OK, I'm going to finish this off. It inevitably ended up being less fun and less enlightening than I'd hoped - turns out my range of interests is pretty narrow. So, on that note, let's finish with a few obvious ones.
BILL WITHERS
Bill Withers - I love Bill Withers because he just dabbled with it. He had a life before and then a life after, and seems perfectly happy with that. I read a lovely interview with him where he said he was sitting in a diner and one of his songs was on and some women were talking about it and how much they liked his music, and he said "excuse me, madam, this was me" and she said "you're not Bill Withers, he was much darker than you" ... anyway, Bill's my way to also mention Kevin Rowland, who just seems almost too obvious - "Bill Withers was good for me, pretend I'm Bill and lean on me ..."
MIGUEL COTTO
Just love Cotto, that's all. This is my poem about him
TAKING A KNEE
The night Miguel retreated, sunk down to his knee,
His face a sorry shocked defeat of bloodied shame
He lost his prime belief – his own invincibility -
A truthless game of swollen tongues and stolen belts
Is not for heroes; pride and preening manliness
Fail the eyes – the eyes will see just what they need,
They’ll dwell on foul false idols, flaunting warrior deceits.
Pa’lante, Miguel Cotto, for the final time, pa’lante,
There were no better men than you
At this blighted playground con
We’re wrong to love and wrong to judge.
Pa’lante, Miguel Cotto, you’re free to go,
A better man than every man who beat you.
Miguel Cotto took a knee to reconfigure dignity,
An unwitting protest against the way
Brute force lost all humanity.
EMMYLOU HARRIS
Just for being everywhere, throughout so many great records, someone who added the colour to so many great songwriters and wrote songs as great as them herself.
DONALD CROWHURST
The story that defines us all, gradually going mad at sea while pretending everything is completely fine and we're winning.
STEPHEN K BUSH
There's no truth and no making sense of this politics anymore, except this guy makes a little bit of sense of it every day, which is a huge relief.
RYAN GIGGS
What's Giggs here for then, as Number 101? So obvious, hardly the point. But Giggs is here as the reminder, if you follow or are interested in a famous person, never to assign to them qualities they don't possess. Giggs became my favourite footballer in the mid 90s, I followed his career closely even though I wasn't a Man Utd fan. I wasn't that interested in him as a person, he seemed a bit of a blank rogue, but gradually, as his career pushed on, they tried to make him a bit of an icon of normality and steadfast values. Should never have bought it. Didn't really, but ever so slightly. Giggs is still my favourite footballer, as it happens, but don't ever think the people you follow are better in real life than they seem, they'll nearly always be worse. That's my cheery final message.
I can see you were struggling with this at the end, to find the fun, but it does all add up to a worthwhile portrait of you. I wonder if the difficulty is that talking about people, most of whom are still alive, is generally a weird thing to do. Much easier to talk about a thing they have done, which you certainly do very well - but the point of these posts seems to have been as much about these people as a whole and not just a single work.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I appreciate the insights and the introduction to worthy individuals I have never heard of before. There is no such thing as too obvious!
Thanks, yes, I think that's it really, it is a bit weird. And i think i thought there should be more variety, but really, why should there be?
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