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My Pop Life #270 : Love and Mercy - Brian Wilson

I was sittin’ in a crummy movie with my hands on my chin, all the violence that occurs seem like we never win Wednesday June 11th 2025. 13.30pm Eastern Standard Time. I am devastated to receive a message from Neil Hayward, landlord of the Robin Hood pub in Brighton for me that Brian Wilson has died. He wrote : RIP Brain Wilson. Genius. He unknowingly gave me some of my happiest memories of…

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My Pop Life #268 : Jerusalema ft. Nomcebo Zikode - Master KG

Jerusalema ikhaya lamiNgilondolozeUhambe namiZungangishiyi lana Five years ago we were wearing masks, gloves, disinfecting shopping and staying in. The covid 19 pandemic seems like another lifetime, one so completely different from now or before, scary and yet without pressure, we watched films all day and wandered the empty streets taking photos. Gaza was not a daily horrorshow and we felt that…

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My Pop Life #268 - Silver Star - Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

I’m laying it on the line, honey…. Spring 2025 – we have to move out, she’s gonna put the rent up again, it’s already too high, neither of us worked in 2024 (well OK I did a zombie movie in the UK in August, but neither of us worked in the USA) and our savings are dropping falling shrinking. We have a place lined up but it falls through and we’ve already given our notice and a move out date.…

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My Pop Life #58 : St Elmo's Fire - Brian Eno

My Pop Life #58

St. Elmo’s Fire   –   Brian Eno Brown eyes and I were tiredWe had walked and we had scrambledThrough the moors and through the briarsThrough the endless blue meanders.In the blue august moon In the autumn of 1975 I had a crisis – my girlfriend had left me and meant it, I had left home and gone to live in the nurses’ quarters of Laughton Lodge Hospital, and I walked out of my Cambridge Entrance…

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My Pop Life #267 : Like A Rolling Stone - Spirit

My Pop Life #267 : Like A Rolling Stone – Spirit

my favourite picture is this : Vista by Andrew McAttee What should I have said to Patsy Pollock back then when I read for In The Name Of The Father? Who are you Ralph? We’ve seen all these characters and roles you’ve done, but who are you? I could’ve said “I don’t know“. After all, I didn’t. Still don’t really…who does? I should’ve told them I had a law degree, because the character I was…

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My Pop Life #267 : Legend Of A Mind - The Moody Blues

My Pop Life #267 : Legend Of A Mind – The Moody Blues

Legend Of A Mind – The Moody Blues He’ll take you up, he’ll bring you downHe’ll plant your feet back firmly on the groundHe flies so high, he swoops so lowHe knows exactly which way he’s gonna goTimothy Leary * The script dialogue was very precise. “You’re looking very beautiful today, man” it said as an opening line. “Have you been away?“ I was learning it for the audition in a couple of…

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My Pop Life #266 : All In Love Is Fair - Stevie Wonder

My Pop Life #266 : All In Love Is Fair – Stevie Wonder

All of fate’s a chanceIt’s either good or badI tossed my coin to sayIn love with me you’d stayBut all in war is so coldYou either win or loseWhen all is put awayThe losing side I’ll play I remember being overjoyed to start the sixth form in Lewes Priory. The Lower Sixth was a year of no real exams – mock A-Levels in the summer – English, Geography, Economics and then there were so many free…

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My Pop Life #265 : Jacky - Marc Almond

My Pop Life #265 : Jacky – Marc Almond

Jacky – Marc Almond And if one day I should becomeA singer with a Spanish bumWho sings for women of great virtueI’d sing to them with a guitarI borrowed from a coffee barWell, what you don’t know doesn’t hurt youMy name would be AntonioAnd all my bridges I would burnAnd when I gave them some they’d knowI’d expect something in returnI’d have to get drunk every nightAnd talk about virilityWith…

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My Pop Life #264 : Native New Yorker - Odyssey

My Pop Life #264 : Native New Yorker – Odyssey

Native New Yorker – Odyssey New York girl, ooh, ooh, oohRunnin’ pretty, New York City girl25, 35, hello, babyNew York City girl….You grew up ridin’ the subways, running with peopleUp in Harlem, down on BroadwayYou’re no tramp but you’re no ladyTalkin’ that street talkYou’re the heart and soul of New York City That’s Meisha I’m talmbout there, my Meisha Brown, my cousin, my angel, my gigbuddy,…

