dave graney - Moodists-Coral Snakes-mistLY-FEARFUL WIGGINGS

dave graney - Moodists-Coral Snakes-mistLY-FEARFUL WIGGINGS
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About Me

My photo
2023 book THERE HE GOES WITH HIS EYE OUT (lyrics 1980-2023) 2023 reissue Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes Night Of The Wolverine. Double vinyl release. 2023 ROCK album with Clare Moore IN A MISTLY . WORKSHY - 2017 memoir out on Affirm Press. Available at shows or via website. Moodists - Coral Snakes - mistLY. I don’t know what I am and don’t want to know any more than I already know. I aspire, in my music , to 40s B Movie (voice and presence) and wish I could play guitar like Dickey Betts, John Cippolina or Grant Green - but not in this lifetime, I know.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

perils of the social sensitivities/nodes/nuts




so I turn on the magic box and this fellow I have somehow connected to has activated my name in a  post where he is air-raiding me to the void. .... It was along the lines of "just listened to Dave Graney's somewhat didactic song "field record me" and was disappointed by yet another ignorant depiction of the role of linguists and their work of preserving dying languages through the use of field recordings. What an ignorant rock person.. what would he know etc etc etc ..."

This is the song...
https://soundcloud.com/dave-graney-lym/field-record-me




A woman chimed in with " Wow what a great disappointment this must be to you"



The fellow shot back " disappointed, yes…liked him better when he was a moodist .. but not that surprised at the att.. ignorance is the fuel of so many a rock sermon!"



The woman returned "Unfortunately maybe Dave's showing his age. This kind of objectification or essentialising would have been spot on a few decades ago, just like framing Indigenous people as eternal victims. (...unless of course he has a specific early 20th C bearded pipe-smoking ethnographer in mind...)"





I must state I know neither of these two and was not eavesdropping. It was all opened on my social manor.



The man returned " yep, although many old farts manage not to think in such simplistic terms..there's not much excuse for those stereotypes really.. just lazy thinking. (Unless we're talking dementia?)"



I felt the need to object! " the song is a cry of pain, in a world where people can only listen/hear / see music when it is safely dead or from a foreign clime . Like say, poncey types going on about primitive cultures or making field recordings of exotic savages. In the song, the singer is asking them to field record him, in his natural habitat. But they can't hear him. So you know, one of us is ignorant and its not me. Cheers."



I included the lyrics...



"field record me
put me in the picture, give me a page
put me in a place and time where you can find me
pin me down and forget me
field record me
make me real
treat me as if I was here
field record me
put on your coat with many pockets and stick that pipe in your mouth
and approach me sensitively in my world
field record me
field record me
treat me like a golden bug
and you’ve had the mad luck to be here
"

To me, that's pretty direct and plain language. As a songwriter, you like to get simpler and simpler. Less words. More groove and feel. When I play live I often introduce it as a song about a musicians dream where aliens will be in the audience one day and understand what he's going on about. And take news of him back to their planet. Where he is worshipped as a god.  I allude to the educated, rich new Yorkers going down South of America in the 30s and 40s and making field recordings.





I added "I sing songs about my world, not others."



Then lost my cool..." what fucking knobs"

That felt better.



The man came back ...

"Well I suppose I can‘t rightly argue with a creative about what their own song is about. So, if you say ‘field record me’ is not about linguists making fieldwork recordings, then fair enough.



Reading the lyrics again though, I find it difficult not to interpret it as an attack on language documentation, since field recording is generally something done by linguists. Pretty much the only other people who do it are ethnomusicologists...Is the song about ethnomusicologists, perhaps?
The poncey character is a cliche. I guess the song was meant to be set in the 19th century. That didn't come through at all. And the phrases you use: ‘exotic savage’ and ‘primitive’ are racist stereotypes. They are offensive to anyone doing actual fieldwork. If that's what you think fieldwork is about, then actually, you are very ignorant
".

This guy would not back off! How many ways can he insult me? 


Even though he was obviously a linguist and very well educated, I felt I should speak plainly…



"why the hell would I be bothered writing a song about linguists? New York folk lorists went to the southern states of America and field recorded people like Muddy Waters in the 40s and earlier. All sorts of folk farmers and the like. The song is about being an Australian singer. Its set in 2012. I don't give a rats testicle what field work is, like most people."

Silence for a couple of days then he shot back with another tirade (which is now invisible to me- as is he)   about it being true that people don't care about his valuable work of preserving dying languages but he does it. (diddums) Also that , perhaps, the song could be interpreted in the way I said, "with the aid of mass scaffolding."

Then he added "ciao".

Excuse me.

"CUUUUUUUUUUNT!"

Yes, thats better. Anyway, whoever he is, he is dead to me. And his bitches too. They had just dropped in to air raid me. Probably, like most people, they don't know where all the flim flam connections pop up.

It was this exchange that worried me though. The fellow professes to be a  linguist but he seems to take everything so subjectively. He can't understand English or the local variant. The cadence, the patois. My song was about just that! In the local field, people can't see or hear many things unless there is a precedent from the US or the UK. If it doesn't, it doesn't exist. As invisible as a creep that's been blocked on the interwebs.
What chance do all those dying languages have?  In the hands of this ignorant , know-all blockhead?




February 3rd THE DAMES (Clare Moores project w/ Kaye Patterson and Rosie Westbrook) at the Post Office Hotel Sydney Rd Coburg 4-6pm
 
February 10th
- Butterfly Club 204 Bank st sth Melbourne 8pm. Dave Graney and Clare Moore acoustic set (vibes and 12 string).
 
