"The Mill on The Floss" by George Eliot

With everything I read - and maybe because I read so much - I am aware there is so much literature that somehow escaped my attention, for various reasons. For my own pleasure I often go for history, non-fiction and biographies, but there is always a gnawing feeling I should spend more time with classics we all know about but never willingly visit once the obligatory school reading is done. This obligatory school reading its often a mistake because it forces young brains to wrestle with heavy stuff that produces not love & passion for books but in fact ends with completely opposite results, with kids rejecting reading because it wasn't fun or appealing enough. Truth to be told, my excursions into classics are not always fun - "The Phantom of the Opera" was simply old fashioned, moth-eaten story that only bored me and it took some time before I decided to give classics another chance, this time it was definitely worth an effort.

George Eliot is the name I was familiar - but only in theory. If you pressed me about English female writers of classic era, I would name Jane Austen or Brontë sisters but Eliot somehow escaped my attention so far and it was only a chance encounter with her famous "The Mill on the Floss" neatly printed in almost-pocket size edition (ideal for my journeys) that made me pick it up, almost an impulse purchase. Once I decided to check it out, I fell into her world without any problems, in fact I am still reading it and enjoying it very much almost every night after I finish my work. Yes it was originally published in 1860 (more than century and half from now) and writing is occasionally long-winded with description of trees, lakes, rivers and rooftops but Eliot so lovingly paints the picture of rural life with its charming, eccentric characters that I wonder why did I wait all these years to discover her just now - or perhaps it is a perfect timing.

Eliot is not just creating her characters - she is affectionate towards them, explaining their follies, fears and oddities. In her world nobody is black-and-white; everybody has his own reasons why they behave the way they do so in her gentle way, author points how everybody has different perspective - in this she shows amazing compassion for people and naturally has a great gift for story telling. It is not just two main protagonists (brother and sister) but also the whole supporting cast that gets our attention - it would have been easy to simply follow brother and sister, but Eliot is determined to show everybody else and often she shows sparkling sense of humour and how much she loves her characters. Right now I am still not half-way trough the novel but liking it immensely and enjoying every page that I steal from deserved night's sleep. This time, my excursion to classics was a very pleasant surprise.

Sevdah

Talking about "Sevdah" here are two legends of this kind of music. Both singers made their names during 1960s and 1970s so today they are considered hard core traditional national legends and just like in american country music (similarity is not accidental) what was popular once has completely changed in the meantime, I guess today they listen completely different kind of "Folk" in Bosnia.

Since I grew up relatively far from "Sevdah" music and there was clear cultural division between urban and ex-village population in big cities, this was kind of unwritten sign-post about someone's background. Because I was just a child and latter fashion-wise teenager, it took me forever to actually look out into "Sevdah" (and into traditional folk music in general) and to start appreciate its beauty. With maturity came respect and understanding what actually this is. I still cannot claim that I will ever completely 100%  "get Sevdah" like someone who was born in Sarajevo, for example, but I do occasionally enjoy and appreciate what I hear.

Beba Selimović is a well known name in "Sevdah" and probably legend in her own right. However this 2 CD compilation was the first time I listened her music with attention and tried to understand what exactly was that she was doing and why she came to be so successful. At 32 songs it sounds a bit too much of the same to be honest (rhythms are very much plodding and she is backed by accordion almost exclusively) though her voice is very clear and pretty in somber, lady-like way. Selimović projects honesty and purity that obviously appealed to traditional society that appreciated these qualities in a woman. There is absolutely no trace of such thing as sex appeal or wink in her posture, Selimović is all about serious business, class and in her way she is regal. Bosnians adore her so who am I to say, however I prefer voices with more personality, this is somewhat too pretty-pretty for me. It reminds me on laced covers that mothers used to place on top of TV.

