Tuneful it’s not. Discord, insults and random noise fills the air from the referendum campaigns. Leavers in a perpetual stage of outrage are oblivious to the outrage they are causing. The same question gets asked a hundred times and the same exaggeration or downright fib gets rolled out each time by those wanting to leave the EU. But I’ll put this annoyance to one side and focus on something more interesting. Now is the time to mention a few musical connections.
It’s good to hear that BBC Radio has taken up using: “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” from The Clash. Although I’d change their lyrics to say: “If I stay there will be trouble. An’ if I go it will be double”. Definitely music from my era. 7 February 1980 at Tiffany’s in Coventry was probably the most memorable concert I ever went to as a student. It was a menacing battle of leather, light and fierce electric energy that mixed in a way that hasn’t been matched.
On a lighter note, bunches of bananas have been in the news. That takes me back to being a 9-year-old when colour television was still a novelty. Now when I see Boris Johnson, the “Banana Splits” Tra La Song comes into my head: One Banana, Two Banana. Can’t help it.
Since I’ve touched the 60s and the 80s my next songs come from the 70s and ought to sum up where we are with a month to go. After all it’s the 1970s when the last referendum took place. There’s that well-worn disk that always got played at the end of discos: “If you leave me now” by Chicago. On the same theme there’s: “Don’t leave me this way” by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. Then on the really slushy side there’s: “Without You” by Harry Nilsson.
In the end I’m drawn to: “False from True” by singer and songwriter Pete Seeger. In the hope that people can cut through the discord, insults and random noise to separate the false from true.
John Vincent 