DAVID BOWIE IS... We made it down to the V&A a couple of weeks ago for the much-trumpeted David Bowie Is... exhibition. What a great afternoon we had. It took almost three hours to work our way through the rooms. Highlights are the sombre Berlin room and the floor-to-ceiling video wall showing footage of the Philadelphia 74 concert (recorded for the David Live album). Fascinating archive material, though, including handwritten lyric sheets, pages from Bowie's diaries and of course costumes, costumes, costumes.
THE BATTLE OF EPPING FOREST
Genesis (1973) The Story of the Song (Updated October 2017) I’ve been listening to the Genesis album Selling England by the Pound now for 40 years. One track that I have always had something of a soft spot for is “The Battle of Epping Forest”. Although there are objectively better and more musically satisfying tracks elsewhere on the album, “Battle” kept my attention as a teenager; and still does. I love the witty lyrics, the double entendres and the cartoon-like characters with Bash Street Kids-style names. I grew up in East Anglia and often went down to London, so I knew roughly where Epping was on the map. To me, then, the song appeared rooted in the real world. It seemed to report on real events, real-time, unlike the myth-laden (but equally attractive) romance of “Dancing Out with the Moonlit Knight” or “Firth of Fifth” or the rustic whimsy of “I Know What I Like”. “Battle” was packed with words and colourful characters, with humour and ...
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