Today BBC 6 music is making a big fuss about the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album because it was released exactly fifty years ago. Well, how astounding. What a perfect opportunity to celebrate a seminal work of popular culture, apart from the fact that Brian Wilson’s alleged masterwork sounds exactly the same as it didContinue reading “Anniversaries to Forget….”
Tag Archives: “bob dylan”
Rock Dinosaurs Team Up
It could only happen in America. I can just picture hundreds of thousands of psychedelic beach chairs, picnic hampers and parasols spread out on the ‘Empire polo field’ (that famous rock’n’roll venue…) as Bob Dylan, the Stones, Paul McCartney, The Who, Roger Waters and Neil Young perform at a mega-gig in Indio, California this October.Continue reading “Rock Dinosaurs Team Up”
The Mystery of Charisma
We have all met people possessed of a natural charm that enables them to hold the attention of groups of people, who listen to their opinions, laugh at their jokes and possibly want to share bodily fluids with them. Charisma is like a magical chemical product flowing in certain peoples’ bloodstream. If you start outContinue reading “The Mystery of Charisma”
Hear my latest album…
“The key to a good album is to be both eclectic and cohesive, and paradoxical as it sounds, that’s exactly what Tom George achieves on ‘Postcards” – liverpoolacoustic.co.uk I recorded this album with in Liverpool with the expert help of Jeff Jepson at the controls. If I had to sum it up I would sayContinue reading “Hear my latest album…”
Do You Listen to Song Lyrics?
Recently I was reading a blog post about the debut album by one of my favourite bands, Dire Straits. As well as celebrating the spell-binding guitar and characteristic vocal style of Mark Knopfler, Another Grumpy Commuter paid attention to the excellent lyrics on the album. “Down to the Waterline” is a tale of teenage liasonsContinue reading “Do You Listen to Song Lyrics?”
Ten Great Protest Songs (for Pete Seeger)
The music community recently mourned the great Pete Seeger, who finally left the stage at the grand old age of 94. Seeger was a key figure in the protest song tradition, nurturing and inspiring a generation of left-leaning folkies including Bob Dylan. It occurred to me that when Seeger started performing in the 1940’s, heContinue reading “Ten Great Protest Songs (for Pete Seeger)”
Where Do Songs Come From? (a writer’s guide)
Can I start by saying that this is not an attempt at a “how-to” article for budding songwriters. For one thing, I dislike tuition in popular music, but also in an important sense, I don’t really know how I write songs anyway. For me, there is a fundamental mystery at the heart of the creativeContinue reading “Where Do Songs Come From? (a writer’s guide)”
Tom George 