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My Pop Life #263 : Jesamine - The Casuals

My Pop Life #263 : Jesamine – The Casuals

Jesamine – The Casuals What am I supposed to do with a girl like Jesamine? * One of a clutch of Mum’s Sacred Singles, almost all from 1968, which have lodged ever since in my cortex and achieved mythical status as soundtracks to a country childhood with a single parent. Perhaps the poppiest of the clutch with an undeniable Beatlesque appearance, a gentle ballad with vocal harmonies,…

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My Pop Life #262 : America - West Side Story Cast (1961)

My Pop Life #262 : America – West Side Story Cast (1961)

America – West Side Story Cast (1961) Puerto RicoMy heart’s devotionLet it sink back in the oceanAlways the hurricanes blowingAlways the population growingAnd the money owingAnd the sunlight streamingAnd the natives steamingI like the island Manhattan (I know you do!)Smoke on your pipeAnd put that in! Stephen Sondheim passed away 5 days ago and the nation went into mourning. The gay jewish bit…

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My Pop Life #260 : Titanium - David Guetta ft. Sia

My Pop Life #260 : Titanium – David Guetta ft. Sia

Titanium – David Guetta ft. Sia You shoot me down but I won’t fall, I am titanium Friday morning September 2nd 2021. First thing I remember was waking up on a stretcher being wheeled into an ambulance outside my house in Brooklyn. I’m looking up at the front door and there is Jenny watching me and I make a face known only to us, a private comedy face which essentially means: “oh well“. Then the…

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My Pop Life #260 : Pa'lante - Hurray For The Riff Raff

My Pop Life #260 : Pa’lante – Hurray For The Riff Raff

Pa’lante – Hurray For The Riff Raff From el barrio to Arecibo, ¡Pa’lante!From Marble Hill to the ghost of Emmett Till, ¡Pa’lante! * Let me tell you a secret. Put it in your heart you can keep it. Jenny and I are proper sport nerds. We love to sit on the sofa with two cats watching some gladiatorial contest of skill and determination and fitness on the television. We like to go and see things…

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My Pop Life #258 : A Change Is Gonna Come - Otis Redding

My Pop Life #258 : A Change Is Gonna Come – Otis Redding

A Change Is Gonna Come – Otis Redding There was a time I would go to my brotherI asked my brother, “Will you help me please?”He turned me down and then I ask my dear mother, (my dear mother)I said “Mother!”I said “Mother! I’m down on my knees” * This is about the soul man * I was 20 years old when I first heard this song. I was a student of law, an enthusiast of musical discovery. Branching…

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My Pop Life #257 : Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet - Gavin Bryars

My Pop Life #257 : Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet – Gavin Bryars

Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet – Gavin Bryars * Jesus’ blood never failed me yet, never failed me yet Jesus’ blood never failed me yet this one fing I know for he loves me so Hypnotic. Elegaic. Melancholic. Stirring. Completely original. One of my favourite pieces of music, it brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it, and as I get older (losing my hair, many years from now – actually a…

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My Pop Life #256 : Bird On A Wire - Leonard Cohen

My Pop Life #256 : Bird On A Wire – Leonard Cohen

Bird On A Wire – Leonard Cohen This post relates to the previous post My Pop Life #255 Mother * A few weeks after I’d posted that letter I received a postcard from Mum. I can’t remember what was on the cover, but I’ve still got it, somewhere, in storage. On the back of it she’d written Dear Ralph, Listen to Bird On A Wire by Leonard Cohen love Mum So I did. I didn’t know the song because…

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My Pop Life #255 : Mother - John Lennon

My Pop Life #255 : Mother – John Lennon

Mother – John Lennon Mother, you had me, but I never had you * Mum This blog entry is composed exclusively of a letter I wrote to my mum in February 2009. I present it here without comment. That will come later. Dear Mum, Enclosed is my letter in reply to your recent request : why have I not been in contact. It has occurred to me that I have protected you from my feelings, my true feelings,…