Death or Glory


From: Graeme M
Subject: [STORMCOCK] Re: Death or Glory

This DOG?, the one writh the flowers on it, currently available issue,
is such a different beast for the Death or Glory? I know and love...

I bought my copy of Death or Glory at the gig in the Queens Hall in
Edinburgh with no idea what had happened to Roy prior to releasing this
album. My now ex and I had a stressful day getting the kids sorted out
and getting over from Dunfermline to the gig, I think I may also have
been the cause for putting my other half in a seriously bad mood but my
memory conveniently fails me as to what heinous crime I had committed.

I think this was the second time we had gone to see Roy together the
first time had been at the George Sq Theatre also in Edinburgh and my
ex was really knocked out with Roy's singing (she is a trained singer
btw) as was I but the gig at the Queens Hall that night was a whole
other kettle of fish. It has to have been one of the most powerful
almost harrowing events I've been to. Roy basically played if my memory
serves me right whole chunks of the DoG complete with poetry and tore
his heart there on stage. We came out of the gig exhausted and my ex in
even a worse mood than when she went in!

A few years later when my ex did in deed become my ex, DoG was the
album that was my retreat. I had been married for fifteen years, our
fourth child had only been born 3 years earlier and like Roy my world
had fallen apart. Call me a soppy git, a romantic fool whatever, to
this day I cannot listen to On Summer Day or Evening Star particularly
what Roy says at the end "on the stair" but it brings all back so many
difficult memories and then the tears. Memories of being in a small
flat, of not being able to sleep, by myself for the first time in 34
years , no kids, no one except me being half awake and dreaming that
she was there.

Take care

Graeme


Loved the DOG thread folks ( & well instigated Mr Musial ) -
Graeme your post was very touching . My first hearing was Roy's London gig in Gordon Square - I can't remember the name of the hall. He introduced both Summer's Day and Evening Star as having been composed on Midsummer's day , and the whole thing was intense tottering on the dege of implosion. He didn't make explicit reference to events in his relationship but it was starkly obvious. I do think his best work has often come from off-kilter emotional states - I guess that 's a compensation of sorts for the creative , the rest of us don't get an output , just scar-tissue.

Posted: Mon - May 10, 2004 at 08:39 AM          

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