Re: Time for a music thread

[PeterCS]

[WideWally]

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[PeterCS]

Double brackets Wally. Tut-tut.

[PeterCS]

I was going to say: Hark the vibrato on that (at the end of Kottke's choruses).

But Wally's ruined it now.

[PeterCS]

Finland! Finland!

Tom? Tom?

[WideWally]

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[WideWally]

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[WideWally]

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[lardbucket]

If you don't shed a tear when you hear this, you must have no heart or soul.

[PeterCS]

Nice one Lardy. Here's another Roberta song. Suposedly (but wrongly) said to be about Don McLean.



[youtube]

[PeterCS]

Nice coughing


Barry did a more rhythmic, ostensibly lighter (and "younger") version of this in about 1978. Not on youtube, though.

[PeterCS]

Nonsense song.

[lardbucket]

To be honest, Lardy, it is rather this sort of thing that gives me the shivers.

Both the voice and the modulations ~ and also the yearning for a brighter life in the lyric that I think it eloquently expresses.





"The First TIme ..." lends itself a little too readily to unworldly mawkishness, I fear. Even in Roberta's version.

Even McColl hated all the different versions, it seems, as a "Chamber of Horrors". Perhaps more than just the usual proprietal jealousy.

I'll have to take your word on the lyrics!

As for Roberta and 'The First Time' ... I find her voice an amazing instrument. The lyrics are pleasing enough, but what moves me most is her tone and control. Written down, or sung by Celine Dion or any number of similar warblers, the lyrics could certainly be mawkish and saccharine (as you say) ... but I do not find them remotely so, from her tonsils. Extrapolating ... I'd be interested to hear Tom Waits sing the song, but would rather poke my own eyes out with knitting needles than endure a rendition from Rod Stewart, Tom Jones, or Barry White.

[Big Dog]

To be honest, Lardy, it is rather this sort of thing that gives me the shivers.

Both the voice and the modulations ~ and also the yearning for a brighter life in the lyric that I think it eloquently expresses.





"The First TIme ..." lends itself a little too readily to unworldly mawkishness, I fear. Even in Roberta's version.

Even McColl hated all the different versions, it seems, as a "Chamber of Horrors". Perhaps more than just the usual proprietal jealousy.

I quite like that. It reminds me of some of the early work by Planxty & Oisin.

[PeterCS]

The lyrics translate as

I see winter in the wind
The snow is not far from us
Dark clouds and the trees losing leaves
The night is cold

So often it feels that it was only yesterday
The summer heat melted us
All evening long out at the stone fort
And you lying lazily by my side

Many nights we loved
Many nights we laughed
Many times I thought
That you would have stayed forever

But the sun never shines all year
Time will not stay as it was
You left for the city
Leaving me to my winter

Many nights we loved
Many nights we laughed
Many times I thought
That you would have stayed forever

That you would have stayed forever

[PeterCS]

I take your point entirely about the accomplishments of RF's voice on that one.


I have to admit I like this version, buried under history's junkheap of electronics and all.

If you are going to have a religious song about love, you might as well be religious about it - hushed tones, humility, wonderment, despair and all.

[PeterCS]

Though this is more Mounsey's idiom, and my favourite song of his.

It's a controversial song - some don't like the angelic voice, some don't like the dignified violin lead, some hate the electronic beat, others the bits of sampling (the messages of the mission/exploration teams, the rhythmic mumbled incantation, the central message "Our spirits have never been cold"), ~ ~ and most revolting of all of it for some listeners is that Monster Guitar break just after 2 minutes in. The Scottish Tourist board borrowed the song for a campaign, but were careful to leave out that savage outbreak!

I love that guitar, though, and being from "the cold North" myself, love the message about the people too, ~ as well as the sardonic view towards interlopers

And really like the track as a whole, "mixed-up" as it may be.

[Big Dog]

[Big Dog]

I had a beer with Andy Irvine many years ago. He was doing a solo tour of OZ & played a gig in Hobart. Lovely bloke.

[PeterCS]

Personally, I'm not a great fan of Usheen ~ a little bit too much of the "diddly-aah" (as they say in Ireland). But the doubled whistle interlude is good!

Andy Irvine is a great musician as well as a great bloke. I have just always regretted that thin, slightly fragile voice of his...... It has its own charm I suppose, but is a shame it was never a bit stronger.

This song shows his voice to best effect, I think - affecting in its own slightly quaint way.

Also demonstrates AI's tracery-type wizardry on his beloved plucked instruments (not sure if it's a mandolin, mandola or some class of bouzouki in this case - it's intertwined with another instrument, probably Donal Lunny's bouzouki??)

Nifty bit of mouthorgan too (near the end).

[PeterCS]

BD: Talking of cunning string work, do you know of Paul Brady? One of the best accompanists (even of himself) you could hear in folk/trad music, before he understandly went for a more mainstream fame (and thankfully lost those specs ...)

He never played a chug-chug lead-weight guitar style that bedevils the folk idiom - always played off and around the rhythm and melody in a way that lifted both.

This is the song celebrating the vitality of the young blade (and against pressganging) that he made famous.

"We made a football of his rowdy-dow-dow" means his drum, of course

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