Anyone up for a bit of Celtic music? I know I am, especially if it is from the masterful guitarist and singer-songwriter Mark Knopfler. A lot of his solo music (post Straits) is unassuming and restrained, but I find it very soothing to the ear. Mark’s raw material seems pure feeling love. Piper To The End is the final track on Knopfler’s solo album Get Lucky.
The song is about Knopfler’s uncle Freddie who was a piper of the 1st Battalion, Tyneside Scottish, the Black Watch, Royal Highland Regiment. Freddie carried his pipes into action in World War II and was killed with fellow fighters at Ficheux, near Arras in the north of France in May 1940. He was just 20 years old.
Knopfler describes the moment of Freddie’s death in the latter’s own words:
This has been a day to die on Now the day is almost done Here the pipes will lay beside me Silent with the battle drum
Knopfler explains that he never knew Freddie personally, his mother’s brother, but that he was very close to his uncle Kingsley, Freddie’s older brother. Kingsley taught Knopfler to play the boogie-woogie piano.
[Verse 1] When I leave this world behind me To another I will go And if there are no pipes in heaven I’ll be going down below If friends in time be severed Someday we will meet again I’ll return to leave you never Be a piper to the end
[Verse 2] This has been a day to die for Now the day is almost done Up above a quiet seabird Turns to face the setting sun Now the evening dove is calling And all the hills are burning red And before the night comes falling Clouds are lined with golden thread
[Bridge] We watched the fires together Shared our quarters for a while Walked the dusty roads together Came so many miles
Knopfler explained in an interview:
The pipes always made sense to me, and growing up in Glasgow as well as Newcastle, in my grandmother’s home, there were Jimmy Shand records, so the sound of Celtic music always seems familiar to me.
Mark has no problem sharing the stage with other players (as seen below in Cologne in 2015), and he has no problem backing them up like he’s doing here. He doesn’t overplay like others, and maintains/controls his volume just right to complement the song and his band. It’s easier said than done. A pro’s pro.
Blood in My Eyes is the second song to appear here from Dylan’s 1993 traditional-folk record World Gone Wrong (WGW) after the previous entry – Delia. This album was a follow-up to his other acoustic guitar and harmonica record – Good as I Been To You released the year prior. He had a penchant during this phase to draw deep from the wellsprings of by-gone music, but the songs in WGW seem to hone in on darker and more tragic themes than Good as I Been. Dylan held sessions at his Malibu home garage studio and recorded the record in a matter of days. The album won the Grammy for best traditional-folk album.
[Verse 1] Woke up this morning, feeling blue Seen a good-looking girl, can I make love with you? Hey, hey, babe, I got blood in my eyes for you Hey, hey, babe, I got blood in my eyes for you I got blood in my eyes for you, babe I don’t care what in the world you do
[Verse 2] I went back home, put on my tie Going to get that girl that money that money will buy Hey, hey, babe, I got blood in my eyes for you Hey, hey, babe, I got blood in my eyes for you I got blood in my eyes for you, babe I don’t care what in the world you do
Blood in My Eyes is Dylan’s rendition of the Mississippi Sheiks song, I’ve Got Blood in My Eyes for You which was written in 1931. Dylan doesn’t change the lyrics at all, but his version is played at a considerably slower tempo and is more melancholy than the original.
From World Gone Wrong Liner notes by Bob Dylan: Blood in My Eyes is one of two songs done by the Mississippi Sheiks, a little known de facto group whom in their former glory must’ve been something to behold. Rebellion against routine seems to be their strong theme. All their songs are raw to the bone & are faultlessly made for these modern times (the New Dark Ages) nothing effete about the Mississippi Sheiks.
By 1989, Cure lead singer and songwriter Robert Smith was a bit weary of his band’s gradual movement toward the pop charts away from their moody early work. He felt he needed to create something lasting, a coherent album-length artistic statement. So he slowed down the tempos, turned up the torment, and wrote the songs that would make up Disintegration, the band’s melancholy masterwork which contained “Pictures Of You.”
The instrumental introduction in The Cure’s Pictures of You is immense and my favourite part of the track. I always preferred how this song sounded Live over the studio release because of the reverb effect, so I have relayed the live version below from their gig at The Palace, Auburn Hills, Michigan. This music portal which is Pictures of You instantly takes me back 30 years. These 7 minutes of music have given me so many hours of joy and deep reflection; bringing back memories so thick of places and especially people in my renegade period of early adulthood. Perhaps my attachment to this song is not as fervent as it once was, but I still remain introspective about what it represents.
