A walk by the sea

and then it’s coffee time.

]]> http://www.donaldonohoe.com/blog/sandycove/188/feed 2 http://www.donaldonohoe.com/blog/culture-in-the-digital-age/171 http://www.donaldonohoe.com/blog/culture-in-the-digital-age/171#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 23:02:02 +0000 Dónal http://www.donaldonohoe.com/?p=171 At a time when the sale of CDs has been falling for many years in a row and where the sale of music downloads has failed to halt the decline in overall music sales it is interesting to note the increase in revenue from the sale of video games. The digital age and the internet has opened up unlimited possibilities for discovering new art, books, music, films etc and unlike in previous times when certain books or vinyl records were difficult to get hold of, now it is almost possible to source anything by searching on the internet. So has the new technology meant that unknown artists are managing to get greater exposure for their art and reap the economic dividends of such exposure? Apparently not, as the figures show the biggest seller this year is a video war game where people can act like big boys with guns and virtually blow the ‘bad guys’ away as they pop up on their screens throughout the game. One might have thought that watching the evening news would fill anyone’s life with enough bloodshed, killing, war and destruction that they would want to devote their leisure time to the pursuit of some more peaceful activities, virtual or otherwise. But it seems that at this point in the time the masses would prefer to play Cowboys and Indians on their little boxes or play air guitar on one of the interactive music games and pretend they are playing music.
Throughout history new inventions and discoveries have been put to both good and bad use, the splitting of the atom led to nuclear bombs being dropped on two cities, whereas other new developments have led to people’s lives being saved, improved or enriched by the manner in which they were applied. Looking back through history certain periods stand out as cultural high points, whether in early Greece, the renaissance in Europe in the middle ages or the 1960’s in the twentieth century when peace and love was going to change the world and make it a better place to live in. Of course the world didn’t change, but for a while people dreamed that they could change it, how many people dream that now? When future generations look back at this period in which we are now living, where karaoke machines have replaced musicians in many small venues and where educated people spend hours and hours playing war games, will they describe it as a time of cultural enlightenment

Some days there was so much ice on the road up the hill that it was impossible to drive up or down it and today there was so much snow that trying to make it to the nearest town for supplies was out of the question. The weather forcast is for the cold spell to continue so making it to town tomorrow might not be possible either and if this episode is to be repeated regularly every winter whether as a result of climate change or not then I may need to store up extra supplies of food and fuel every autumn from now on to be prepared for such eventualities. But a thaw will come and after that so will the first signs of spring, perhaps then it will be time for all of those memories, so many of them happy ones to return.

It has been stated by many and this was confirmed by the person who is top judge on both of these shows that if Bob Dylan were to participate in the contest he would be voted off immiediatly by these judges, presumably for his lack of star quality. So we are led to believe by these people who control much of the music we hear on mainstream radio and TV that what the world needs to hear is not an artist who writes original and often thought provoking songs but manufactured pop stars, whose image and musical output they control, singing cover numbers that are rarely anything near as good as the originals. But then I would say all that wouldn’t I, being as I am naturally suspicious of musical talent shows where a musical insturment is never to be seen.

Leonard Cohen, O2 Dublin, July 2009 © Irene Lundgaard

He danced on to the stage sang, played and entertained for almost three hours, then danced off in to the night. Yes they were all there, Suzanne, So Long Marianne, Bird On The Wire, Who By Fire, Dance Me To The End Of Love, Hallelujah, I’m Your Man, the list goes on and it is impressive that one man could write so many great songs. Having spent so many years on the periphery of the music business and having been written off as irrelevant, unable to sing, Leonard Cohen is the finest lyricist that I have ever heard and it is surely some form of poetic justice that he is at last receiving some recognition for his work while he is still in this world. The concert at the O2 in Dublin was not the first time I had heard Leonard Cohen perform live and I hope that it will not be the last.

Situated where the river Lagan enters Belfast Lough the city sits snugly between Cave Hill and Black Mountain to the north and the Mourne foothills to the south, making it feel more compact than Dublin. The two giant Harland & Wolff cranes which can be seen from most places in the city bear witness to it’s ship-building past and the dry dock where the Titanic was built is now a museum. The city centre lies in the area surrounding Belfast City Hall, where many of the streets are pedestrian and most tourist attractions are within easy walking distance of each other. The Belfast accent is strong, flat and very infectious, the people are friendly and helpful as I found out when at one stage I was looking at my map not far from the Europa Hotel trying to locate the Linenhall Library and out of the blue a man stopped and asked if he could help me, something that would rarely if ever happen in a city like Paris or New York.