Safet Isović is completely different story - I usually prefer women's voices but this time I take Safet Isović any time, he was a genius in this genre. He has passed away long time ago but listening to his music, it is clear that he would never completely go away. (I distinctly remember my parents talking about him with admiration like he is Caruso) So today, in my 40s I am checking out compilation by Safet Isović and yeah, its actually VERY good. This compilation starts with interesting duet between two singers - the very first voice we hear is Zaim Imamović than young and glowing Safet joins in and harmonizes like a dream. All trough the CD his voice is a thing of marvel, this truly was a golden voice capable of belting or crooning gently, not to mention long phrasing and seemingly no breathing at all. The lyrics of these centuries old songs might be occasionally depressing or sad but there is nothing depressing about  Isović's singing - he projects such healthy, robust joy in singing that listeners heart leaps together with him. Specially is great to hear some old material freshly re-mastered after so many decades ("Sjetuje me majka" was ancient 4-song EP recording, for example) and he also sings much older variation on famous song "Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu" with different lyrics. As opposite to Beba Selimović whom I find pretty but one dimensional and unconvincing, Safet Isović is pure joy of singing and music - I know it is not fair to compare two completely different artists (and he could naturally exhibit far more extroverted performance than ladylike Selimović) however I could listen this guy for hours. And at the very end of CD there is a wonderful duet with Nada Mamula that was a huge hit in its day and even I remember that one. Just a wonderful singer and wonderful CD.

Josipa Lisac rarities

While I'm writing about Josipa Lisac, it occurred to me to look back at two of rarities in her back catalogue - she is known as eccentric and eclectic rock singer capable of turning unexpected directions and still sounding recognizable.

In 1975. Josipa Lisac was playing main female role in hugely successful "Gubec beg" rock opera (clearly modeled on "Jesus Christ Superstar" as way to bring rock music on theatre stage) where female folk choir "Ladarice" were invited as special attraction. "Ladarice" had a particular, throaty sound of village girls singing on top of their lungs and they usually sang traditional folk songs, but in "Gubec beg" they were functioning like a greek chorus echoing the story.  Almost like outtake from "Gubec beg" comes song "Dvanaesta je majka Slavonije" written for festival of patriotic songs that year, where famous Rock Lady sings backed by "Ladarice" - it is true rarity, not only because of lyrics (celebrating famous Partizans of Slavonija) but also because music sounds like genuine traditional folk song.

"Dvanaesta je majka Slavonije" starts with Josipa Lisac solo - she uses her voice just like "Ladarice" usually do, full throated, echoing from one village to another, than "Ladarice" join in with their heavenly harmonies. Its such a shock that it takes a moment or two before surprised listener realize this is actually Josipa Lisac who camouflaged her voice to sound like "Ladarice" and is singing hymn to WW2 partizans. The song is hard core traditional folk and beautiful in its own way - even if lyrics sound strange today, its only because we are distanced from WW2 and its following decades, in 1975 it was completely common to sing revolutionary songs and this is what we learned and sang in schools. Songs about war, partizans and Tito. Today its very fashionable to question and criticize it all but not so long ago it was our reality.

"Omer beže" and "Niz polje idu babo sejmeni" was a brave and completely unexpected experiment - our Rock Lady sining "sevdah" (Bosnian variation on Otoman folk music) backed by authentic Bosnian folk musicians. According to interviews, her lover/composer Karlo Metikoš listened when Lisac hummed around the house and convinced her to record a single just for a sake to show that she is capable to expand in different directions. Known as a young and angry rock singer ("screamer") Lisac already had a reputation trough her various festival performances and stunning rock album debut, but nobody knew or expected she was capable of this kind of singing - she completely follows rules how "Sevdah" is supposed to be sung (with long phrasing, feeling and respect) but adds her own twist to it, so its immediately recognizable that is Josipa Lisac who sings this. Songs were ancient stories from centuries-old days so nobody could accuse of of selling out (however, it did sold very well). Highly praised for this experiment (even by true "sevdah" singers like Beba Selimović) Lisac refused to follow obvious commercial success and hardly ever sang this again, it was never compiled on her official compilations and today only music connoisseurs know about this.

