I feel like the time is right, to add one more ‘reply’ in this series. I’m quite happy for anyone to add anything to it (within ‘the rules’, naturally) at any time – only that might stimulate me into further comment under my thread here. This last original entry has two sources of inspiration, the thread itself and the comments I recently added to the LAY ME DOWN thread, originated by Stephanie and particularly, Stella’s comments therein:
www.steveharley.com/forum/6-general-disc...me-down.html?start=6
Harley said (in 2015), something to the effect that he might be out of work (purely as a guitarist – he considers himself ‘an average rhythm guitarist’) were he not, the leader of his band. For years, Ferry described himself as a ‘non musician’. They are each (in my view) very good harmonica players, which is another parallel.
I’ve spent about half of my career to date, in professional life (mainly quantity surveying and quasi-legal procedure). The other half, to date, has been made up of a collection of other, sometimes random, jobs and there have been a couple of times of recession, when it’s been harder to make a living. Whenever I’ve ‘hit’ one of the difficult periods (particularly since Sasha bought me the Yamaha keyboard c. 2006 – there was a period post the 2008 global financial meltdown and one could argue 2023 - although I’m now old enough for it to matter a bit less to me, at least), I’ve turned to music, to ‘balance out’, the less cerebral ways, I was making a living. This sounds a bit like the ‘punk philosophy’. For anyone, to ‘find their voice’.
When I ‘hit’ my fifties, was one such time and there was the added element of a minor mid-life crisis! I began working (physically) with other Europeans (mainly Poles as well as English, Hungarians and a couple of Germans) in a women’s clothes distributor and we’d often talk about popular music during breaks (or trips to and from home).
Totally unconnected with my next words – I doubt if it wasn’t for Ferry (the elder) and Harley (the slightly younger) – I’d have ever tried to play keys. As I stated under the LAY ME DOWN thread, I was never destined and I’m quite content with that (honestly).
As my tribute to Harley and Ferry, I want to leave an arrangement of written chords (no top line melody) from which I made a ballad type backing track of about tempo 70bpm (quite slow) but when I was looking at more unusual chords. I put these together, less than three months before my own Dad died and I can empathise with Steve about his, more recent loss, in that sense.
Steve could tell me whether these make any musical sense or not – though he doesn’t need to, of course, but he would be welcome to ‘play around’ with them, or some of them, should he so wish. After that list of chords, (in 2020, during lockdown), I put a bit of verse together, inspired by Harley, by Ferry (The Psychomodo, Harley, 1974 and In Your Mind, Ferry, et al, 1977) and also a small part of my current science studies. Stay well, stay your way, and all the best, Jem H (aka ’75):
The chord arrangement (H, J, 2012):
D7 sus4 - D7 - D7sus4 - D7
F7 - A7 - C7 - D7
D7 sus4 - D7 - G - F
G7 (9)
D7 sus4 - D7 - D7sus4 - D7
F - F6 - Dm - D7
D7 - D7sus4 - D7 - D7sus4
D7
THE PSYCHO-MODUS (H, J, 2020, edits, 2023 and final, 2024):
The developmental, the interpersonal,
Friends, colleagues, lovers, family.
The good,
The bad,
The not me.
Civilisation and its discontents,
Attachment to each,
Interpersonal psychiatry.
Oh Freud, Oh Sullivan, Oh Ainsworth,
Were you all, right?
The good,
The bad,
The not me.
Clinical, educational,
Applied, forensic,
Neuro, occupational,
This is DE100,
Psychology.
The Future Time Perspective,
Is no reason to rush a headstone,
Nor carve a cornerstone,
Wow, this module has flown.
It’s the ‘right-stuff’ that counts,
The ‘left field’ that stimulates,
The left and right hemispheres,
And everything in between.
This is the neuro authority,
It speaks to us all,
How to behave and survive.
Shaping every personality,
Holistic, human,
and in other minds.
www.steveharley.com/forum/7-welcome-mat/...kney-rebel-1973.html
Very final edit plus three - last two lines of a verse changed. Other minor edits, spacing/phrasing.
it was great meeting her, in 1996), Gabrielle, Little Simz, Anne-Marie, Jess Glynne, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Miley Cyrus, Zara Larsson, Sigrid, Katy Perry, Florence Welch, Jessie Buckley, Georgia, Lone Lady, Aimee Mann, Kate Bush (always present, veteran though she is), et al.