Art is the music we make from the bewildered cry of being alive. ~Maria Popova
28 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: donovan, mellow yellow
Hearing Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow” recently in a department store, it occurred to me that had he not showed a measure of discretion and a degree of ambiguity in the lyric…
…if indeed he’d spelled it all out in the 2nd verse like he later did in live performances…
…the song would probably be cancelled by now.
Quite rightly!
28 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: descend from the heavens, l’ensemble choral du bout du monde
…is an ancient sacred carol from Brittany (Celtic northern France). The language is Breton, not French, although the beauty of the music transcends language. The refrain translates as:
Descend from the Heavens, joyful spirits/Come once again to sing praise to Jesus/Proclaim his goodness in hymns of glory/Peace has just arrived on earth
I don’t know anything more about the song or the recording, and I don’t want to know. I don’t want to watch a YouTube video to see what the singers look like.
This song carved out and occupies an inviolate niche in my mind, a place of almost unreal beauty. It stirs me in a way no other recording does, and any further information I could learn about it would only break the spell.
I can find five minutes of perfect joy inside this song.
25 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in Recommended Albums Tags: foxtrot, genesis
Genesis: Foxtrot (1972)
On the band’s fourth album, Genesis began to synthesize (or mellotron at times) a balance between credible rock and the theatrical whimsy that had dominated their three previous albums.
It’s art rock that doesn’t sacrifice the art or the rock.
“Time Table” muses on the passage of time with medieval imagery and a nostalgia for times gone by–or perhaps is a lamentation of the inevitable repetition of events throughout history:
A carved oak table tells a tale
Of times when kings and queens sipped wine from goblets gold
And the brave would lead their ladies from out of the room
To arbours cool
A time of valour and legends born
A time when honour meant much more to a man than life
And the days knew only strife to tell right from wrong
Through lance and sword
Why, why can we never be sure till we die
Or have killed for an answer?
Why, why do we suffer each race to believe
That no race has been grander?
It seems because through time and space
Though names may change each face retains the mask it wore
“Can-Utility and the Coastliners” truly shows off the ensemble talents of a great band, with the soft textures of Steve Hackett’s guitar giving way to Tony Banks’ brilliant layered mellotron and organ and Phil Collins’ powerhouse drumming. Several passages and time changes later, it feels like you’ve heard an epic prog song in less than six minutes.
On the classically-inspired “Horizons”, Hackett manages what Steve Howe didn’t on The Yes Album and Fragile; that is, he contributes an instrumental that doesn’t disrupt the feel of the album overall.
For those less familiar with the Gabriel-fronted version of Genesis, uh, yeah it’s a long way from the artsy, eccentric prog of the early days to the “I Can’t Dance” populist drivel of the Collins-fronted incarnation of the band.
A long way down.
Listen to: “Time Table”
Listen to: “Can-Utility and the Coastliners”
Listen to: “Horizons”
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/03/19/songs-you-may-have-missed-55/
Every Moment Has A Song 