I don’t know if it’s more of a reflection on us (because of our song choices), you (because of the ones you decide to play), or simply the bias in the history of popular music but I noticed there were very few women in George’s recent run down of the Songs To Learn And Sing Readers’ Top 50. Just two songs fronted by a woman in the top 20. A slightly better but still poor nine songs out of the top 50.
So for no other reason than to try to redress the balance I’ve posted this. It’s no more significant than it’s one of my favourite songs by a female artist yet to appear on Allthatsleft.
Beth Orton’s music may not sound particularly distinct these days but at the time it was a pretty fresh sound, especially the electro-folk (or whatever you would like to call it) elements. But more important for me is her voice, simply lovely and full of down to earth humanity. This song from the debut album Trailer Park may be a little unassuming played quietly but turned up it’s full of life.
It may not make the next Songs To Learn and Sing Readers’ Top 50 but it’s worth a go.
This week’s award for the villain of the last seven days goes to former Bosnian Serb General, Ratko Mladic.
The resumption (and then unscheduled adjournment) of the trial this week at the Hague is enough by itself to prompt this award.
Let’s remind ourselves of the charges against Mladic: genocide, persecution, extermination and murder, deportation, terror and taking of UN hostages. Charges relating to the worst atrocities in Europe for a generation. And a charge sheet apparently shortened in order to help speed up the judicial proceedings.
That the crimes at Srebrenica happened are 100% not in dispute. Some former Bosnia Serb commanders have already been convicted by the international courts in connection with the killings. The question is the extent of Mladic’s individual responsibility. Apparently Mladic will present evidence that he has an alibi for some of the key days in relation to the Srebrenica massacre. But even if the alibi for his location proves to be technically correct, the prosecution rightly point out that it is inconceivable that the massacre would have taken place without his knowledge, consent, and most likely, direction. And let’s remember that the charges he faces are not just in relation to the horrors of Srebrenica, not least the murderous siege of Sarajevo.
The court has had a bad week with revelations that the prosecution had failed to disclose evidence that should have been shared with the defence. Apparently a clerical error but one that could lead to very extensive further delays. Everyone deserves a fair trial. That is never more important than in a case like this. But we also all know what we expect the outcome to be. Justice for the acts of a true villain is being delayed.
This week’s Prat of the Week award goes to QPR Captain, midfielder and Tweetmeister, Joey Barton. As a footballer Joey Barton is a bit of a conundrum. On one hand, his attempts to express opinions that go beyond the mind numbingly facile that we usually get from footballers is refreshing; but, on the other hand, [...]
This Week’s Hero of the Week is newly elected President of France, Francois Hollande What a difference an election or two makes. Only two weeks ago, austerity was the unchallengeable economic orthodoxy throughout Europe. And then on the same day a parliamentary election in Greece gave the two parties that have dominated Greek politics for [...]
This is Part 2 of a post I started yesterday on the potential political and economic impacts of a Greek Exit from the Euro. 3. The Eurozone Periphery The most immediate impact outside of Greece is going to be felt in the other countries of the Eurozone periphery who have been struggling hardest to convince [...]
I get a sense that a Greek exit from the Euro is perhaps not as quite the raging certainty it seemed a couple of weeks ago, in the aftermath of the Greek elections, which saw the overwhelming rejection of the pro-austerity parties that have governed Greece since the restoration of democracy in 1974. Francois Hollande [...]
I’ve had a hard week and, I have to say on my way to work this morning contemplating my song, it was my intention to write a navel gazing, introspective piece, full of metaphorical references to the wave of my youthful enthusiasm crashing upon the shores of middle age. My song was going to be [...]
A bit like the aftermath of our Hackney reunion weekend, the aftermath of the football season leaves one tired and with a mixture of feelings that range from pleasurable to alcohol riven self-loathing. After the long season that reached a wonderful climax in the last seconds at the Eithiad Stadium, one thing is indisputable: over [...]
Sunday brought the sad news of the death of Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn, legendary bassist with Booker T and The MGs and progenitor, along with the Memphis Horns, of much that gave southern soul its distinctive sound. He died in Tokyo while on tour at the age of 71 with MGs’ guitarist Steve Cropper and the [...]
Today is the 18th month anniversary date since the launch of this blog and equally the 18th month anniversary of our daily song feature, Songs To Learn and Sing. It is time therefore for our 6 monthly readers’ chart. This follows the 6 and 12 month charts. As of yesterday there have been 463 songs [...]
As Bobby mentioned with his choice of song yesterday, I spent the weekend in the Cotswolds with him, Ray, George and Dagenham Trash: a reunion with friends that I have known for most of my life. And the fact I have known them that long makes me feel very old. Back half a lifetime ago, [...]
This weeks Hero of the Week, is the President of the USA himself, Barack Obama. Barack Obama is in the middle of the most intense and important election he will ever face. Within the next few months he will either be re-elected as President, or he will be rejected from the office into which he [...]
