Now something even more different the beautiful songs of the Auvergne. Many years ago I decided that I wanted to explore classical music. I joined the local library as they had a large music lending section and was going to experiment by bringing lots of examples of classical music. What I did find is that they had a great rock and blues section and so my classical education was neglected.
I have since returned to learning a bit about classical music. It is slightly easier now as I am married to a classical trained musician. Together we explore music that we each know or neither of us know. In one of these explorations I re-found (as I knew it from before)the wonderful songs of the Auvergne. I have added two this time Bailero and Pasteurelle. They are both very beautiful.
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Thursday, 20 November 2008
Lisa Gerrard
Something a bit different this time - Lisa Gerrard and Sanvean. This song is achingly beautiful and her voice just soars and captivates. This was played at our wedding for the entry of the bride. It made a wonderful occasion even better.
I first became aware of Lisa Gerrard in the 1980s. She was part of a cooperative who released an album called This Mortal Coil - It'll end in tears. At the time the standout track was the Liz Fraser's cover of the Tim Buckley Song to the Siren. However I became increasingly fond of Dead Can Dance and Lisa Gerrard. If you saw the film Gladiator you heard her music as she wrote the score with Hans Zimmer.
I just love this song. I love watching people's faces as they hear it for the first time. If you have never heard it listen now. Let me know what you think of it.
I first became aware of Lisa Gerrard in the 1980s. She was part of a cooperative who released an album called This Mortal Coil - It'll end in tears. At the time the standout track was the Liz Fraser's cover of the Tim Buckley Song to the Siren. However I became increasingly fond of Dead Can Dance and Lisa Gerrard. If you saw the film Gladiator you heard her music as she wrote the score with Hans Zimmer.
I just love this song. I love watching people's faces as they hear it for the first time. If you have never heard it listen now. Let me know what you think of it.
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Roll me away
Bob Seger's Roll me away. What a song. Sometimes I put this on in the kitchen when I cook. Problem is I can't keep still, the music goes straight to your feet and makes you want to dance. Well it does it for me!!
This is one of the great 'road' songs, invoking the wide open spaces, the road, the journey, the freedom. For a couple of years I bummed about, slept wherever, went where I wanted and this song brings some of that back. It also has memories of the wide open roads of Texas for me. Once, after a conference in San Antonio, I hired a car and drove down to Mexico. Great wide roads through the dessert, dinner on a river boat in Corpus Christi, tour of the space ships at Houston. This song was on the tape in the car and it soooooo fitted the journey.
It is just good old-fashioned, head down, rock and roll from a master. If you have never heard the song listen to it now.
This is one of the great 'road' songs, invoking the wide open spaces, the road, the journey, the freedom. For a couple of years I bummed about, slept wherever, went where I wanted and this song brings some of that back. It also has memories of the wide open roads of Texas for me. Once, after a conference in San Antonio, I hired a car and drove down to Mexico. Great wide roads through the dessert, dinner on a river boat in Corpus Christi, tour of the space ships at Houston. This song was on the tape in the car and it soooooo fitted the journey.
It is just good old-fashioned, head down, rock and roll from a master. If you have never heard the song listen to it now.
Monday, 6 October 2008
Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Scotland has given the world some great music Paulo Nutini, Franz Ferdinand, Annie Lennox and Lulu, Bert Jansch and the banjo playing of Billy Connolly, well maybe not (I apologise for the Bay City Rollers). However one of Scotland's greatest sons has to be Alex Harvey, especially in front of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. As a band they were innovative, quirky, highly entertaining and could certainly play a bit. But with Alex out front they were truly sensational. The music of SAHB was the soundtrack of our drunken parties. We moshed, before punks did, to Giddy up a ding dong and Ain't nothin' like a gang bang. SAHB's music was made to accompany excess or vice versa but he could also make you a bit more cerebral by his unique interpretations of songs for example the Hitler youth anthem from Cabaret, Tomorrow belongs to me.
The song that Alex made all his own is the Jacques Brel song Next, a song about the brothel trucks for the French soldiers during the first world war. The feeling and venom that Alex brings to the song is amazing. The video below is SAHB performing it on the Old Grey Whistle Test.
The song that Alex made all his own is the Jacques Brel song Next, a song about the brothel trucks for the French soldiers during the first world war. The feeling and venom that Alex brings to the song is amazing. The video below is SAHB performing it on the Old Grey Whistle Test.
Thursday, 4 September 2008
I had very little doubt about what piece of music I wanted to start with. It had to be Shine on you crazy diamond by Pink Floyd. Why, because it moves me, uplifts me, inspires me and just makes me stop and admire it as a wonderful piece of music. Written as a tribute to Syd Barrett the mad genius who started Pink Floyd, it celebrates his soaring spirit. Gilmour's guitar work in the piece is wonderful, from its slow, almost solemn opening till it picks up and plays the melody alternating with the horn section. It is seven and a half minutes before we hear Waters voice but the affection and perhaps slight envy in his voice makes it a great emotional vocal.
Shine is one of those songs that means a great deal to me and conjures up vivid memories. It has been on my turntable for years. (Yes I confess I still love vinyl records.) However the times I remember it most are, for some reason, in Greece. Maybe it was because Pink Floyd owned an island in Greece but for some reason their music was very popular there, not quite as popular as Zorba obviously, but popular nevertheless.
The most vivid memory I have of Shine on was on the island of Zakynthos. I was on a wonderful beach with my wife at that time. The beach was called Turtle Beach, because of all the leatherback turtles that laid their eggs on the beach. I was very impressed by the Greeks. Here was this fabulous beach. It was a beautiful bay, crystal clear water, pristine white sand and there was nothing on it, no tavernas, restaurants nothing. It was a prime piece of real estate and a positive tourist trap and yet the Greeks had designated the beach a conservation area to protect the turtles. Very impressive.
