belfastguzzi Posted January 30, 2011 Posted January 30, 2011 ~ adding counterpoint to Docc's singing bike thread ~ While watching-listening to Roddy Woomble on stage this afternoon, I thought about how a good song could be like a good motorbike journey, taking mind and emotions to experience new or well-loved places. Such thought association was partly brought about because I was hankering to be out on the bike at the time, as winter's sky was brightening, though still cold: and was also prompted because Woomble's song and music conjured emotions of place and people and journey (of Scotland – farms, hills, harbours, islands and A87 Road to Skye). Conversely too, a good motorbike ride can, perhaps should, be like a good song. A ride is not just about hammering along focused exclusively on the technicalities of the bike and road: as music isn't just about the notes. A good motorbike ride, through everything that the bike enables in and for the rider, can open new and unexpected experience; create enriching engagement with place(s) and people (and weather); and feed the spirit with a multitude of transports and reverberations. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Roddy Woomble... what the? Folk! Indie folk would be the farthest you could stretch. He sure wasn't singing rock'n'roll. So how can there be any connection to a motorbike experience? Motorcycling tends to be identified with a narrow genre of raucous, rowdy riffs. I suppose it was the early symbiosis with Rockers. A little later, Easy Rider actually had a fair spread of sounds: however the broad catalogue of film, bike rally and now youtube soundtracks is dominated by yer basic, heavy rock'n'roll, is it not? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ What motorcycle waltzes are in airwave transmission? Any valve train rolling in six eight or seven eight? Saddlebag sonnets, or five speed free verse?
Baldini Posted January 30, 2011 Posted January 30, 2011 ...What motorcycle waltzes are in airwave transmission? Any valve train rolling in six eight or seven eight? Saddlebag sonnets, or five speed free verse? I don't know about time signatures, but there's Richard Thompson's "Vincent Black Lightning", Captain Beefheart's "Carson City", Steve Earle's "The Other Kind" & have you read "The Road" - a chapter in T.E.Lawrence's "The Mint"? Two singles echoing back off a stone-walled pass? A Benelli Sei on open Megas on a quiet duel carriageway? But, does the essence of what you're getting at have to involve motorcycles (let alone Guzzis) at all? When the first people heard Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the internal combustion engine had not been invented. Horses. The Beat poets. Synchopation. Is the motorcycle ride just another way to get to the same place? I walked up Cadair Idris the other day. KB
belfastguzzi Posted January 31, 2011 Author Posted January 31, 2011 It's another way, to get there, but not 'just' another way. I was wondering about that too. Walking is – another way. As is the horse, or a bus or a car. All different experiences. For each way, the combination of sensations felt and knowledge referred to and skills exercised and challenges overcome, make each unique. With the motorcycle, intimate proximity to unstable machine + speed + internal combustion + places makes potential for something special. Beyond Nick Sanders, as a first thought, who is writing and creating pictures about 'the motorbike song' today? A few years ago we debated 'The Perfect Vehicle'. I didn't find it completely convincing, but out of all the bike travel books out there, it came close-ish to reflecting on the machine. Charley & Ewan, for example, don't really do that at all, do they? Maybe web blogs are doing it now?
Baldini Posted January 31, 2011 Posted January 31, 2011 Have you read Dan Walsh - "These are the days that must happen to you" ? KB
belfastguzzi Posted January 31, 2011 Author Posted January 31, 2011 I've got it here. Not read it. I don't really like his attitude: I'll get over that and have a go.
Baldini Posted January 31, 2011 Posted January 31, 2011 It is worth reading. Attitude? yes, I think he has some "issues" he's trying to work out...or not. KB
Murray Posted February 6, 2011 Posted February 6, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLEG2YMAQgs Even a Moto Guzzi reference!
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