"Dnevnik jedne ljubavi" - celebration of 40th birthday, live in Arena

After 45 years of dignified career, my all-time favorite singer got herself a concert in ancient roman amphitheater - performing in Arena cements the legendary status of any artist and this time Josipa Lisac celebrates 40 years of her debut album, rock masterpiece "Dnevnik jedne ljubavi" ("The Diary of One Love")  originally released in 1973. with help of Ex-Yu Rock All-Stars Band. It was composed by late Karlo Metikoš and built as showcase for a young singer who from that moment on was recognized as our first and only female rock singer. Because "Dnevnik" was such a strong album, Lisac enjoyed very long success for decades and the respect for her was such that she was voted female singer of the year even when she was not even living here (from 1977-80 she lived in USA). The album was released in many various formats (I used to own it on vinyl, tape and CD) and has never been out of print ever since its original release.

Listening from today's perspective, "Dnevnik" still sounds shockingly good - enthusiasm of everybody involved (from backing vocals to musicians, composer and lyrics writer) is clearly audible and even though album can firmly be placed in early 1970s, the beauty of the music, its poetry and message are timeless. Than 23 years old Lisac forever distanced herself from easy-listening company of colleagues who performed on MOR festivals and if on her debut album she leaned on certain mannerisms (her recognizable nasal sound) she has built a nice career out of it. Generations of listeners have grown up adoring this album and even though Lisac bravely continued on trough 1980s, 1990s and beyond, with lots of hits along the way, people still demand these old songs, now "Dnevnik" celebrates 40 years and its just right that this occasion should be celebrated in a place so regal as Arena.

When I was a child growing up, I remember being completely besotted with Josipa Lisac who was above competition in any way - she was constant, huge star where others were just passing by.
She was also a cult singer with urban audience who followed and supported her even though she never was a commercial like big sellers - if anything, connection with rock music got her bad reputation expected from rock stars. Strangely enough, as a child I thought I must have been the only one who loved her because all of my friends were into other commercial pop singers, it came as a surprise to find out Lisac is in fact highly respected not only between colleagues but also with music connoisseurs who keep her going with concerts, albums and new projects, when her contemporaries are long retired (just check the list of All-Stars musicians involved in "Dnevnik" - they were all important back than but only Lisac still is today). Trough the decades she kept going on strong, adding new mannerisms to her voice (to me she sounds even better today), experimenting with hair, clothes and image but always being her recognizable self. Even though part of mainstream audience would never completely accept her, Josipa Lisac will forever be remembered as Croatian Rock Queen who cleverly cultivated her repertoire and audience, enjoying the fruits of her work even decades after other artist's music had passed its expiration date. Lisac always stated that she made her choice between "to have and to be" - she is an artist who stands behind her music and it shows - nobody else from her generation still works and is capable of having a concert in Arena. She recorded "Dnevnik" long before male stars Oliver Dragojević and Zdravko Čolić had their debuts and trough the decades had amassed huge reservoir of respect. As for the concert itself, I don't think she sang "Dnevnik" completely - her repertoire is far too rich to focus exclusively on 1973 songs - probably she peppered the concert list with hits from various decades and got her excellent backing musicians to show off in instrumental passages, dressing up old favorites in new clothes. Naturally, because of my work I was not able to enjoy her concert in Arena but I was there between the audience in my thoughts that evening.

The Suspicion of Mr.Whicher by Kate Summerscale

Initially intriguing real-life story about murder in Victorian England, that turned out somehow less interesting that expected - contrary to all the compliments on the book's cover ("gripping", "unputdownable")  I have found this book long-winded, rambling and unnecessarily expanded. The crime story itself is fascinating and it caught the attention of the whole country in 1860 (even Charles Dickens had his opinion of what actually happened) but to be honest, if Kate Summerscale simply stuck to the story, she would have one nice, long newspaper article - in order to actually built book around this, she used pages and pages of backtracking explanations about geography, characters, social classes, education of the time and Victorians in general. Her favorite device is almost predictable sidetracking: if someone enters the train at Paddington train station, there goes a chapter about Paddington train station at that time. There is a ton of not really interesting information unrelated to crime itself (backgrounds of this and that character) that eventually somehow drains the energy and interest from a reader. I almost feared any more information about the weather, buildings, architecture or facts because it over-balanced and over-shadowed story that was gripping and interesting itself.

