August 2003

The Chinese have five seasons, and now we're entering their fourth (have i said this before?): that beautiful golden time before middle October - a time of kings and queens turning slowly on horseback as lowering suns pick out crimson threads on ancient cloth. The fatalistic way in which people are already saying 'well, that's summer gone' - it's a shame. The shithead who gives us weather forecasts on TV where i live has just said 'and with this rain coming in from the northwest, it seems that summer has well and truly gone' - get a life you fuckwit - the magician speaks and the people are cast down - yes, that's right, two sentences in and i'm completely pissed off with someone...

Not that i was watching TV of course - i was told about this in the pub - not that i was in the pub of course - i was finding out when the pub landlord would like his ladder back - not that i borrowed a ladder of course - oh, yes, i did, so i could paint my pipes black for a summer garden party - seems like ages ago now - AAAAAAAAAGH! - it's happening to me! - must get back to Chinese way of seeing - that's quite easy - i can see the back of a Chinese takeaway from my eyrie - there's a delivery of noodles today, always made by two Chinese girls wearing Southampton Football Club scarves - they have the largest Chinese following in the world you know (i made this up).

ONLY THE OCEAN CAN FORGIVE - this is the name of a fantastic new official bootleg JACKIE LEVEN album, 71 minutes long, eight mighty tracks, plus some great stories including STING'S DEAD, my epic about the death of the much loved pop singer in a helicopter crash in Southampton, witnessed at first hand by my girlfriend as the chopper plunged into the sea - maybe you've heard it? This glorious rendition come from Sinnkasten club in Frankfurt two years ago (one of my favourite clubs, and favourite cities) - also from here, an amazingly good and well recorded version of PARIS BLUES, with Michael Cosgrave playing trumpet and synth at the same time.

There are three new studio tracks on the album, all from Bryn Derwen, where i have made my last three studio albums. The first track is LITTLE BROWN BOX - one of the most harrowing lyrics i have ever written, and a beautiful song, written on the beach in Melbourne, Australia, three years ago - great retro keyboards by engineer David Wrench. Second track is WOMAN IN A CAR, a ballad tracing my journey from waving goodbye to my parents and leaving home as a teenager, through to recent times after the death of my father, and how my mother, who can't drive, kept the car anyway, just so she could sit in it alone, remembering. Track three is a sung poem by W H Auden, who, although famous, is highly underrated i think, by people under 35 years of age - the poem is called AUTUMN SONG and contains one of my favourite stanzas of all time:

Cold, impossible ahead

Lifts the mountain's lovely head

Whose white waterfall could bless

Travellers in their last distress.

Auden revised many of his poems- horribly - late in life: if buying his works, check this poem - if the stanza is the same as this, you've got the unrevised edition, which is what you want. The follows three tracks, are again beautifully recorded for radio from the Gloria Theatre, Cologne (Koln), whilst on tour with Richard Thompson and Midnight Choir earlier this year (Accoustic Stories Tour). I was headlining that night - a big happy crowd - Richard had demolished them earlier - and Michael Cosgrave and i surge through CLASSIC NORTHERN DIVERSIONS, EXTREMELY VIOLENT MAN, and MY PHILOSOPHY, with stories in between. Then it's the aforementioned PARIS BLUES/STING'S DEAD etc, and the album ends with a demented long version of BAREFOOT DAYS, taken from Milford Social Club last Christmas, onstage with me are Joe Shaw of Doll By Doll, and superb singer Kevin Hewick, who has an album currently out on Cherry Red Records of material recorded some time ago, some with New Order - a thoroughly enjoyable release. This BAREFOOT is close to the edge, and in fact tips over it on a couple of occasions, making for gripping listening - if you were there, you'll be saying to yourself, 'it certainly did'...........

I will not be taking this new album on the road until October, but if you want a signed personalised copy before that, send £12 plus 90 pence postage and packaging to me at:

JACKIE LEVEN 3 WINCHESTER STREET BOTLEY HANTS SO30 2EB UK

cheque made out to me - and i'll send it off to you as soon as i get back from the pub - don't worry - i'm not on a three- day- bender. The record looks great too - like an austere jazz release by that Norwegian sax player whose name i forget (very helpful i hear you say). Some of you kind people out there got together a while back and helped me buy a great new acoustic guitar, for which i thank you again - my Morgan, as played on stage everywhere. Hope you've seen my thanks on SHINING BROTHER SHINING SISTER.

The Morgan keeps getting badly lost on flights, affecting whole tours and given my real stress - it's since 9/11 - you can't get your guitar on a plane anymore, and i'm always going thru Heathrow - a notorious airport at the best of times for 'lost' luggage. I need a back-up guitar - don't worry, i'm not asking you to cough up again! But i am selling my beautiful old GALLAHER, which can't make flights anymore, being too old and fragile for being thrown around airports. There's nothing else wrong with it - it's still one of the best sounding guitars on the planet, but impractical for me... The GALLAHER is about fifty years old - i bought it Berlin in 1971 from a great American player called Galloping Jim Whitmore, who was given it by his uncle, the legendary Doc Watson. It's the accoustic guitar on all my albums from Doll By Doll through to the album Creatures of Light and Darkness. It is a class and style of guitar called a Dreadnought, and has world class tone and playability. However, you CAN'T take it on planes without serious risk of it being broken, unless you buy it a seat, which i can't afford to do, so it's going for sale at the unbelievably reasonable price of £2500 or nearest offer. If you buy it, i'll come and shake your hand and send you off with it, after playing a song, and with the proceeds, i'll put down a deposit on a new guitar from brilliant guitar maker, and my instrument consultant, Brian Hayward, of Hayward Guitars in Winchester, Hampshire UK. Brian is also acting for me in this sale, and you can get him or Christine at UK 1962 850555, or [email protected] and www.haywardguitars.co.uk By the time you read this, i'll be on my way to the Lebanon, where i'm playing at a gathering of Romany musicians - it's a privilege to be invited, especially as i'm only a posh rat (half-Romany), and it's not open to the public, so there are no details to give you - other than they'll all be playing in non-western scales, and smiling at me indulgently as i mess up my part - on the other hand, i'll be playing a new song called Vox Humana which will have them crying into their raki - it's going to be that kind of event - oh, and no women - eat your heart out Robert Bly - (only kidding if you see this Robert - see you at Crossing Border in The Hague on November 14).

Till then everyone - enjoy the cosmic late sunshine playing on your ancient crimson cloth...

jl

early August 2003's column