Hvis nogen af jer er så heldige, I har tid og mulighed for at se Jerry Lee Lewis spille i Falkoner Teatret på Frederiksberg i aften, forlanger vi et referat, en anmeldelse, et autograferet fan-brev, et lille stykke af omkvædet fra Great Balls Of Fire, hvadsomhelst, lige HER!

Jerry Lee Lewis på plade? Køb en af de mange opsamlinger fra Sun-perioden eller anskaf den fæ-no-me-na-le live-plade fra 1963, Live At The Hamburg Star-Club. På sidstnævnte vender Jerry, efter flere år i skammekrogen ovenpå sit teenage-kusine-ægteskab, endelig tilbage til Europa og skyder sine sange afsted på en fartgal blanding af come back-sulten southern defiance og vistnok ikke så lidt amfetamin. Live-udgivelser er sjædent fyldestgørende, men denne er en af de mest rocknroll-medrivende der findes – får selv Ramones’ It’s Alive til at lyde lettere træt og uoplagt!

PS – Vi vil også gerne høre fra hvem der kommer i Lille Vega, hvor Richmond Fontaine – Portland, Oregon’s fineste – spiller sig igennem rodløse og/eller fortabte sange fra deres nye cinematiske western-audio-heartbreak, 13 Cities.

På http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder kan vi læse flg. solstrålehistorie:

Venstre stormer frem i en ny meningsmåling fra Gallup og er igen landets største parti. Regeringen er sammen med Dansk Folkeparti dermed tilbage på sporet, skriver Berlingske Tidende.

Vælgeropbakningen er nu lige så stor, som før forældreblokaderne i efteråret brød løs, velfærden blev det store stridspunkt, og statsminister Anders Fogh Rasmussen råbte “socialistiske ballademagere”.

Omvendt stormer de Radikale i modsatte retning og er næsten kun halv størrelse af, hvad de var under Muhammed-krisen.

– Vi er igen det største parti, lyder det med et lettelsens suk fra Venstres politiske ordfører, Troels Lund Poulsen, der ikke mener, at det er så svært at forklare fremgangen på hele tre procentpoint til 29,3 procentpoint.

Var nogen virkelig i tvivl om at mit væddemål kunne vindes? To perioder mere med Venstre ved roret, og jeg har fået en flaske champagne. (Hvordan det vil gå andre, der måske ikke lige har brug for champagne, er vi ligeglade med.)

Logoet ovenfor er lånt fra støttebandet Venstres Venner, der spiller liberalistisk punkrock med hits som “Offentlige nedskæringer” og “Luk kassen”.

Se http://venstresvenner.mymusic.dk/

FRIDAY NIGHT, SATURDAY MORNING

Out of bed at eight am
Out my head by half past ten
Out with mates and dates and friends
That’s what I do at weekends
I can’t talk and I can’t walk
But I know where I’m going to go
I’m going watch my money go
At the Locarno, no

When my feet go through the door
I know what my right arm is for
Buy a drink and pull a chair
Up to the edge of the dance floor
Bouncers bouncing through the night
Trying to stop or start a fight
I sit and watch the flashing lights
Moving legs in footless tights

I go out on Friday night and I come home on Saturday morning
I go out on Friday night and I come home on Saturday morning

I like to venture into town
I like to get a few drinks down
The floor gets packed the bar gets full
I don’t like life when things get dull
The hen party have saved the night
And freed themselves from drunken stags
Having fun and dancing in
A circle round their leather bags

I go out on Friday night and I come home on Saturday morning
I go out on Friday night and I come home on Saturday morning

But two o’clock has come again
It’s time to leave this paradise
Hope the chip shop isn’t closed
Cos’ their pies are really nice
I’ll eat in the taxi queue
Standing in someone else’s spew
Wish I had lipstick on my shirt
Instead of piss stains on my shoes

I go out on Friday night and I come home on Saturday morning
I go out on Friday night and I come home on Saturday morning
I go out on Friday night and I come home on Saturday morning
I go out on Friday night and I come home on Saturday morning

© Terry Hall/The Specials

Nyd lige følgende slagveksling fra et Allen Barra-interview med den fremragende amerikanske forfatter James Ellroy (billedet, ham til højre):

Allen Barra: You raised yourself and got into continual trouble with the law. Didn’t you ever feel sorry for yourself?

James Ellroy: Sure, of course I did; but the abandonment of self-pity is the beginning of wisdom. To be a kid is practically to be self-pitying. I’m not a big fan of kids. I’m not a big fan of adolescent culture. I hate rock ‘n’ roll. I hate pop culture.

AB: Does that extend to, say, country music?

JE: I hate country music – rednecks whining.

AB: Blues?

JE: Black men whining. I love classical music. Beethoven didn’t whine.

AB: I think a lot of people assume that you like jazz because you wrote a book called White Jazz.

JE: If you ever want to torture me, put me on a desert island with nothing to listen to but Charlie Parker and John Coltrane records. I think that stuff is absolutely hideous.

Hele samtalen kan findes og læses her: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_n12_v26/ai_19121803

Arcade Fire’s sang Wake Up blev brugt som intro-musik til samtlige koncerter på U2’s nu afsluttede Vertigo-Tour. Den gestus fra de irske humanitær-rock-millardærer forhindrer dog ikke Arcade Fire’s Win Butler i at forholde sig til den måde, superbands som netop U2 lader sig markedsføre på. Det sker i den kommende udgave af NME, hvori han udtaler:

“It’s not like we shun success, but at the same time we don’t’ want to shove it down people’s throats. In the UK there’s this kind of rock star competition.

“I don’t know if U2 started it, or The Stones or Oasis but a lot of bands think in terms of: ‘I’m going to be the biggest band in the world. Fuck all those bands who’ve got no ambition’. I think that’s a total crock of shit.

