Chris James's Blog, page 24

100 Great Songs to Publish a Book to, #49: The Sweet, Fox on the Run

For all their historical classification as glam rock, The Sweet did turn out some decent tunes back in the day, and in my opinion deserve a kinder verdict than posterity tends to hand down to them.  Fox on the Run was written by the band, and shows creativity and talent which goes beyond the narrow and quite mean label ascribed to their output.  But fame did not agree with lead singer Brian Connolly, and years of alcohol abuse finally killed him in 1997 aged only 51.  The drummer, Mick Tucker, did not fare much better, dying in 2002 aged 54; however, the other two are still going, each with their own versions of the band.

Onslaught is available for pre-order at the special introductory price of $2.99 in the US here, in the UK here, in Canada here, and in Australia here.

100 Great Songs to Publish a Book to, #50: Roger Hodgson, Had a Dream

Roger Hodgson’s first solo album after leaving Supertramp, 1984’s In the Eye of the Storm, opens with this belting rock song which has his amazing melodic dexterity coursing through it.  I could easily include every track from this superlative album on this list, but the best by a nose is this one, especially for the lyric: “I don’t care, what the future brings/Give a damn, about anything/I’d be fine, if they’d only leave me alone.”  (Subs pls check: Has the replacement straight-jacket arrived from the hospital yet?  Ed.)

Onslaught is available for pre-order at the special introductory price of $2.99 in the US here, in the UK here, in Canada here, and in Australia here.

100 Great Songs to Publish a Book to, #51 Harry Chapin, W.O.L.D.

A humanitarian and believer in ending world hunger, Harry Chapin came from an era which, given the disastrous farce now being played out by the feeble-minded racist, sexist psychopath in the White House, we must now conclude has passed irrevocably into history.

Chapin, all but forgotten today, took storytelling in song to a very special place, as evidenced in this tale of a washed-up radio jock who phones his ex-wife with a sad and pathetic plea to reunite.  She rejects him, and he is left to cling on to his professional achievements, which, we can deduce, are nothing like as successful as he reports them to be.

Onslaught is available for pre-order at the special introductory price of $2.99 in the US here, in the UK here, in Canada here, and in Australia here.

100 Great Songs to Publish a Book to, #52 Genesis, Stagnation

The stand-out track from the band’s second album, 1970’s Trespass, Stagnation is often overlooked in favour of the heavy rocker The Knife.  In addition, the structure of Stagnation is not dissimilar to Supper’s Ready, the one track which defines early Genesis.  I regard Stagnation as Supper’s Ready’s baby brother, condemned to be forever outshone by its more muscular sibling.

Stagnation starts out as a gentle, acoustic track, builds to an agreeable climax of real anger, and ends with a positive resolution.  It is an ideal song for those tricky days when you really, really wanna drink to wash out the filth that is deep in your guts.  So, friends, let us drink, let us smile, let us go.

Onslaught is available for pre-order at the special introductory price of $2.99 in the US here, in the UK here, in Canada here, and in Australia here.

100 Great Songs to Publish a Book to, #53: Bread, The Guitar Man

One of the pioneers of what would later be called ‘soft rock’, David Gates drove Bread to vast success on the back of several inoffensive-but-nevertheless-quite-syrupy love songs.  Apart from those, however, Bread also produced this little gem, with quite possibly the best use of the wah-wah guitar effect.

Onslaught is available for pre-order at the special introductory price of $2.99 in the US here, in the UK here, in Canada here, and in Australia here.

100 Great Songs to Publish a Book to, #54: Ultravox, Passing Strangers

This list would not be complete without at least one contribution from Midge Ure, who has had a remarkable career (Silk, Thin Lizzy, Visage, in addition to Ultravox).  Passing Strangers is one of Ultravox’s least successful hits but, in my opinion, the most intelligent song they did.  And this post-apocalyptic video also evokes the era of Thatcher’s Britain very well.

