On-line the other week I happened to hear Jon & Vangelis’ original rendition of the song ‘State of Independence’, which reminded me how much I’d always liked Donna Summer’s cover version of the song. On Saturday in Chepstow what should I find, but a vinyl copy of her 1982 self-titled album, on which ‘State of Independence’ is the closing number on the first side. I bought the record along with two others for £6.
I enjoyed the song as much as ever, buoyed up as it is by Summer’s commanding lead vocal, backed by an all-star choir including the likes of Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Dionne Warwick and Stevie Wonder. Alas there wasn’t anything else on the record that pleased me as much, with ‘Love Is in Control’ in my estimation a distant second-best of the rest. I'd been interested to hear the version of Billy Strayhorn's ‘Lush Life’ which closes the album: but to my ears its being dressed up in ‘80s garb didn’t suit the song well at all.
Six pounds seemed cheap but proved not to be much of a bargain when I didn’t love any of the three records, pleasant enough as it was to give them a hearing. The other two were Bonaparte’s Retreat by The Chieftains (1976) and Shelter by Lone Justice (1986), both interesting in their own ways though neither one a keeper. The latter record was somewhat marred for me by that awful ‘80s drum sound that I didn’t like then & still don’t like now. Even so, I did quite like the opening track ‘I Found Love’, which I think I must have heard on the radio back in the day. And the penultimate number, ‘Inspiration’, while unfamiliar, was even more to my taste.
Last week’s heatwave peaked on Thursday afternoon with maximum temperatures of 38C hereabouts: as hot as it’s ever been; not as hot as it will be.
In my twenties I had a taste for some of the symbolist & decadent literature from the French fin de siècle. It's a taste that has faded over the years, though now & again curiosity will lead me to read something more in that vein. Most recently that involved Remy de Gourmont’s From a Faraway Land (1898), in Brian Stableford's translation. This is a collection of short sketches and fables, in three loosely themed sections. The writing is elegant, ironic, and not too often overwrought. As was commonplace for that literary milieu, the artificiality and misogyny is plentiful to the point of being hard to stomach; though thankfully, in de Gourmont’s hands it's not unremitting, and there are also some more naturalistic interludes, and some female characters who aren't only stereotypes.
The other book I finished this week was a non-fiction volume – Ancestors by Alice Roberts It’s an overview of British prehistory through the lens of human osteoarchaeology. As befits an author who’s a ‘Professor of Public Engagement with Science’ — and an alumnus of Time Team — it’s squarely a work of popular science, all very accessibly written. I felt there were some chapters where a pursuit of immediacy risked slightly impeding the narrative, but overall I found it absorbing and very interesting. Notable discoveries of human remains from the palaeolithic to the iron age are described, as meanwhile the history of archaeological practice is examined, from 19th-century gentleman scholars to the present-day study of genetic material salvaged from ancient bones. While not averse to the occasional bout of speculation, Roberts takes pains throughout to emphasise just how much of what we know about the distant human past remains open to diverse interpretations; and how much else remains unknown, or unknowable.