“There’s nothing less interesting to me than the idea of marketing the fuck out of something so people are forced to like it. Some bands are just manipulating people to buy music. That’s how 90 per cent of the record industry works! It’s basically the same as selling a fucking toaster or a cruise package.”

I dag kunne Kurt Cobain være blevet 40 år. I stedet overlod han sin datter til Courtney Loves trygge favn og sit bagkatalog til systematisk udnyttelse, da han greb ud efter sit gevær og trykkede af i en alder af syvogtyve.

Var han sin legendestatus værd? Både og. Kurt Cobain var med til at genskrive reglerne for den melodiorienterede heavyrock, der inden Nirvana var ved at blive til en mere og mere ufrivillig parodi på sig selv. Og samtidig bragte Nirvanas verdensberømmelse en hel masse mindre kendte, men interessante amerikanske rockgrupper frem i det lys, de fortjente.

Men hans selvmord var med til yderligere at opbygge myten om Den Martrede, Gådefulde Rockstjerne, en myte som nogle ser som et ideal.

Kurt Cobain var under alle omstændigheder klasser over Sid Vicious. Alligevel kan det vel ikke overraske, at også han er endt som en samlerfigur, man kan købe (se billedet ovenfor).

Muse, The Arctic Monkeys, The Killers og Amy Winehouse fik priser ved Brit Awards 2007. Og det er jo godt alt sammen.

The Kaiser Chiefs var ikke nomineret i år. Men deres trommeslager Nick Hodgson sagde noget interessant for nylig:

“I was watching this film about the Ramones. It got me thinking how everything was so average nowadays. There’s so much shit in guitar music at the moment. You imagine an A&R man seeing this bandwagon, jumping on it and signing any old shit with a guitar around its neck.”

(Og så var det at jeg spekulerede på om han har hørt sin egen musik?)

Mens vi venter på at aftenlandsekspressen nærmer sig perronen, er her nok en sangtekst fra Neon Bible, det kommende album med Arcade Fire.
Endnu en interessant sang om en ubehagelig fremtid med overvågning og opvarmning.

Lene Espersen og Bjørn Lomborg synger desværre nok ikke med på denne sang. Måske skulle jeg have snakket lidt med dem, da vi alle tre gik i gymnasiet i Nordjylland?

Windowsill

Don’t wanna hear the noises on TV,
Don’t want the salesmen coming after me,
Don’t wanna live in my father’s house no more.
Don’t want it faster, I dont want it free,
Don’t wanna show you what they done to me,
Don’t wanna live in my father’s house no more.
Don’t wanna choose black or blue,
Don’t wanna see what they done to you,
Don’t wanna live in my father’s house no more

‘Cause the tide is high,
and it’s rising still,
and I don’t wanna see it at my windowsill.

Don’t wanna give ’em my name and address,
Don’t wanna see what happens next,
Don’t wanna live in my father’s house no more.
Don’t wanna live with my father’s debt,
You can’t forgive what you can’t forget,
Don’t wanna live in my father’s house no more.
Don’t wanna fight in a holy war,
Don’t want the salesmen knocking at my door,
I don’t wanna live in America no more.
‘Cause the tide is high,
and it’s rising still,
And I don’t wanna see it at my windowsill.

MTV, what have you done to me?
Save my soul, set me free!
Set me free! What have you done to me?
I can’t breathe! I can’t see!
World War III,
when are you coming for me?
Been kicking up sparks,
we set the flames free.
The windows are locked now,
so what’ll it be?
A house on fire,or a rising sea?

Why is the night so still?
Why did I take the pill?
Because I don’t wanna see it at my windowsill!

© Arcade Fire

Denne er ikke udgivet endnu men findes allerede på nettet og er noget af det mest spektakulære længe hørt. Pastoren omtalte den forleden og kaldte den “underligt triumferende”. Vi taler naturligvis om sangen Intervention, en af hjørnestenene på Neon Bible, Arcade Fire’s nye album. En moderne salme af elendighed, hvis kulsorte scenarie løftes højt op på en musikalsk himmel af brusende kirkeorgel, klokker og et uskyldsrent børnekor. Hvis mennesket fortjener sin egen og hele verdens kollektive undergang, synger Arcade Fire den her ud som storslået forløsning snarere end som straf. Arkiver under “a” for anderledes ateistisk samt absolut apokalyptisk.

INTERVENTION

The king’s taken back the thrown
The useless seed is sown
And when they say they’re cutting off the phone
I’ll tell ’em you’re not home

No place to hide
You’ll be fighting as a soldier on their side
You’re still a soldier in your mind
But nothing’s on the line

You say it’s money that we need
As if we’re only mouths to feed
And knowing no matter what you say
There are some debts you’ll never pay

Working for the church while your family dies
You take what they give you and you keep it inside
Every spark of friendship and love will die without a home
Hear the soldier groan or go at it alone

I can taste the fear
Lift me up and take me out of here
Don’t want to fight, don’t want to die
Just want to hear you cry

Who’s gonna throw the very first stone
Oh, who’s gonna re-set the bone
Walking with your head in a sling
Wanna hear the soldier sing

Working for the church while my family dies
Your little baby sister’s gonna lose her mind
Every spark of friendship and love will die without a home
Hear the soldier groan or go at it alone

I can taste your fear
It’s gonna lift you up and take you out of here
And the bone shall never heal
I cannot if you kneel

We can’t find you now
But they’re gonna get their money back somehow
And when you finally disappear
We’ll just say that you were never here

Been working for the church while your life falls apart
Been singing hallelujah with the fear in your heart
Every spark of friendship and love will die without a home
Hear the soldier groan or go at it alone
Hear the soldier groan or go at it alone

© Arcade Fire