A Musical Offering

by JanieM

Farmstand in October - better version here.

I was trying to write a post about nanny tech – a phrase I thought I had invented until I googled it. But it’s hard to have orderly thoughts about anything this close to the election, so instead of that post, I’ve made a YouTube playlist of songs I come back to again and again when life gets stressful. Some of the tracks are “happy music,” some have a different effect, but all of them help me when life is, or I am, out of balance.

The first track is “Stewball,” by Peter, Paul, and Mary, the first folk music I ever heard; I was fourteen and a freshman in high school. The world seemed to get darker as the years passed – I think I’ve mentioned here that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated on the night of my high school graduation. From that vantage point (I didn’t quite grasp how young I still was….), the early years of my acquaintance with folk music seemed like “the hopeful years” – as if you could sing your way to a better world.

The second track carries on that tradition – it’s a hymn I learned at the UU church I went to for a few years in the mid-nineties.

Beyond that I won’t comment, but I hope you enjoy at least some of the selections. Feel free to list more music in the comments.

Open thread, except this is a gloom- and snark-free zone.

*****

Playlist contents:

1. Stewball – Peter, Paul, and Mary
2. We’ll Build a Land – The Chancel Choir of the First Unitarian Church of Oakland
3. Precious Lord Take My Hand – Ukrainian Choir
4. Make Your Own Kind of Music – Cass Elliot
5. Loch Lomond – The University of Aberdeen Chamber Choir
6. Tis a Gift to be Simple…..Lord of the Dance – Luxon and Crofut
7. The Good Ship Kangaroo – Planxty
8. If I Should Fall Behind – Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band
9. I’ll Fly Away – Joey+Rory
10. All You Fascists Bound to Lose – Resistance Revival Chorus
11. L'hymme a L'amour – Celine Dion, Olympics opening ceremony

 

Comments

[wj]

• This Land is Your Land -- New Christie Minstrals

Yeah, I know Woodie Guthrie wrote it. But I don't much care for his voice.

[JanieM]

wj's comment reminds me that that song was sung at Obama's inauguration.

And that in turn reminds me of Lady Gaga at Biden's.

[JanieM]

Also, I just learned today that the lyrics for song Celine Dion sang at the Olympics were written by Edith Piaf, in memory of a lover who had died in a plane crash. I had only known the song in English, as sung by Maura O'Connell when she was with De Dannan (I'm pretty sure). I can't find that on YouTube (which is why I'm doubting myself), but here's Maura doing it, anyhow.

[liberal japonicus]

lovely stuff Janie, thank you.

[wj]

A bit of good news for the future from Science News:
Talking to a chatbot may weaken someone’s belief in conspiracy theories

Heaven knows a deprogramming tool for these delusions will be enormously useful.

[Hartmut]

When I still was at the university I used to put this on at full blast after a successful exam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F46T7w5lU7k
(Georgian March by Ippolitov-Ivanov)

[JanieM]

Hartmut -- that's a great piece, thank you. I can see why you'd play it after a successful exam.

Celebratory!

[russell]

Some offerings of my own. Apologies to Janie for dragging jazz into the thread. :)

Karuna Supreme, John Handy and Ali Akbar Khan. Pure positive energy, this makes me want to get up and move around.

Witch Tai To, Jim Pepper. Probably the only indigenous peyote chant to ever become a jazz standard and pop music hit. "Water spirit feeling springing round my head / makes me feel glad that I'm not dead". Makes me feel like I'm standing on a mountain top with the warm sun on my face. Brewer and Shipley had the hit, but it's Pepper's song.

Wo ya ya, Osibisa. This song has become almost like a creed to me through the craziness of the last few decades. Members, don't get weary! A pretty good live version here.

Anthem, Leonard Cohen, in a live version from London. What can I say, Cohen's the best.

In A Sentimental Mood, Lucky Thompson on a Duke Ellington ballad. Thompson doesn't stray too far from the melody on this, and his plaintive tone really captures the hint of melancholy longing that's always just under the surface in Ellington's (and Strayhorn's) ballads. That's what I'm hearing, anyway.

Far From Me, John Prine. Apparently, this is John Prine's favorite John Prine song. Part of Prine's brilliance is how he takes sadness head-on without self-pity or avoidance. While we're at it, Paradise, about Prine's memories of traveling to his parent's home as a child. What can I say, Prine's also the best. The Mark Twain of American song.

I could go on and on, but I'll stop there.

[wj]

Obviously I'm doing this piecemeal, rather than pulling together a single list. Latest addition:

• Up, Up, and Away -- 5th Dimension

[JanieM]

russell -- you made me laugh with "dragging jazz into the thread." Jazz generally doesn't move me (maybe we've talked about that?), but there are exceptions, and over the past few years I've been trying to make better friends with it. I watched Ken Burns's "Jazz" series a couple of years ago and loved it. I find Dixieland relatively accessible, so that's a pathway in. I will listen to these with pleasure and an open heart.

Here's a version of Paradise that was made after John Prine died of covid right at the start of the pandemic, April 7, 2020. (This is making me cry....the song was always a favorite, and this rendition puts me right over the edge.)