Pictures of You is the second song by The Cure to feature here after their previous entry Friday I’m in Love. It was released as the fourth and final single from the band’s eighth studio album, Disintegration. The single reached No. 24 on the UK Singles Charts. In 2011, the song was voted number 283 on Rolling Stone‘s The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
[Verse 1] I’ve been looking so long at these pictures of you That I almost believe that they’re real I’ve been living so long with my pictures of you That I almost believe that the pictures are all I can feel
[Verse 2] Remembering you standing quiet in the rain As I ran to your heart to be near And we kissed as the sky fell in, holding you close How I always held close in your fear
[Verse 3] Remembering you running soft through the night You were bigger and brighter and wider than snow And screamed at the make-believe, screamed at the sky And you finally found all your courage to let it all go
[Verse 4] Remembering you fallen into my arms Crying for the death of your heart You were stone white, so delicate, lost in the cold You were always so lost in the dark
Background: According to interviews, the inspiration of the song came when a fire broke loose in Robert Smith’s home. After that day, Smith was going through the remains and came across his wallet which had pictures of his wife, Mary. The cover of the single is one of the pictures. The same picture was used as the cover of the “Charlotte Sometimes” single, but that image was heavily warped and distorted.
Smith explained his motivations for the album in a 1989 interview. “With Disintegration, I wanted to see if The Cure was still able to make a record which had a real substance and if we were able to express and share such deep feelings,” he said. “The kind of things you feel the first time somebody kisses you violently on the mouth. It’s this kind of intensity, when you’re young, that you must never forget with age. Never…”
In this piece (Promenade) Mussorgsky depicts himself “roving through the exhibition, now leisurely, now briskly in order to come close to a picture that had attracted his attention, and at times sadly, thinking of his departed friend.
Pictures at an Exhibition Promenade is a piano suite in ten movements, plus a recurring and varied Promenade theme, written in 1874 by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. It is a musical depiction of a tour of an exhibition of works by architect and painter Viktor Hartmann (pictured inset) put on at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, following his sudden death of an aneurysm at the age of 39. Mussorgsky was deeply affected by Hartmann’s passing and conceived a musical memorial to Hartmann, with each movement depicting one of the artist’s works. It was composed in twenty days.
Mussorgsky first met Hartmann in 1868 not long after Hartmann’s return to Russia from abroad. Both men were devoted to Russian art and quickly became friends. Hartmann gave Mussorgsky two of the pictures that later formed the basis of Pictures at an Exhibition. Each movement of the suite is based on an individual work, some of which are lost. Mussorgsky links the suite’s movements in a way that depicts the viewer’s own progress through the exhibition. Two Promenade movements stand as portals to the suite’s main sections. Their regular pace and irregular meter depicts the act of walking.
This song is one of the best pop singles of the 1970s. It was on the album City To City. This was Rafferty’s first release after the breakup of his former band Stealer’s Wheel. Rafferty had been unable to release any material due to disputes about the band’s remaining contractual recording obligations, and his friend’s Baker Street flat was a convenient place to stay as he tried to remove himself from his Stealers Wheel contracts. It was his second solo album, the first being Can I Have My Money Back? released in 1971.
Baker Street was another song jogged to my memory by Max’s recent article at PowerPop. I had not heard this song in decades, but it sure did bring back some good memories and reminded me why the 70’s were so good for music. The arrangement is known for its unforgettable saxophone riff. It contains one of the most iconic intros to any song and still get the adrenaline flowing 46 years later. I really like his song Right Down the Line as well which will feature here when we reach the ‘R’s in the music library project.
Baker Street is a song written Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. It won the 1979 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically and reached the top three in the UK, US and elsewhere. As Max alluded to above:
“Everybody was suing each other, so I spent a lot of time on the overnight train from Glasgow to London for meetings with lawyers. I knew a guy who lived in a little flat off Baker Street. We’d sit and chat or play guitar there through the night.”
