SOUNDTRACK: YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS-“Salad Days” (1980).
In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.
Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape. So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.
In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock. Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that. In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.
I’ve been aware of the Young Marble Giants forever, and yet I apparently knew nothing about them. Like that they only put out one album (how are the so influential?) or that they were from Wales.
Young Marble Giants were a trio: Philip Moxham on bass, Stuart Moxham on guitar and organ, Alison Statton on vocals. Yup no drums.
The songs on the record are short and seem to focus around the basslines primarily. It’s really quite an unusual presentation–quite lo-fi and very engaging.
This song (the 12th of 15 on the album) is 2 minutes long. It features a simple guitar riff, with a some extra detailed notes sprinkled at the end of the main riff. Then comes a four note bass riff, with a little hammer on at the end of the riff. After a minute, Alison quietly sings along with the melody:
Think of salad days
They were folly and fun
They were good, they were young
She sings for 15 seconds and then it’s all music until the end. The bass drops out with 30 seconds left and the guitar plays that same melody with a few picked notes to the end.
It’s simple and delightful. And as the start of a mix tape, it speaks volumes.
[READ: January 21, 2021] “Find and Replace”
This story is written as a true story. But there are plenty of little comments in the story that show how easy it is to change something in a story–maybe make it untrue?
The narrator, Ann, says her father died in hospice on Christmas Day–the day that she had left the country. Her family was not the kind who communicated every day.
Her mother was not demanding. She was a friendly person and had a million friends (she still wrote cards to a maid who cleaned their hotel room fifteen years ago).
Ann flew to Florida, rented a car and drove to her mother’s house. Her mother showed her letters that she hoped Ann would help her make decisions about. The last one was from a neighbor named Drake who asked her to move in with him.
Ann assumed it was a joke. Then assumed her mother would laugh it off. But indeed, she had said yes. They might even move to Tucson.
Ann is stunned and tries to talk her out of it, but her mother says that Drake is a nice man and was friends with Ann’s father. She is sure her dead husband would approve.
There were plans for Ann to meet him, but something came up and so Ann left with no contact with Drake.
Ann’s mother suggests that Ann write Drake a letter (he knows email!) [this was written in 2001]. But Ann has nothing to say to the man. So she kisses her mother’s cheek and leaves.
When she gets back to the car rental agency, the employee is new. He offers her an upgrade to a Mustang, although she reveals that she is returning not picking up. When the manager comes over to check on things, Ann says that she will take the Mustang. They look at her like she is crazy, but she says she is being spontaneous.
The employee asks her how she can be so spontaneous and she says she is a writer. When he asks if people get mad that they are in her stories she says
You just program the computer to replace one name with another. So, in the final version, every time the word ‘Mom’ comes up, it’s replaced with ‘Aunt Begonia’ or something.
Part of her impulse to get the Mustang is to drive back to her mother’s house to talk her out of the mistake that is Drake. But some mistakes are our own making.
I rather enjoyed thinking about replacing Mom with Aunt Begonia and wondering how that would impact this story.
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