Lucky lane

Went for a walk on Friday down Lucky Lane (a trip into another world :) ) so I thought for this Sunday's post i'd write about some of my favourite "road songs"....

Sullivan Street - Counting Crows

Take the way home that leads back to sullivan street
Where Im just another rider burned to the ground

I have always loved this song, ever since I heard August and Everything After. I love the version on the Across a Wire CD. For me, it's a great "homesick" song.



Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen

Its a town full of losers
And Im pulling out of here to win.

Nick Hornby wrote about Thunder Road in the opening chapter to his novel 31 Songs (the book I wish I had written, and in more than one way an inspiration for this blog). He decribed how it made him feel, especially the last line (italicised above), like there was something better out there for him, something to look forward to. It's a great song, with some killer lyrics, one I definitely try and listen to at least once a month for a little inspiration.



Long Road - Pearl Jam

And the wind keeps rollin
And the sky keeps turning grey
And the sun is set
The will rise another day

One of my favourite Pearl Jam songs, from the classic Merkinball disc of the late 90's. I read a great story about Long Road the other day, maybe on the Red Mosquito forum, i'm not sure. But it described how the song was written, and how Eddie came up with the music immediately after he had heard that a friends family member had passed away. Apparently Ed went into the sound booth and just started hammering away on the open D-chord that rings out at the start of the song. The other guys (including Neil Young) joined in soon after and that's how the song came about.

The original version (in the clip below from a Bridge School concert) was sung with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the brillaint Indian musician, but I prefer the live Pearl Jam versions - especially Perth 2003 and Wembley 2006, as I was there singing along. The clip below is Eddie at his best though, feeding off another artist, taking a song to a whole new level.



Street Spirit - Radiohead

Rows of houses all bearing down on me
I can feel their blue hands touching me
All these things in all positions
All these things will one day take control
And fade out again and fade out

It's Radiohead, it's from The Bends, what more do I need to say? Brilliant band, brilliant album, brilliant song. When I was living in London this song felt really right, with the endless rows of houses down every street, I really felt the song when I was there. Whenever I hear the first lyric it'll always take me back there - which is why I love it I think.

Wellies, Mud and Music

News out of the UK today triggered some good memories of the festival season. News of the festival line-ups for the impending year used to give me hope that soon the wet, cold, dark days of winter will slowly turn into the the wet,cold, light days of summer - bringing with it a smorgasbord of sounds for every music fan.

Glastonbury kicks it all off - in the often muddy fields of Somerset in the west of England. The years I lived in London the pictures coming back from the countryside more often than not featured rain and floods - surrounded my thousands of smiling faces.

Glatonbury is a unique festival. Punters go for the experience, which is typically seperate to the music. Tickets are ballotted off - to the hundreds of thousands of hopefuls - even before the line-up is announced. This year however, there has been a some insight offered from Michael Eavis - the Glastonbury impresario - as to what everyone can expect.

Jay-Z will headline the famous Pyramid stage this year. NME.com speculated on this news for the past week or so after Eavis remarked that a "black artist from New York" was heading over for the festival. That narrowed it down quite a bit - with the big money dumped on Jay-Z and Kanye West. Now the web is abuzz with questions over whether "Mrs Jay-Z" will be tagging along.

This headliner is quite a change from the traditional Glastonbury fayre. In previous years the likes of Muse, Coldplay and Radiohead have had the nod from organisers to be the name featured at the head of the line-up.

Bands bring their A-game to Glastonbury. The storied atmosphere tends to inspire musicians from the world over. I guess it is the closest thing they'll ever get to Woodstock so they go out there and leave it all on the stage.

Those that were there still say that Radiohead's 1997 headlining performance is one of the greatest shows of all time.



They returned in 2003 - my first year living in England - and again, they were amazing. One of the best things about Glastonbury is the extensive TV coverage of the festival offered by the BBC and BBC2. It's hours and hours of footage - with the headline acts getting broadcast live and uniterupted all over the UK - so that everyone can enjoy it.

Unlike the purely commercial ventures, such as the V Festival (which is basically a once a year roadshow for salesmen to pitch their products to that years batch of 15 to 20 year olds), Glastonbury is a festival for and about music culture - not pop culture as so many other ventures are these days. It doesn't chase the disposable income of Gen X, Gen Y or Gen Z - intead if offers an experience outside of consumerism, all sponsored by Greenpeace!

I tried to get tickets to Glastonbury last year - but missed out in the ballot (the odds were only slightly better than lotto by the way!). So I never got to go. I hope to one day - it's on my list of things to do along with Coachella and the Bridge School Benefit.

I'll let you know how I go.