The big news is that Graham's office rang and invited me to a meeting with the head of manufacturing in Toyota UK on Monday - followed by dinner. What you might call a positive sign. The downside is that I will have to miss the Worshipspace planning meeting.

I mailed Chris Read the e-m I sent to Barry Cole's wife in the Cabinet Office to try to find him a point of entry. He seems well pleased!

Reading John Gibbens' Dylan book. He comments on Blood on the Tracks:

"Part of the beauty of the record for me is that it is one half of a joint masterpiece. Bob commented not long afterwards that Joni Mitchell's song Blue had been on his mind when he was writing Blood on the Tracks. Blue is likewise a sequence of bare hearted songs about love, of friends, family and lovers; of rueful reminiscence and embattled idealism set to a stripped back atmospheric form of mountain music.......Jackson Browne too in the early seventies sang as a seeker who had set foot on the Love Generations' rainbow bridge and found himself lost."

I very much feel Pink Moon belongs in the list - but also that not all the songs on Blue are such winners. I do agree about the stripped down sound though - especially the use of the dulcimer which is masterly eg on "Case of You."

I am pretty much a fan of the first five Jackson Browne albums. "Jamaica Say You Will" on the first album with Dave Crosby singing harmony always does it for me. And I am fascinated by the time in NYC when Jackson was Nico's guitarist and she was being pursued (unsuccessfully) by L Cohen. I think the inclusion of her version of "These Days" in "Tannenbaum" film along with Fly is just right.

"The Pretender" is another major piece of work and I have a pretty soft spot for Running on Empty.

I listened to part of "We Love You Madly" by Miles on the train. That music is so different from On the Corner although both are allegedly part of the "difficult" electric period. And they both sound like they might have been recorded last week.

I bought the Wire with the article about Mick Beck. Another of the strange coincidences that surround my links with him is that he is one of two very accomplished bassoonists that I have played alongside who are also civil servants. Peter Burge (who accomapnies me eg on Bach and Poulenc) has a neighbour Geoff who is very strong on that instrument and is a diplomat. He has even commissioned an original bassoon sonata. He has a marvellous collection of music - much of which he got in East Berlin - which includes what may be the first composed bassoon piece to have survived - written in 1618 in Germany. Its very jazzy.

In the Wire I read a review of a book about the links between composers and painters in NYC in the 50s - wowww I thought I really must get that. Then I realised that I bought a copy at the Whitney in February! There is an interesting interview with Shirley Collins - I especially enjoyed her take on working with Davy Graham circa 1964. She is still in awe of the way he played old english tunes like "She Moved Through The Fair". I often harp on about DG being a world class visionary - to link folk blues, Middle Eastern Music, be-bop, English folktunes and solo guitar in that way at that time isnt just eccentric - its defining the path of music for the next twenty or thirty years. Yet people mostly only give him a footnote.

I took the guitar track of "Alfie" and put some flute on. I am beginning to use the "two mike" approach - dynamic and condenser as a signature. Getting all those harmonics down adds to the richness of how the subsequent FX impact on the sound. This version seems to have moved things on and I can see more ways ahead with this today - maybe I can follow some paths on Monday.

Vita is 14 today. The "quelque chose" is a Digitec bass multi FX. It has amp modelling which eg distinguishes between a Fender Bassman and a Fender Dual Showman and a Hiwatt 50; an expression pedal which can be linked to any of about 15 effects including an enevlope controller; tuner and "trainer" drum machine. Currently she has a little 20 watt bass practice amp which makes a sound which is fine for low level gigs but this will give her a lot more range and she will be able to listen on the headphones.