For the Second Week in a row, the Allthatsleft Prat of the Week, step forward the Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron It wasn’t so long ago that we on these pages (and me in particular) considered David Cameron to be an evil political genius and by some way the most impressive political leader around. That [...]
Our award for the greatest villain of the last week goes to the Republican presidential hopeful, Willard Mitt Romney. Our award this week goes to the Republican’s presumptive nominee for US president for a combination of bigotry and political cynicism. His graduation speech delivered yesterday to students of the evangelical Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia [...]
I’m just back from the annual Allthatsleft weekend away. A highly productive couple of days with some very interesting discussion groups on a range of subjects: the future role of the USA in a changing world; the politics of Obama’s gay marriage announcement; education policy; what next for the Liberal Democrats; political blog moderation policies; the [...]
It’s been hard work keeping up with all the elections over the weekend: London, France, Greece (the latter now updated with charts and map). So apologies for taking time to get around to the non-London local elections in the UK. The scope of the elections in England this time was not as broad as in [...]
Amazingly. Indeed, inexplicably we are yet to feature Dusty Springfield in our catalogue of wonderfulness. How has that happened! 461 songs have made it onto our pages before one of Dusty’s – we should be thoroughly ashamed! Perhaps it’s because she didn’t write her own stuff, but nor did Aretha Franklin or Elvis for that [...]
Yes, alright, I know everyone’s doing them – but, here’s mine, based upon the type of stuff I’ve been banging on about since I started writing on these hallowed pages. It is a programme based upon my, admittedly and unashamedly liberal belief in a society that cares for everyone and seeks to nurture everyone’s individual [...]
David Cameron was supposed to be a different kind of Tory. One who had learnt the lessons of three election defeats. One who knew that Theresa May’s description of the party as the ‘nasty party’ resonated because it was fundamentally true. He wanted to position himself as the ‘heir to Blair’ and paint Gordon Brown [...]
Yesterday’s embarrassing Basildon Tractor Factory Rose Garden 2 Coalition re-launch had two revealing particularly revealing moments: one from each of the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. I’ll write about David Cameron’s moment in a further post, as I want to concentrate first on Nick Clegg. Here is what Nick Clegg said in an attempt [...]
Sunday’s joy at the election of Francois Hollande is tempered with the knowledge that the results of the election in Greece are likely to have a far more immediate and profound effect than those in France. I wrote last week that the polls pointed to a potentially seismic election result, as the voters were likely [...]
The French people have elected a new President who stood on an expressly anti-austerity platform. The Greek elections saw the two mainstream pro-austerity parties (New Democracy and PASOK) reduced from 79% of the vote between them last time (itself a record low in the post restoration of democracy era) to a pitiful 32% of the [...]
Congratulations, France. The result might have been tighter than the polls suggested, but Francois Hollande‘s victory yesterday gives new hope to the left in Europe. The writing was clearly on the wall when George Osborne spun on the Andrew Marr show yesterday that Hollande was in favour of austerity, and drew a distinction between this [...]
This week our award for the political hero of the last seven days goes to the Leader of the Official Opposition, the Rt Hon. Ed Miliband MP This award may feel a little obvious but that doesn’t mean it’s undeserved. There is no getting away from the fact that Ed Miliband and the Labour Party [...]
This week, our award for the biggest prat of the last seven days goes to the Prime Minister. Again. When we started this blog and our hero/villain/prat awards, we anticipated that a shrewd David Cameron would probably feature fairly regularly as villain (three to date) but not often as prat. How wrong we were: this [...]
This weeks award for Villainy, goes to the Tory Right Wing, and in particular MPs Jackson, Mensch, Coffey and Bone – The Fetid Four! Ok, we don’t like the Tories on these pages – their ideology and principles are not ours, however, like everyone else, we listened to Opposition Leader Davey Cam tell us about [...]
The death of Adam Yauch, aka MCA of the Beastie Boys, on Friday has prompted me to post this song. Like most of my generation, we were introduced to the Beastie Boys through (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party), which even as a 17 year-old seemed a little juvenile (as George has previously [...]
There are a lot of elections to digest this weekend: not only the London elections and the local government elections in Scotland, Wales and a number of English authorities, but also the French, Greek and Serbian elections being held today. But first, London. The one ray of sunshine for Cameron on a dismal night for the [...]
Robert Nesta Marley is one of the most influential musicians who has ever lived. His music is familiar the world over and has become, in the period since his death in 1981, at the age of 36 a kind of lazy easy listening representation of Jamaica and sunnier climes. His posthumous greatest hits album Legend, [...]
Well I guess this is sort of for Ed Miliband. Labour clearly had a good night in the local elections even out performing the Conservatives’ expectation management spin predictions. And I don’t take huge satisfaction from seeing so many Lib Dem councillors lose their seats but surely they expected nothing else given the nature of [...]
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