Tangled Trees

Today I write with a heavy heart, I know that sounds so very melodramatic and in the grand scheme of things my sadness is very trivial. I finally went to Paisley Museum to see the exhibition of work by John Byrne associated with Gerry Rafferty, the former an artist and playwright the latter a singer song writer both born in Paisley and commemorated in their home town. Gerry stayed in our little village for a while and wrote and recorded in the house he rented. My friend across the lane recounted how Gerry was sometimes to be found in his mum’s kitchen being fed and how he would sometimes blag a lift to the neighbouring village for a drink as we had no pub at that time.

With great anticipation the twins and I set off and when we arrived made our way to the museum. We made our way to the small exhibit; it was simply amazing to see this little collection of hand written lyrics, silver, gold and platinum discs, tour jackets and guitars. For those of you familiar with Gerry Rafferty’s work you will know John Byrne’s art work graced the covers of the album and single releases. To see some of the original artwork was amazing especially Night Owl. I simply loved seeing the guitars, again adorned with the artwork of John Byrne, a beautiful Martin D35, Gerry made it sing so often and to see it now in a glass case was a little sad.

So why my heavy heart? Whilst the exhibit was stunning to me as a lifelong fan of the music of this local man, I found the surroundings very sad, tired and in decay, a beautiful building just not maintained. The simple things exacerbated the problem, the place was thick with dust, the glass cabinets smeared with finger marks, not having been cleaned in a long time. Worst of all were the staff, surly, unpleasant and uninterested. This made me very sad, they did not know about the exhibits or it appeared the men themselves. I know their stories and about their music having loved it since I was a child but it saddened me that with a little knowledge and enthusiasm visitors could have been truly enlightened by their visit.

Maybe I am just being an old fart and maybe it is for the visitor to find out for themselves but I was disappointed by this aspect of the experience.

I love Gerry Rafferty's music, I love singer song writers, John Martyn, Nick Drake, Van Morrison all of a similar era all conveying beautiful stories through their lyrics. Lyrics that celebrate love, lyrics that convey the sadness and pain off loss effortlessly it seems but to sit and simply read them as poetry too is a magical thing

I hope you like this simple country scene today....