This is what happened: during a quiet, sleepy night in a locked, secured and respected family house, there was a murder discovered some time in a morning. A little child had disappeared from his bed and after a frantic search found killed and thrown in a "privy" (outhouse toilet). Since all the windows and doors were locked from inside, suspected was absolutely everybody who was inside - including father, his second wife (ex-governess), children, nursemaid, cook, servants, gardener and even outside help (washerwoman, shoemaker, butcher, neighbours). Since local police was unused to crime of this calibre and curiosity of the whole nation turned into maniacal frenzy (it was a favourite table conversation and thousands of people had their own theories about it) a serious and successful detective was sent to investigate the case - Mr.Whicher does his job as detectives should, uncovering every corner of a family house, however he is soon heavily criticised in media about being "ruthless" and not having "respect" for family privacy. It sounds strange today - specially because we are talking about crime investigation here - but at this time in history apparently Victorians were very sensitive about their privacy, intrusion and class distinctions - somehow the focus of the attention moved from a murder and crime itself to Mr.Whicher who (in newspaper's opinion) was low-class, greedy and immoral person because he dared to search and expose blood-stained nightgown (for example) where respected people would not even talk about such private subject.

The crime itself was eventually solved - for all his accomplishments, Mr.Whicher was finished and retired soon. Talented, capable and clear-headed detective had a bad luck to work in time when class distinction was still very important and suspected killers were expected to have been treated with dignity because of their social status. Even though he was proven to have been correct in his suspicion, Whicher was never recognised for this. Summerscale uses her book to explain way too many things at once - crime story, status of early detective policemen, background of all the characters and even chapter or two of what happened afterwards. There is even a tantalising suggestion that murderer is not the one who got locked up. Myself I found a book little bit too meandering but must admit that Summerscale did excellent research of the era and she cleverly connected this real life story with its later literary echoes (Wilkie Collin's "Moonstone" for example). Very interesting story but not exactly "gripping".

"Queen Of The Wits" by Norma Clarke

Neatly connecting with recently read "Not in God's Image" (about treatment of women trough centuries) here is a biography of obscure Irish poetess who intellectually was far above majority but suffered humiliation, poverty and hardship on account of her fate to have been born as woman.

"Queen of the Wits" could as well have been subtitled "At the end of her Wits" - for all her wit, humor and bravado, for all the spark Laetitia Pinklington used to embellish the stories and poetry she wrote, the reality was harsh and often depressing. The little Irish poetess was often hungry, constantly in debt, occasionally imprisoned, thrown out of her lodgings because she had no money to pay the rent, humiliated by landlords and landladies, always on a lookout for the next wealthy benefactor who might provide her with support on account of her poetry. Like a heroine from some 18th century picaresque novel, Pinklington life reflects "wheel of fortune" that has her living relatively protected family life in Dublin one moment, just to have been forcefully divorced, thrown out of the house and left on her own the next - the husband being master of her fate, material possessions and even children. Once she was ostracized and society doors closed in her face, Pinklington moved to London where she lived the "scandalous" life of single woman who was writing poetry, pamphlets and letters on order. It is interesting that because of her social status (single, divorced woman with no money, protection and property) Pinklington often encountered compassion and help in "lower classes" and was rebuffed, abused and mistreated in wealthy palaces.

