Four on the Floor – 1980.

Queen – The Game.     8/10.

I will be honest I didn’t care for this album when it was released, I was stuck in the old ways, but over the years it has grown on me like fungus, there are still tracks that I don’t care for, but the tracks that I really like are great, lets start with the stinkers,  Coming Soon and Save me, Live save me works but it sounds flat on the album and coming soon sounds like a b side , or something that should have ended up on a Roger Taylor solo album, then there’s the singles Play the game nearly as bad as the first two songs mentioned, another one bites the dust , its got a groove and I do like a groove, and crazy little thing called what’s not to like its short its simple with a cracking guitar solo, then we get to the meat of the album, Dragon attack  just sticks to you like glue and live it was even better, sail a way sweet sister a simple Brian May ballad that could have appeared on any of their previous albums, Don’t try suicide Freddie having fun in a kind of accapela style which simply won’t let you go, Rock It this is not the best version but it’s still great, there’s a couple of versions with a full Freddie Vocal and one with a full Roger vocal, they spliced, Roger writes this kind of song in his sleep and he’s damn good at it, and the last track need your loving tonight John Deacon writing a simple rock song that actually works, he didn’t write many but he never wrote a bad song, I’m glad I stuck with it over the years its not as good as any of the first seven studio albums but it holds its ground.

Stiff Little Fingers – Nobody’s heroes.     8/10.

I loved this band when they came out this second album is the start of the polishing of their sound, still it had a nice bit of rawness to it and there’s only one track I don’t care for and that’s Bloody Dub, there’s nothing wrong with the track, but it’s the only song that I would skip and the track after goes just a little too long I like it, but a shorter version would have made me happy the track in question Doesn’t make it all right I think was written by Jerry Dammers of the Specials, good song but way too long for me, this was how I liked my punk in 1980!

Peter Gabriel – 3 (melt).    9.5/10.

At this moment in time, I wasn’t a huge fan of his the first couple of albums they were a tad eclectic for me, I was soon to learn the error of my ways as soon as I heard Intruder, I was hooked all of the songs the lyrics kind of grab you by the ear and demand that you listen to them, to try and understand the nuances of them, it was this album that turned me into wanting to be a lyricist, to be a writer of some sort,  there was always a number of different meanings and I just found it to be clever and so bloody different, there’s not a bad track on the album so why not a perfect ten, well the track Start the short instrumental is simply that a short interlude, now I wasn’t expecting a twelve minute epic with blazing guitar solos, maybe it was just that an interlude so that you could gather your senses before the onslaught of ideas that was to follow, I still can’t decide whether Intruder or Family Snapshot is my favourite song, the latter lyric is so devastating, I wont spoil it for you, but there are two stories over lapping and the end verse is just a plot twist of gargantuan proportions I love this and his fourth album but then I drifted from his catalogue as he went more poppy, I still listened but this album shook me to my foundations!

Ted Nugent – Scream Dream.      9/10.

I know I will get some stick for this one but this to me was the last great Ted Nugent album, its still my favourite, I rarely play it now as he has turned into a cartoon character, its his life he can do what he wants to, but its not for me anymore, he chased glory instead of sticking to his guns, some of this is so raw it would make a Motorhead song sound  like Journey (honest) Flesh and blood was the single from the album and its like a bloody big train just running you over over and over again, there’s the outrageous Wango Tango still his best moment the ZZ Top inspired Terminus Eldorado and who does not like the ballad (not) of Violent Love, he never matched the heights after this again, he came close with Crave man, but then he became the overlord, he always had great singers on his first albums with Ted only singing a couple, after Scream Dream he sang everything and the quality suffered he can still do it live as I have seen him a number of times in this country and the good old USofA  but the cartoon has destroyed the master that he was.

Fool’s Gold.

So I travel everywhere by bus, yes I am that person, a bus wan**r, I only ever sit my butt in a car and that’s when the wife has to pick me up or whatever we get to do as a pair, by and large I have a tendency to get the same bus into work 06.00 to the nearest metropolitan space and then another to my place of work, every now and then I might go in on the 07.00 bus it takes me to the same destination however it does go a slightly different route, on that particular bus there’s a young lady (early twenties) who gets on with her mobile phone glued to her hand. Occasionally she sits in front of me I have noticed that she is playing on line gambling, not just occasionally but all the time, she must win at some point because for that forty minute bus ride she plays non stop she was doing as the bus pulls up and was playing as she got off the bus, not taking any notice of the people or the world around her!

I have seen the same person in the Tesco’s near the bus station buying scratch cards, yes, I said cards as in plural, and they aint cheap, so at some point she must be a winner. Now I don’t understand the logic of the people who do this, I’m not against anybody gambling I know I’m simply not very good at it, the only gambling I do is I occasionally do the lottery, and get wound up if I don’t win the entry fee back,  but to spend what seems to be every waking minute gambling  is well to be honest shocking.