Onslaught is available for pre-order at the special introductory price of $2.99 in the US here, in the UK here, in Canada here, and in Australia here.

Share & Win – Competition Time!

[image error]Much excitement in the James household this week as the first sleek and rather gorgeous paperbacks of The Repulse Chronicles, Book One: Onslaught arrived.  I’ve got three copies to give away when the Kindle version goes live next Saturday, 16 September.  To win one of these signed and dedicated paperbacks, all you have to do is share an Onslaught-related post on social media.  This can be one of the 100 song posts on this blog, or Onslaught‘s Amazon product pages in your territory (UK here, US here, for example).  The social media platforms you need to share the posts on are Twitter, FaceBook, Google+ and LinkedIn.  Yes, I know there are others, but I’m a writer, not a social media guru, and that’s as many as I can cope with.  When you share an Onslaught-related post, be sure to tag me so I see it.  Each share on each of the four platforms earns you one ‘token’ in next Saturday’s draw.

Far be it from me to encourage you to fill up the internet with spam, but that’s how this competition works: each post share earns one token in the draw, so the more posts you spam share, the more tokens you’ll have in the draw, so the greater your chances of winning a copy of Onslaught.  I will note all of the posts shared, write down the names on pieces of paper (quaint, eh?), put all of the pieces of paper into a bowl, and get Youngest Daughter to pick three different names out of it.  I will announce the winners next Saturday, write the dedication of your choice in your copy, and priority snail-mail it to you wherever in the world you are.  Good luck!

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100 Great Songs to Publish a Book to, #55: Sniff ‘n’ The Tears, Driver’s Seat

An excellent track to listen to when plotting a novel-length work of fiction.  Like the first 15 seconds of this music, in your first 15 sentences you need to hook the reader, show them (lack of ability notwithstanding, natch) that you’re in charge, and hint at the fantastic journey you’re going to take them on.  Like the vocal, guitar, bass and keyboard parts in this song, you need to keep the pace and subplots and all the other elements running in the kind of harmony so effortlessly displayed here.  I’ve always wondered if there’s a way to deliver a similar satisfaction with the written word as music like this can satisfy.  (No, there isn’t.  Ed.)  I try to make my books read like this song sounds, but that probably just makes me a bit nuts.  Oh well.  (Yes, it does.  Keep taking the meds, James.  Ed.)

Onslaught is available for pre-order at the special introductory price of $2.99 in the US here, in the UK here, in Canada here, and in Australia here.

100 Great Songs to Publish a Book to, #56: Genesis, Eleventh Earl of Mar

This is the opening track on 1976’s Wind & Wuthering, an album from which it would be very easy to include every song on this list.  Eleventh Earl of Mar tells the story of the Scottish Jacobite John Erskine (1675-1732) who, depending on which way you want to count it, was the 23rd, 11th or seventh Earl of Mar.  Interestingly, Mar is an earldom in north-eastern Scotland dating from 1014, and is believed to be the oldest earldom in Europe.  In 1715, Erskine rebelled against the Hanoverians, but despite having numerically superior forces, he lost the battle of Sheriffmuir in November of that year to the more militarily adept 2nd Duke of Argyll, and spent the rest of his life in exile in France.  Oh, and the music is fan-bloody-tastic, too!

Onslaught is available for pre-order at the special introductory price of $2.99 in the US here, in the UK here, in Canada here, and in Australia here.

 

100 Great Songs to Publish a Book to, #57: Roxy Music, Street Life

A terrific Saturday-night track.  If this isn’t the very definition of ‘cool’, then I have no idea what is.  But, then again, I’ve never really understood the concept of ‘cool’ anyway, only that Bryan Ferry seemed to epitomise it back in the day.  And now, forty years later, Street Life’s opening lyric of “Wish everybody would leave me alone” is one of the favourites of the writer inside me.

Onslaught is available for pre-order at the special introductory price of $2.99 in the US here, in the UK here, in Canada here, and in Australia here.