Supposed to have done 8 miles today but planned the route wrong (that's my excuse anyway). A steady run though and feeling pretty strong at the end. Took a while to get up to a comfortable pace and the sun was beating down on Ladgate Lane. Just like yesterday the rain came down but, thankfully, towards the end of the run so was pretty welcome by then.
Soundtrack - Edwyn Collins/Orange Juice.
Those of you who know me will, more than likely, know my connection to the music of Paul Heaton (those that don't can check it out here). Another, near-contemporary, writer and performer with similar influences to Mr Heaton is Edwyn Collins. Country, Blues, Gospel, Soul and funk all find their way into his mix and with that half-crooned vocal delivery (an acquired taste for some but worth acquiring) he has produced some of the best alt-pop/proto-indie music there has been. Most people know one Orange Juice song (Rip It Up) and one solo Edwyn Collins song (A Girl Like You) but there's a wealth of material easily as good as both of those, sometimes better, if you dig into his back catalogue. Orange Juice were something of a reaction to the shouty, luddite strain of punk that followed in the Sex Pistols wake. They took a cue from the more songwriterly Buzzcocks (Rip It Up references their song Boredom in the lyric and that great, simple guitar solo). They weren't afraid of using language and vocabulary the likes of which hadn't really been heard in pop, certainly for a long time if it had. Their music also celebrated at least the attempt at adeptness and they threw more ideas into their songs than most bands had on entire albums, or careers. What they ended up with was a dizzying soup of sounds that rarely came across as one thing or the other yet still captivated. The Smiths, both Johnny Marr and Morrissey owe O.J's early work a huge debt and if you get hold of either version of their first album "You Can't Hide Your Love Forever" (or Ostrich Churchyard as it is sometimes packaged) you will hear the jangly guitars and plaintive, soulful vocals that Moz claimed as his own a couple of years later (to be fair there is a huge dollop of Billy McKenzie in there with Mozza too).
Orange Juice split after a few albums and Edwyn began ploughing a furrow of his own straight away, maintaining the same sense of fun and love of musical history in his solo work. At times he sounds a little like Bing Crosby singing over Al Green tracks, slow, crooning and funky (Johnny Teardrop and the rest of the excellent Doctor Syntax album) and other tracks, such as Girl Like You, Adidas World and Keep on Burnin' are fuzzed out Northern Soul. Rock rarely gets a look in, although his post-stroke album Losing Sleep had a decidedly punkier feel due to the collaborators; Franz Ferdinand, The Cribs, Johnny Marr (ah!)
And that's another thing. He had a massive, life-threatening stroke and worked his arse off to get back to writing, recording and performing over a matter of a few years. Stubborn sod.
As a running soundtrack it's great, varied and not full of testosterone so perfect for longer runs when your mind can wander. Cheers Edwyn. More please.
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