A fabulous song and a stupendous live performance – just Roy and a guitar. Amazing!!
James Varda – The Doctor Spoke – Meaningful Lyrics.
James Varda has always been a favourite of mine. His first album Hunger was a real force. It was a shame that he became disillusioned and dropped out. His music is so original and good. We might have got a lot more of it.
However he did come back with a couple of great albums and then hit us with something that was so powerful it threw me. Chance and Time is a towering monument of an album.
It deals with James’ reaction to being given the news of having a terminal illness.
Most people would have crumbled or become introverted. That was not the case with James. He poured it into a feat of great creative affirmation of life. The naked emotion is so moving that I have never heard its like. The album fills you with the desire to make life count.
I can only thank him for that gift.
At least we have consciousness. We have experienced the world. We have had something when it could have so easily been nothing. We have to be incredibly grateful for that.
This is the track that begins that journey – The Doctor Spoke.
The comparison of cancer to the Big Bang is such a mind opening image.
The Doctor Spoke
The doctor spoke
Two hearts broke
I looked at you
You looked at me
And we looked down the road
I turned to him
And as best I could, I asked
“Is there something we can do?”
He held my hand
And with a tear in his eye
He said “Nothing”
“Nothing”
“There is nothing we can do”
Scan by scan
The picture grew
A triptych of liver, lung and bone
I turned to him
And as best I could, I asked
“Is there something we can do?”
He quietly spoke
He said “I’m sorry”
“There is nothing”
“Nothing”
“There is nothing we can do”
It started like this
From something very small
Very dense and very hot
An expansion occurred
Chance and time
Gave rivers and trees
Rivers and trees and birds and bees
There could have been nothing
But to have witnessed something
Rivers and trees and birds and bees
© James Varda 2014
Nick Harper – Opher’s World pays tribute to a genius.
I love guitar playing. When it comes to guitar playing I have seen all the greats up close playing in small halls – from Jimi Hendrix to Bert Jansch, Jimmy Page to Peter Green, Davy Graham to Eric Clapton; but there is one who stands out for me. The sheer brilliance is beyond anything else I have seen. What Nick can do with a guitar is magical.
The strange thing is that the bending of the strings, the tuning and retuning of strings within songs, the creation of new upside down chords and even the surround sound delay is never a gimmick. It isn’t showing off. It actually works to create great music and the tricks are integral parts of the songs that always add to the composition. Nick expands upon the possibility and generates extensions of improbability.
I have only ever seen one person capable of such a thing and he was Jimi Hendrix. Nick’s limitation, as with Jimi, is merely the extent of his imagination. It goes without saying that Nick’s imagination is of the scope of galaxies. It is phenomenal.
I have been fortunate enough to observe these prodigious talents develop over decades and I never get tired of the crispness and range that those fingers tease or pound out of that instrument. He can make the guitar thunder or trill with delicate melodies. Nick produces music you can get lost in.
If it were only the guitar playing it would be wonderful but limited. But it is so much more. Nick marries this instrumental genius to a voice that is incredible in range and texture and a song-writing ability that is up there with the best. He now has a catalogue of brilliant songs that would challenge any great songwriter of our time barring only a few. The content is both poetic and meaningful. What more could you possibly ask for?
Nick’s live performances are impressive. He is a showman who deploys with and cutting humour along with sharp observation. He is a warm, sensitive but forceful man whose sensibilities are complex and always intelligent and forthright. You never get short-changed at a Nick gig. He puts everything into it.
The one mystery surrounding Nick’s career concerns the level of success he has so far achieved. It boggles me to think that he has not risen to the heights, received the recognition and walked away with the awards. He surely deserves it. His time will undoubtedly come. Skills like his do not go unnoticed forever.