The only structure on the beach was a small lean to with a roof made of reeds, a shaky counter and a railway sleeper as a bench. This lean to had an electric extension lead coming from who knows where, as there were no buildings for about a mile. This extension lead allowed the owner to have a fridge with cold beer and coke. Since it was high summer with equally high temperatures, my friend with the fridge was very very welcome indeed.
On that day there were about 6 people on the enormous beach. My wife and me, another couple further along the beach, a ranger to make sure that no one disturbed the turtles and friend with the fridge. In the middle of the afternoon I decided that I needed a cool drink so I wandered off to the lean to. Just as I arrived at the counter mine host put some music on the cd player. Yep it was Pink Floyd Wish your were here and there were the horns and Gilmour's guitar. I sat there under the reed roof with my new Greek friend as the beautiful sound washed over me. It just seemed so right. The beautiful music, in that beautiful place, my Greek friend who could speak no English smiling at me and me who could speak no Greek smiling back. We did not need words we we had the music as a common language. It is about as near to paradise as I'm likely to get in this world. When the music was finished I thanked my friend got a couple of cold drinks and wandered back along the beach to my wife. That was a good day!
I have included a video from YouTube of Shine on. Its not my favourite version but certainly a very interesting one.
Shine is one of those songs that means a great deal to me and conjures up vivid memories. It has been on my turntable for years. (Yes I confess I still love vinyl records.) However the times I remember it most are, for some reason, in Greece. Maybe it was because Pink Floyd owned an island in Greece but for some reason their music was very popular there, not quite as popular as Zorba obviously, but popular nevertheless.
The most vivid memory I have of Shine on was on the island of Zakynthos. I was on a wonderful beach with my wife at that time. The beach was called Turtle Beach, because of all the leatherback turtles that laid their eggs on the beach. I was very impressed by the Greeks. Here was this fabulous beach. It was a beautiful bay, crystal clear water, pristine white sand and there was nothing on it, no tavernas, restaurants nothing. It was a prime piece of real estate and a positive tourist trap and yet the Greeks had designated the beach a conservation area to protect the turtles. Very impressive.
The only structure on the beach was a small lean to with a roof made of reeds, a shaky counter and a railway sleeper as a bench. This lean to had an electric extension lead coming from who knows where, as there were no buildings for about a mile. This extension lead allowed the owner to have a fridge with cold beer and coke. Since it was high summer with equally high temperatures, my friend with the fridge was very very welcome indeed.
On that day there were about 6 people on the enormous beach. My wife and me, another couple further along the beach, a ranger to make sure that no one disturbed the turtles and friend with the fridge. In the middle of the afternoon I decided that I needed a cool drink so I wandered off to the lean to. Just as I arrived at the counter mine host put some music on the cd player. Yep it was Pink Floyd Wish your were here and there were the horns and Gilmour's guitar. I sat there under the reed roof with my new Greek friend as the beautiful sound washed over me. It just seemed so right. The beautiful music, in that beautiful place, my Greek friend who could speak no English smiling at me and me who could speak no Greek smiling back. We did not need words we we had the music as a common language. It is about as near to paradise as I'm likely to get in this world. When the music was finished I thanked my friend got a couple of cold drinks and wandered back along the beach to my wife. That was a good day!
I have included a video from YouTube of Shine on. Its not my favourite version but certainly a very interesting one.
Wow my Blog about music!
I'm coming to the Blogging game a bit late, both in time and in years. But hey who cares?? I'm getting a chance to talk about something I love. Music is something that has dominated my life. I have loved music for all of my life. For a while in my early teens I listened to and even pretended to like what was popular, until I started to find out what I actually liked.
I grew up in the 60s. As soon as I say that people tell me how lucky I am/was. With all that great music around it must have been wonderful. Go and have a look at the music charts of the 60s, there was some real crap around. True there was some great stuff that seems to fill all the compilation albums now, but at the time you needed to look for it. Personally I was never a great Beatles fan and still am not. I know that it is almost sacrilegious to say that now, but at the time there were so many far more interesting bands around, some of which I will talk about in this Blog.
Over the years my taste in music has changed, obviously. It has widened, less obviously, and has become very eclectic. I want to use this Blog to talk about tracks that mean a lot to me. This is my soundtrack. I have no intention of producing some chronological record. As a piece of music occurs to me I will talk about it, maybe about the piece of music itself, maybe about where it fits/fitted into my life, maybe what it means to me and why. This is not intended to be a critical review of music or pieces of music. This is an unapologetic personal Blog of my soundtrack. If anyone reads this and feels moved to comment then please do. All I ask is be respectful.
I grew up in the 60s. As soon as I say that people tell me how lucky I am/was. With all that great music around it must have been wonderful. Go and have a look at the music charts of the 60s, there was some real crap around. True there was some great stuff that seems to fill all the compilation albums now, but at the time you needed to look for it. Personally I was never a great Beatles fan and still am not. I know that it is almost sacrilegious to say that now, but at the time there were so many far more interesting bands around, some of which I will talk about in this Blog.
Over the years my taste in music has changed, obviously. It has widened, less obviously, and has become very eclectic. I want to use this Blog to talk about tracks that mean a lot to me. This is my soundtrack. I have no intention of producing some chronological record. As a piece of music occurs to me I will talk about it, maybe about the piece of music itself, maybe about where it fits/fitted into my life, maybe what it means to me and why. This is not intended to be a critical review of music or pieces of music. This is an unapologetic personal Blog of my soundtrack. If anyone reads this and feels moved to comment then please do. All I ask is be respectful.
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