|
Book Review: Catch-22
by Lang Reid
 This
week’s novel has to feature as one of the best satirical books of all time.
Try a simple Google search and you will come up with almost three million
references. Google The Da Vinci Code and you will get six million
references, but Catch-22 was first published 45 years ago, and not fresh in
the collective (un)consciousness of today, such as is Dan Brown’s
blockbuster.
Catch-22 was written by Joseph Heller (ISBN 0-09-947731-9) and took the
world by storm in 1961 and by 1970 had been adapted for the screen. It has
left the phrase “Catch-22” as an integral part of English expression to
describe a cyclical conundrum.
The book revolves around Bombardier Yossarian, an American Assyrian in the
US Air Force in WW II. Chapter by chapter it introduces the men in his
squadron, including such wonderful characters as Major Major Major Major
(and you have to read the book to find out how he received that name) and
the quartermaster in charge of the PX store Milo Minderbinder, the man who
was really running the local operation of the war, not the nominal head,
Colonel Cathcart.
However, it was Colonel Cathcart who was in charge of allowing men home
after they had flown enough missions, but was in the habit of raising the
number as soon as anyone got close to completing it. There was another way
that the men could get home – if they were crazy and did not want to fly any
more missions. This is where Catch-22 came in. Catch-22 said that if anyone
wanted to get out of combat duty, they weren’t really crazy. This is
explained early in the book by Doc Daneeka, the resident medical officer who
tells Yossarian, “Orr (another of the pilots) would be crazy to fly more
missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he
flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was
sane and had to.” And try and get out of that!
Other items with the same inescapable logic come with Milo Minderbinder who
flies missions to collect groceries, working on a purchasing system. One
classic is where he explains to a disbelieving Yossarian how he buys eggs
for seven cents each in Malta and sells them for five cents each to the mess
halls, and makes a profit of three and a quarter cents an egg (and you have
to read the book to see how this is accomplished).
Having loaned several copies out over the years, and ending up with none, I
was very pleased to find one in a secondhand stall at a fair and snapped it
up immediately. This is definitely a book worth chasing through Amazon if
the local secondhand bookshops cannot supply you with a copy. I make no
excuses in reviewing a 45 year old book. Catch-22 has real literary merit,
which is more than can be said for many publications sent in to be reviewed.
Find one, write your name inside in large letters and never lend it out.
Mott’s CD review: Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Mott the Dog
 5
Stars *****
“Crime of the Century” is the name of the album, but in hindsight
“Surprise of the Century” would have been a more apt title. Supertramp
was formed in 1969 around Richard Davies, with the financial backing of
Stanley August Miesegaes (known to his friends as Sam).
In the first auditions Richard met Roger Hodgson, who were to become the
nucleus of the band we now know from legend as Supertramp. After various
name changes the band decided to be called Supertramp after Sam
suggested it from the W. H. Davies book published in 1910, ‘History of a
Supertramp.’
The first self titled Supertramp album was released in 1970, to no
public or critical acclaim. The rest of the band are either fired, have
a nervous breakdown, or jump ship. A second album is recorded,
‘Indelibly Stamped’ (1971), which if anything fared even worse than its
predecessor. (Both of these albums feature rather aimless songs
featuring meandering solos and indifferent lyrics instantly
forgettable.) After the tour to promote Indelibly Stamped, the three new
recruits to the band are all fired, leaving just the duo of Davies and
Hodgson again. At this point Sam separates from the band, paying off the
60,000 pound debts already incurred, wishing them all the best for the
future, but severing any further ties.
Davies and Hodgson bravely keep going, recruiting new musicians in the
shape of magical saxophonist John Anthony Helliwell (ex ‘Alan Bown
Sound’) and the rock solid jazzy drumming of Bob. C. Benberg (ex ‘Bees
Make Honey’ and ‘Ilford Subway’ with American Scott Gorman before he
became famous with ‘Thin Lizzy’). Perhaps most importantly of all,
Dougie Thomson came in on bass guitar and took over the business
management of the band.
At this point the band were gigging day to day to survive whilst writing
new material for the proposed new album. But A&M Records had no future
plans for the band; in fact they thought Supertramp had imploded. Roger
Hodgson and Richard Davies, under the watchful eye of new partner Dougie
Thomson, went back to A&M Records to plead their case for another bite
at the cherry. For once somebody at the record company got it right.
In November 1973 the band are moved lock, stock, and if you want,
smokin’ barrel, to a farm in Somerset, England to work on the new
material for the next album. From there in February 1974 they are moved
on to Trident Recording Studios in London with the excellent Ken Scott
holding down production duties. In June the band finish off recordings
in the famous Ramport Studios. The third album under the Supertramp
banner is released in September 1973, and with the full weight of the
A&M publicity machine behind them, coupled with some ground breaking and
prestigious live concerts, the band becomes overnight sensations.
The first single off the album, “Dreamer” (which was to be the template
for the Supertramp sound from here on, hammering piano, searing guitar
licks, beautifully contrasting harmonised vocals, with catchy amusing
lyrics, combustible saxophone and clarinets, and a jazz influenced
rhythm section) was to peak at Number 13 in the British charts, followed
by the album itself which was in the Top Five by Christmas of that year.
All the songs on the album have a conceptual theme to them: in this case
insanity. All sorts of insanity, whether it be brought on by education
(School), dreaming (the first single), love (Rudy), shyness (Hide In
Your Shell) or authority (the title track). Every track is instantly
recognisable as Supertramp, and the album as a whole runs together
perfectly, starting with the haunting harmonica opening of School to the
final rousing crescendo of the title track.
In-between there are some splendid melodies ranging from many of the
band’s influences, folk, progressive/rock, pop, jazz and the classics,
combining the vocal talents of both Hodgson and Davies in their
contrasting manner, giving Supertramp that essential variety. This is
used in quite devastating effect on the album’s centrepiece song Asylum,
where they both sound as if they are completely going off the planet.
Quite a blend you may think, but it all gels to stirring effect.
Supertramp was to go on to conquer the adult oriented world of rock
music, even the advent of punk rock did not dent their mercurial rise to
stardom. Three more smash hit albums were to follow, “Crisis What
Crisis?” (1975), “Even In The Quietest Moments” (1977) and culminating
in the Worldwide Number One album “Breakfast in America” (1979) which
was to spawn four hit singles on its own (in those days hit singles used
to mean something). The band toured internationally on the strength of
these records and would fill stadiums wherever they went.
As in many marriages, something that started out as blissfully perfect
ruptured into bitterness and in family fighting. After one more not so
successful album and world tour, Roger Hodgson left the family, taking
with him John Anthony Helliwell, leaving Richard Davies to carry on with
the name Supertramp. Of course by this time none of them needed to work
for the money, and really did not care, nor to be quite honest did the
public, enough was enough.
Both carried on their careers in a very lacklustre manner, but were
never to find that original spark again. All good things must come to an
end. The Tramp was super for a long time and made enough to retire to
its mansion. I do like a story with a happy (if not perfect) ending. I
wonder if Stanley August Miesegaes “Sam” ever got repaid for his
original funding of the dream?
Supertramp were:
Bob. C. Benberg: Drums and Percussion
Roger Hodgson: Vocals, Guitars, Piano
John Anthony Helliwell: Saxophones, Clarinets, Vocals
Dougie Thomson: Bass Guitar
Richard Davies: Vocals, Harmonica, Keyboards
Songs
School, Bloody Well Right, Hide In Your Shell, Asylum, Dreamer,
Rudy, If Everyone Was Listening, Crime Of The Century
To contact Mott the
Dog email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.mott-the-dog.com
|
