Pictures From Life’s Other Side

 

Politics. Well, politics. Let us talk about politics (yay!). Politics is a big issue at the moment- one of those things that you can ignore for months on end and then suddenly you realise, as Pericles said, just because you have no interest in politics doesn’t mean that politics has no interest in you.

 

The arena of politics is hotting up across the world (in the countries that we care about, that is). On one hand we have the European Union Referendum (some small country just off the coast of Europe thinking that Europe cares if it is in or out of Europe) and across the river we have the American Presidential Election (with capitals because it is really very important).

 

So let us consider, briefly, both situations. In one you have a country who seems to think that protectionism and selfism constitutes policy and that internal conflicts are of international importance. The people involved are a man who has the moral integrity of fruit fly- if he cannot be faithful to his wife (which is publicly known) then how can one expect him to be faithful to the country, let alone Europe? And another man who so loves his only country that he keeps his (parent’s) money off shore so as not to have to pay taxes, although in his defence, he displays great chivalry in protecting any female television celebrity chef who gets caught doing cocaine because her boyfriend is caught strangling her (just for a moment consider if the situation would have been different if, say, they were black and not famous? No, I don’t think it would be different either…).

 

Across the bathtub you have a man, who makes the aforementioned seem to be actual politicians, who thinks that misogyny, racisms and ignorance are the qualities that make a good president (and seeing how they treat those who respect women, are not racist and are very intelligent it seems that he has a point and I’m sure the Mexicans will enjoy the economic boom involved in building a giant 12 foot wall across the whole border between the US and Mexico and then the labour of building 13 foot ladders and spades). So, this is politics. Self-interest spawned in a cesspool of inbreeding, entitlement and economic unrealities.

 

Being, what would charitably be called, a nerd/geek, I get email updates from the White House (Obama Administration) and at first every email I received filled me with excitement but then I started to realise that they were all the same. Each email would come from Nancy Pelosi and would include a heading along the lines of ‘The End Is Nigh!’ (ever wondered what happened to those sandwich board fellows who walked around quoting scripture? Turns out they all went into politics). One email even had the heading ‘This is Ugly, (my name)’ which I found unnecessarily personal and harsh. Then, after the latest scare has been laid out, Ms Pelosi says that the only way to stop it is to give her money! The only way! The only way…?

 

There is a theory that there are two branches of politics and one is on either of the two. You have the Left and the Right and there is no middle ground, as shown by nearly every administration in the modern history of the world trying to find it, but surely, as with all language, left and right are semiotics. What do they mean? If politics was ruled by general sense (it is not remotely common) then people would find themselves on both the left and the right for do we need to be fiscal conservatives? Without a doubt but do we not also need to protect those who need protecting with health care, housing, education etc? Indubitably. So what is politics? Politics is a personal thing which goes beyond party and prejudices.

 

In 1951 Hank Williams released his version of an old standard song from 1895 called Pictures From Life’s Other Side. This, for me, is what is meant by politics

 

In the worlds mighty gallery of pictures,

Hang the scenes that are painted from life,

There’s pictures of love and of passion,

And there’s pictures of peace and of strife,

And there’s pictures of youth and of beauty,

Of old age, and the blushing young bride,

They all hang on the wall,

But the saddest of all,

Are the pictures from life’s other side.

 

Tis a picture from life’s other side,

Someone who’s fell by the way,

A life has gone out with the tide,

That might have been happy some day,

There’s a poor old mother at home,

Just watching and waiting alone,

She’s longin’ to hear,

From her loved one so dear,

It’s a picture from life’s other side.

 

The first scene is that of a gambler,

Who had lost all his money at play,

Drew his dead mother’s ring from his finger,

Yes, the one she wore on her wedding day,

His last earthly treasure, he stakes it,

Then he bows his head his shame he might hide,

Then when they lifted his head,

They found he was dead,

Another picture from life’s other side.

 

The next tale is that of two brothers

Whose paths in life different led

For one was a luxury in living

But the other brother begged for his bread

Then one dark night they met on the highway

“Your money or life”, the thief cried

And then with his knife – he took his own brother’s life

Just a picture from life’s other side.

 

The last scene, is that by the river,

Of a heart broken mother and babe,

As the harbour lights shine and they shimmer,

On an outcast whom no-one will save,

And yet she was once a true woman,

She was somebody’s darlin’ and pride,

God help her she leaps,

But there’s no-one to weep,

It’s just a picture from life’s other side.

 

There’s a new scene now in Korea

Of a boy with a gun in the snow

In a foxhole frozen and homesick

He’s fighting for us as you know

He’s lonesome and weary and frightened

His life may go out with the tide

But pray God he’ll return

To the loved ones who yearn

It’s just a picture from life’s other side.

