Wednesday, 21 April 2021
Monday, 5 April 2021
DEFENDING THE SHIRE
A lot of us make reference to Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. But let us imagine the hobbits set off to defend the Shire after Saruman had turned it into an industrialised shithole full of alien invaders. That is the task that we face. We must defend not the Shire that is, but the memory of the Shire that once was, that it may be so again.
Hobbiton by JRR Tolkien
Saturday, 3 April 2021
RUNAWAY
There have been a number of songs entitled "Runaway" over the years. Most have been throwaway Runaways that have no musical or cultural significance whatsoever. The first "Runaway", however, unbelievably turned sixty in the early part of this year and is a landmark of not just White American music, but popular music in general. It starts off quite innocuously as a nice catchy rock 'n' roll number with Del Shannon on guitar and vocals. We are constantly sold the myth by the usual suspects in control of our pseudo-historical narrative that rock 'n' roll was invented by Black Americans and arose out of twelve-bar blues. This is, like all good lies, partly true. What is missing is of course the White European folk music element that goes back centuries. After all, Europeans were playing stringed instruments long before they were introduced to Negroes. The lute, the lyre and later the guitar were staples of European music, and then the electric guitar was invented and developed solely by people of White European descent, notably George Beauchamp, Adolph Rickenbacker, Doc Kauffman and Leo Fender. Del Shannon is at the top of his game in this track, but then something even more special happens.
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