Yer Rock & Roll 11 and musings...

Before the music stuff a few thoughts. There has been a strand in my postings recently the erosion of freedom of expression from the sinister (attempts to smother the Olympic torch protests) through the sinister and absurd (the boy with the placard describing Scientology as a 'cult' and his threatened prosecution) to the just plain absurd (the thing in Sunderland - whatever that was about). In my novel twentytwelve I imagined a free fall into barbarism. Dystopian fiction is about warning rather than prediction and I don't think it will work that way. At least if I did, I would have better things to do than blogging. The criminalisation of everything and the controlling state will eventually mean that we wake up one morning to discover that everything is either prohibited or compulsory.

Those fortified by the election of Boris Johnson as London myor may care to note that his first act was - why am I not surprised - to ban something. The particular something was drinking alcohol on the London Underground. Now I have seen people drinking beer cans on the London Underground and I have seen annoying and occasionally intimidating drunks. So far as I can recall, none of the annoying or intimidating drunks had beercans in tow. There is a complete or almost complete disconnect between the problem and the 'solution'. But it is imagined that this plays well with the punters so a ban it is....

Now music - the theme is young peoples' stuff. As regards popular music, you should know - and act - your age. But some contemporary stuff has permeated my middle-aged consciousness. The first clip is White Stripes with Icky Thump. Actually, this is a bit of a cheat - the White Stripes transcend generational differences - because they are so damn good. Anyways, Jack and Meg are a good deal younger than me (no sniggering at the back) so they qualify. Icky Thump, by the way, is a corruption of the Northern English 'ecky thump', an expression of surprise now only used ironically.

Number two is Rihanna's Pon De Replay. I was in Toronto a couple of summers ago and the local hip hop station played this endlessly. It's a real earworm - to borrow a nice expression from Daisy's blog. Bores its way into your skull and stays there.

Finally Slipknot because they crack me up. I did think of posting their version of La Bamba, thus making it the first song to feature twice in this series but settled on another cover - American Idiot. The clip is from some US TV show. Isn't the presenter a muppet? I occasionally wonder how you get a presenter's job on US TV. I could do that....