Ain't No Midnight Cowboy

I was invited to The Toff In Town by a boss... (Sweet Venue/Bar with great sound but a slightly pretentious vibe on Swanston Street's most exciting building)
It was late afternoon business meeting.
A bunch of people in my industry were to have an informal Q&A session to talk about an exciting opportunity/venture.

Sounded exciting and intriguing.

John Voight and Dustin Hoffman

The meeting was made up of about a dozen people that were kind of famous (within our industry). All very well respected and highly regarded.
They were people that I admired.

I was introduced to them all. I knew who they were but they didn't know me. I wasn't scared or intimidated, in fact they all made me feel very welcome...
But i felt I was there really just there to take it all in and learn (and look handsome).

We all grabbed a beer/wine/g&t and sat around a table and had a question and answer session. Some pertinent questions were asked...
some pointed answers were made...
it was food for thought.

Remember this meeting was in a bar so it was it was a bit hard to hear (my hearing is crap anyway but the music was just above comfortable conversation level)

I sat and listened with respect, nodding my head and grunting agreeably (and lookin handsome), taking notes until the stereo started blaring a few notches higher in volume... playing an incredible piece of music.

it was loud. awesome. and very distracting.
12/8 time signature. Corny strings, synths, accordian, drums, guitar. Not much subtlety. A bit of an epic vibe. I've loved it for years.




We had to wait until the climax of the song had died down untl we could actually speak again.
Every one at the stopped meeting was like.

"what the f*ck is this song"?

I knew exactly what it was.
In my head I said with enthusiasm

"It's Faith No More's Cover of the theme from Midnight Cowboy! Off their 1992 album Angel Dust (2nd last track, just before their cover of Lionel Ritchie's 'Easy')! Midnight Cowboy was A classic but wildly controversial 1969 movie starring John Voight and Dustin Hoffman! There's thousands of versions of this song around! This one's great!"

I knew all this. I could have told them all how much I knew. I could have risen above my observing roll and taken center stage...

but i didn't.

the moment passed.

I wonder if they would have been impressed with my knowledge of Faith No More and 60's cult westerns? I've wondered this ever since that afternoon at the toff.

Anyway, in the second of two amzing reunion announcements a coupla months ago I found out that Faith No More were reforming!

F*CKIN YEAH WOOOOOHHHHOOOOOO! I'm pretty excited about the prospect of seeing them. I'm going to tackle the issue of mike patton (lead singer extraordinaire who doesn't even appear in the midnight cowboy cover) in a future blog... I imagine it'll be some of my best material.

OK...

ADDED ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN BONUS SONGS!!!!!!!

Henry Mancini's original version of the Midnight Cowboy theme song. Infinately classier than Faith No More's version. Oh yeah...




Harry Nilsson's Classic Song off the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack "EVERYBODY'S TALKIN At ME... i can't here a word they're sayin..."

Damon Albarn is better without Blur

I wish the Dean of Melbourne "Con"servatorium of Music had told me that I could become Damon Albarn if I continued studying ethnomusicolagy.

H1 = First Class Honours = I heart Music Cultures of Asia

I could have done 2nd, 3rd and 4th year Ethnomusicology subjects too but I thought there was no future in studying world music.

I've just been looking at an extremely high resolution picture of my hero. Click it... it's massive. I get a bit gooey when I think about him. Even when he's covered in tomato.

For a Britpop sun of a gun, he's released some seriously out there sh*t. Travelled the world, researched his arse off, immersed himself in African and Asian music cultures and written produced some amazing music.

BLUR told everyone (a couple of months ago) that they're reforming... I don't know whether to lose my shit in excitement or crack the shits out of disappointment)

Damon, doesn't need Blur...

Here's a reverse chronological 5 song tour of Damon "tomato lover" Albarn and some of the amazing music he's written and played since. He don't need Blur.


Heavenly Peach Banquet - Monkey
One of the best songs written last year. Full stop. It's From his Chinese Opera. "Monkey - Journey To The West"
Continues my love of songs where I can't understand the words... I actually found a translation to the words while researching this... a little disappointing... its about a garden full of tasty Peaches. But it's wayyyy better than anything made by 'the presidents of the USA' Oh Yes the music is blissful. Blithful.

Kingdom Of Doom - The Good The Bad and The Queen
take 1 part Blur add, 1 part The Clash (Paul Simonon), add to one part Afro Beat Legend (Tony Allen, Fela Kuti etc...) and one part The Verve (Simon Tong)... This is a supergroup I'd love to cook to breakfast with. mournful, acoustic, afro, dub, pop, ballad - never heard anything like it.

The Last Living Souls - Gorillaz
Gorillaz first album was good... but had some filler. Gorillaz 2nd album was ridiculously freakin awesome... produced by Danger Mouse... this is the first track off that album... it sets the tone for a hip-hop, rock, pop, jazz, gospel, cartoon musical adventure. I think this is where Damon entered the stratosphere. The Live DVD of the album is a feast for the eyes too.

Niger - Mali Music
In 2000 Mr. Albarn traveled to Mali as an ambassador for Oxfam, along the way meeting and playing with dozens of musicians.

"He recorded his collaborations and returned to his London studio with more than 40 hours of music. "I spent two years figuring out how I could turn it into something that would satisfy me as a musician but also make some kind of cross-cultural link" - BBC

Then released this dreamy album in 2002.

Coffee and TV - BLUR
Back to his roots. Nuff Said. Pretty wickid but he's moved on.