Dimming Lights and Fading Towns
Hello hello silver bloggers, music lovers and Hello hivers!
One of my favourite days because it means a post on Hive will be written by me, and I get to hear other music that Hivers and Hiveians enjoy. Well for the select band that participate in ttt anyway!
Picture by me
Usually, music is a way to celebrate, lift the spirits, or look back fondly on good times. At least that is how I take my music...
But music is also the ultimate mirror for frustration and melancholy. I am so fucked off with this government in the UK. Sometimes you look around at the headlines, the state of public discourse, and the general direction of travel in the country, and it feels as though the quiet, familiar fabric of everyday British life ... the local village pub, the steady routines, the sense of community ... is being systematically dismantled or casually dismissed by people completely out of touch with reality. We have a so called Nature minister from a rural constituency saying you know that the warm beers in the village pub with dogs sitting there is a far right myth. I have never been so insulted in my life.
Having just spent time over the weekend enjoying a proper pint of cask ale in a village setting, it stings to see politicians talk down the existence and character of our own heartlands.
The photo was my wild boar sausages and mash in an awesome wee village pub in Bingley. Golden retrievers and spaniels were in the bar, people were having a wonderful time. But this government says it is a fantasy. They will be outlawing dogs next.
I stay clear of politics football and religions in pubs, but it is impossible now.
Talk about pissed off, I am normally the most upbeat guy around. Having learnt to live with pain 24/7 for the last 50 years with my ankylosing spondylitis I blot things out of my mind.
This morning though, I actually had the thought of phoning the samaratans. wtaf!!
What they fuck are they trying to do to people.
If you're feeling the weight of where things stand right now, here are three of the most haunting, melancholic tracks ever committed to vinyl to soundtrack that mood.
It is Tuesday and that of course means that it's #ttt or #threetunetuesday and so it's time to share some tunes with you!
@ablaze started #ttt 279 weeks ago! Go check out what it is all about on his latest post Fatboy Slim II for Three Tune Tuesday - Week 278 - win some HBI
Do go support @ablaze as without him we would not have this mental fun musical activity that you can win HSBI from! I am happy to be one of the SIX sponsors and it is kinda fun checking out music from all over this global village of ours!
Long live #ttt 😁🎼 and #threetunetuesday
Tune 1 - The Specials – Ghost Town (1981)
Kick it off with one my all time favourite songs and hit that volume button..
No song has ever captured the creeping decay and social hollowing-out of Britain quite like this. Recorded during the height of early-80s urban despair, Jerry Dammers' eerie organ intro and the wailing brass sound like an elegy for a country losing its way. I remember when it was release and the UK is so much worse now...
The lyrics don't just speak about economic hardship—they talk about the loss of gathering spaces ...
"This town is coming like a ghost town... No pubs are left open on the lockdown..."
It remains a chilling reminder of what happens when communities are neglected, and forty-five years later, that cold wind blowing through the chorus feels all too familiar.
Tune 2 - Joy Division – Atmosphere (1980)
When you think depressing tunes, maybe Joy Division and The Smiths spring to mind lol!
Well I fucking love Joy Division...
Few records capture deep, isolating despondency like Joy Division. Built on Martin Hannett's cavernous, hollow percussion and Peter Hook’s high bass melodies, Atmosphere feels like walking through a fog across an empty landscape. Ian Curtis’s baritone carries an aching, resigned sadness:
"Don't walk away in silence..."
It isn't an angry song... it's how I feel right now ... it’s an exhausted one. It’s the sound of looking at something you once loved and watching it slowly slip beyond reach while feeling entirely powerless to stop it.
Funnily enough we are going to see Mrs T's family in America next month. She thinks we won't be coming back, knowing me for 30 years she knows my stubbornness and spontaneity lol.
Tune 3 - The Smiths – Asleep (1985)
Well this is probably the one and only time you will see or hear a song from The Smiths in one of my #ttt posts. Far too down in the dumps they were for me, although they were one of my brother's favourite bands. Not surprised as he was a right moody fucker.
Stripped of Johnny Marr’s usual jangly guitars, this track relies on nothing more than a solitary, echoing upright piano and Morrissey's melancholic plea for complete quietude. Written as a B-side to The Boy with the Thorn in His Side, it is pure, unabashed despondency.
"Sing me to sleep, I don't want to wake up on my own anymore..."
When the world outside feels overwhelmingly grey, bureaucratic, and detached from the warmth of the life you remember, this is the track that reflects that total sense of retreat.#
Sums up me at the moment though.
So there you have it, 3 songs that form a ttt summing up my mood at the moment with the state of the UK.
Which was your favourite tune? Or have you never heard of them?
Note: The 3 YouTube videos that I have shared are not owned by me, I am simply spreading great music on Hive.
I wish that you all have a brilliant happy fun and terrific Tuesday until we meet again enjoy your tunes 🎶🎵🎶
Thanks for visiting!
The images and ramblings are from me, with some assistance from gemini on the verbage and the lead image, the mad Scotsman TengoLoTodo unless otherwise stated.
@tengolotodo September 29th 2026
I dig the Smith's. They had some good stuff. I really like the album Hatful of Hollow I think it was. Which I guess is basically just a greatest hits album or something like that. I also had a solo album by Marr with his newer band The Healers. It was good stuff.
Never heard of the Healers and not much of a Smiths fan, will check that band out.
Fun fact: Whenever I see your avatar and the simple moniker Bozz, I think of Bozz Boorer...
Who the hell is Bozz Boorer, you may well ask. He was Morrissey's right hand man guitarist/producer and more, throughout much of his solo career, only retired a couple of years back. Seen him live so, so many times.
That is called information you didn't ask for and never needed to know 🤣 While we were on the topic though, it 'felt' relevant 😁
No, that is cool. It's more of a nickname based on my last name, but I always tend to think about Bozz Scaggs. I like Morrissey, but I had never heard of Bozz Boorer.
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I had never heard these songs, nor these bands or solo artists. What politicians are doing in many countries is truly infuriating. I’d better not talk about my own country; it just makes my blood boil. So, you're heading to the US next month? It’s always good to get a change of scenery, even if it’s just for a few days! Sending you a big hug, Ed.
Yes three weeks and a cruise in the Caribbean Nancy. Politicians live in cuckoo land and for the most part are corrupt and do not care about the ordinary people. Big hug.
Oh man!
What a trio of tunes.
Those 'far right myth' comments certainly resonated with many good, honest, ordinary and real people, and will continue to do so, this rolling stone will gather no moss...
Ghost town is a perfect epitaph for so much of the life that once was. I hear it now and the words pierce the psyche in a way that is tangible, oh man, I mean really tangible. Just be mindful dude, that no storm can last forever, that is the way of things.
A wise man once uttered the words that we yearn for when wishing for somewhat of a return to times we recognise more:
Joy division have an innate air of urban degradation tinged with despair, but though it may not be a mainstream view, I hear beauty and hope mixed up in it all. I always did.
I believe we may have touched on this point before on the topic of music, there is a certain kind of 'of the time' feel about real 80's tracks, almost like it has the very flavour of the country at the time steeped within. I am listening to each track as I mash the keyboard with my 2 'typey fingers', I take a while, so obviously love will tear us apart is now autoplaying.
Now here's another contrary take... I think asleep - those lyrics juxtaposed with Mozz's despair/angst ridden vocal set to a lullaby vibe also hints at an underlying, raw beauty. As a kid I detested The Smiths and Morrissey in particular as an adult I have seen him live more times than I remember. The reason, although I thought him to be a miserable, arrogant, sanctimonious bastard.
After accidentally reading some Smiths lyrics some years back, I kept going, I could not believe I had been missing the sardonic, irreverent, anti established humour from a painfully shy misfit loner. I sometimes google Morrissey's best lyrics in an effort to cheer myself up, that may say more of me than anything else 🤣
(I actually came to respond to your Motown post then realised the tab has been open for *a week!!! where the hell does time go?) These picks resonate so very much right now though.
However, far more importantly, I hope you can laugh, smile, and wade your way out of the mental crap mire man. I hope the impending trip creates an impetus in your life and helps with perspective, sometimes perspective is the best we have to work with, especially in the UK today.
I don't care that I am meant to be the epitome of a dour, emotionally bankrupt English gent, (who am I kidding, I'm a bloody Yorkshireman/Teesider!!!) I am sending love, joy and the very best wishes to you and yours from me and mine dude.
Here's hoping tomorrow is a far brighter day man 🤍🌻😊
(Sorry for the stupid length, not meant to convey disrespect for your time, just find it hard to self-edit when something resonates.)
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Just imagine what we have to go through in ours, what a circus, Ed. In fact, it's been almost half a year since I stopped reading and watching the news. I tend not to. Fuck them all.
Why does 'Ghost Town' sound like reggae? But yeah, I agree it sounds good. The Smiths....damn, Morrissey, they are regulars on my playlist.