Living In A Difficult World

 Fifty years since it's original release George Harrison's 'All Things Must Pass' is getting the full bells and whistles treatment with an epic remix/re-release programme that we will never hear the last of when it's actual release date comes.

But what of the original musicians who played on this 1970 album? There were no tracking records kept by the studio at the time to say who played and which tracks they played.....

First the musicians who are now dead

George Harrison, writer, vocalist (died 2001)
Phil Spector, producer (died 2021)
Carl Raddle, bass (died 1980)
Pete Ham, guitarist (died 1975)
Mike Gibbons, guitarist (died 2005)
Tommy Evans (died 1983)
Billy Preston, keyboards (died 2006)
Pete Drake, pedal steel guitarist (1988)
Bobby keys, saxophone (2014)
Mal Evans, percussion (1976)

Those still alive but in prison; Jim Gordon

Those alive and free to speak about their role in the making of the album,
memory willing, but they may have little memory left
with which to recall who played and on what track.

Eric Clapton
Alan White
Ringo Starr

Those with better memories who have been sidelined from speaking
about the project.

Bobby Whitlock
Dave Mason
Klaus Voorman
Jim Price
Gary Brooker
Gary Wright
John Barham

and the engineers Ken Scott and Phil McDonald.

All this leaves that much passed that there is only the writers estate
left to look after the work which was a milestone in recording history
but the making of it seems so long ago now.   

'Nothing To See Here..... '

I have enjoyed attending church
in Northern Ireland for many a year.

Nothing engages with me more
than seeing the vicar squirm
when he is given the reading
where Jesus says to those present
'Let him who is perfect cast the first stone',
particularly when that text comes up
during 'The Marching Season'.

It is a fascinating time for such a text,
a time when those who are not stirred to march
whilst playing intimidating military 'music'
often choose to riot instead,
until calm is restored much later. 

That is 'community' here.
The point that fascinates me most
is to check how quickly the sermon 
will seek to move the congregation
well away from the life around them
because it embodies a local politics
that they know selfish and disruptive
sufficient for Jesus to disown them.

Good Medicine Does Not Have A Party Political Label

When an Englishman talks to an American
about the healthcare that they have experienced
in their country the level mutual incomprehension
goes nearly totally uncomprehended.

When the English talks with humility and pride
abut the now historic public service values
behind their NHS, where treatment is free
at the point of asking, though some pay later.
Such sharing is the bedrock of that society.

The American will sneer 'socialist medicine'
as if division by wealth, though raw Capitalism
indifferent towards those most afflicted,
is the healthiest sickness they could imagine
inflicting on those with the least in their country. 

Fact, Opinion, And Truth

It is a fact that in America
nobody can be sued for their opinion
when what they say is labelled opinion,
or it is called fair comment from the start.

But this how conspiracies begin;
somebody asserts as fact
what is merely their opinion
and other person add to it.

The opinion grows arms and legs
and wanders around the media,
releasing itself like a virus
through people who like to talk
but don't listen to their speech,
in a media that breeds speakers
who revel in the sound of their own voice.

To test the opinion that dresses itself up as fact,
the bearer of opinion has to be taken to court.

There, under the pressure of money and law
the holder of 'the fact' usually retreats
and admits that all along what was said
was just their opinion, in addition
they express a late and miserly regret
that nobody was ever hurt by what they said.

And nobody knows whether the truth
will come out in the very last wash;
nobody who has been to eternity
has ever returned, as they once were,
to share how well they scrubbed up. 

If Ever My Country Brings Back Hanging

for certain political and criminal acts,
then they might have a small problem;
It remained on the statute book for treason
but as a punishment it became redundant
when the people it should be applied to most
became the government; nobody stopped them.

But hanging for other crimes was banned
over half a century ago. If it were reintroduced
then I can assure you that the psychopath
will not be the one on the end of the noose,
they will be the one who opens the trapdoor
underneath the feet of the condemned man
who by his weight will see his life flash before him.

The bigger psychopaths will be the men in wigs,
who presides over the courts
by the power of  their old school ties, 
and who pronounce the sentence.

So by all means bring back hanging, 
but know this much; the hanged man
will always be the wronged man.

What should be put in the dock
is the process that put him
in a noose to begin with

Unimportant Messages

Stood outside in the evening light,
I notice afresh the telephone wires,
and wonder at how they carry my words.

The message that strikes me more
is the song of the pair perched on the wire;
the birdsong that carries on the evening air. 

Pictures Set Of The Month - July

'Marrowfield Worcester' as painted by 
Scottish painter Robert Colquhoun (1914-62)
who was also known for his prints and stage designs.

 

'Church Lench'. Robert Colquhoun who was as prolific
as was profligate with his painting talent.

'Tomato Plants (1)' painted in 1942
by Robert Colquhoun (1914 who formed a lifelong
gay relationship in the 1930's with fellow painter
Robert Macbryde (1913-66).

'Tomato Plants(2)' as painted in 1942 by Robert 
Colquhoun whose life seriously shortened by the
misuse of alcohol. For more by this artist click here.