Shoulder rotator cuff injury? Pah!


Linda on the via ferrata at St Julien, Buis-les-Baronnies, Provence

Synchronicity, or Crazy Coincidence Number 5 Million and Twenty Seven...

So, I'm trying to get to sleep in a tent in Italy, listening to some instrumental music on my i-pod, eventually dozing off to Miles Davis's Bitches Brew, an album I've never really y'know, got before.  Next morning I listen again, curious about this music. 

• Only afterwards do I wonder whether there's an apostrophe missing from the album's title, and conclude that Jazz musicians don't worry too much about that sort of thing, or that perhaps the brew is actually made of bitches rather than owned by them.

Anyway, a couple of weeks later I'm reading the August edition of Uncut.  The issue features a reappraisal of the Bitches Brew album 40 years later, or something. Every issue of Uncut features several reappraisals of groundbreaking music from 30, 35 or 40 years ago, because that's the period in music when the most ground got broken. This issue also features an article on the ever-interesting Lennon, in his ever-interesting primal scream period, so naturally I buy a copy so I can remind myself to go and listen to John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band one more time (always a pleasure) while finding a bit more about Bitches Brew.

• Only afterwards do I realise that the 'missing' apostrophe is not mentioned, which isn't surprising as this is a magazine written by and for Music Obsessives rather than Copy Editors

So, anyway, several days later I read the the Miles piece, which is very good, well researched and informative. Mentioned in it there's an unexpected reference to Philip Larkin who was, it seems, jazz columnist for the Daily Telegraph at the time of the album's release (news to me, but it makes sense when you think about it). For Larkin, the album's 'Muzak-like chicka-chicka-boom-boom quickly palls'.  I can't agree, I think it's a great record.

Anyway, later the same day, I'm in the newsagent's. Bear with me.

It's Saturday when I usually buy the Guardian, or maybe the Independent if I want everything in one section to avoid strewing the lounge with massed piles of debris. But, the Telegraph has a special offer - a voucher for eye tests, only a fiver from Boots!  Like I said, I'm 50 now so this sort of thing can sway you if you're off your guard, and also you start listening to jazz if you're not careful. Additionally, the pile of Guardians has a big  sign on top scrawled 'No Magazine!'. So I buy the Telegraph. I'll try and get my £5 eye test soon.

So,...and this is the coincidence... I clearly see in The Telegraph a two-page article on, wait for it...Philip Larkin's jazz writings! Larkin wrote jazz reviews for the paper when he wasn't too busy stamping books in Hull University Library, and was a lifelong jazz enthusiast.

Drawing together all the Anyways and Sos this is Some Coincidence, huh? Amazing.

Anyway, I conclude that however the stars may decide to align, I don't mind Philip Larkin's poetry, but I don't rate his appraisal of jazz. Or the paper he wrote for. Then again, Bitches Brew is not really jazz so who can blame him. Anyway right, I'm not really into jazz, and prefer John Lennon  / Plastic Ono Band, which is really about being 30 not 50.

Good album though, I think. Or maybe back in the tent in Italy I was listening to Miles MacInnes and I badly need glasses. Now, where did I put that voucher?