Delaney Bramlett
Keep It Going
1972
I’ve had, these past three weeks, a lot to do. Spring is nearly upon us which means vegetable beds to prepare, fences to mend, a winter damaged road to look after, trees to prune, grass to cut. And I’ve been wrapping up other projects; music, books, prints; the days, the weeks, the months aren’t long enough.
Stop. Take a deep breath. The days and weeks are exactly the right length.
This is what happens – spring brings a hectic energy. I prowl my room, intent on making things happen. Forgetting to look at the wall over my desk where I’ve pinned a poem by Ryokan, the hermit monk. The poem is:
See and realise that this world is not permanent. Neither late nor early flowers will remain.
And next to that is a page from a Beginners Guide To Spanish. I’ve highlighted a phrase that says:
I am alone. I have nothing.
This track, by Delaney Bramlett, seems to belong to spring. It ploughs forward, it buds, it blooms, it rushes, never is it still. I play it and let myself sit down for a minute. I watch the cherry tree, the rabbits, the pheasants, I listen to the sheep, to the hundreds of lambs, to Delaney Bramlett. I sit until the song ends and then I’m up again, ruled by spring, ruled by time, filling up my days.
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It is with great excitement that we are able to share the following news: a mixtape (the first of many), born out of the Jeb’s Jukebox archive, will be up on our Mixcloud page from Friday. To mark the start of the series, we’ll be sending out the mix as a one-time-only download on the newsletter this week. Don’t miss out – sign up on the top right of the site.