David Singleton's Diary

DAY 44

I had been hoping that today I would finally get to make the "BIG ANNOUNCEMENT" in capital letters. (Big in our feeble little world - we are not writing off the third world debt, you understand.) I sit here pregnant, poised to give birth, several weeks overdue...and I must delay until Monday, when I am promised all will be ready.

So, I shall content myself with a few quick responses to the guestbook on the joys of THRAK, THRAKATTAK et al. Yes, the boxed set does contain many of the unfinished ideas which the double trio explored in the studio; the Warfield footage is of the 26th June 1996 (and we do also have a video of the CGT if they want it); and finally Bakullama shall be forgiven his lapse in "not getting" THRAKATTAK, as I recall he went to purchase that other classic, The Vicar Songbook#1 (on which he has remained worryingly mute).

Working on improvised material is interesting. I now know the second album ATTAKcATHRAK so well that it ceases to be in any way arbitrary or random - I could conduct it note for note all the way through. I am reminded of my experience in remastering "No Pussyfooting". My first experience of this album, when I was about 18, was not good - in fact, I told RF exactly what I thought on that first listening - "This sounded like something someone threw together in an afternoon". His reply "It didn’t take that long, it only took 45 minutes!"

And yet. And yet...While I was remastering the album (in the old days pre-automation when you had to learn and rehearse all your movements) I quickly found that I could learn the entire piece note for note so that I knew exactly what was about to happen. Something that previously had seemed arbitrary (there is a twenty years hiatus in the middle of this story) now sounded like a perfectly composed piece of music. As is probably the case with those who know and love THRAKATTAK.

And on the subject of copyright, perhaps we should collect entries for great songs that have been done for copyright abuse. "My Sweet Lord" is another great example. Within the Beatles canon, I think "Lady Madonna" fell foul of "The Midnight Hour", and John Lennon’s Rock n Roll album of covers was a settlement of a suit about "Come Together". And yet "Stairway to Heaven" and "Taurus" by Spirit is not yet on the list. Go figure! (and add your suggestions.)