Heres the one and only Dave Russell poet,singer songwriter ,author, and bluesman "The Godfather of acoustic punk" performing his unforgetable musical poem which pokes fun at a bus stop near to where he lives in West Kensington the West 10 postal district of London. Its an area that is best known for its annual sprawling "Notting Hill carnival" that dominates its streets every summer. Whether the locals want to live with it or not,and more recently for the movie starring Julia Roberts called after the area "Notting Hill" unlike the movies wholely fictional image created by the Hollywood treacle factory Dave is one of the real truly Bohemian geniuses who have made their homes in this area of social contrast where the privelaged classes in their big houses rub shoulders with the very underprivelaged in their council flats of whom a high percentage are the descendants of the 1950's influx of immigrants from the West Indies. Daves poem expresses some of dread one can feel when getting off a bus in this part of London where the dark deeds of the albeit small criminal minority seem very often to eclipse all the undoubted charm of this otherwise culturaly rich area. Doesnt todays fear of street crime turn all our cities into a Hades like hell on earth when darkness falls.

Here are two very different versions of this poem.

The first was recorded by me in 2000 at a live event and has Dave accompanying himself with his mesmerising laptop guitar frailed in open tuning using a small glass TCP mouthwash bottle a style straight out of the country blues/Hawaillan guitar traditions.

The second is a very different and yet be completed (in mastering terms) version. Daves vocals were recorded by myself with music composed and mixed by young electronic composer Willpower William Beatty aka "Willpowaa".

Heres the link to the page where you can listen online to the 2 online sound poems set to music..

http://groups.msn.com/acousticmusiciansandpoetssoundarchive/poetrysounds.msnw?action=get_message&mview=1&ID_Message=460

Regards.

Jim Clark

PS..Dont forget you can if you prefer listen to my sound poems at my Yahoo "sound poetry" web groups (look in "files") heres that link..
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bloozman_uk/
You can listen to this particular poem in my second yahoo "Soundpoemz" sound poetry group heres that link..
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/soundpoemz/


All rights are reserved on these sound recordings copyright/patent Jim Clark/Dave Russell/William Beatty aka Willpowaa 2003