With bemusement, I today learn that protestors have congregated in London to protest against Lady Thatcher. The police report that arrests of many of those attending are due to alcohol intoxication. This immediately questions why they were there in the first place. If they just wanted to get drunk, they could have just done so within the confines of their own home. Evidently, the weather must have been fair in London today. Maybe I'm missing the point though. Perhaps it is necessary to drink yourself in to oblivion before you can adequately give vent to your artistic spleen. Seriously, for fear of sounding a little censorious, those attending these "protests" are the very louts who so angered the late Prime Minister. Whatever her rights and wrongs, and there were plenty on both sides of the argument, she always promoted those who wanted to do better. Understandably in the eyes of the majority, she would have had short shrift for these ne'er-do-wells.
As people have reacted in the aftermath of her death, one anomaly has been exposed. For an electorate who can't even be bothered to put an X in the box on Election Day, it is heartening to see so many engaging with the political process. Honestly, the reasons for their engagement must be considered secondary to the fact that they are engaging at all. The only way we can effect change and make our views known is to vote on the few occasions we have the chance to. Perhaps if more of those protesting had so in the 1980s, they would now be chastising the legacy of Neil Kinnock instead. But as the saying goes, "you pay your money, and you make your choice".
News that the LSE is disgruntled with the motives of the BBC is highly entertaining. This is the far left being annoyed by the left! The BBC is taking a number of LSE students undercover in to North Korea having first secured their informed consent. I'm going to assume that students who come from the top 1% of the population understand what they are electing to do and seek to find out what really goes on in the land that time forgot. From my perspective, I will be fascinated if a little horrified to see the results of their findings. I watch this space with great interest.
The far left views of the LSE are hardly a new concept having been well established since the early 1960s. Of its famous alumni, Mick Jagger ranks quite high. As he embarks on his eighth decade of life, fame is now well and truly his. Even from the early days of the Stones, he was never exactly shy around cameras. Some would say this is the basic requirement for a frontman but not everyone would agree. Jagger, it must be remembered, came from the middle class of the early 60s as opposed to what we think of as the middle class today. Someone from his background today would take their degree at the LSE before seeking their fortune in the City. Hardly, rock and roll.
The Stones were formed by a man who couldn't have cared less about fame. He was though, an extraordinary musician who sadly left us in 1969 the worse for wear with drink, drugs and the asthma from which he had always suffered badly. Brian Jones would barely have known what to do in middle class social circles coming as he did from a working class suburban family in Gloucester. Thankfully, he sought to break free from the West country. He didn't take long to make his mark on the burgeoning rhythm and blues scene of London in the early 1960s. Brian became bored very easily as was evidenced by the countless musical instruments he mastered during his all too short life. After he had set the standard for slide guitar on tracks like Little Red Rooster, he moved on to marimba on Under My Thumb, recorder on Ruby Tuesday, trumpet on Child of the Moon, Appalachian dulcimer on Lady Jane, oboe on Dandelion, mellotron on She's a rainbow and, just for good measure, autoharp on You got the silver. Not a bad repertoire in any era. But Brian Jones was far more than just his music. He was, to coin a much used expression, a sixties icon. His sense of fashion, his opinions and taste and his utter disregard for convention set him apart from his peers straight away. Above all, Brian was that very rare animal. Brian was an aesthete par excellence. I feel he wouldn't be out of place in the company of Shelley, Wilde and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It isn't difficult to see why the song-writing team of Jagger and Richards began to seek distance from him. Brian Jones would never have won X-factor but then, he wouldn't have wanted to and nor would he have needed to.
News that the Stones intend to play two dates at Hyde Park following their famous concert there in 1969 smacks of profiteering. Their intention to play Glastonbury strongly suggests a band seeking to cash in while they still can. Perhaps Brian had the right idea getting out when he did. I've read it said that when Brian died, he took the sixties with him. Looking back now, it is hard to contend with that view.
No comments:
Post a Comment