| Author | Message | ||
     Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 59 Registered: 10-2006 |
Struck with some vague sort of virus, pack the family off to the country… a Sunday to myself, stuck at home, what to do? Collect all the GB cds from where they’re scattered round the house, solos included, why not… Sunny outside but with a bit of breeze: Breakfast with In your bright ray, good open-up-to-the-day music: Thought: What a boy got to do to get a hit record? Despite flu or whatever feel immediately better. Follow with Horsebreaker Star disc one. Thought: every GB fan is a McLennan person or a Forster person and I am a Forster person. So, today, a lot of Grant, in compensation. Melody seeps from him like sun – is that planned, in Acoustic Stories, where he dashes a quick glance behind him in Too Much of One Thing and then improvises the first few lines of his verse? Anyway… Watch the acoustic section of DVD for umpteenth time. Thought: why didn’t they mike Grant up better? Love the affection they generate, Forster’s face is a show all itself. Then, the second cd of Live in London again – just a great sequence of great songs. Thought: the four shows Forster will do in Brisbane…if I’d known before, I’d have got myself on a plane again for the first time in years, what a motive… a sort of “I still exist” declaration of determination and autonomy? It would be wonderful to be there. Break for lunch – fridge scraps, no, I do not open one of the good hoarded reds, I stick to cheap local white, sigh – then Horsebreaker Star part two. Perhaps in the end it was Grant’s voice that just wasn’t distinctive enough to get him the attention he deserved? Marvellous end procession of songs. Time for some of my favourite Forsters: Love is a sign, first, another enigmatic lyric located between the blur and the detail. I’d like to know where every line came from, how it fits together. Great harmonica solo – who plays that? The local wine has kicked in so I just let 16 LL play. Thought: what a group got to do to get a hit record? Love that acoustic break in Streets of your town. Finally get round to playing Lullaby for the first time: if you’ve come to the group backwards, as I have, then it’s hard to enjoy the earlier staccato, angular stuff, so I’ve put off hearing this for ages: well, it makes a good palate-cleanser after lunch, but I don’t think it’ll ever make a strong claim on my affections – Grant’s vocals sound particularly unsuited to these types of rhythm. Unnerving drumming and those strange sax bursts… Eight pictures is good, there’s a Leonard Cohen melody under there, I think. But all too jagged for me. Time for Tallulah…mainly for the wonderful dark swathe of Forster songs, many of his best. Aaaaargh, half way through Hope Then Strife, the front door whacks open, I have a beagle on my chest, the wife is leaning over me: “Poor darling…did you have a terrible day all alone?” “Teeeeeeeeeeerrible,” I whine pitifully. Thought: Damn, no time for Oceans Apart now… | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 151 Registered: 11-2004 |
Great story Stuart. It reminds me of a Saturday I spent last year. It must have been about 6 months before Grant's death. I'd recently decided to split up with my girlfriend - and was at a complete loose end. I woke around 2pm and listened from 'The Lost Album' all the way through (non stop!) to the middle of 'Oceans Apart'. (This was the 2CD expanded versions of the albums and the 1978-1990 complication with Bonus CD) Unfortunately I was exhausted before I got to the 'Live in London' bootleg. Never thought of it like that before but 'Forster’s face is a show all itself' is very true. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1472 Registered: 05-2005 |
You've inspired me to play In Your Bright Ray Stuart. Lovely story. |