A public revenge

We recently went to a concert in memory of Sandy Denny, a brilliant folk-rock singer-songwriter who died in the 1970s. Her songs are still fresh and many artists who remember her played and sang them beautifully. My favourite was Maddy Prior, of Steeleye Span. She has an amazing voice that defies description and has always reached me.

After Maddy's songs she introduced the next singer, who was P.P. Arnold, an American soul singer. Strange, I thought, not really a folk singer, but hey, maybe she'll bring something new to the music. An odd thing was how Maddy's introduced her as a person with a 'small body and a big tongue'. That's curious, I thought. You'd expect her to say 'big voice' rather than 'big tongue'. Ah well, never mind.

And then PP started singing. Big voice indeed, but rather shouty and not really my style. But what really got my goat was when she spoke. Rather than talking gratefully about Sandy, as everyone else had done, she acted as if it was her concert, talking about 'my next song' rather than 'the next song by Sandy' and just kind of pushing herself forward, very diva-ishly.

If I got it, then others got it too. Maddy had indulged in a sneaky on-stage criticism. I also noticed some exchanged glances between other artists that confirmed PP was not the most popular person there. It also seemed that she blithely did not realize that others were both irritated by her and seemed to be sharing a joke at her expense.

What a subtle, public, and very English revenge!

Quick links

The ChangingMinds Blog!

A public revenge

Site Menu

You can buy books here

Quick links

Disciplines

Techniques

Principles

Explanations

Theories

And

Site Menu

Quick links

Disciplines

Techniques

Principles

Explanations

Theories

And