Archives: Music

Music for Rocking

Whew! It’s been a busy week. The snow has melted here near the Sea of Monsters, though, and the weather is about as nice as you can expect for Indiana in the winter.

Unless you’re interested in a blow-by-blow of day-to-day activities, I don’t have much to report this week. What with shopping for presents and picking a high school kid up half way through the day (finals week), writing has been pretty sporadic.

An English composition student burned a CD of music for me back when I was teaching some years ago. He turned me on to a group called The Hush Sound which I always liked, but upon revisiting, have decided that I extra plus like. Even better, it looks like while I wasn’t paying attention they got back together and are preparing to release a new album.

Anyway, if you like guitar power pop — sort of Jellyfish crossed with Fountains of Wayne — you can visit here, or check out this great song. And as always, Captain Pike is ready to answer your questions with sage wisdom.

Icicles

I don’t have any yet, but with the coming of cold weather, I was put in mind of one of many great Badfinger tracks most people have never heard of. There’s a lot more great stuff from this band that never got radio play. So under-appreciated.

Here, take a listen. I’ve got to get to some writing.

To the Rescue

We’ve been dealing with some pretty depressing family health news around here over the last year. As I was driving away from one of our visits to see my mom in the hospital my teenaged son decided to lift my spirits with a music track so ludicrous I was soon crying with laughter.

I now bequeath this track to you, to lift your spirits when YOU are feeling low.

Here, then, is the theme to the Wonder Woman TV show. Ah, how many ways do I love thee, Wonder Woman show theme?

1. You begin with an explosion, and grow less subtle going forward.

2. You have a splendidly catchy, driving bass line.

3. How about your blaring brass section that knows just when to over-emphasize something dramatic?

a. And how about the great tuba part between the second and third verse?

b. Then there’s the melodic motif that adorns every verse. Fabulous.

Writer at Work

Due to some (non-emergency) family stuff here I’ve gotten a later start than planned, so today I need to dive right into the creation of some prose rather than taking a little time for a longer post.

But here’s a tasty tune in the mean time.

Clock of St. James

Sticking with the theme of music, I thought I’d post the flip side of yesterday’s single. Like “The Tennessee Bird Walk” this is something I used to hear when I was 5 or 6 and hadn’t heard in decades. I recalled that it was strange and haunting.

Now, upon revisiting, I discover it’s still haunting. I see why it stuck with me.  I’ve never been that big a fan of country music, and it definitely has the country twang. It also is music of its era… which is, of course, to be expected.

What I like are that the lyrics are extremely evocative and tell a surprisingly vivid story of… well, I don’t want to give anything away. I’ll say at first, when the song is playing major chords, you think it’s just going to be the colorful description of a city, but by the third line the character of the narrative changes completely.

The background vocals on the chorus really push a dark, gothic feel, and the way the clock chime is worked into the end of the chorus is genius.

I liked it so well that I’m going to look into more work by Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan and see if they have any other treasures. Anyway, here is “The Clock of St. James.”

In case anyone cares, my wife has continued to clean my clock while we were playing Iron Dragon. One day I will win again…

Bald-Headed, Whispering Birds

I remember all sorts of songs and snatches of lyrics from when I was little, including a lot of goofy music for kids, pop hits from the early ’70s and, of course, most of the music of the Beatles (which my mom and I both loved — she’d put them on while she was working around the house).

But there was this odd little one-off song mom had on a single disc. Being little, I never asked why she had it, or when she’d picked it up, but I loved it too. I thought it was weird and funny when I was a tyke . And, unlike a whole lot of other matters that amused me when I was a little kid, I still think it’s weird and funny.

This, then, is “The Tennessee Bird Walk.” I looked it up online recently and it was still weird and wonderful. In case you’re curious, the lines that stuck with me over almost forty years since I’d last heard it were: “Remember me my darling, when spring is in the air, and the bald-headed birds are whispering everywhere.”

The Tennessee Bird Walk (Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan)