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JOHN MOSEDALE - We’re Not Packing Parachutes 

JOHN MOSEDALE - We’re Not Packing Parachutes 
Private Label 

This CD debutant is aged 55. No problem: after all, Mark Twain only learned to ride a bike at 55. The question is, does it cut the mustard?

Well, first signs were good. For one thing, John had got the celebrated Richard Digance onboard as producer. Secondly, although most of the songs are self-penned, he clearly didn’t want to dilute the finished article with songs of his that did not come up to scratch, so roped in assistant engineer Rob Carey to write three, and co-write the final song Remember Me, which is, incidentally, head shoulders and torso above any of the other nine songs. It’s the most moving account of the ravages of Alzheimer’s imaginable.

As for the others: they decidedly aren’t bland “fillers”. They were wittily constructed and engagingly performed: but alas lacked memorability. Apart from the closing song, there were, however, two from John’s pen that stood out. Doc Brown’s Car is a reference to the Back To The Future movie: and is a sweet exercise in nostalgia. But take it from me who had an unhealthy interest in such things, the miniskirt craze did not hit Britain in 1959: the mini car did. The skirt coincided with Swinging London in 1964, courtesy of Mary Quant.

The other strongish song, will upset woke reviewers. I’ll somehow excuse him finding strabismus funny – in Always Putting My Foot In It - for this zinger line in the chorus: “Sometimes I only open my mouth in order to change feet”.

www.johnmosedale.com

Dai Woosnam

 

This review appeared in Issue 132 of The Living Tradition magazine