Culture

Music

/ rrishi99 / Leave a comment

Bryan Adams is at number one in the U.K. for 16 weeks with Everything I Do in 1991

Eric Clapton releases Layla in 1970

Billy Joel releases Uptown Girl in 1983

Queen release Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975

George Michael releases Carless Whisper in 1984

Destiny’s Child release first album in 1998

En Vogue release Hold On in 1990

Salt-N-Pepa release Let’s Talk About Sex in 1991

Montell Jordan releases This is How We Do It in 1995

Michael Jackson releases Thriller in 1984

Black and White airs on Top of the Pops in 1991

U2 release The Joshua Tree in 1987

Pulp release Common People in 1995

Oasis release Definitely Maybe in 1994

Garth Brooks releases Standing Outside the Fire in the U.K. in 1993

Billy Ray Cyrus releases Achy Breaky Heart in 1992

Nirvana release Smells Like Teen Spirit in 1991

Billy Ocean releases Caribbean Queen in 1984

Dr Dre releases The Chronic in 1992

Snoop Dogg releases Gin and Juice in 1994

2pac killed in drive by shooting in 1996

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince number one in the U.K. with Boom Shake the Room in 1993

N.W.A. release Niggaz for Life in 1991

Nigel Kennedy performs The Four Seasons in 1989

Nitin Sawhney releases Beyond Skin in 1997

Talvin Singh releases Anokha in 1997

Peter Gabriel and Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan perform at VH1 Music Awards show in 1996

Depeche Mode perform 101 concert at Pasadena Rosebowl in 1988

Erasure release A Little Respect

Sting leaves The Police to go solo 1983

I see Sting three times on Brand New Day tour 2000-2002

Genesis play Knebworth in 1990

Bob Dylan wins Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016

Jimi Hendrix performs at Woodstock in 1969

Miles Davis releases So What in 1959

Whitney Houston releases I Will Always Love You in 1992

Craig David releases Rewind in 1999

Bon Jovi release Slippery When Wet in 1986

Guns n Roses release Sweet Child o’ Mine in 1987

The Rolling Stones release Satisfaction in 1965

The Beatles release Revolver in 1966

ABBA release Dancing Queen in 1976

Bee Gees release Stayin’ Alive in 1977

John Lennon releases Imagine in 1971

Madonna releases Material Girl in 1984

Midge Ure joins Ultravox in 1979

Harry Connick Jr releases We Are In Love in 1990

Simply Red release Stars in 1992

Tracy Chapman releases Tracy Chapman in 1988

Marvin Gaye releases I Heard It Through the Grapevine

Bob Marley releases One Love in 1977

Concerts I have been to

Sting, Simply Red, Harry Connick Jr, Howard Jones, Midge Ure, Depeche Mode, Nitin Sawhney, Ravi Shanker, Tracy Chapman, Anuradha Padhwal, A R Rahman, Beethoven, Vaughan Williams

Gramophone

/ rrishi99 / Leave a comment

Culture is its own reward
It knows just what to do
It dies when you are sad enough
And remains just for a few.
It listens when you are needy
It listened when you were bad
It made history some space from geography
It left French alone with German to die.

The saddest part though is school
Where parents’ remains come to die
And time elides with past, present and future
For the Beatles to come and hide.
There’s John (rebirthed), Ringo and George
Blotting out the other one for a class we don’t give.
Lest culture survives the scrap with fighting youths at lunch
For what more money more problems has to give.

I feel self conscious in it’s presence
And worried about my manifestation on the phone
Snowy Dons at Oxford remember my Umbridge
For Gombridge trudging along down the lane.

It’s exciting when it needs to be
Colourful right up until the last
But when the TV repeats itself on the social slant
It’s royal and something that will last.
This is the way of the keeping people
And the Press that punished the independent man.
Who are you to be free from culture
When at home you invert the legal vulture (awkwardly).

Good Evening London

/ rrishi99 / Leave a comment

The abacus of understanding
Is erected for the Grand Architecture
Of city upon city gathered online
For the merriment of Thames living.

The backdrop
The cityscape
The train that did not stop.
Mention something from the news;
Keep the brain going. Stop!

The equations of solace
The phallus of peremptory meaning
Fast broadband streaming
Conversations I am dreaming of
Coffee and stay up late cough
:: We’ll be out of here soon
//: witches on their merry go round broom.

Such tomato and salad meetings
Corporate implications to Islamic greetings
Shame from the Dubai life also in equality
With investors and Sylvester
The director down the refractory
How can it be that so much meaning is for me?

When the candle says to the crow that knowledge has so many trees to grow.

Sort it Out

/ rrishi99 / Leave a comment

Sort it out, you gyppo
And get off my land
There are things in this place
That you don’t understand.

There is a fire where it belongs
For the furnace of understanding
And a legacy from the Land Registry
About how it deals with the King’s standing.

Those angels that support you
Also look over and watch me,
So keep your Backstreet Boys on reply
In case there is enough business here for three.

For it seems you think you’re God the Father
The way you’ve divvyed the land up so fair,
Then what about Mary and the water
For those baptisms over there!

Do you think they should take place on Saturday
When the farmers come to town?
Or is it repression of my sexual urges
In case I keep prices on Sunday trading down?

If that is so, then keep your pocket book
My trade is some private affair:
You won’t find me dealing with terrorists
As you make your internet self-aware.

Keep some of that tax aside for me after vaccinations
In case I want to play some upper-class chief
And save my children’s’ nation.
There are not too many places to go

The pubs have shut down and the clubs are quiet;
That’s just as well as I’ve ‘been there and done that’,

But in the middle we’ll meet and make it a Liberal affair
So the Labour can know Conservative
How do you like that for stealth and my social diet?
For these Culture Tsars walking around everywhere.

For Birmingham is to tomorrow what the Black Country was to the past
A case for royal caskets and cheese and a blast for legal cases at last.
Measure me this or measure me that, the time now set for oneness is here
And those cafes and restaurants need impressive food for me to have a beer.

I would like to add, sir, that I think the town
Needs less to centre it properly
But if you need to build some more and get down
Try not to do it on top of me!

And with that the perambulator crossed the road
Leaving Harborne on Saturday to mixed delights
Writing one more poem from his mental groans
Wishing the finality to some of those political fights.

Labour will be by, soon, and it is time for some facts
Reinvention of the wheel from those barbecues and some culture tax.