 

Fallen Angels

 

Tomorrow (20^th) will mark one of the banner days in music since 1963-5 with the release of a new Dylan album. His earliest effort earned him the title at Columbia Records of Hammond’s Folly as the legendry John Hammond (who signed people like Billie Holiday, Leonard Cohen, Big Joe Turner and, unfortunately, Bruce Springsteen) signed up the scruffy Woodie Guthrie impersonator whose first album, with only two original compositions, failed to make any indentation, even on the small, inclusive folk market. Yet with a manager who had one interest ‘money’ and a social climate which was tapping into something that had been prevalent for centuries but, with the advent of mass media, finally achieved national recognition, the cards, stars or whatever you like fell into place and this Woodie Guthrie wannabe became the crown price of protest, the man whose songs inspired a generation to follow his every thought, taking his texts like biblical scripture (obviously they skipped over the motif ‘don’t follow leaders’).

 

What followed is studied and written about in depth- the highs, the low- the awful memoir I just read about him (ever wondered how it feels to make love to Bob Dylan? Unfortunately I now have a rough idea) but in 96-7 until now, Dylan hit his renaissance and once again he could do no wrong, even in what appears, in political terminology, to be his legacy shopping with documentaries, radio shows, a memoir and albums (most of which I am a big fan off).

 

Then last year, the man who ‘reinvents himself at will’ (or more likely shows different aspects of the man who he is under the Dylan persona) showed another aspect of his musical heritage- he covered the Great American Songbook (or as lazy people dubbed it ‘Dylan does Sinatra). This should not have been a surprise- the album was trailed for about a year with a track from it on his official website and original versions of the songs were played on his radio show and he had covered some of the songs before in concert, however, the biggest shock was his singing. Never, since Nashville Skyline-era, had Dylan sung (crooned) as he did now. The shot-voice seeming more like a gimmick than his actual voice, something affected for his music.

 

Dylan then went on to tour the album playing songs from it and other songs which, seemed to me, to be outtakes from the said album. Tomorrow Dylan releases Fallen Angels, which is essentially the follow up album, once more Bob sings the standards. From the opening lyrics of Young at Heart

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you

If you’re young at heart.

 

 

The tempo is already more upbeat than the previous Shadows in the Night, with the music still subtle but closer to Big Band territory (ironically because it was the workers strike of the BB orchestras that pushed the singer into the foreground) with strings and so forth. The album is a beautiful journey through a nostalgia that never feels nostalgic (Melancholy Mood, in particular is sublime although it is fair to note that I have only listened to the album once at this point) to the closing lyrics of Come Rain or Come Shine

 

 

I’m gonna love you like nobody’s loved you

Come rain or come shine

High as a mountain and deep as a river

Come rain or come shine

…

Days may be cloudy or sunny

We’re in or we’re out of the money

I’m with you, baby

I’m with you rain or shine

 

But why the appeal to someone like me of songs written in the 1950s?

 

Someone recently wrote a piece on how the future is coming and the attitude of the ‘good-old-days’ is (pun intended) antiquated. At the same time I read, on a music forum, a conversation revolving around the death of iconic celebrities this year (Bowie, Prince etc) and how people were bemoaning that these people will never be likened.

 

 

As with so many things people get lost in the personality (brand) as opposed to the product. People intensely dislike U2 because of Bono, not because of great songs like The Fly or Love Rescue Me (co-written with Bob). But when you take away the social context and the private life of the singer and are left just with the song then all you are left with is the personal with regards to yourself.

 

All great art is general and personal. Although we like to think that we are individuals there are many characteristics that unite us. So, to answer my own question (I know, right?) why am I drawn to these songs from 60 odd years ago? Well, because I have a personal connection to them. They feel like they matter. They make me feel. Is that not the purpose of art to make you feel? And is, after all not all great art timeless?

 

So, take it away Bob

 

 

That old black magic has me in its spell

That old black magic that you weave so well

Those icy fingers up and down my spine

The same old witchcraft when your eyes meet mine

 

The same old tingle that I feel inside

And then that elevator starts its ride

And down and down I go, round and round I go

Like a leaf that’s caught in the tide

 

(Fallen Angels is on Columbia Record and should not be mistaken with Great Yarmouth’s Premier Lap Dancing and Gentleman’s Club of the same name.)

Just Thinking…

 

 

‘(I’m gonna) Change my way of thinking’ sang Dylan ‘make myself a different set of rules’. Nietzsche once said that the only psychologist that he learnt anything from was Dostoyevsky and Dostoyevsky once said that ‘It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man’s life is made up of nothing, but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.’

 

Is this true? The actress Amy Adams, rather amusingly, stated that ‘Thirty was a big deal for me. It was the age where I re-evaluated everything – how I approached life and how I thought about myself. When I look at my 20s…I think about how much time I’ve wasted trying to find the right man…if I could go back and do it again, I would have taken guitar lessons or something.’

 

Is it possible to change how one thinks or are we, generally speaking, ‘fated’ to relive the first years in our second years? Whilst habit and comfort are things that people easily slip into (like the raggedy clothes I usually wear out of comfort and habit) are we ‘fated’ to live in this manner?

