Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

As proven by the video clip I mentioned, I approve
of a couch as a transportation vehicle.

It seems like bringing a finished thought to the Mekons
table would be too painful to see it slowly picked
apart as the Mekons do their Mekons thing. Even if
the finished thought is good.
  

    

Jon, I know that you have close ties to the Gang Of Four. While
I never blame a musician for getting paid, do you have any thoughts
on the use of Gang of Four’s “Natural’s Not In It” in an Xbox
commercial? Jon King once said of licensing music for commercials,
"You don’t want your music to be castrated."
  

    
no comment! It is fairly cool for me to be able to tell my boys that I
went to art school with the scratchy guitarist off the Xbox ad. I
remember there was a big debate when Chumbawamba wouldn't let some huge
corporation use Tubthumper... In the end they relented & took the dosh
and used it to finance small presses and anarchist fanzines all across
Europe. Don't know what the Gang Of Four did with their money. I shall
ask!

I've had 2 songs on SEX IN THE CITY! 1 on DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER but
nobody has offered any castration dollars for Skull Orchard tunes...
  

    
Just sold one of the Skull Orchard song paintings via yarddog.com so
my mood is improving after car dying on me in traffic and a runaway
cash card needing cancellation. It is wet in Chicago.
  

    

hey, congrats on selling one of the paintings!

Getting back to SOR for a moment, other than adding in the men's
choir, did you re-record any of the instruments? I noticed
that Fred Armistan drums on one of the tracks. I forget that
he was in Trenchmouth AND married (or dating) Sally...
  

    
Fred was married to Sally Timms for a while way back when. He played
percussion on the original sessions and played drums on all the SXSW
dates we played just after the album came out. Sally and I were in a
recording studio tonight talking about a film she made of me and Fred
in her basement that can never be shown or ever mentioned again....

Verdun and Green Valleys weren't on the original album so they got a
complete reworking - I played some guitar on much of it because a lot
of those parts have evolved over the years, Barcley McKay (ex-Pretty
Things and Leeds housemate) played some great keyboards, John Rice did
his wah-wah thing (he played violin on the original sessions). Guto
Dafis, Julian Hayman and Cousin Mark Price worked with me on the Ballad
of Solomon Jones which was completely new. The big difference is
obviously the choir and Dave Nagler's great arrangements. 
  

    
Here's a great video made by the choir of their first trip to Chicago
for CeltFest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVSIx_mxtuQ
  

    
Back to Tom....

When I perform with the choir we usually do 2 Tom Jones (Delilah &
Green Green Grass of Home) songs and two other tunes with Tom Jones in
the title (Tom Jones Levitation & Tom Jones Come Home which was written
by Paul Burch and explores the touchy issue of my paternity) and when
I play with Julian Hayman, Guto Dafis & Cousin mark in Wales we always
sing Julian's DELILAH answer song I SHOOK THE BLADE AT DELILAH in which
it is apparent that no murder takes place. 

In Tom Jones Levitation I'm substituting Tom Jones for both Prince
Charlie Windsor and Dylan Thomas for completely opposite reasons. Tom
Levitates back to Wales from Vegas after being elected President of a
free Welsh republic.
  

    
Is Tubby Brothers based on real, undertaking brothers?
  

    

Speaking of Tom and Charlie, Tom Jones, Knighted. John Cale, Knighted.
How long before you have to be on your knees before Charlie while
he waves a phallic symbol around your head? Or does that sound too
close to the film with Fred you can't show?
  

    
Breaking in here briefly to remind all the folks reading this that
you, too, can grill Jon just as relentlessly as the rest of us folks
simply by sending an e-mail to inkwell [at] well [dot] com (not writing
it out because of all the lovely robots out there). Our trained
operatives will get the message to him as soon as humanly possible. 
  

    
Sir John Cale? When did that happen? I am certainly not honors list
material and bow to no jugged eared toff!
  

    

Cale took a knee in the jugged eared toff's 2010 Birthday Honours.

Hey Jon, any plans for another Wee Hairy Beasties album?

Actually, now that Choir is in town, do you want to have them
add their sound to all your music?
  

    
Well they do sing a bit on the Mekons album

no more beasties I fear - we were the most unlikely children's
entertainers ever. It was a little edgy.
  

    
Hi Jon, great to see you here.

Never had a chance to thank you for 
http://futureofmusic.org/blog/2010/11/15/fmc-10th-anniversary-posters-amazing-
jon-langford

Thank you so much for that. What a beautiful image.
  

    
FMC is an amazing organization - send them money everybody!
  

    

And just today, as I walked from the subway to the house,
The Three Johns came on the ol' iPod. Still sounds pretty
good!

Jon, can you talk a little about John Peel and doing
a session for him? He always seemed a champion, and
sometimes, you only need one solid champion.

Similarly, what can you say about Sophie Bourbon? She's
been connected to you guys for as long as I can remember
but I'm not quite sure what role she plays with/for
the Mekons.
  

    
Fucking America - Don't ask don't tell gets the boot but then you have
to go & kill another innocent black guy to balance things out. 

Three Johns were a good band who drank too much, John Peel was a great
DJ who helped some great & good bands, Sophie Bourbon is mixing me a
dark & stormy as we speak....

Death Death America!
  

    
sorry - have I scared you all away
  

    
I think there are a number of lurkers following this conversation with
interest.
  

    
i obviously like the whole album quite a bit. But for whatever reason, I am
particulary drawn to the song, Tubby Brothers.  Did any real undertakers
from your  town serve as the inspiration for that song?  Is there any story
or stories behind it?
  

    
Really, a punk-rocker from Leeds getting all political! What will
happen next?
  

    
Lots of Americans having similar dark ruminations.
  

    
What???! Jon Langford in inkwell.vue?!

Why are these things not more widely announced? Where would I have had to 
go to hear about this? I try to visit inkwell every week at least, but obv 
I missed a week there.

I hope this discussion is still ongoing. Will contribute to it as soon as 
I have time to read through the preceding posts.

Certain Langford songs are on almost all of my itunes playlists (and thus 
CDs to play in the car) but I need to update. 

(I am so glad I happened to check inkwell.vue today.)
  

    
Glad you checked in!  (It's on the home page of The WELL and was
promoted via Facebook by me, plus of course by the hosts of Inkwell in
the circles they frequent.)