Really the Blues

I can't say how much pleasure I have had from the music played by big black men in New Orleans in the early years of the twentieth century.  From the Deep South it found its way up the Mississippi to Chicago where it picked up some white musicians and carried on to New York, changing but remaining faithful to Count Basie's dictum, "I want four good beats to the bar and no cheating."  After that it got hi-jacked by clever men who brought their intellect to bear on music that should come from the heart and not  from the head.  See Philip Larkin's essay on this, "Pound, Picasso, Parker".  But that attacked the entire modern movement in the arts.  More anon.

                                                      Mr Jelly Roll

I  aint gonnan give nobody none of this jelly roll.....

Gonna wear out both ma shoes

When they play that Jelly Roll Blues........

That Bessie Brown so brazen and bol'

Laft in ma face and stole ma jelly roll

So now, I'm tired of fattening frogs for snakes.......

In the 1930's Lord Reith at the BBC, where Jelly Roll Morton, whose music was sometimes played on the wireless, was told of the origin of the great man's nickname.  From thereon he had to be called J. R. Morton.  How things have changed.

Dave's Problem

The answer is that Dave is not really very bright.  He is lacking in intellect even tho he got a first at Oxford. Such a distinction is easy to obtain for anyone who works hard enough and can sit through an exam.  In spite of this he has made some ghastly mistakes like forgetting the history of World War 2 and not knowing the meaning of the word "twat".  This leads him into making appalling choices of advisors who he believes will do his thinking for him.  They in turn have by the time he gets to them done all their useful work so he lurches from one catch phrase to another like a drunk man in the street lurching from one lamp post to another.  How else can we explain, "we're all in this together" which is manifest nonsense as he and the Boy George will always be able to afford taxation however high it becomes.  As it is he lays all the burden on middle earners who see their spending power whittled away day by day.

And this leads to "The Big Society" which neither he nor anyone else truly understands but he repeats it and repeats it like a chant sung by an impotent alchemist hoping to turn base metal into gold.

English Public Schools have always been very good at turning out dummies who come to occupy high positions.  They have negative virtues like "A safe pair of hands" and look the part of a gentleman interrupted from doing something more important than running the country.  This was deceptive when applied to McMillan who was much cleverer than he seemed but not to poor Dave who will make us all poorer without meaning to. These cheering words shoulbe enough on a foul February morning.