It was nice to spend a few days in Belfast, wandering around at a leisurely pace checking out whatever caught one’s fancy or sitting in the sunshine on Arthur Street drinking coffee at the oldest cafe in the city. All too soon it was time to head back south again, but no doubt I’ll be back to Belfast.

For the second year in a row it has rained for almost the entire month of August, the downpours were monsoon-like in their intensity, causing mud-slides and severe flooding in many areas. But for the past week there have been clear blue skies and sunshine with temperatures in the low twenties, which is not bad for September. The farmers who had been facing the possibility of losing most of their crops due to the inclement weather, are out in force with their combine harvesters, tractors and trailers making use of every hour of sunshine, sometimes working late into the night. On such days the countryside is a hive of activity, with the harvesting of each field adding to the ever changing tapestry of the landscape. Perhaps these wet summers are the first signs of the effect climate change is having on this part of the world, or else it could just be a part of the long-term cycle of weather patterns that have been going on down through the ages. But if next year brings another monsoon season with record amounts of rain falling instead of a summer, then I will have my doubts.

The first time I heard John Martyn I was eighteen years old, I had been playing the guitar from the age of ten and had been greatly influenced by Bert Jansch and Davy Graham. One day a friend of mine told me he had a record that I had to hear, he said it was kind of like Bert Jansch but a bit different. He then proceeded to play ‘Solid Air’ on the turntable and as I listened I was blown away, I already knew Danny Thompson but the guitar playing and singing sounded fresh, funky and like nothing I had ever heard before, still to this day ‘Solid Air’ is one of my favourite albums of all time. About a year later I got to hear John Martyn playing live in Liberty Hall in Dublin and was again deeply moved and uplifted by his music.

Over the years I have heard him play live on many occasions both solo and with his band and have collected his albums from the early releases ‘Bless The Weather’, ‘Sunday’s Child’ through his middle period ‘One World’, ‘Grace And Danger’ to name but a few, right up to the last release before he passed away ‘On The Cobbles’, in many ways his music has been like a soundtrack to my life. I got to meet the man himself once after a concert in Copenhagen, a friend of mine the guitarist Sam Mitchell who knew him from the old days in London and who has sadly since passed on was playing at a blues club nearby and John Martyn came by after his own show. They say that you should never meet your heroes but I’m not so sure, Sammy introduced him saying “I’d like you to meet Donal Donohoe”, John Martyn repeated my name in his rich Scottish accent, then threw his arms around me and gave me a big hug, after which we all withdrew to a back room set aside for the musicians for some refreshments. I got to talk to him and told him how much I had enjoyed his show he said he thought it had “started out well, had slackened just a little in the middle but at the end there was some real stuff happening”. After talking for a while John borrowed Sammy’s Fender Stratocaster and Echoplex tape machine then went out and played a great version of the Skip James song ‘I’d Rather Be The Devil’, much to the surprise and great delight of all those present. I later found out that people who were living nearby had called the police complaining that they had never heard music being played so loud at that club before.

Time went by, I had returned to live in Ireland and though I had managed to catch a gig he did in Dublin, I lost touch for a period, mostly due to circumstances in my own life at the time. When I heard the news that he had to have part of his right leg amputated I was saddened and resolved to make it to his next gig. As it turned out that was a small midsummer festival in the grounds of Kinnity Castle in the very centre of Ireland. Although it was not last time I heard John play live, it is the one that stands out most in those final years, for as I saw him being helped on to the stage, being handed a guitar as he sat there alone, he had no band with him, memories of seeing him play that first time in Liberty Hall all those years ago came flooding back. He launched straight into ‘Jelly Roll Maker’, his acoustic guitar playing was masterful, rhythmical and powerful, having lost none of the energy or magic of those early years. The songs came one after the other ‘Don’t Want To Know’, ‘My Creator’, ‘May You Never’, ‘Sweet Little Mystery’ and on more than one occasion I noticed, but was not surprised that the hairs on my arms were standing to attention. I stood there among the crowd in the dark on that midsummer’s night listening to his music, it sounded so beautiful, so unlike anything or anyone else and knew once again that as musicians go John Martyn was one of a kind.