And if I make it through, it’s all because of you

Inside Ed’s Head 2023-11-06

#Music

For some random reason*, I’ve decided to get into LCD Soundsystem this week. So here’s my current favourite tune by them, a stomping disco electro rant:

I love it. Reminds me of the mid-2000s.

#Last Week

Okay, so let’s talk about work. I finished the edits for Fenchurch 10 on Thursday, despite having a pretty disrupted week. Not too bad, in the end. No big blunders, just loads of wee tweaks and a couple of things to think about. I started editing the text on Friday and it’s been going pretty well – as of half three today, I’m at the halfway point of the book, with 39,000 words edited. That’s expanded up from about 31,000. There’s another 32k to do, so I’m expecting this one to hit 80k, which is pretty respectable.

One of the disruptions last week was a book launch for Marshall 4, which was held in the Station House in Stow. Gordy from the Wedale bookshop organised it and he’s been selling the paperbacks of the Marshall books like hot cakes for the last month or so. Actually, more like paperbacks that people want to buy. Anyway, it went really well – my old chum, Len Wanner, and I chatted for an hour and three quarters to a packed room. I’m pretty bloody blown away by the number of people who turned up to hear me wittering on about my books and writing.

Another disruption was Thursday’s trip to see my cardiologist in Edinburgh. A good experience – I’m now off all of my drugs, for the first time since September 2020, which I didn’t expect. And I’ve got a plan for if I get a recurrence of AF. The experience I had in July was typical of what to expect with the flecainide – the rhythm reverts to sinus but at a very fast speed (technically a tachycardia), so a beta blocker brings that down to normal. Then blood thinners again for a week to mitigate risk of a stroke. Hopefully I’ll never have it again, but it’s nice to know I’m close to being discharged.

* Here’s the bit where I explain the reason for this week’s music. I was wearing a Boards of Canada T-shirt when I saw the cardiologist. As I was leaving, he spotted it and we talked a bit about music we both love, including seeing Young Fathers on Weds night (yet another disruption!) – he’s seen them supporting LCD Soundsystem. So I decided to give them another chance and I really like them now. Hey, it’s weird how my enjoyment of music works.

#This Week

Okay, so the only thing I’ve got this week is my drum lesson tomorrow. I’ll hopefully finish this edit for F10 by Thursday and get it off to John for copy editing. It’s quite nice to have a bit of a rhythm again, means I can get on with stuff.

Once that’s done, I’ll be working on two series bibles. One for the new thing, another for Marshall season 2. At the moment, I’ll stick down three book ideas and then see how it all goes next year. I definitely want to get two out.

I’m pretty pleased with how Marshall 4 is doing so far. Selling well and juicing the sales of the first three, especially book 3, which didn’t do quite as well as I’d hoped. Maybe now people have had a chance to catch up from books 1 & 2. I’ll be doing a slower release cadence next year for that reason. Oh, and writing four books in a year pretty much broke me!

(And to my parents – you weren’t a disruption, honest!)

#Music 2

Oh, what? A second musical section? Why?

Because of the release of the final (hmmm) Beatles song, Now and Then. Given how terrible Free as a Bird was and how bland Real Love was, I was a bit sceptical about this. From the same cassette tape as those two, they tried to “Beatles up” a third John Lennon demo from the late 70s in those sessions, but abandoned it due to both a dreadful mains hum and the fact it was a mono recording where the piano and vocal were mixed together, so it was tough to mix with the new music. This mixes new guitar, drums and bass tracks from Macca and Ringo with mid-90s Harrison guitar parts and late-70s Lennon vocals, and a haunting orchestral score. And it’s a really strong song. I’ve had it running through my head all weekend, very poignant and pretty.

(Reason I said “hmmm” is I bet they’ll do more.)

The video is absolutely shocking, though. Considering it’s a beautiful song, having a daft video where they’re mugging about is a bit daft:

And here’s a fascinating short film about the making of it. Quite emotional in places (warning: contains footage of dead Beatles) and shows the technical wizardry Peter Jackson’s team used to separate a second-generation cassette recording into a beautiful sounding vocal and piano:

Thanks for reading – I hope these are entertaining. Please let me know if there’s anything else you’d like me to write about! And I’m sorry if the heart stuff is boring, but I get a lot of emails from readers who’ve had or have AF. A surprising number. And talking about a condition can help.

Cheers,
Ed