on matala memory lane
I am stepping in the toes of Joni Mitchell‘s Matala experience in 1969 or 70, with a little problem. She wrote here first famous „Carey“ lines: „The wind is in from Africa. Last night i couldn‘t sleep“ . My „little insomnia“ is possibly not related to winds crossing the Lybian Sea, and not to any die hard problems. And it is very probably not coming from my melancholic episode last night when strolling the Matala Hippie Boulevard Of Dreams. One moment alone, staring at the black colour of the sea, sounds wrapped me up from behind, i turned around cause my ears were caught by a sweet magic melody from a totally empty Merino Bar. Only the girl who makes the drinks sent me a smile for being her guest, i kindly resisted, and for a moment the saxophone in that song i loved in the days that were the days, rang a bell: oh, these famous sax lines in „Baker Street“. Mellow me! How deep down it went, this song, anyway (if you read the lines of Mr. Rafferty‘s song). I was transported into a time where music was pure presence and dream and adventure and a look for elevations to come. Even reflecting losses, had a shining facade. This acoustic trigger of future feelings and dances is somehow diminished and lost by age where 69 is not your regular thrill, but a number of age, of days growing shorter. So that special song that wrapped me up, burned itself inside with tenderness, a time travel machine to Würzburg in those mid-seventies, was „Year Of The Cat“. „She doesn’t give you time for questions as she locks up your arm in hers. And you follow ‚till your sense of which direction completely disappears“. I think I will give this song another quiet shot tonite making it my dream path to sleep sleep sleep sheep sleep… I hope the scent of patchouli (in that song) doesn’t completely kill me.
8 Kommentare
Michael Engelbrecht
Both songs to be heard by clicking on the song titles.
Norbert Ennen
It’s the scent of saccharine, that kills me.
flowworker
Diese Bemerkung mit Patchouli hat eine mehrfache Bedeutung. Tatsächlich liebe ich Patchouli, weil es einst eine paar zauberhafte Mädels / Frauen trugen. To be killed in a positive way. Viele hassen diesen Duft:)
Brian Whistler
These aware indeed Time Machine tracks and both bonafide classics.. They weren’t The soundtrack of my life at the time, not in the same way as the earlier Blue was, but both were an inescapable part of the musical landscape at the time. The Al Stewart tune is the one that most spoke to me at the time. (In a weird way, I think Bruce Hornsby may have been a little influenced by it.) Al Stewart was a real story teller. Most people only remember that album but there were others. His energetic live album may be his best. According to a friend of mine who is among other things, a Bay Area concert producer, brought Stewart to local stages all the way into the mid 2000’s, According to my friend, Al is a sweet guy who isn’t resting on his laurels , but instead is still writing fresh material today.
flowworker
Your answer, Brian requires an extended answer … tomorrow my people are on a market. Mediterranean food and clothes. You I will be a loner on this Matala beach and write some lines, my friend ….
Michael
Hugs to Norbert, too!
Brian Whistler
Enjoy your time there. What a lovely place to land. Safe travels!
Michael Engelbrecht
Now, back on the beach, i prefer to do nothing but drifting and listening to some old bass sounds (Henning’s proposals) & new music by Nik Bärtsch – very sensual „beach trance stuff“😉, but i will return to the o!d magic of Blue and Baker Street and Year of The Cat. Yesterday i discoveres the best restaurant of Matala, with a new take on Greece cuisine and adventurous meals, haja. ANEMI 150 meters behind me…on Matala Beach!
flowworker
Yes, Brian, that Al Stewart album had a certain griot magic to in ways of global storytelling. It was classified as folk, soft rock, prog folk,epic soft rock and otherwise. Elaborated arrangements (the pian0 intro of the song played here, who would have dared that on a track with evergreen potental from start on)… the lightness of the singing, the depth of some of the lyrics…the best close to Dylan’s love songs from that era… and overall he seemed to be a kind human without ego-tripping. I should habe seen him in Dortmund the evening he played there:(
As to Baker Street, this is a song full of things and lives gone awry (in my memory, i am nearly always caught up by the music when listening, inl snapping up single lines) – strangely counterbalanced by the soft floating melody and refrain… you go to the lyrics, you will enter the road of lost illusions with sparse moments of hope. You just listen to the sound, you can melt away i …. and the song had a universal presence between Marocco, Ibiza, England and anywhere.
Part of its suggestive power was the saxophone, as importsnt as the bass in Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side. Also here: the saxophone nearly offered a jubilant quality, but where did it lead you: well, to the shadowy life of people running on empty and in the best case at least looking for better times. A wonderful yin and yamg of something strictly human.