,
Le soleil passe son bras par la fenêtre.
Mais moi qui veux fumer pour faire des mirages
J'allume au feu du jour ma cigarette.
Je ne veux pas travailler - je veux fumer.
Naomi (qui ne veut pas fumer, you understand  )
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=1#1 |
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Kevin Cryan
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I love Midnight Voices!
Posts: 1144
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #2: 21.12.07 at 10:09 » |
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on 21.12.07 at 00:13, naomi wrote:cf [as I think academics say] Francis Poulenc's atmospheric song "Hotel", a setting of Apollinaire, and best heard sung in a lightish baritone. I have copied the text from an extremely useful website called The Lied and Art Song Texts Page:
Ma chambre a la forme d'une cage,
Le soleil passe son bras par la fenêtre.
Mais moi qui veux fumer pour faire des mirages
J'allume au feu du jour ma cigarette.
Je ne veux pas travailler - je veux fumer.
Naomi (qui ne veut pas fumer, you understand )
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"....as I think academics say"? You are not trying to hide something of your past life, are you?
If there is a "cf" it's probably Dieu Fumeur de Havanes by Serge Gainsbourg.
Dieu est un fumeur de havanes
Je vois ses nuages gris
Je sais qu'il fume même la nuit
Comme moi ma chérie
God the smoker!!! That's hard to beat.
Kevin Cryan
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=2#2 |
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Ian Chippett
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In the clear at over fifty-five
Posts: 332
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #3: 21.12.07 at 11:55 » |
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There's always the singing Postman and his unforgettable "Have you Got A Light, Boy?."
Ian C.
Xmas Quiz: How many PA/CJ songs refer to the weed?
There's The Beautiful Changes and "Prince of Aquitaine."
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=3#3 |
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Gerry Smith
MV Fixture
Posts: 222
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #4: 21.12.07 at 14:30 » |
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"I've seen a girl throw back her hair to light a cigarette" (LB)
I always liked the line:
"There's Howard Hughes in blue suede shoes
Smiling at the Majorette, smoking Winston cigarettes"
from Genesis', The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. I used to think it was the majorette who is smoking Winston cigarettes, but the comma suggests that it is Howard Hughes.
Gerry
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=4#4 |
Out playing the saxes
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Bogus Trumper
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You alone will be my last adventure
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #5: 21.12.07 at 14:31 » |
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on 21.12.07 at 11:55, Ian Chippett wrote:There's always the singing Postman and his unforgettable "Have you Got A Light, Boy?."
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OMG - from the really dim and really distant past. I had forgotten that one
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=5#5 |
And so goodbye, my lady of a night
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Ian Chippett
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In the clear at over fifty-five
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #6: 21.12.07 at 15:24 » |
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Another Rock victim, it seems...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Smethurst
Doesn't Rider To The World's End refer to "fields of ash?" Can't remember the exact line offhand...
Ian C
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=6#6 |
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David Morgan
MV Feature
Posts: 53
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #7: 21.12.07 at 18:08 » |
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Xmas Quiz:
"That girl at the far side of the bar
Waves the smoke of cigarettes away..." (The Ties That Bind You)
The Rider indeed visited the plains of ash, Ian - though I think CJ was in a particularly bleak mood that day and had in mind the burning of more than a ciggy!
David M
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=7#7 |
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Kevin Cryan
MV Fellow
I love Midnight Voices!
Posts: 1144
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #8: 21.12.07 at 20:04 » |
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on 21.12.07 at 18:08, David Morgan wrote:Xmas Quiz:
.....The Rider indeed visited the plains of ash, Ian - though I think CJ was in a particularly bleak mood that day and had in mind the burning of more than a ciggy!
David M |
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David,
I think that he may also have had in mind this bleak passage from F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.
About half-way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.
Incidentally, Flusing Meadows Corona Park in northern Queens, New York, was, in the late 1930s, created from that "fantastic farm where ashes grow" which Fitzgerald describes in the novel.
Kevin Cryan
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=8#8 |
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Kevin Cryan
MV Fellow
I love Midnight Voices!
Posts: 1144
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #9: 21.12.07 at 20:17 » |
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on 21.12.07 at 11:55, Ian Chippett wrote:Ian C.
Xmas Quiz: How many PA/CJ songs refer to the weed?
There's The Beautiful Changes and "Prince of Aquitaine." |
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There is of course Laughing Boy How could you forget that one and remember The Singing Postman?
I've seen a girl hold back her hair to light a cigarette
And things like that a man like me can't easily forget
Kevin Cryan
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=9#9 |
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Ian Chippett
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In the clear at over fifty-five
Posts: 332
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #10: 21.12.07 at 20:26 » |
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Kevin wrote;
<<How could you forget that one and remember The Singing Postman?
