The Stormcock Community

Well, this is something I never, ever, imagined myself doing, creating a blog. However, i've been listening again to some of the old podcasts and one of the topics that got me thinking arose in the Dave and Sue Burnham interview - which was about how Roy has always seen himself as a poet first and musician second.  I feel a reply brewing - and set up this blog as a way of hosting this reply - because, as a listener, i don't think Roy's stuff works FUNDAMENTALLY at the level of poetry.  Instead, his impact comes,I think, from an absolutely unique combination of voice, lyric, guitar playing, melody, meaning and attitude.  I don't know what Roy himself would think of this, but for me, the only relevant point of comparison is with Bob Dylan (and Roy is a better guitarist).  I don't know how many songs Roy has written but BD has written about 600, apparently. However, in my opinion, nothing Bob did after "Desire" moves me at all.  In fact, I haven't been interested enough to listen to any albums after "Street Legal", which I think is about contemporary with "Bullinamingvase", so however many songs His Bobness has done, (according to the review of the latest book on his lyrics, 300 up to [before] his  last great album, "Blood on the Tracks") a alarge percentage of these are a long way from being great works. So even if Roy has only  written 300 songs, his brilliance-to-shit ratio would stiill be higher than Bob Dylan's prime time,and it would be way over Blob Dylon's brilliance-to-shit ratio for the whole 600 ouevre (personal note - my 21-year old nephew Stewart isa complete Blob Dylon nut and I believe he has tickets for every show on his Blobness' upcoming UK tour - so no doubt he and I could get a good debate going!).  Anyway, I plan , over the next few weeks, to think about the relative weighting of Roy's voice, guitar playing, attitude, meaning and poetry - and what better place for these musings/ruminations/obseesions than the Stormcock forums?

Alan J