Category: music

One of the most prominent things in my life at the moment highlights just how much influence my young daughter has over me – The Wiggles.

For the uninitiated among you (and surely there can’t be many), they are four guys, Greg, Murray, Jeff and Anthony, who are a musical phenomenon from Australia.

They write unfeasibly catchy songs and, along with help from (I kid you not) Captain Feathersword, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus and Wags the Dog, they are beloved by hundreds of thousands of young kids worldwide.

Here’s a quick song by them that sort of displays their appeal!

In Friday’s Guardian, there was an interesting piece about the 1972 Miles Davis album On The Corner that was much derided at the time, but is now considered (cliche alert) ‘groundbreaking’ and ‘seminal’ by many critics.

What caught my eye was not that it’s now lauded as a great work of musical art, but that various music acts have cited it as an inspiration. Those mentioned include Radiohead, David Byrne, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Underworld.

I find it astounding that whenever an album or act is revived after having been forgotten for many years, there always seems to be a current trendy, hip act who loves it/them and has drawn on their work as an inspiration.

Are they telling the truth here? Do these people really go out seeking obscure albums, rather than listening to what everyone else listens to? How come Radiohead always cite every obscure artist as influence?

And anyway, what happened to The Beatles and Bob Dylan as the artist that everyone wanted to emulate?

Someone will discover the rare Peel Sessions of The Principle Edwards soon and start using that as a reference point!