[Verse 1] Windin’ your way down on Baker Street Light in your head and dead on your feet Well another crazy day, you’ll drink the night away And forget about everything This city desert makes you feel so cold It’s got so many people but it’s got no soul And it’s taking you so long to find out you were wrong When you thought it held everything You used to think that it was so easy You used to say that it was so easy But you’re tryin’, you’re tryin’ now Another year and then you’d be happy Just one more year and then you’d be happy But you’re cryin’, you’re cryin’ now
[Verse 2] Way down the street there’s a light in his place He opens the door he’s got that look on his face And he asks you where you’ve been You tell him who you’ve seen and you talk about anything He’s got this dream about buyin’ some land He’s gonna give up the booze and the one night stands And then he’ll settle down, in some quiet little town And forget about everything But you know he’ll always keep movin’ You know he’s never gonna stop movin’ ‘Cause he’s rollin’, he’s the rollin’ stone And when you wake up, it’s a new mornin’ The sun is shinin’, it’s a new mornin’ And you’re goin’, you’re goin’ home
The resolution of Rafferty’s legal and financial frustrations may have accounted for the exhilaration of the song’s final verse:
When you wake up it’s a new morning The sun is shining, it’s a new morning You’re going, you’re going home.
Rafferty’s daughter Martha suggested in 2012 that he could also have taken inspiration from a book he was reading while he was travelling between the two cities, Colin Wilson’s The Outsider (1956), which explored ideas of alienation and creativity and a longing to be connected.
Before I left Australia to come to Colombia, I went to Hanging Rock in Victoria, Australia as a personal pilgrimage. Hanging Rock is an archetypal character in the movie. I felt great nostalgia wandering this ethereal and dreamy landscape. I can understand why some of the cast and executive producer were afraid to return to Hanging Rock. According to IMDB executive producer Patricia Lovell said she went back once in 1985 and she left almost immediately and refuses to go back to this day.
Today we go back to the beginning of it all. The Australian art-house cinema classic Picnic at Hanging Rock directed by Peter Weir launched my movie series – ‘Friday’s Finest‘ in August, 2019. Its theme music Doina: Sus Pe Culmea Dealului by the Romanian (pan flute) musician Gheorghe Zamfir is a traditional Romanian panpipe piece and the subject of today’s post. There is currently no official soundtrack commercially available of Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Zamfir is known for playing an expanded version of normally 20-pipe nai, with 22, 25, 28 or even 30 pipes, to increase its range, and obtaining as many as eight overtones (additional to the fundamental tone) from each pipe by changing his embouchure. Zamfir is known as “The Master of the Pan Flute“. Between 1976 and 1983, Zamfir had six albums peak within the Australian top 100 albums charts, with The Flutes of Pan, his best, peaking at number 26 in 1980.
Zamfir’s first appearance as soloist interpreter in a movie soundtrack was in Vladimir Cosma’s 1972 Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire, whose soundtrack became a worldwide hit. He was asked by Ennio Morricone to perform the pieces Childhood Memories and Cockeye’s Song for the soundtrack of Sergio Leone’s 1984 gangster film Once Upon a Time in America. His performance can also be heard throughout the 1984 film The Karate Kid plus the sequels. One of Zamfir’s most famous pieces is The Lonely Shepherd which featured in Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 film Kill Bill: Volume 1.
I saw a John Lennon interview where he said he used to worry about Ringo and what he would do after the Beatles. Suddenly Ringo was on top of the world and John jokingly said he telegrammed Ringo and asked Ringo would he “write me a hit?”
Yesterday’s featured song Bad Moon Rising, as well as today and an upcoming song were all jogged to my memory from fellow blogger’s Max web site PowerPop. Photograph was released as the lead single from former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr’s 1973 album Ringo. It was a major international hit charting in 10 different countries, including hitting No 1 in the United States, Canada and Australia. Starr and Harrison began writing the song on a luxury yacht in the South of France in 1971, during a period when Starr was focused on developing his acting career. Harrison also contributed guitar and backing vocals to the track. The lyrics are a reflection on lost love, whereby a photograph is the only reminder of the protagonists’ shared past.
[Chorus] Every time I see your face, it reminds me of the places We used to go But all I’ve got is a photograph, and I realise you’re not Comin’ back anymore
[Verse 1] I thought I’d make it The day you went away But I can’t make it ‘Til you come home again to stay
[Chorus] I can’t get used to livin’ here while my heart is broke My tears I cried for you I want you here to have and hold as the years go by And we grow old and grey
Starr sang Photograph at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, during which he and Paul McCartney, as the two surviving ex-Beatles, were honoured with the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Rolling Stone reported on Starr’s performance of the song: “Backed by a massive full band, he bounced around the stage while old black-and-white photographs showed on a big screen behind him.” In the album review for Rolling Stone, Ben Gerson highlighted Photograph as one of the “three most wonderful songs” on Ringo, along with the Lennon-composed I’m the Greatest and the Harrison–Mal Evans collaboration You and Me (Babe).
