These Foolish Things

Twitter was awash with fake news this morning. And by fake news I mean bona fide fake news of the April 1st variety. You know the sort of (unbelievable) thing - Elvis found on the Moon manning a burger stand; Bono paying his taxes; Theresa May getting Brexit over the line. I stayed well clear. Till twelve o'clock, anyway.

Talking about foolish things, here's some joyous footage of Dave Brubeck playing live at the University of Rome in 1959. Paul Desmond on sax never sounded so good.

Dave Brubeck Quartet ft. Paul Desmond - These foolish Things

Fooled Again

I made it all the way to l2 o'clock without reading about any spaghetti trees or safari parks breeding Velociraptors.

And neither did I tell the bloke in the corner shop this morning that his shoelaces were untied*.

Tom Petty - Fooled Again (1977) 

* Well OK, maybe I did

Some things are over, some things go on

In the pub this evening reminiscing about the year gone by. 2016 has had its fair shares of ups and downs, and then some.

People have left our lives. And people have entered. Where will we all be this time next year? Only a fool would bet on the outcome of that particular brain teaser.

I was too blind to see

Carl Hetherington has presided over all my recordings since 2012. Pickering Place and Chip Off The Old Block were both recorded at the congenial Oakwood Studios - on the outskirts of York - with Carl at the helm. Not only is he a fabulous producer (his knob-twiddling skills are legendary in this part of the world) but also a fine piano player. We recorded three songs just before I went to Madrid – Hey Hey Hey, Days Like This and Fool. Fool is one of the saddest songs I’ve ever written. And that’s saying something, by the way. I asked Carl to tinkle the ivories on this one and in so doing I think we’ve succeeded in really swathing it in melancholia.

John Medd - Fool (© John Medd 2016)