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Title: Epitaph For A Poet Post by S J Birkill on Today at 21:53 Stuart Reeves, erstwhile valued member of the original mailing-list-version MV, recently (well, a few months ago now) posted in the Facebook fan group a lyric he'd discovered on our Smash Flops website, a song called Epitaph For A Poet, remarking how fitting an epitaph it was for Clive himself, considering it was written over 50 years before his death. The song was one of over 50 unrecorded titles I listed many years ago in the murky depths towards the bottom of Pete's Discography (https://www.peteatkin.com/disworks.htm) page, a couple of which have since been revived. But not this one, until now. Epitaph For A Poet, written in October 1968, was among the pile of songs considered for Pete and Clive's second Footlights demo album, The Party's Moving On, but for various reasons it didn't make the cut. Pete recalls that Clive thought the lyric "far too pleased with itself and for no good reason", and he (Pete) considered he couldn't convincingly sing it in that first-person setting. So, like most of those other 50-odd songs it became forgotten. Anyway, to keep a short story short, Pete spotted the discussion, found the song in his files, complete with its music, and was inspired to make a first-ever demo of it. He tweaked out a couple of over-tricksy bits in the tune (it would originally have been played in A minor and E on finger-picked nylon-strung guitar) and recorded it on the keyboard in Gmin and D. Students of the Discography will be aware that all the well-known songs have a small greenish square 'Play' button alongside the title, the actuation of which opens an individual song player with a pertinent (or occasionally ironic) image and the song's lyric displayed as it plays, something like this: Some of you will have spotted also that several entire albums -- the demo albums, the Monyash recordings and other off-mainstream items -- are missing their 'Play' buttons. Except that, if you're already logged in to MV on the same browser (and I mean logged in rather simply viewing the forum as a guest), before loading or refreshing the page (sorry it's slow -- it's huge) those buttons magically appear, and many more recordings can be streamed. This is, as you've probably guessed, for historical reasons. When we began, Pete wasn't sure he'd like all and sundry to hear his half-formed work, and while he could give us a pretty solid OK from his and Clive's position to the on-line streaming of his major albums, we were a little unsure whether we could obtain permissions from all participants of (say) the demo albums, for streaming. As for Monyash, Julie had made it clear she didn't want a full release of her contributions, though she didn't mind the festival attendees, and subsequently Midnight Voices members, hearing them. Our solution back then was to create a 'members-only' area on the Website, accessible only to logged-in MVs, where these tracks could be played. Later, when we augmented our on-page music player with per-song players, we arranged to hide the play buttons for 'sensitive' material in the absence of an active log-in. Epitaph For A Poet, being a demo, falls into this category. There's another feature many may have missed: when using this player, the left and right chevrons to either side of the round Play/Pause button normally take you to adjacent tracks and albums; except when you're in amongst the members-only 'demo' and 'guest' albums, where you'll find yourself stepping through a selection of alternative cuts and items from TV shows and such. These are well worth a listen -- try clicking left a few times from the Epitaph player (https://www.peteatkin.com/mv/i55.php) (linked from the image above) and you'll get the idea. Keep going in either direction and you'll eventually hear all that's there! We don't have absolutely everything though: you'll see we haven't included audio from the Shrinks or Sarah Moule's albums, and we regrettably had to remove the songs from "A & R" a few years back at the request of one of the other musicians in the production, who is also an MV member. I'm aware a great many of you keep up with MV without logging in -- perhaps you consider it unnecessary as you don't intend to post. As a result you may have lost or forgotten your username/password combination. If so, don't hesitate to ask: <sjb(at)peteatkin(dot)com> -- I will reset your password and assign you a temporary one to get you back in. If you recall your username and/or the e-mail address you used when you first registered, those will help me find you. If you don't fancy the chore of logging in each time, check the 'Always stay logged in' button at log-in -- there's no associated security risk so long as you're on your home computer. Happy streaming! Steve |
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Title: Re: Epitaph For A Poet Post by Bogus Trumper on 30.03.22 at 12:26 I feel honoured (which my browser insists I can't spell because I live in the States) and very pleased. I will come back and listen when I return in a few days - I am driving a silver Kia to the coast. Thank you Pete and Steve |
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Title: Re: Epitaph For A Poet Post by Revelator on 30.03.22 at 19:59 I'm logged in but the link takes me to https://www.peteatkin.com/play/404.htm --which has the message "Sorry, the song you requested is...Not Available." |
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Title: Re: Epitaph For A Poet Post by S J Birkill on 30.03.22 at 20:31 Revelator -- Sorry you're having difficulty. If you're seeing this image: https://www.peteatkin.com/images/404-331mini.gif -- then it may be that your browser isn't finding the cookie it set when you logged in to MV. This can happen if: - you have cookies disabled. - you are clicking the link in a different browser (or browser window) from the one you logged in to MV with. Normally the link will open a new tab, which should work. - your logged-in session has elapsed (if you didn't set 'Always stay logged in'). I note you last logged in at 20:00 UK time (12 noon on the West Coast), so the log-in appears to be valid. Refreshing the MV tab will reveal whether you've timed out. If none of these, let me know and I'll try and do better! Steve PS -- I should have said, default lifetime of MV login cookies is 30 minutes. If that 'Always' box is checked they never expire. |
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Title: Re: Epitaph For A Poet Post by Bogus Trumper on 01.04.22 at 23:10 I love it. For some reason the music and the rhythm take me back to an earlier time |
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Title: Re: Epitaph For A Poet Post by Rob Spence on 14.04.22 at 15:02 Rather like "You'd Better Face It Boy", it's astonishing that Clive, as a relatively young man, could produce lyrics which are imbued with the experience of a lifetime. This sounds like a poem written in the terminal years. |
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