Why Didn't You Tell Me? (Part Six)

 

I guess many among us can think of occasions when we have heard or read about a live performance and then let our imagination float free in a way that allows us to picture ourselves in that particular venue on a specific night. Naturally we will let the romantic in us take over, even if deep down inside our submerged realistic self will tell us we’ve got it all wrong. For me, The Way Out of Easy, that magnificent live recording of the Jeff Parker ETA IVtet, immaculately packaged by International Anthem, is the perfect example. In my wildest fancy I was there, standing at the front, nodding along ecstatically, grinning madly.

Why Didn't You Tell Me? (Part Five)

 

Over the past few years, I have read an absurd amount of John D. MacDonald books and have grown to envy the way his stories flow so beautifully. He makes writing seem easy. It’s not. But then MacDonald worked diligently at being an author, in a disciplined, professional sense, which is partly why he was almost ridiculously prolific and why there are still plenty of his books left for me to read. He certainly could spin a cracking yarn, and some of his novels I would rate up there with the very best.

A particular favourite is A Flash of Green, a book dedicated to “Sam Prentiss, Jim Neville, Tom Dickinson, and all others opposed to the uglification of America.” It is essentially an environmental protest tale, with a strong theme of populist political corruption, and even some easily manipulated violent far-right Christian fundamentalists, so when reading it you can easily lose track of the fact it was published in 1962 rather than in the present-day. And it’s not without precedent in the author’s extensive canon, as 1959’s misleadingly titled The Beach Girls touches on the relentless tide of redevelopment threatening to tear the heart and soul out of a Florida marina community.

Why Didn't You Tell Me? (Part Four)

 

I’ve got to be honest: I do like a bit of incidental whistling in a song. In fact, I used to have this line about the holy trinity of incidental whistling being the Lovin’ Spoonful’s ‘Daydream’, Subway Sect’s ‘A Different Story’, and Otis’ ‘Dock of the Bay’, and how, in some way, symbolically these tied into Alan Horne’s Postcard Records Brochure, from way back in 1981, and how this really mattered. I would argue that it still does. Anyway, nowadays, I have a new whistling favourite, this being The Cheques’ ‘Deeper’, a song I heard first by way of Northern Soul Fever: Volume Two, a vintage 2CD set from the Goldmine/Soul Supply set-up which I found nice and cheap not too long ago.

Why Didn't You Tell Me? (Part Three)

 

“Betrayal takes two, who did it to who?” That line of Richard Hell’s has been buzzing round my brain since reading the books in Len Deighton’s superb spy trilogy, Berlin Game, Mexico Set and London Match, in rapid succession at the very start of this year. The series was written and based in the early-to-mid-1980s Cold War-era, featuring intelligence officer Bernard Samson. This is the first in a trio of trilogies featuring Bernard: is there a word for that? Not that I know of. Ennealogy doesn’t quite cover it. Words are funny things, aren’t they? You can feel lost without a book, and you can lose yourself in a book. This particular trilogy is perfect for getting lost in.

Why Didn't You Tell Me? (Part Two)

 

Dora Morelenbaum performing live at the Jazz Café in November 2024 was one of the highlights of the year. It was such a joyous show, and when she sprang into her lovely interpretation of Bobby Charles’ ‘I Must Be in a Good Place Now’ I almost melted in delight. It was so gloriously unexpected and unbelievably perfect. And it was not the only cover version performed that night. Months later I haven’t stopped grinning yet.

Why Didn't You Tell Me? (Part One)

 

Discovering Vera Caspary’s fiction has been a highlight of the past few years. I suppose you could say she wrote books that might be conveniently classed as suspense, mystery, detective, crime, noir, or none of these. They are really psychological studies that defy categorisation. What Vera’s books tend to have in common are strong, independent, career women, with some unusual themes, such as PMT-related depression. Anyway, Vera had a great way with words. To use a phrase of her own: “To write well is to write clearly.” And she did.

Rather like her contemporary Dorothy B. Hughes with In A Lonely Place, Vera’s most well-known work Laura is available in a handsome edition as part of The Feminist Press’ Femmes Fatales series. And, yes, it is the book that spawned the classic Otto Preminger-directed film noir, memorably starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews. But then Laura has been a magazine serial, a play, a novel, a film, a song. All of which suggests Lionel Blair and Una Stubbs (I nearly wrote Baines there!) effervescing in the fondly remembered Give Us A Clue.