The scene of the American’s (Dave) conversion to a werewolf (with Creedence’s Bad Moon Rising) is both terrifying and a technical marvel. It is said the real star of this film is the Oscar-winning transformation effects by Rick Baker, who changed the face of horror makeup in the 1980s. Also the whole music soundtrack is dedicated to the ‘Moon’.
Creedence Clearwater Revival have a sense of impending doom on their 1969 hit “Bad Moon Rising.” The song was the lead single from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s third studio album, Green River. The song reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in September 1969.
Lead singer and songwriter John Fogerty told Team Rock that the name “Bad Moon Rising” came from a book of song titles that he kept. he said, “I didn’t even know what it meant, I just liked how the words sounded.” The lyrics were inspired by a 1941 black-and-white film Fogerty had watched called The Devil and Daniel Webster. He said:
The scene I liked is where there’s a devastating hurricane; furniture, trees, houses, everything’s blowing around. That story and that look really stuck in my mind and they were the germ for the song.
[Verse 1] I see the bad moon arising I see trouble on the way I see earthquakes and lightnin’ I see bad times today
[Chorus] Don’t go around tonight Well, it’s bound to take your life There’s a bad moon on the rise
[Verse 2] I hear hurricanes a-blowing I know the end is coming soon I fear rivers overflowing I hear the voice of rage and ruin
[Chorus] Don’t go around tonight Well, it’s bound to take your life There’s a bad moon on the rise All right
Fogerty allegedly wrote the song the same day Richard Nixon was elected president—he denies the song has a political subtext. However, the song still became an anthem both for troops in Vietnam and anti-war protestors across the country. Fogerty acknowledges the song’s political undercurrent:
The song was a metaphor. I wasn’t just writing about the weather. The times seemed to be in turmoil. Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy had been assassinated. I knew it was a tumultuous time.
First Man is the third movie by Damien Chazelle to be presented here after his previous entry Whiplash. It is a 2018 American biographical drama film developed from a screenplay by Josh Singer, based on the 2005 book of the same name by James R. Hansen. The project was originally announced in 2003, with Clint Eastwood slated to direct. After that rendition fell through, Chazelle, Gosling and Singer all signed on by 2015.
IMDB Storyline: A Biopic on the life of the legendary American Astronaut Neil Armstrong from 1961-1969, on his journey to becoming the first human to walk the moon. Exploring the sacrifices and costs on the Nation and Neil himself, during one of the most dangerous missions in the history of space travel.
The film received critical acclaim, particularly regarding the direction, Gosling and Foy’s performances, musical score, and the Moon landing sequence. Similar to my last Friday’s Finest submission – Mr. Turner; despite the very positive reviews from critics at 87%, First Man has received just a 68% Audience Score at Rotten Tomatoes. I’m bemused at the reviews of “boring” or “too long”. This is not Apollo 13 or The Right Stuff, and is not meant to be. It is a character study based on a book James R Hansen which is a biography of Neil Armstrong, rather than a story of the moon landing per se. Of course the movie is going to show the moon landing, and the events which lead up to it, but these are just part of what the movie is about.
We see how hard it is to be a test pilot then astronaut. The launches and flights are seen from Neil’s perspective, his visceral experience of being on top of a missile smashing into space. These scenes are not spectacular, in the Apollo 13 sense, but dark, claustrophobic, noisy and confusing, like it really was. Armstrong is shown as an introverted man of few words and not particular friendly. But he has extraordinary coolness under extreme pressure. That’s why he was chosen as the first man. The movie portrays a real marriage, so unlike what is normal in Hollywood that it seems to be a shock to a lot of people. I certainly could relate to one or two exchanges between Neil and his wife Janet. Clare Foy portrays her as a sweet but strong woman.
Filming: It was shot without the use of green screen. Instead, LED displays of up to 10 meters were used. These projected images that would simulate the exterior of the spacecraft, both the Earth and space. Next to the screens, several simulators were built, each corresponding to a spacecraft. These were programmed to move synchronized with the images of the spherical LED screens that could be seen through the windows.