I do have friends who gamble and they do seem to do quite well, as one explained he has good days and bad days, but by and large he is up in his stakes he might not win big but he has never lost, well not substantial amounts, the wife and I have a friend who had lost £4000 on the first day of a racing meeting and was a little down as he thought he would do better, this was a Friday night, “I’ll win over the course of the weekend” it was a bank holiday weekend and by the Monday he was up by £14000, WTF, my mind was blown I simply could not comprehend the thought process, like I say I’m unhappy if I put the lottery on and don’t win my tickets price back.

Now I have worked with some older people (this was when I was a teenager, I know a long time ago) and some of those people would literally bet on anything, one guy even bet his house and lost, his wife did  batter him after it happened, but she didn’t leave him, they were still together the last time I saw them (about twenty years ago) they seem to have a system, that’s most gamblers, my brain doesn’t seem to work the same way, sometimes I wish it did, but I know that I’m too much of a coward to even try.

Now what brought about this little missive, well this morning we had an amazon delivery and they never close the gate and it was banging away, I was working from home and I knew that the gate would distract me, so I did my duty to shut the gate who was walking up the road to the bus station, but the young lady from the bus and yes she had a handful of scratch cards in her hand and she was scratching away, its funny how you notice some people and you don’t know them, but they keep popping up in your life!

Yes, I know this is a short one but you can’t have and peace all of the time, yes the name game is in play this was the track I was playing when I first saw her on the bus all those years ago, I made an entry about the thought for a blog and after seeing her this morning, I dug out my notes and with the exception of this last paragraph have typed what my notes words in my notes, if your interested I’ve had those notes for over five years, sad I know, or maybe I was gambling that I might actually get a blog out of it, ha ha ha ha did you see what I did there, anyway, enjoy stay safe and stay alive, until the next one ……Toodles!

 

Oh, and by the way I am working on something special that will be arriving soon!

This Dog Don’t Hunt.

I’m not a very competitive person, I kind of never have been since I was a kid, allegedly if you come from a “broken home” god I hate that expression, Girls and I mean all girls become super competitive, boys either become super competitive or not as the case maybe,  well in my family group my brother became the super competitive person, and he still is and I kind of simply Bimble along, that’s not to say I didn’t have my moments but I do get less competitive as I get older, let me explain.

I played football for various teams, school and the boys brigade I wasn’t particularly good, but I had speed, I was an ok defender but not many could catch me, so I used that to my advantage, I was soon found out and by the time I was 15 I kind of wasn’t interested anymore, I used to have the odd kick about but it was once in a blue moon amongst friends although I had the chance I never joined another competitive team, I was a really good short distance sprinter and I destroyed the competition for five years, my last race at school I got beat for the first time and then basically lost interest, the only thing that I was super competitive about as a child was history, my favourite lesson at school, my lowest score in 5 years was 96% and nobody came even close to me in all that time at senior school, I was a sponge and I soaked it up, I could do a massive blog about my time at school for history as the head of the department hated me, but I got the last laugh, hey ho possibly another blog down the road.

After that I simply didn’t give a rats ass, if I got beat I got beat I shrugged my shoulders and moved on, I played against my brother in squash for six months, he gave up as I wasn’t a challenge, I never won a game, he refused to play me after that, he didn’t understand why I was simply happy to play but not win, it’s not that I don’t wish to succeed, but I do the best that I can on the day, I am good at certain things and I always work to the best of my ability, I have no desire to suck at anything, I always put my best foot forward, but as far as I’m concerned it is what it is!

I was ok at a lot of things but over the years with successive injuries I have kind of got worn down, and I have had quite a few injuries, I only have one rib left to damage and then I will have a full set, I have broke both legs twice, I have broke my collar bone twice, various bones in my feet, I have destroyed my rotator cuff in my right shoulder, I haven’t had it repaired so I kind of manage with it, I explained the numerous hits to the head as a younger person and the fallout regarding those hits in a previous blog,  my knees have been destroyed by twenty years of half marathons and only one full marathon (never ever again) and 35 years of working in a place where the floors didn’t give adequate support for your knees (solid concrete) I wore my supports and assorted PPE, but wear and tear catches up with you ( I don’t look bad for 92).

I am very happy to take part but don’t expect me to be competitive, at times I wish I was, but this old body is well worn out so the chances of me shinning in  that department have long gone. That also doesn’t mean that I won’t get super competitive if I have a point to prove, I like to think I’m a good father (I could do better and I always strive to be) I’m good at my job (I could do better and again I always give it my best) I like to think I’m a very good husband ( thankfully that’s due to the tutelage and help from my wife) but as always I probably could do better, at least I’m not as angry as I used to be.

Why have I written this blog , well today I do actually feel like a very old person, I dropped something on the floor and the noises that were escaping from me as I tried (thankfully successfully) to retrieve said item were disturbing to say the least, thankfully there was nobody else ( I hope) in the room to hear me, me being competitive and super fit well that ship has sailed, and if I am being truthful I really don’t care, having said that I am slightly competitive regarding the blog with the intention that each one does better than the last.

So, another one down and just some kind random thought that popped into my head as I travelled to work and thankfully I got the bones of it down in a note book I had to hand, that’s how mind works these days, thank you to the people who are still reading these missives as the numbers for this year have been fab, so keep watching the skies there will be more incoming soon, stay safe and stay alive until the next time….. Toodles!