Outlaws – Green Grass & High Tides (1975)
I’ve finally got round to watching Breaking Bad.
Quite simply, an astounding series.
As you all probably know.
Just reached Episode 12 of Series 2.
Walt and Donald (Jane’s dad) are in the bar comparing notes on fatherhood.
This is the soundtrack.
Outstanding.
The original LP version then a remarkable 20+ minute live version from 1978.
Play loud.
Booka Shade & Satin Jackets – Fusion Royale (2023)
My three weeks holiday is coming to an end and I’ve had an incredibly relaxing time: reading books, listening to music, plenty of exercise, great food, great drink and the occasional walk.
The weather has been remarkably grim for the last few weeks and so, with the appearance of a large, hot, yellow object in the sky today, I felt duty bound to take my favourite stroll down the river to the church at Hartford where I sat in the shade in the graveyard listening to a couple of podcasts covering civilisational collapse and what might be done to avert it.
As you do.
To be honest, I’m not really in that sort of pessimistic camp but I am interested in understanding how public policy, economic policy and well designed regulation can make things better.
And, of course, I’m absolutely at one with Whitney Houston‘s penetrating observation that:
I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
And to this end, what better than to celebrate the genius of youth by posting a tune from an album recommended to me by my eldest daughter: Booka Shade’s “20 Years Reworked” (no, me neither).
“Fusion Royale” is a gorgeous slice of deep house that has been on constant “rotation” since I heard it on Spotify. A physical version of the tune doesn’t seem to exist so fingers crossed that the world’s digital communications aren’t going to be taken out by some sort of monster solar flare (or something) that returns us to the stone age.
By which I mean 1980.
Anyhow, listen to it while there’s still time!
Play loud.
New York Dolls – Bad Girl (1973)
1. Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
9. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12. And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Genesis, Chapter 3
Bad girl.
Play loud.
The House of Love – Destroy The Heart (1988)
I’m always in the middle of several books at the same time.
As well as titles relating to game theory and to religion (see here for yesterday’s post reflecting on this material), I’m also in the middle of Dostoevsky‘s brief masterpiece Notes From Underground written in 1864. It’s compelling stuff.
And why are you so firmly, so solemnly convinced that only the normal and the positive, in short, that only well-being, is profitable for man? Is reason not perhaps mistaken as to profits? Maybe man does not love well-being only? Maybe he loves suffering just as much? Maybe suffering is just as profitable for him as well-being? For man sometimes loves suffering terribly much, to the point of passion, and that is a fact. Here there’s not even any need to consult world history; just ask yourself, if you’re a human being and have had any life at all. As for my personal opinion, to love just well-being alone is even somehow indecent. Whether it’s good or bad, it’s sometimes also very pleasant to break something.
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes From Underground, Chapter 9
As such, this piece of classic jangle pop seemed apt today.
Destroy the heart, she said
It’ll make you want to smash your head
Destroy the heart she said
But I need her more than I need airDestroy the heart, she said
You will suffer and be scared
Worry, sweat and never care
But I need her more than I need air
The House of Love at the top of their game.
The original video (staggeringly boring) and then live on television in 1988/89.
Play loud.
Elements Of Trance – A Taste Of Your Own Medicine (Flammable 6am Mix) (1992)
I’ve been doing a bit of reading trying to establish the extent to which the key tenets of the world’s major religions might have helped their societies achieve optimal outcomes in circumstances where self-interested behaviour wouldn’t do so. In particular, whether the “Golden Rule” (the principle of treating others as one would expect to be treated themselves) is an optimum strategy for supporting key elements of a society’s successful development.
The classic circumstance where co-operation is optimal but where individual self interest tends towards non co-operative behaviour is in the game theory thought experiment, the Prisoner’s Dilemma (see here for the Wikipedia page).
To this end, I’ve been re-reading Robert Axelrod‘s outstanding The Evolution of Co-operation which was published in 1984. His work finds that a strategy of “tit for tat” is optimal for approaching the Prisoner’s Dilemma when played over a number of “rounds” – that is, in the first round you should co-operate and only “defect” if your opponent defects. If your opponent begins co-operating, you continue likewise. Axelrod demonstrates via a series of computer simulation tournaments that the tit for tat strategy is robust to being displaced by alternative strategies.
This demonstration that a strategy closely aligned to the Golden Rule is an optimum one suggests that religious based values might have been important in the succesful development of our societies and economies. I’m going to be investigating this hypothesis further over the next few weeks.
In looking for potential links to religious language, I was rather taken by this quote from the book:
What accounts for Tit For Tat’s robust success is its combination of being nice, retaliatory, forgiving and clear. Its niceness prevents it from getting into unnecessary trouble. Its retaliation discourages the other side from persisting whenever defection is tried. Its forgiveness helps restore mutual co-operation. And its clarity makes it intelligible to the other player, thereby eliciting long-term co-operation.
Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Co-operation, P54
Anyhow, it seemed apposite that Elements of Trance‘s classic “A Taste of Your Own Medicine” turned up in the post this morning on 12 inch vinyl … uncanny.
It’s a relentless slice of early 1990s trance/techno and should be played louder than I am able given the noise sensitivies of my neighbours.
Play loud or get your headphones out.
William DeVaughan – Be Thankful For What You Got (1974)
I’ve just finished the first volume of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn‘s extraordinary The Gulag Archipelago – quite simply one of the most important books ever written and incredibly readable.
One section that caught my attention was his account of The Promparty (Industrial Party) Trial of 1930 in which several Soviet scientists and economists were accused and convicted of plotting a coup against the government of the Soviet Union. The overarching accusation was that they had deliberately set out to wreck the economy as a means of making the country vulnerable to an invasion.
Now, as a government economist myself, my work has occasionally come under some scrutiny and criticism and, more broadly, in recent times, a wide range of “experts” have been taken to task by governments in several countries around the world on a range of topics. However, it’s nothing compared to the accusations being put forward 93 years ago …. :
For the engineers … there was no way out. They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. If they went forward, it was wrong, and if they went backward, it was wrong too. If they hurried, they were hurrying for the purpose of wrecking. If they moved methodically, it meant wrecking by slowing down tempos. If they were painstaking in developing some branch of industry, it was institutional delay, sabotage. And if they indulged in capricious leaps, their intention was to produce an imbalance for the purpose of wrecking. Using capital for repairs, improvements, or capital readiness was tying up capital funds. And if they allowed equipment to be used until it broke down, it was a diversionary action!
Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 1
Be thankful for what you got is what I say ….
William DeVaughn‘s career high turned up on 7 inch vinyl a few days ago and is a good example of a song better heard on the LP of the same name – on the smaller format, the seven minutes of music are split across the two sides with a part 1 and a part 2. It still sounds great but it’s no match for the full version of this stone cold, laid back, funk/soul classic.
Perfect for a long hot evening. Which isn’t happening in the UK anytime soon.
Play loud.
The Cure – In Between Days (1985)
A fair amount of secondhand vinyl turns up in the post at my house.
The packaging can be pretty haphazard but it’s rare that any damage has been suffered in transit.
A pretty flimsy envelope containing a 12″ single turned up today on the top of which the sender had inscribed “Please Try Not To Bend”. Now, I don’t know about you but this did feel like a rather feeble and half hearted entreaty but it did seem to have worked – the disc was fine. To be honest, I’d have gone for “Do Not Bend!” or somesuch but maybe the postpeople no longer need this sort of firm and unambiguous instruction?
Anyhow, I was admiring Percy Bysshe Shelley‘s admirably bleak “A Lament” earlier in the week. See here:
O world! O life! O time!
On whose last steps I climb,
Trembling at that where I had stood before;
When will return the glory of your prime?
No more—Oh, never more!
Out of the day and night
A joy has taken flight;
Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar,
Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight
No more—Oh, never more!
I also remembered that The Cure released “Lament” as a single back in 1982 and I thought I’d make a clever(ish) segue into it. However, it isn’t one of Robert Smith‘s most compelling concoctions in my view so I decided to post “In Between Days” instead. Sadly, Shelley didn’t pen a verse of this title.
This was a favourite song back in 1985 and it still sounds fabulous. I’m staggered that it has taken me more than 1,000 other posts before elevating it to the pantheon of the bestmusicofalltime.
However, omission rectified.
Pop perfection.
Play loud.
Carly Simon – Why (1982)
The quarks and leptons have different masses, which can be deduced from experiment, but no one has the slightest idea why they have the values they do. For example, the down quark is slightly heavier than the up quark. No one knows why.
Heinz Pagels, The Cosmic Code, P310
Why is the speed of light 299,792,458 metres per second?
Why is Nile Rodgers one of the greatest guitarists and composers of all time?
Some things just are.
Original video and then Chic’s extended instrumental version.
Play loud.
New Order – The Village (1983)
A long time since I last posted.
Always a symptom of difficult times.
In the middle of three weeks holiday and it’s impossible to overstate how much I needed this break.
Reading lots of books, listening to a lot of music, watching a lot of sport on TV.
And all 92 episodes of Mad Men.
Not walking as much as I hoped because the weather is shocking.
Global warming no doubt explaining the way below average temperatures in the UK this month?
Anyhow, just needed to hear this tonight.
Utterly perfect.
The original LP version and then a compelling live take from New York in 1985.
Play loud.
bestmusicofalltime 