Yesterday Pete, drummer and bandmate from Swedish progressives Anekdoten, sent me a message telling me I was in his dream and that I had died. Luckily I escaped his dream through a small hatch and parachuted down to the Earth where I checked for wounds, bullet holes, any scratches or puncture holes from arrows, spears or daggers and I seem to be ok. Whilst reading Medical News Today (believe it or not), I came across this fascinating fact:

Music in dreams is rarely studied in scientific literature. However, in a study of 35 professional musicians and 30 non-musicians, the musicians experienced twice as many dreams featuring music, when compared with non-musicians.

Musical dream frequency was related to the age of commencement of musical instruction but not to the daily load of musical activity. Nearly half of the recalled music was non-standard, suggesting that original music can be created in dreams.

I’m sure most people are aware that Paul McCartney wrote Yesterday after hearing the melody in a dream. There’s a very interesting synopsis about Yesterday aka Scrambled Eggs on Wikipedia.

On the subject of musicians who were dying, we just lost German-speaking Welshman Spencer Davis, and Gordon Haskell this week. In the sixties, Davis’ band boasted members Steve and Muff Winwood and Pete York and had hits with two classic Jackie Edwards songs, Keep On Running and Somebody Help Me, both UK No.1 singles in 1966. Also, Gimme Some Lovin’ (UK No.2 in 1966 and written by Davis, Steve and Muff Winwood) and later I’m A Man (UK No.9 and a US No.10 in 1967, written by Davis, Steve Winwood and producer Jimmy Miller). Davis was 81 years old.

Gordon Haskell is better known for his middle of the road hit song How Wonderful You Are but I remember him from being a member of King Crimson in the early seventies. Haskell sang Cadence And Cascade on In The Wake Of Poseidon, the second King Crimson album released in 1970. He sang and played bass on the third album Lizard released in the same year. Haskell was 74 years old.

I broke my record in the swimming pool today and swam the mile in 44 minutes. The stamina comment woman was there again today, she also swam the mile in the allotted time in the pool and she still had no awareness about letting the faster people go by her (we’re not allowed to overtake). I got out of the pool, happy with my 44 minutes and whilst talking to one of the young lifeguards he told me that he swam a mile recently in 20 minutes – deflated? No, he’s 21.

Music today was The Spencer Davis Group’s first two albums and these albums inspired by the Blues and R&B are sung by the incredibly talented Steve Winwood who was 14 when he joined the band. You might not even like this kind of music but Steve Winwood’s voice is something else.

Songs Of The Daze