I've seen a girl hold back her hair to light a cigarette
And things like that a man like me can't easily forget >>
Alas, things like that a man like me can easily forget.
I must have been tired: remember that "the man who's shattered is the man from Bristol."
Ian C
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=10#10 |
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Gerry Smith
MV Fixture
Posts: 222
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #11: 22.12.07 at 04:10 » |
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Hi Ian/Kevin
I beat yers both both to the Laughing Boy reference! See my post (supra) or is that a bit academic too?!
Gerry
Drinking a sessionman's booze in Mayfield
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=11#11 |
Out playing the saxes
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Kevin Cryan
MV Fellow
I love Midnight Voices!
Posts: 1144
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #12: 22.12.07 at 11:17 » |
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on 22.12.07 at 04:10, Gerry Smith wrote:Hi Ian/Kevin
I beat yers both both to the Laughing Boy reference!
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Yes, Gerry, I was fully aware that you beat us both. But then I was not trying to beat anyone; I was just wondering out loud how anyone could forget Laughing Boy and remember The Singing Postman.
For the quiz. Who does this refer to?
With a second line in lukewarm Coke
Busting for a decent smoke
To break the round of toil.
on 22.12.07 at 04:10, Gerry Smith wrote:Hi Ian/Kevin
........... See my post (supra) or is that a bit academic too?!
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I suspect that if I were to consult Naomi, she wouldn't think it a bit too academic? She might pretend she did. But, then, who am I to say?
Kevin
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=12#12 |
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bobtaylor
MV Friend
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #13: 22.12.07 at 11:30 » |
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Great thread.
How about "I See The Smoker" (poss misheard)?
"Mornings now I breakfast in the tower then travel thirty floors to the garage" ...presumably a designated smoking area. 
There's also "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)" by Tex Williams and others. This though carries an anti-weed message.
I enjoyed Kevin's reference to The Great Gatsby, and reading it evoked the exact feelings I have when listening to that part of Rider To The World's End.
Off topic, but whilst on the subject of "I See The Joker" and possibly missheard lyrics (mondegreens), for years I heard "...legitimate from medicine on the street", which seemed suitably Jamesian and authentically arcane.
Merry Christmas from Spain, to all our readers,
Bob Taylor.
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=13#13 |
Is this headache from his crosswires on my brow?
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Keith Busby
MV Fixture
Posts: 167
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #14: 22.12.07 at 15:21 » |
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Oh well, if we're being academic, here is Mallarmé's use of the cigar image as an expression his aesthetic. It doesn't exactly lend itself to a musical setting, but Naomi may opine otherwise.
Toute l’âme résumée
Quand lente nous l’expirons
Dans plusieurs ronds de fumée
Abolis en autres ronds
Atteste quelque cigare
Brûlant savamment pour peu
Que la cendre se sépare
De son clair baiser de feu
Ainsi le choeur des romances
À la lèvre vole-t-il
Exclus-en si tu commences
Le réel parce que vil
Les sens trop précis rature
Ta vague littérature.
Keith
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=14#14 |
Commit THAT to Your Fragrant Memory!
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Ian Chippett
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Posts: 332
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #15: 22.12.07 at 16:37 » |
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<<They say one row of people passed a joint
From Yasgur's Farm clear to Zabriskie Point >>
from "Uncle Seabird."
Well, it's like a cigarette...
I was going to suggest "Eye Of The Universe" which contains "and knows itself a drag" but fortunately thought better of it...
Ian C
Spacing it out with chasers in Pantin France
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=15#15 |
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Kevin Cryan
MV Fellow
I love Midnight Voices!
Posts: 1144
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #16: 22.12.07 at 19:56 » |
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on 22.12.07 at 15:21, Keith Busby wrote:Oh well, if we're being academic, here is Mallarmé's use of the cigar image as an expression his aesthetic. It doesn't exactly lend itself to a musical setting, but Naomi may opine otherwise.
Toute l’âme résumée
Quand lente nous l’expirons
Dans plusieurs ronds de fumée
Abolis en autres ronds
>>>>>>>>>>>>.
Keith |
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In Stéphane Mallarmé, you had a man who took his smoking very seriously indeed. To say that he was a serious smoker is to pay him and his poetry a compliment.