On a more cheerful note here’s a fun rendition of When the Saints go Marchin’ In. If nothing else, how often do you see a female trombone player? The singing doesn’t live up to the instruments, IMHO, but they’re having such a great time I don’t much care.

[JanieM]

Playing for Change has fun video mashups (? not really the right word) of musicians from all over the world playing together.

What a Wonderful World -- worth it just for the kids

The Weight, especially for russell, for the sake of Ringo at the beginning

Lots more good ones at their YouTube channel.

(russell -- your comment about Ringo a few years ago is one of my all-time favorite bits of writing about music....I have shared it often; will send you your royalties when I get around to it :-) )

[GftNC]

russell, I was at one of those Leonard Cohen concerts in London, and then again a year or so later in Leeds. Wonderful stuff, and I loved his musicians and backing singers.

The interesting thing about "Anthem" is that everyone focuses on "there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in", which is indeed very fine, but the line that moves me most is "Ring the bells that still can ring". It has a universal relevance, but it also contains so much about age, and the changes it wreaks, and that one can still be alive and rejoice - made much more poignant by Cohen's obvious age as he sang it.

Janie, thank you for that version of The Weight!
I'd seen it before, but had since forgotten all about those Playing for Change pieces. They are wonderful. And by the way, if you have easy access to russell's comment about Ringo, I for one would be v grateful if you would repost it - I must have seen it but I have forgotten it.

This thread is such a good idea for the very strange time we are in. It makes me think of what the British call "the phony war", which is their name for the nine month period between the declaration of war in WW2 and the commencement of German actions against France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, which brought the stalemate in western Europe to an end. At the moment I can't think of music suitable for this thread, but I will ponder. At the moment I am obsessed with Gillian Welch and her "Dark Turn of Mind", which suits me these days but is not right for here and now on ObWi!

[JanieM]

russell, and others, on Ringo -- can it really be nine years ago?!?

[GftNC]

Wow, Janie, thank you!

I completely understand why you loved russell's comment about Ringo, and about music, and why you quote it.

Apart from that, nine years does seem incredible. I was surprised to see that nous (or Nous) was with us that long ago, I thought he was more recent than that. Ditto Michael Cain. And I suddenly realised that it seems an awfully long time since we've seen Nigel round here. I hope all's well with him....

[nous]

The Ringo talk here sent me over to the Drumeo channel on YouTube, where of course there was a video about the genius of Ringo Starr. It's a good piece, even with the obligatory Drumeo ad after the intro. While there, I also watched the companion pieces about John Bonham and Neil Peart, and a bit of the Phil Collins vid as well.

Bonham is another one that gets accused of being a sloppy timekeeper, but again, it's all about the feel. He and John Paul Jones could swing a track like nobody's business.

I'd share some music, but most of the stuff I have been listening to recently is kinda niche - extreme metal with heavy psychedelic and krautrock/trip hop influences. It ends up sounding like what you'd imagine Cthulhu would sound like as a downtempo DJ for the apocalypse afterparty.

[hairshirthedonist]

I bought my 11-year-old an electronic drum kit for him to mess around on. He was practicing from YouTube videos for a while but seemed to be losing interest.

A week or so ago and about 2 months after setting the kit up I realized I set it up the standard way - for a right-handed drummer. My son is left handed. Like, duh...

I reversed everything Saturday. I hope he gets back into it.

[nous]

FWIW - a lot of great drummers have been left handed, but playing on a right hand kit. Stewart Copeland said that he did that because it let him play on kits that belonged to other drummers without having to rip the whole thing apart first.

[hairshirthedonist]

The funny thing is, if it weren't for the high hat being mounted under everything else, it would have mostly been a matter of switching where the cords were plugged in. Everything except the high hat is physically the same as whatever is opposite it on the kit. The high hat is the only unique (twinless?) piece on the kit.

[JanieM]

Off to babysit for the next couple of days, but I want to circle back to russell's jazz offerings -- I listened to all of them (some more than once) and enjoyed them. They bring to mind some musings about jazz and music in general that I want to come back to when I'm less rushed. Something to do with who any musician is playing for.... (There's a teaser for sure....)

Keep breathing.

[nous]

Twenty, twenty, twenty-four hours to go
I wanna be sedated...

[JanieM]

i'm distracted, which is okay too.

[novakant]

Since it's almost election day, I watched two good documentaries about January 6 rioters, revealing the human side behind the headlines. They both tragic and funny.

"Public Defender" focusses on left-wing lawyer Heather Shaner and her clients:

https://www.newyorker.com/video/watch/public-defender

And "The Insurrectionist Next Door" (HBO/SKY) is by Nacy Pelosi's daughter, who is a renowned documenatry director. Her no-nonsense interview style is great in drawing out her subjects, and the film is both shocking and hilarious:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Insurrectionist_Next_Door

I might watch "Election" tonight:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_(1999_film)

[novakant]

I need an edit button ...

[GftNC]

I need to fast forward...