FRIDAY February 22nd dave graney and the mistLY at the SOUND LOUNGE/Ocean Grove Hotel.175 Bonnyvale Rd 52551122
Doors at 6pm,show at 8pm.Advance tickets-seating 0408575799































 
  





1 comment:

D351L5 P3N15 said...

Back in the early sixties there was an Australian band that thought that it was every bit as good as The Beatles , performing their own compositions which were stylistically similar to the songs of The Beatles . Capitalising on this similarity , they decided to call themselves The Beautles , " beauty " ( more often than not pronounced "bewdy" ) being a common expression of the day . Even though the band themselves thought that they had everything The Beatles had musically , the public ignored them , prefering the music of the actual Beatles instead of that of the antipodian Beautles . In spite of the lack of attention , The Beautles carried on writing songs , performing live as often as they could , most often in small country towns , where the few locals remaining can still tell about the night The Beautles came to town . As well received as they were at their occasional country gigs , in the cities they were ignored . Before breaking up in frustration , The Beautles released one album of the best of their original compositions , which as a thumbing of the nose to the public who ignored them was entitled " Mute the Beautles " which was a self-funded private pressing , paid for with wages earnt doing their day-jobs , 86 copies sold at their final 7 gigs . Copies are extremely difficult to find , mostly found in country towns inland of BFE , as deceased estates find their way to the CWA op-shops .
Dave Graney is rumoured to own a copy . In the eighties there was talk of doing a " Mute the Beautles " tribute concert , but the talk died down and nothing came of it .

Dave Graney and Clare Moore with Georgio "the dove" Valentino and Malcolm Ross

Dave Graney and Clare Moore with Robin Casinader - In Concert

ONE MILLION YEARS DC

Starts with a Kinksy groover sketching a 21st century populist tyrant who coasts in power on waves of public resentment at those on the lowest rungs of the ladder (He Was A Sore Winner). Sweeps across a sci fi terrain with nods to songs in the sand at the end of the world (Pop Ruins) and nods to the ties that bind in the underground communities (Comrade Of Pop and Where Did All The Freaks Go?). Songs about intense, long relationships, defunct technology that didn’t answer back, severe social status definition (I’m Not Just Any Nobody), people wandering through your mind as if it was a garage sale, the anxiety of the long running showman (wide open to the elements again) and ends with a song that’s “a little bit Merle Haggard and a little bit Samuel Beckett”. " Edith Grove! Powis Square! 56 Hope Road! Petrie Terrace!.. The Roxy! The Odeon! Apollo! Palais! Olympia! The Whisky! Detroit Grande!” Pop Ruins!"

ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS?

ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS? (The title comes from the chorus of “Song Of Life” ) is a classic rock’n’roll album. Classic if you lived through what has become known as ”the classic rock era” as it rolled out new and even broke onto the beachhead and morphed into punk. That’s the direction Dave Graney and Clare Moore have always been coming from. They have spent their lives schooled by and immersed in rock ‘n’ roll culture. Neither attended higher education and they dived in deep and kept swimming. From the Moodists through the Coral Snakes /White Buffaloes to the mistLY This is an album with their band, Dave Graney and the mistLY. Stuart Perera has played guitar with them since 1998 and Stu Thomas on bass since 2004. MARCH 2019 ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS? 2019 album out on Compact Disc - available here via mail order...
If you are from outside of Australia and wish to purchase a Compact Disc copy of ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS? please use this button (different postage)

LETS GET TIGHT

FEARFUL WIGGINGS

2014 solo album from Dave Graney. *****"If I've learnt anything in my years of writing about music it's that if you are going to do anything of worth in this tough game, you better have your own thing. Today's generic is easily replaced by tomorrow's. And yet you need to be flexible, to follow wherever the songs demand. In the case of this, only the second credited as a solo album among 30 or so Graney releases, it's a curious yet welcoming lane he walks you down, with acoustic guitars, not much percussion, vibes, smooth sounds. At the end of it you feel like you've awoken from a strange yet pleasant summer's dream. As shot by Luis Bunuel. It ranges from off-kilter reveries (A Woman Skinnies Up a Man, The Old Docklands Wheel) through to the softly seductive (How Can You Get Out of London) and the downright arch (Look Into My Shades, Everything Is Great In The Beginning.) This is music that is neither folk, nor blues, nor country, but it's all Graney, somewhere out to the left field beyond Lee Hazlewood's raised eyebrow. It's astringent on the tongue but sweetens in the telling." Noel Mengel Brisbane Courier Mail

you've been in my mind

June 2012 super high energy pop rock album - blazing electric 12 strings - total 70s rock drive. Greatest yet! available via paypal - $20 pp

rock'n'roll is where I hide/- 2011 "vintage classics/ re recordings" on LIBERATION

SUPERMODIFIED - August 2010 remixed/re-sung/re-strung//remastered/replayed comp via PAYPAL

also available as a digital album

Knock yourself (2009)-first ever dg solo set-filthy electro r&b-available via Paypal- $20

available as a digital album too

We Wuz Curious (2008)-blazing R&B jazz pop album available via paypal-$20


UNAVAILABLE-COMPLETELY SOLD OUT!!!
AVAILABLE AS A DIGITAL album

Keepin' It Unreal-(2006)-minimalist/lyrical vibes, bass, 12 string set - CDs sold out - digital only

Hashish and Liquor (2005 double disc by Dave Graney and Clare Moore) available via Paypal $25


UNAVAILABLE-COMPLETELY SOLD OUT!!!
Single album HASHISH available as a digital release

Heroic Blues- "folk soul" set from 2002-Availableas a digital album via BandCamp


UNAVAILABLE ! Completely sold out!

It is written,baby-book released 1997- available $10 via paypal