La pipe
Hier, j'ai trouvé ma pipe en rêvant une longue soirée de travail, de beau travail d'hiver. Jetées les cigarettes avec toutes les joies enfantines de l'été dans le passé qu'illuminent les feuilles bleues de soleil, les mousselines et reprise ma grave pipe par un homme sérieux qui veut fumer longtemps sans se déranger, afin de mieux travailler : mais je ne m'attendais pas à la surprise que préparait cette délaissée, à peine eus-je tiré la première bouffée, j'oubliai mes grands livres à faire, émerveillé, attendri, je respirais l'hiver dernier qui revenait. Je n'avais pas touché à la fidèle amie depuis ma rentrée en France, et tout Londres, Londres tel que je le vécus en entier à moi seul, il y a un an, est apparu; d'abord les chers brouillards qui emmitouflent nos cervelles et ont, là-bas, une odeur à eux, quand ils pénètrent sous la croisé. Mon tabac sentait une chambre sombre aux meubles de cuir saupoudrés par la poussière du charbon sur lesquels se roulait le maigre chat noir; les grands feux! et la bonne aux bras rouges versant les charbons, et le bruit de ces charbons tombant du seau de tôle dans la corbeille de fer, le matin -- alors que le facteur frappait le double coup solennel, qui me faisait vivre! J'ai revu par les fenêtres ces arbres malades du square désert -- j'ai vu le large, si souvent traversé cet hiver-là, grelottant sur le pont du steamer mouillé de brume et noirci de fumée -- avec ma pauvre bien aimée errante, en habits de voyageuse, une longue robe terne couleur de la poussière des routes, un manteau qui collait humide à ses épaules froides, un de ces chapeaux de paille sans plumes et presque sans rubans, que les riches dames jettent en arrivant, tant ils sont déchiquetés par l'air de la mer et que les pauvres bien aimées regarnissent pour bien des saisons encore. Autour de son cou s'enroulait le terrible mouchoir qu'on agite en se disant adieu pour toujours.
My knowledge of French is not good enough what Naomi thought could be done musically with Toute l’âme résumée.., but I think that she'd probably say that nothing could be done with La pipe
Kevin Cryan
Footnote.
It was Charles Baudelaire who was the serious pipe-smoker, although I don't think that he took the pipe as quite seriously as Mallarmé took his cigarettes
La Pipe
Je suis la pipe d'un auteur;
On voit, à contempler ma mine
D'Abyssinienne ou de Cafrine,
Que mon maître est un grand fumeur.
Quand il est comblé de douleur,
Je fume comme la chaumine
Où se prépare la cuisine
Pour le retour du laboureur.
J'enlace et je berce son âme
Dans le réseau mobile et bleu
Qui monte de ma bouche en feu,
Et je roule un puissant dictame
Qui charme son coeur et guérit
De ses fatigues son esprit.
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=16#16 |
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Gerry Smith
MV Fixture
Posts: 222
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #17: 23.12.07 at 03:06 » |
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on 22.12.07 at 11:17, Kevin Cryan wrote:
Yes, Gerry, I was fully aware that you beat us both. But then I was not trying to beat anyone; I was just wondering out loud how anyone could forget Laughing Boy and remember The Singing Postman.
For the quiz. Who does this refer to?
With a second line in lukewarm Coke
Busting for a decent smoke
To break the round of toil.
I suspect that if I were to consult Naomi, she wouldn't think it a bit too academic? She might pretend she did. But, then, who am I to say?
Kevin
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Kevin - I am sorry that, clearly, I offended you with my, as I thought, good natured post regarding the Laughing Boy reference. Not that the whole thing matters a jot , anyway. Nevertheless, I resent the implication in the latter part of your post. Please, consult whomsoever you wish.
I can see a day coming when membership of this list will be by interview only.
<sigh>
Gerry
This is *so* tiresome.
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| « Last Edit: 23.12.07 at 03:36 by Gerry Smith » |
https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=17#17 |
Out playing the saxes
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Ian Chippett
MV Fellow
In the clear at over fifty-five
Posts: 332
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #18: 23.12.07 at 12:47 » |
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Kevin wrote:
<<My knowledge of French is not good enough what Naomi thought could be done musically with Toute l’âme résumée.., but I think that she'd probably say that nothing could be done with La pipe >>
Quite so: even the most hardened non-smoking Frenchman would be (to say the least) nonplussed if you offered him a pipe...
Ian C
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=18#18 |
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Keith Busby
MV Fixture
Posts: 167
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Re: Alan Barnes & Simon Wallace
« Reply #19: 23.12.07 at 13:23 » |
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Ian wrote: << Quite so: even the most hardened non-smoking Frenchman would be (to say the least) nonplussed if you offered him a pipe... >>
Especially when it's not a pipe.
Keith
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=offtopic&action=display&num=1198152422&start=19#19 |
Commit THAT to Your Fragrant Memory!
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