Hangover music

New Year. Dreadful business! I'm overtired, understimulated and traumatised, listening to gentle music and trying to get over it. This always happens, I always convince myself I should be excited on the 'eve and then spend the following 24-hours rueing the day!

A tense and difficult night all round, we managed to squint and see a few crackles and pops (from what, admittedly, was a lovely spot in St. James' park) but a combination of low cloud and the recession meant that the- alleged- 12 minutes of licensed pyromania was more than a little anticlimactic. Furthermore, various fences and mounted police meant it took us over three hours to get back to Surbiton, most of which was just getting through the centre of the city to Waterloo. In the process, the atmosphere suddenly turned from jolly albeit cold, to jolly freezing and tense. After coming into sight of Waterloo we were forced to lap it- in my view, unnecessarily- three times and, in the process, were subjected to more spewy, shouty action from the various drunks and then the minor horror of somebody being bottled by a gang of louts a few feet away.

Short conclusion, no more New Years in Central London. Just like a renaissance play, the carnival atmosphere of transgression and broken boundaries soon gives way to violence and disorder! When you are in a crowd and hemmed in by police in the city you cannot feel more trapped and/or more pissed off with life in general!

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Anyway, here are the songs I am mumbling along to today, all efficiently hyperlinked:

Bob Dylan: Things have changed ... the sentiments in these lyrics are mine exactly, today especially but most other days, too!

Silver Jews: Suffering Jukebox ... this guy is a poet (no really!) The New York Times or somesuch declared one of his books a work of genius... and his music isn't bad either, sort of Leonard Cohenish!

John Lennon: Jealous Guy ... well known and overplayed but still sublime!

Graham Parker: Protection ... catchy tune from a local boy; almost impossible to get out of your head once in!

Joe Jackson: A Slow Song... just what it says on the tin

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Happy New Year!