All these songs are available to download for free; however, if you find you are playing one regularly and have a dollar to spare, you might like to kindly consider purchasing the better quality 192kbps version for greater listening enjoyment. Thank you.

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So... he never existed... not really, as a real person. He made himself up one day in 1969 and lived a dual existence: half of him surviving on dead-end jobs, the other half believing that one day he would write at least one song that the world would remember. Now half of him is dead, and, as with all conjoined twins (without major surgery) that sentences both of them. It would be sad if it wasn't so pathetic. Fairy-tales always end this way... well not always, rarely... and this was rarely a fairy-tale; so there the similarities end: the ending was neither sad nor happy - it just... was.

The enigmatic and tragic Jackson C Frank was a hero of his... now he emulates that frail and failed soul. Maybe in 40 years people will still say 'Al who?', much as they do today. That would be both a great epitaph, and a fitting legacy.

Below is the page as he inexplicably and hurriedly left it: hot meal still on the table; knife and fork still in place and at the ready; the drink untouched in the crystal glass...

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Visit my jolly, contentious blog at:
http://alstravinsky.vox.com

I heard 'Space Oddity' on Radio Luxembourg (little tinny transistor radio, 2am, with the ear-piece in, under the covers: 'Planet earth is blue and there's nothing I can do...') when I was about 13, and the world hasn't been the same since. I'm sure everyone here has had a similar epiphany.

I bought my first guitar, a classical that I learnt to finger-pick, at 16; then I heard Jack Bruce sing and play bass and thought: 'I want to do that!' (still can't). I bought a Fender Jazz and studied bass in every free moment, joined my first semi-pro band in 1977, and since 1982 I've worked as a bass player/singer - mostly in bands but latterly in a duo - doing the clubs, pubs and suchlike of the UK's ever-shrinking live circuit. Is it like this the world over?

In November 2004, some 3,000 gigs later, I suddenly found myself with time on my hands after years of gigging too hard, and the days were relatively empty. I had the equipment and the time, a bit of pent-up creative frustration, and a reservoir of bits of ideas and tunes that had floated round my head for years looking for a home.

On these songs, my songs, I sing and play bass guitar mainly, with some acoustic/electric guitars also. Everything else is done on the computer: I use Propellerhead's Reason for all my sequencing/samplers/synths/and-other-stuff (it is a thing of rare beauty); I record audio with Cubase, use Voxengo plug-ins, Brian Delaney, Black2Black, and Mark Walker drum loops, which all suit me just fine.

Thanks!

'The sentence that I serve' is available on CDBaby.com