Pinklington had a wit - there was a literate spark in her that would not stay silent and her talent was recognized early, even in her Dublin days when celebrated Jonathan Swift enjoyed her company. This wit, spark and clever way with words kept the little Irish lady going on even trough the hungriest London days, when she found audience liking her writings - often she would sell her poems to a wealthy patrons who would present them as their own, or write something flattering to aristocrats who would answer with grateful donation. Again and again we encounter lonely, depressed and frustrated Pinklington trying to keep her chin above the water, pleading here, begging there - had she really pursued "whoredom" (as her husband claimed) she would had far easier life and would probably amassed wealth instead living off the crumbs occasional aristocrat gave in charity. Like a real-life "Fanny Hill", Laetita Pinklington became notorious because of her best-selling "Memoirs" (published in three volumes) where she dished out stories about celebrities of her day, simultaneously describing her own life in a clever, self-mocking way that had certain charm and brought her national fame. As her son Jack later found out, she was so unique that she was tolerated - when he tried to write his own "scandalous memoirs" about celebrities of next generation, he was firmly and clearly told not to dare.

It is questionable would Laetitia Pinklington ever wrote anything at all, had the fate kept her safely protected under glass bell of respected society - her husband, after all, was her main competitor and already published some work when she was still drinking tea with Jonathan Swift. Once the fate threw her completely in the air, little Pinklington got back on her feet trough literary work that provided her with rent, food and life necessities - for the 18th century world this was disgraceful, but she managed. At certain point she even had her own printing shop, though these quiet chapters of comfort were often just a prelude to something like arrest, sickness or other calamities. Norma Clarke's biography of this little "Foot-ball of Fortune" is excellent read, though there is a lot of tears mixed with laughter and harsh reality of her survival can be exhausting - just like aristocrats who loved Pinklington's funny writings but would not care for her   serious, suffering letters, some readers might be put off with constant hardship Pinklington had to endure. She might have been "Queen of the Wit" but not of her own choice. As her last poem "Call me not to a world I hate" suggest, Pinklington might had dreams about sheltered existence where she would not depend on charity and fickle aristocrats.

Tina Turner's Wedding Picture

Georgia Holt: Cher's mother singing

The History of popular music is full with forgotten siblings, often no less talented but overshadowed with more prominent cousins. In most of the cases the simple fact is that path has already been blazed by original artists who made their mark and everybody else was just a sound-alike. It is a profession where being good is not good enough - only true originals have staying power, so naturally sound-alike rarely stand a chance. And there is also a matter of sibling rivalry - Aretha Franklin never even gave a chance to her sisters, but "graciously" used them as backing vocals and songwriters. And what about good intentioned family connections that never led anywhere - Frank Sinatra son, Nat King Cole's brother, John Lennon's son, Barbra Streisand's sister  ... all those people sounded too close to their famous relatives to survive more than passing curiosity.

Georgia Holt was apparently wannabe actress whose main claim to fame was giving birth to Cher - she has recorded this country album in 1980. with Elvis Presley's backing musicians (James Burton, Glen Hardin, Larry Muhoberac, Jerry Scheff, Ronnie Tutt) that promptly forgot about it and left the tapes in her garage. It was Cher who pulled the connections to have it re-produced, re-mastered and finally self-released.

The album is actually surprisingly enjoyable in its right - Holt sounds just like her famous daughter (somewhat mellower) and it was a good idea to have album starting with their duet on a song "I'm Just Your Yesterday" - the first voice we hear is familiar sound of Cher, than her mother comes in and the blend of their voices is effective, emotional and touching (almost hard to say who is who). The rest of the album is actually fine  - it is a collection of traditional country ballads and classic covers ("Crying Time", "Love Me Tender", "I Wonder Where You Are Tonight") played well, produced well and sung by the voice we all know, but with a twist - basically it could pass as a Cher's country album. Naturally it is a one-off and curios gimmick but gives Holt long-wished for celebrity and success (it is on US Top Country Charts right now) and not only is a pretty novelty album but nice, loving gesture from her daughter to have it finally released (Cher had also arranged for some highly visible TV duet performances).
In all honesty, she does sound a little too much like Cher and would probably not have a chance as competition in a business that already has one, however as a loving gesture and nice curiosity, it works surprisingly well.
Highlights: "Love Me Tender", "Crying Time".