To recreate Armstrong’s home, the production crew built a replica of it in an empty lot. The lunar surface was recreated by building a set on the Vulcan quarry in Atlanta. Chazelle filmed these sequences at night, using a custom 200,000-watt light to duplicate the effect of sunlight on the surface. For the simulation of low gravity on the lunar surface, a balancing system calibrated for the actors was constructed. NASA historian Christian Gelzer, as well as astronauts Al Bean (from Apollo 12) and Al Worden (from Apollo 15), were on set as technical consultants.
Mark Armstrong and Rick Armstrong said that this film contained the most accurate portrayal of their father Neil Armstrong and their mother Janet Armstrong.
Apollo astronauts were considered government employees, with most at the rank of Captain. Regardless of their substantial education, the average yearly income of these astronauts in the 1960s was $17,000 (~$112,000 in 2019 money) solely based on military rank, and were not paid any hazard pay…. they were deducted for living expenses when aboard the spacecraft, as food and a bed were provided for them.
The “1201” and “1202” alarms that sounded during the lunar descent was an indication that the computer was receiving more data than it could process. The procedure to fix this was to cycle the switch, which essentially ended the bottleneck. This was not the last time this error had been encountered in an Apollo flight. When Apollo XII was struck by lightning during its launch, it also triggered a 1202.
The Apollo 11 crew eat steak and eggs before their launch. This has been the traditional launch day breakfast of NASA astronauts since 1961, when it was served to Alan Shepard for the first Project Mercury flight.
Spoiler alert: Do not read on if you haven’t seen “First Manand want to see it. The film excerpt I have included below is the moving scene when Neil Armstrong releases his daughter’s bracelet on the Moon in remembrance of his family and her. To me it’s the most powerful scene of the movie. The compounding factors of where he was, the broken heart for his daughter and the music tied it all together into a seriously heart wrenching moment. Fact check – Did Neil Armstrong Really Leave That Bracelet on the Moon? Armstrong never talked about it but his sister feels that he might have done so, given that he had 11 minutes alone on the moon — mostly exploring what is known as the East Crater — where no one knows exactly what he did. “Did he take something of Karen with him to the Moon?” Armstrong’s sister June asked Hansen rhetorically in the book. “Oh, I dearly hope so.” Buzz Aldrin and Armstrong did take personal kits to the moon, although Armstrong “never released any information about the contents of his PPK.”
Philadelphia Freedom is the 10th track to feature here from Elton Hercules John. I listened to him more than any other music artist before I reached the age around 13. To say his early records did the rounds on our family turntable would be an understatement. One of my biggest regrets as far as musical yearnings is concerned is not having seen him in concert. Philadelphia Freedom was released as a single in 1975, credited to the Elton John Band. The song was the fourth of John’s six number 1 US hits during the early and mid-1970s, which saw his recordings dominating the charts.
I used to be a rollin’ stone, you know If a cause was right I’d leave to find the answer on the road I used to be a heart beatin’ for someone But the times have changed The less I say, the more my work gets done
[Chorus] ‘Cause I live and breathe this Philadelphia freedom From the day that I was born, I’ve waved the flag Philadelphia freedom took me knee–high to a man, yeah Gave me peace of mind my daddy never had
[Post-Chorus] Oh, Philadelphia freedom, shine on me, I love ya Shine the light through the eyes of the ones left behind Shine the light, shine the light Shine the light, won’t you shine the light? Philadelphia freedom, I lo-o-ove ya Yes, I do
Philadelphia freedom was written by John and Taupin as a favour to John’s friend, tennis star Billie Jean King, who was part of the Philadelphia Freedoms professional tennis team. Elton John met Billie Jean King in 1973 and, according to reporters for CNN, they have since built a “powerful partnership in philanthropy, raising hundreds of millions of dollars…for equal rights and for HIV/AIDS causes“.
The song was at the time the only song Elton John and Bernie Taupin had ever consciously written as a single. In His Song: The Musical History of Elton John, Elizabeth Rosenthal recounts that Taupin said, “I can’t write a song about tennis“, and did not. Taupin maintains that the lyrics bear no relation to tennis, Philadelphia soul, or even flag-waving patriotism. Nonetheless, the lyrics have been interpreted as patriotic and uplifting. The song’s sentiment, intentionally or not, meshed perfectly with an American music audience gearing up for the country’s bicentennial celebration in July 1976.
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