On 10th October 2010 the world lost yet another legend when Solomon Burke was discovered dead by shocked air stewards on a flight from Los Angeles to Amsterdam. He had been on route to play a sold-out show and is reported to have died from natural causes.
When debating the greatest soul singers in history, Solomon Burke is often overshadowed by the fame of artists such as Otis Redding, James Brown and Aretha Franklin. Whilst the aforementioned are all undeniable contenders for the soul throne, it is Burke’s understated genius that in my view made his music all the more intensely powerful on a personal level. The singer himself once said, ‘If the message is meaningful in the beginning, it will reach across the waters and come back across time. If only one person is reached and touched by my songs, then the message through me is being heard, received and believed’.
Burke, who never relied on a set list during live performances, preferring instead to respond to requests and vibes from his fans, often described the thrill of sharing his music as a deeply spiritual experience. Philadelphia born Solomon explosively broke onto the music scene back in 1961 when his gospel roots led him to experiment with soul and blues. He was in fact creating a genre of his own when rock’n’roll had only just begun to erode the mainstream.
Burke reigned the 60s with velvety yet emotionally raw hymns to the soul that included ‘Everybody Needs Somebody To Love’, famously covered by The Rolling Stones, and ‘Cry To Me’. The latter is well-known for featuring in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing (it plays during the sex scene in Patrick Swayze’s bedroom, naturally). Having racked up seventeen million record sales worldwide, Burke was awarded a place in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2001 and later went on to win a Grammy award in 2002 which helped re-introduce his music to our generation.
Having taken the meaning of ‘go forth and multiply’ a little too literally, 70 year old Solomon leaves behind a family of twenty one children, ninety grandchildren and nineteen great-grandchildren. His legacy has had an astounding influence upon songwriters throughout the decades so if you’ve never given the big guy with an even bigger voice a chance, do yourself a favour and look him up. At the very least, watch that Dirty Dancing scene.
'Cry To Me' plays in Dirty Dancing with Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Saturday, 23 October 2010
The Catcher in the Rye: Questioning the Notion of 'Cool'
"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it." As is Holden Caulfield’s theory on what makes a successful novel and The Catcher in the Rye by the late J D Salinger seems to fit it perfectly. Shrouded in both controversy and admiration, many teenagers will see themselves reflected in Holden, his disenchanted young protagonist.
Failing at school whilst struggling with the journey from childhood to maturity, the turmoils of youth are brilliantly portrayed through Holden’s experiences whilst Salinger’s effortless style and unapologetic humour are easy to relate to, inspiring young people to discover more about their individuality. Following his exploits in New York and psychologically affected by the death of his younger brother Allie, Holden reveals that he longs to become ‘the catcher in the rye’, preventing children from falling off ‘some crazy cliff’. His poignant desperation to protect innocence will strike a chord with anyone who has ever felt disillusioned with life.
Far from a comforting read, Salinger’s novel provides a disturbingly enlightening portrayal of an individual in conflict with the ‘phony’ world of adulthood from which he feels alienated. Readers will find themselves questioning society as Holden does, in a time when we are very much victims of modern culture, technology and all that is considered ‘cool’.
Link to Palatinate: http://www.palatinate.org.uk/indigo/books/palatinate-book-club-the-catcher-in-the-rye/
Failing at school whilst struggling with the journey from childhood to maturity, the turmoils of youth are brilliantly portrayed through Holden’s experiences whilst Salinger’s effortless style and unapologetic humour are easy to relate to, inspiring young people to discover more about their individuality. Following his exploits in New York and psychologically affected by the death of his younger brother Allie, Holden reveals that he longs to become ‘the catcher in the rye’, preventing children from falling off ‘some crazy cliff’. His poignant desperation to protect innocence will strike a chord with anyone who has ever felt disillusioned with life.
Far from a comforting read, Salinger’s novel provides a disturbingly enlightening portrayal of an individual in conflict with the ‘phony’ world of adulthood from which he feels alienated. Readers will find themselves questioning society as Holden does, in a time when we are very much victims of modern culture, technology and all that is considered ‘cool’.
Link to Palatinate: http://www.palatinate.org.uk/indigo/books/palatinate-book-club-the-catcher-in-the-rye/
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Fun, Fantasy and Fireworks at Bestival 2010
Splashing its colourful craziness all over the Isle of Wight, September’s Bestival sent the festival season out in a blaze of fancy dress glory. The usually peaceful island became a mind-popping candy shop of musical goodies as 50,000 happy campers piled onto ferries to begin their escape from reality.
The first day of the weekend extravaganza saw Example and Delphic transform the masses into high on blue smarties kids, whilst Californian songstress Lissie sparkled with that unmistakable ‘let’s skip through cornfields with flowers in our hair’ vibe. Meanwhile, over in the Big Top, an expectant crowd burst the tent’s seams to hear what Mercury Prize winners The xx had to offer. Later that night Dizzee ‘Dance Wiv Me’ Rascal drove his hyperactive audience bonkers for his energetic set, the highlight being his own dirtee version of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
Saturday’s fancy dress parade (for which the theme was ‘fantasy’) sadly suffered from a typical English downpour yet many loyal fans still gathered to support Oxford quartet Stornoway. Fortunately reggae band The Wailers (of Bob Marley fame) soon cast their Caribbean spell and the sun magically shone to the tune of ‘Three Little Birds’, whilst The Correspondents whirled up a fantastically eccentric storm with their electro-swing remix of The Jungle Book’s ‘I Wanna Be Like You’. Brilliantly extroverted with the use of an on-stage trampoline and treadmill, they pulled some outrageous shapes as their oh-so-Soho style enthralled the crowd.
Fiesty little Ellie Goulding surprised everyone yet again with her powerful vocals as she refused to let herself be lost on the main stage. However, the crowd seemed reluctant to show as much enthusiasm for her set as they had done at Newcastle’s Evolution back in May, perhaps due to the rife and rather impatient anticipation for Radio One’s Festival Band of the Year, Mumford and Sons. The bass and banjo yielding foursome drove the crowd to a palpably high level of triumphant folk-induced ecstasy, satisfying their audience’s ravenous musical appetite with all the rousing hits from ‘Sigh No More’. Stunning new song 'Lover of the Light’, previously tried and tested at their Newcastle Union gig back in March, was well received amongst a set that could easily have been mistaken for a greatest hits album. Dressed as a musketeer, Marcus, an infectious post- ‘Little Lion Man’ grin on his face, yelled ‘I’ve never seen so many superheroes singing ‘fuck’ at the same time!’ to a great many face-painted cheers. If these lovely London lads aren’t headlining soon then I’ll stick my head down a festival portaloo.....maybe.
As the evening drew in the hotly tipped Roxy Music made the error of saving all the classics until the end of their set and dapper frontman Bryan Ferry instantly gained bore points for wearing a suit. Luckily Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips showed them how it’s done with glitter explosions and strobe lighting as he crowd-surfed in a giant zorbing ball to the psychedelic beat of his band.
Sunday saw French hip-hoppers Wax Tailor throw some European flair into the line-up and a variety of previously unknown performers promote themselves in the environmentally-friendly Tomorrow’s World. Following a DJ set from Bestival creator and Radio One legend Rob da Bank, Chase and Status ignited the main stage coals for closing headliners and original rave kings The Prodigy. Even the most tired and hung-over of the latter’s 'Voodoo People' were worked into a frenzy with riotous anthems ‘Firestarter’ and ‘Omen’. As the fantasy castle bonfire was lit and fireworks exploded across the sky, it was clear that this was one party nobody ever wanted to end.
Link to Palatinate: http://www.palatinate.org.uk/indigo/music/bestival-2010/
The first day of the weekend extravaganza saw Example and Delphic transform the masses into high on blue smarties kids, whilst Californian songstress Lissie sparkled with that unmistakable ‘let’s skip through cornfields with flowers in our hair’ vibe. Meanwhile, over in the Big Top, an expectant crowd burst the tent’s seams to hear what Mercury Prize winners The xx had to offer. Later that night Dizzee ‘Dance Wiv Me’ Rascal drove his hyperactive audience bonkers for his energetic set, the highlight being his own dirtee version of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
Saturday’s fancy dress parade (for which the theme was ‘fantasy’) sadly suffered from a typical English downpour yet many loyal fans still gathered to support Oxford quartet Stornoway. Fortunately reggae band The Wailers (of Bob Marley fame) soon cast their Caribbean spell and the sun magically shone to the tune of ‘Three Little Birds’, whilst The Correspondents whirled up a fantastically eccentric storm with their electro-swing remix of The Jungle Book’s ‘I Wanna Be Like You’. Brilliantly extroverted with the use of an on-stage trampoline and treadmill, they pulled some outrageous shapes as their oh-so-Soho style enthralled the crowd.
Fiesty little Ellie Goulding surprised everyone yet again with her powerful vocals as she refused to let herself be lost on the main stage. However, the crowd seemed reluctant to show as much enthusiasm for her set as they had done at Newcastle’s Evolution back in May, perhaps due to the rife and rather impatient anticipation for Radio One’s Festival Band of the Year, Mumford and Sons. The bass and banjo yielding foursome drove the crowd to a palpably high level of triumphant folk-induced ecstasy, satisfying their audience’s ravenous musical appetite with all the rousing hits from ‘Sigh No More’. Stunning new song 'Lover of the Light’, previously tried and tested at their Newcastle Union gig back in March, was well received amongst a set that could easily have been mistaken for a greatest hits album. Dressed as a musketeer, Marcus, an infectious post- ‘Little Lion Man’ grin on his face, yelled ‘I’ve never seen so many superheroes singing ‘fuck’ at the same time!’ to a great many face-painted cheers. If these lovely London lads aren’t headlining soon then I’ll stick my head down a festival portaloo.....maybe.
As the evening drew in the hotly tipped Roxy Music made the error of saving all the classics until the end of their set and dapper frontman Bryan Ferry instantly gained bore points for wearing a suit. Luckily Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips showed them how it’s done with glitter explosions and strobe lighting as he crowd-surfed in a giant zorbing ball to the psychedelic beat of his band.
Sunday saw French hip-hoppers Wax Tailor throw some European flair into the line-up and a variety of previously unknown performers promote themselves in the environmentally-friendly Tomorrow’s World. Following a DJ set from Bestival creator and Radio One legend Rob da Bank, Chase and Status ignited the main stage coals for closing headliners and original rave kings The Prodigy. Even the most tired and hung-over of the latter’s 'Voodoo People' were worked into a frenzy with riotous anthems ‘Firestarter’ and ‘Omen’. As the fantasy castle bonfire was lit and fireworks exploded across the sky, it was clear that this was one party nobody ever wanted to end.
Link to Palatinate: http://www.palatinate.org.uk/indigo/music/bestival-2010/
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