Rahman the Writer
Bio
Please contact me:
Email: [email protected]
My website: www.rahmanthewriter.com
Check out my contributions to 'LouderThan War' here:
http://louderthanwar.com/search_gcse/?q=rahman%20the%20writer
Stories (5/0)
Young, Awake, and Aware
“All the others are third class tickets, is that clear?” If you are unfamiliar with the 1965 minor hit from whence the lyric above is taken, The High Numbers—"I’m the Face," then shorn of its cultural context you will probably draw a blank as to the exact meaning of the word "ticket." But if you were to hear singer Roger Daltrey’s withering and sarcastic delivery of this line, then you would be left with no doubt whatsoever that it wasn’t a compliment. The epithet "ticket" was a derogatory term for the sheep-like followers in the "modernist" movement of the 1960s who would listen in awe to the "ace faces," who in turn were the self-appointed, aloof arbiters of the coolest and most crucial styles and sounds around; and it’s instructive to know also that the mildly inelegant term "modernist" itself would quickly be shortened to the far sleeker and flashier: "mod."
By Rahman the Writer6 years ago in Beat
The Girl in Blue
It was whilst trying to pass a seemingly endless autumnal evening that I began to absent-mindedly browse through a series of sepia and black and white pictures on a website. Suddenly I came across an image that immediately piqued my interest: it was both enigmatic, poetic, and unutterably sad. After taking in its stark beauty for fully two minutes, I had the realisation it was unlocking a cache of my own childhood memories, and the decades began to fall away. I could not set it down, nor could I avert my gaze.
By Rahman the Writer7 years ago in Criminal
The Clash: Live, Loud & Direct!
A remarkable shot of the "lions of Ladbroke Grove", aka the Clash, by the US photographer and friend of the band, Bob Gruen, taken circa 1978/79. The Clash were almost unique in that one can predict with some confidence where the band were on their glorious timeline just by looking at the clothes they were wearing.
By Rahman the Writer7 years ago in Beat
Caffeine & Dexedrine
It may seem wildly improbable now, but the coolly piratical, perma-addled septuagenarian and epitome of rock & roll decadence who’s also known to the Inland Revenue as: "Mr Keith Richards" (don’t say that last bit too loud or he may have a flashback and decamp to the tax haven and sunny enclave of Villefranche-sur-Mer again!), was once a frothy cappuccino away from being a "mod!" Clearly what was once the underground had now gone over ground, and so artists who had formerly led the way in this new cultural melting pot had been reduced to merely followers in the modernist slipstream; hoping to catch a scintilla or more of its noble newness and shine.
By Rahman the Writer7 years ago in Beat
Darkness Then Salvation
If, like me, you are keenly attuned to the gloriously gnarly sturm and drang of the mighty Killing Joke, and the plethora of interesting non-band projects that trail in their white-hot wake, then the last 18 months or so have been a particularly fecund period.
By Rahman the Writer7 years ago in Beat