 

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a psychological therapy that works under the assumption that one can change one’s thoughts and patterns. Whilst we may be hardwired to certain things (I think both nature and nurture are essential in development) it may be possible to change habits through the identification of the habit, and awareness of the thought patterns behind them. Scientists have a theory called neuroplasticity in which the neural patterns of the brain reorganise themselves and change their patterns. There are MRI pictures that show the brain before and after CBT and how different neural pathways are formed and ‘lit up’ by a person experiencing the same situation before and after CBT. There is also a theory called neurogenesis where the brain creates new brain cells and the theory that all they do is die is, seemingly, erroneous. With the new cells would it not be possible to have new thinking patterns? It has long been known that male songbirds create new brain cells to sing each morning but the theory, with regards to humans, was held back for centuries, simply because people were unwilling to admit that what happens to birds may happen to them (‘all is vanity’)

 

But what brings about the change? A patient of Freud and Jung, Sabina Spielrein went on to become one of the founders of psychoanalysis (so much so that Keira Knightley butchered her in the, otherwise, wonderful film A Dangerous Method) wrote a seminal (mostly forgotten) paper in which she elaborates on the title of the paper Destruction as Cause of Becoming. In the paper she shows- referring to texts such as Wagner’s Ring, Freud etc- how sometimes the destruction of something is where its (like a phoenix) rebirth is. Hemmingway once said (no, it’s not about fishing- Papa will you come fishing? No. I’m saaaad. Ugh) ‘The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.’

So, if everyone one is broken then at one point or another, even if it ‘kills’ them then surely this will come down to our one true conception of free will- freedom of interpretation- as to how it will affect us. Some will not change, some will go under but there are those who will change, like a decayed piece of wood, and become diamonds

 

So… change (your) way of thinking

Make (your)self a different set of rules

Gonna put (your) good foot forward

And stop being influenced by fools

Conflict and Duality in Wagner

 

Last week I was lucky enough to go to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden to see a performance (the 202^nd) of Richard Wagner’s Tannhauser. The story is essentially (full synopsis below) that there is a duality in love between virtue and pleasure and the only way to redeem one who has sinned (pleasure) is through God and sacrifice.   When the irate Friedrich Nietzsche later heard Parisfal he exclaimed that Wagner had ‘thrown himself at the feet of the cross’, however such themes exist throughout Wagner’s works. The three I have been fortunate enough to see at the ROH, The Flying Dutchman, Parsifal and Tannhauser all have a common thread; they are all about seeking redemption.

 

Within Wagner’s work there is the conflict between the profane and the holy- whilst the mortal world, and even sexual intercourse, are seen as temptations away from what is holy and true (virtue) there seems an inhibition for one to save one’s self from sin and it is only through the actions of others that one can be saved (“Redemption to the Redeemer”- even the saviour must first be saved) and yet one desires virtue more than anything- even the gods in the Ring Cycle want fidelity.

 

This conflict speaks to the inner turmoil of all people- between good and evil, the sensual and the intellectual, it also shows an interesting parallel to the lives of many artists.

 

Many artists, now considered great, had to rely upon benefactors for their visions to be known. Wagner had King Ludwig II of Bavaria (who in return only asked that Wagner write his autobiography), Wagner then, in turn, became the benefactor of Nietzsche, Dylan made his name after getting a manager who ‘smelt of money’ (and then stole a lot of money from him).

 

Writing was once described as the public work of a private person. The majority of the greats in the arts, science etc are very shy people and it is, possibly, only through this silence that their work can be created ‘sit still…you don’t even need to leave the room the world will unfurl before you’ (Kafka) and yet how can they make their visions known?

 

To resolve the majority of conflicts there must be a balance (not all conflicts mind you- sometimes things are one sided- example- balance cannot be found for genocide- yeah, how about you kill one million, not the two you planned), in the Wagnerian sense there must be a balance between the internal and external (Socrates said a healthy body and mind were simpatico) and between the private and the public. Privacy must be respected but sometimes one must be willing to put one’s self out there and let go of one’s private world.

 

 

——————————-

 

The story of the opera is thus- Tannhauser is in Venusberg- the domain of the goddess Venus. Here he has unbridled passions and his every fantasy is fulfilled. However, he starts to miss the mortal girl whom he loved, whose sad laments for the unrequited love had bought the attention of Venus. Moved by his melancholy, Venus had taken him to paradise as, what is essentially, her toy. Yet Venus has fallen in love with Tannhauser and his desire to return to the mortal realm makes her angry and jealous and with the ‘you’ll be back!’ slamming of the preverbal door, Tannhauser finds himself once more in the mortal realm. He finds his love, yet other men desire her too! So they propose a singing contest about what is true love? The virtue shines forth from the two suitors whilst Tannhauser states- well if the fountain is desire then dive right in!- the carnality shocks and disgusts those around and, his fair Elisabeth falls into a faint and Tannhauser is sent off to see the pope who laughs at him and says, the day I offer you absolution is the day that my staff grows leaves. Elisabeth, meanwhile, goes to God and says let me die so that he may be redeemed.