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Do you like music? The odds are that you do. Its possible
that even the reptilian Lord of Money George Osborne likes music, though
exactly what kind of music he likes is another story. David Cameron is
allegedly a big fan of Radiohead and the Smiths, but George Osborne is the
mysterious member of the Bullingdon boy band so we'll just have to wait for
an excruciatingly dull episode desert island dickheads to find out. Anyway
praise be to the Chancellor and his Chinese slush fund for continuing to
support the Knives Forks and Spoons press through the channels of the Arts
Council. Knives Forks and Spoons is a brilliant little poetry press with an
eye for the absurd. Here is their latest venture, Yesterdays Music Today, an anthology of music and poetry
edited by Mike Ferguson and Rupert Loydell.
Do you like poetry? The odds are that you do. After all, you are reading the Stride website, why else would you be reading about
poetry if you didn't like it? Perhaps you are here looking for clues to steal
my identity? Perhaps you are Klaus Nomi lost in the unravelling glass pages
of the internet? Anyway, regardless, if you are a fan of both music and
poetry then Yesterday' s Music Today could be the perfect winter warmer for you.
The anthology, 'came out of the editors' shared enthusiasm for and addiction
to music, along with a certain middle-aged nostalgiaÓ. Though the majority of
the music these poems respond to belongs to a time far further away than
yesterday, there is certainly an eclectic ensemble of musical muses on
display, from free jazz to 70s rock to classical. Everything present in this
anthology comes from the deep vaults of memory and magic stirred by music.
The prevalence of acts from the eighties backwards perhaps stems from the
editors 'failing to be moved by so much of the music they have greedily
devoured over the last few yearsÓ. Or more tellingly put it is a result of
the average age of the editors and contributors. Don't expect to find any
odes to Harry Styles here, thank god.
Yesterdays Music Today opens
with two poems from the editors themselves, each one dedicated to the other
editor, although the real dedication is to music: 'Always the music pulling
you back into the one true grooveÓ writes Mike Ferguson. For Rupert Loydell
the music plays on in the MP3 player of his mind, the minor falls and the
major lifts having been long since committed to memory and because, like
another middle aged rocker, he still hasn't found what he's looking for:
Couldn't find one
particular LP this morning -
filing gone awry - so sat
in the sun and let music
hang in the dust by the
window
[from 'Yesterdays Music Today']
Some of my favourite contributions to the anthology are those in which the
style of the music shapes the arrangement of the poem, in 'i like' Susan
Birchenough makes it clear the kind of jazz she's after:
I like my jazz not to be too free
to flap inthebreeze
then be caught just
at the edge
with a sti tching that's not quite a seam
It's not only the twitching, free flowing structure of the words that echoes
jazz moreover the rhythm of a jazz beat licks and twists through the poem
like Tony Williams in perfect time. An analogous visual and sensory aspect
can be observed in 'The Claremont Road Can of Rhythm Sound System' where Paul
Hawkings captures the explosive frenzy of Lee 'ScratchÓ Perry:
Dub bass
BOOM
rimshot
scatter
BOOM
shakka-lakka
ground
glass darkly
I
can
hear
for miles
This is enjoyable because it transports the reader directly to the heart of
the matter, it is vivid and evocative, bringing the music to our ears. Music
has always had a distinct advantage over poetry because poetry on the page
speaks without sound (except the internal sound of reading) whereas music has
access to a multi dimensional palette of expression. This probably goes some
length to explaining why music is much more popular than poetry (oh if only I
were reviewing for the NME!).
However it does not explain why bad music is so popular, but that, as with
other aforementioned quandaries, is another story.
A more contemplative reaction to the ever blasting sound system is evinced by
Jay Ramsay in his 'ode to Beethoven' where we find the author driving in a
'sunlit motorway queue':
as the darkness below
opens like a shout and for a moment
the man behind finds his
brakes have failed as he plummets
towards his own face in a
black mirror
Once again the poem is infused with the power of the music that inspired it.
Jay Ramsay's words seem to follow the rise and fall of the orchestra,
swelling like a wave in the ocean before crashing down against the shore.
Another piece that caught my eye, or perhaps my ear, was 'Sun Ra', a poem by
Jimmy Juniper. The poem is short enough for me to include in full:
Blood temples
the ears
a chromatic pulse
transparent fists
the sunset
a beam of hammered rain
murals scarab
the wall
hieroglyphs
my memory
Now there are only 23 words in this poem so there is no room for error. An
epic poem can have a few bad lines here or there but in a short poem like
this everything has to be perfect. Fortunately it is. The Egyptian imagery
lends an exotic lilt to the slight surreal feel of 'transparent fists' and
again the music of the poem's inspiration is evoked, the 'hammered rain'
sounds like the cymbal rushes of a sun scorched Sun Ra track.
Now I've only picked out four poems for further analysis but I can assure you
that the quality of the poetry is consistent throughout the anthology. My
only qualm is that the poems of my generation seem to be missing. The 1990s
is where my earliest musical memories were formed (shouting Blur lyrics to
passers by and falling in love with the Spice Girls). It's a pity there's not
really anything in here that speaks of that era but, anyway, perhaps those
are poems for me to write. Yesterday's Music Today is a well edited anthology with plenty to enjoy,
perfect for the Christmas stocking of any middle aged rock and roller.
©
Charlie Baylis 2015
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