Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy was Go to an extreme, move back to a more comfortable place. I posted various extremes- Gnod, Extreme Noise Terror and The KLF, Napalm Death, Husker Du, Steve Bicknell and Lords Of Afford- and a more comfortable Richard Norris ambient piece. Suggestions via the comment box and social media came in and included Cornelius, Extreme's horrific More Than Words, Allen Toussaint, Bad Brains, Durutti Column and Boards Of Canada (and this made me realise that in over fifteen years of blogging I have never once posted anything by Boards Of Canada- how strange). . 

I turned over today's Oblique Strategy card and it said this...

Imagine the piece as a series of disconnected events

That gave some food for thought and then something began to form in my head and selecting songs based on events fairly randomly, this happened...

Wednesday Morning 3 A.M.

Simon and Garfunkel's Wednesday Morning  3 A.M. is the last song on their debut album of the same name, a record that came out in 1964, sixty two years ago. Which has no real connection to this....

$1000 Wedding

Gram Parsons' $1000 Wedding is from Grievous Angel, a posthumous 1974 album with the groom stood up at a cheap wedding and going on a drinking spree. 'It's been a bad, bad day'. Which is fairly unconnected to this...

Captain's Holiday

Captain Beefheart went on holiday in 1974, surprisingly accessible funky rock from Bluejeans And Moonbeams. There's no connection between that and this....

Extinction Event Souvenir T- Shirt

Glasgow's Broken Chanter have been to the end of the world and have the souvenir t- shirt. The song came out in 2021, crashing and driving and ultimately uplifting Glaswegian indie rock. Which is not particularly connected to this....

Hard Ending

Hard Ending is by Sweden's Echo Ladies, a synthy dreampop song from a 2018 album called Pink Noise. 

Which just leaves the photo at the top of this post... one I've been waiting for nearly a year to use and been unable to work out how it could possibly illustrate or accompany a post and which is in no way connected to any of the songs. 

Last April we went to Morocco for five days and one day we went to a resort on the edge of the Sahara desert. The resort was  very new, not even finished and had a restaurant, a swimming pool, sun loungers and a spectacular view of the desert. The couple in the photo arrived not long before we left, both young, influencer looking and clearly benefiting from hours in the gym. They wandered round the site, looking for the best spot and having located it, the man took his top off to display his V- shaped torso and the woman began taking photos of him from behind, his body framed by the pool, the horizon and the Sahara. It was amazing to watch- they were so lacking in self- consciousness about what they were doing. 

Feel free to make your own suggestions of songs in response to Imagine the piece as a series of disconnected events in the comment box. 

One Hundred Years From Now

This week's pictures all come from a visit to Hack Green 'secret' nuclear bunker, a Cold War concrete box and bunker in Cheshire from where regional government would take place in the event of a nuclear war. The Cold War officially ended in 1989 following an agreement and announcement from Bush and Gorbachev. The USSR broke up in 1991, the USA won and everyone was happy. The bunker was already outdated at this point I suspect. The machinery and computer systems, dormitories, radio broadcast equipment and all the rest of the gear designed to administer the north west of England in a post- apocalyptic world look pre-1980s. The idea that much could happen from here to successfully help Britain survive an attack by the Soviet Union seems ridiculous (in the same way that the rockets and modules that took three men to the moon fifty years ago look like tin cans held together by the type of screws and nuts most of us have in our tool boxes- thankfully the moon equipment worked while the nuclear infrastructure never faced the test it was designed for).

The year before than the moon landings The Byrds switched from psychedelic rock to an older, gentler sound. The arrival of Gram Parsons in 1968 had pushed them in a solely country rock direction. Gram's appearance was the subject of some legal disputes and his lead vocals on several songs had to be re-recorded by Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman. It's also been suggested that McGuinn was uncomfortable with giving over so many lead vocal slots to Parsons and wanted to re-establish the older Byrds as the key voices. Gram was still irate about this wiping of his voice and McGuinn's re-recordings in 1973 and who knows, if still alive today, he might still be unhappy about it- the Gram vocals have since been re-released on various box sets and extras. There aren't too many albums that can claim to have kick started an entire genre but Sweetheart Of The Rodeo is one- all country rock, alt- country and Americana can be traced back to the eleven songs contained within its grooves.

One Hundred Years From Now

Hiding In Shadows

The Flying Burrito Brothers cover version of James Carr's The Dark End Of The Street (written by Dan Penn and Chips Moman) is where Gram Parsons made good his promise of country-soul perfection. Not a note out of place and a heart-wrenching vocal.

The Dark End Of The Street

The Older Guys Really Got It All Worked Out

The older I get, the truer I like to think that line becomes.

Country-rock legend Gram Parsons is one of those 'you must like him' people and some of his solo stuff is pretty good but his band The Flying Burrito Brothers are the real deal, especially the first album (The Gilded Palace Of Sin) which has any number of standout songs- Hot Burrito #1, Hot Burrito #2, Sin City, The Dark End Of The Street (pretty much invented splicing country and soul), Christine's Tune. The follow up, Burrito Deluxe, isn't nearly as good but does contain this song, a rollicking celebration of the good ole boys down the bar, though the line about them 'getting the ladies with their style, the older guys squeeze them til it makes them smile' sounds more like sexual harassment now than maybe it did back in 1970.

Older Guys