Song of the Week
I've been meaning to start this thread for weeks now. I listen to a lot of music (as do all of us emusers!). Often I will be struck by a particular song that I have repeatedly played during the past week because it resonated with me in a special way. It might be simply because of a catchy beat, or it may be a particularly beautiful voice, or especially meaningful lyrics perfectly matched to the accompanying music. It may be any genre - a brand new song I've just discovered, an old favorite, or maybe a forgotten song that I've had for a long time but never fully appreciated.
This thread is my place to share with others the particular "Song of the Week" that stood out for me during this past week. I hope others will use this thread to post their favorite "Song of the Week," too, provide a link for others to hear, and tell us what it is about the song that has had you hitting replay over and over.
My Song of the Week for this week is "Psalm of Life".
It is on the album, "The Gift" by Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson. It is a wonderfully done folky version of the classic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This poem is one of my all-time favorites. Longfellow said of it, I kept it some time in manuscript, unwilling to show it to any one, it being a voice from my inmost heart, at a time when I was rallying from depression.' (Longfellows young wife was burned to death in an accident while lighting a candle. The flames caught her skirts on fire and completely engulfed her. This was the major cause of the depression Longfellow was rallying from when he wrote Psalm of Life.)
When I discovered Carthy & Waterson had set this poem to music, I was anxious to hear what these two brilliant artists would do with it. They nail it. I love the contrast between Waterson's rough, edgy voice and Carthy's beautifully smooth one. They each have solo spotlights, and their voices blend beautifully when they sing together. There is a beautiful instrumental break in the middle with a melody that perfectly captures the spirit of the poem. I cannot think of a better way to express this poem musically than what these two ladies have accomplished.
Here are the lyrics, followed by the story behind the poem.
A PSALM OF LIFE
(What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist)
TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream !
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way ;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
Be a hero in the strife !
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
Let the dead Past bury its dead !
Act, act in the living Present !
Heart within, and God o'erhead !
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time ;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate ;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
THE STORY BEHIND THE PSALM...
copied from "Light from Many Lamps"
It was early morning. The bright sun streamed through the windows of the Craigie house in Cambridge where George Washington had once had his headquarters, and where a young Harvard professor now lived. He lived, in fact, in the very room that Washington had occupied. And as he stood gazing out of the window at the
sloping lawn and the elms, he wondered if Washington might not have stood here once feeling perhaps as he did--unutterably lonely and dejected. The young man's wife had died three years ago, but he longed for her still. Time had not softened his grief nor eased the torment of his memories. He turned restlessly from the window and wondered how to spend the time before breakfast.
He was a poet too, this young professor; but he had no heart for poetry these days. He had no heart for anything, it seemed. Life had become an empty dream. But this could not go on, he told himself! He was letting the days slip by, nursing his despondency. Life was not an empty dream! He must be up and doing. Let the dead past bury its dead. . . . Suddenly Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was writing in a surge of inspiration, the lines coming almost too quickly for his racing pen. Longfellow called his poem "A Psalm of Life." He put it aside at first, unwilling to show it to anyone; for as he later explained, "it was a voice from my inmost heart, at a time when I was rallying from depression."
But later he allowed it to be published . . .and it went straight to the hearts of millions of people. No poem ever written became so well known so fast. It was
taught in schools, recited on the stage, discussed from pulpit and lecture platform. It crossed the ocean, and spread like wildfire through England. It was translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Danish--even Sanskrit! In China it was printed on a fan and became immensely popular. A whole generation of school children grew up under the influence of Longfellow's "Psalm." Many prominent men later acknowledged that influence with gratitude. Henry Ford,
for example, memorized it as a lad, and in later years often said that the sixth and ninth stanzas came back to him all his life, inspiring him to effort and achievement. Firestone also freely acknowledged his indebtedness to the poem, as did many other famous men. Edward Bok made a special visit to Longfellow
to tell him how much the last four lines meant to him. Even Gandhi, on the other side of the world, quoted a favorite line from it just a few days before his death
("....things are not what they seem"). The call to courage and action of a man emerging from a great sorrow, "A Psalm of Life" is one of the best-loved and most widely read poems in the world. Its lines are full of and hope, its message clear and unmistakable. Its appeal is as vital and timely now as it ever was; in a recent poll to determine the nation's favorite poem, it easily won first place.
For over a hundred years "A Psalm of Life" has helped the weary, unhappy, and discouraged to be "up and doing, with a heart for any fate." No poem more richly deserves its place among the inspirational classics of mankind.
This thread is my place to share with others the particular "Song of the Week" that stood out for me during this past week. I hope others will use this thread to post their favorite "Song of the Week," too, provide a link for others to hear, and tell us what it is about the song that has had you hitting replay over and over.
My Song of the Week for this week is "Psalm of Life".
It is on the album, "The Gift" by Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson. It is a wonderfully done folky version of the classic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This poem is one of my all-time favorites. Longfellow said of it, I kept it some time in manuscript, unwilling to show it to any one, it being a voice from my inmost heart, at a time when I was rallying from depression.' (Longfellows young wife was burned to death in an accident while lighting a candle. The flames caught her skirts on fire and completely engulfed her. This was the major cause of the depression Longfellow was rallying from when he wrote Psalm of Life.)
When I discovered Carthy & Waterson had set this poem to music, I was anxious to hear what these two brilliant artists would do with it. They nail it. I love the contrast between Waterson's rough, edgy voice and Carthy's beautifully smooth one. They each have solo spotlights, and their voices blend beautifully when they sing together. There is a beautiful instrumental break in the middle with a melody that perfectly captures the spirit of the poem. I cannot think of a better way to express this poem musically than what these two ladies have accomplished.
Here are the lyrics, followed by the story behind the poem.
A PSALM OF LIFE
(What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist)
TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream !
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way ;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
Be a hero in the strife !
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
Let the dead Past bury its dead !
Act, act in the living Present !
Heart within, and God o'erhead !
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time ;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate ;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
THE STORY BEHIND THE PSALM...
copied from "Light from Many Lamps"
It was early morning. The bright sun streamed through the windows of the Craigie house in Cambridge where George Washington had once had his headquarters, and where a young Harvard professor now lived. He lived, in fact, in the very room that Washington had occupied. And as he stood gazing out of the window at the
sloping lawn and the elms, he wondered if Washington might not have stood here once feeling perhaps as he did--unutterably lonely and dejected. The young man's wife had died three years ago, but he longed for her still. Time had not softened his grief nor eased the torment of his memories. He turned restlessly from the window and wondered how to spend the time before breakfast.
He was a poet too, this young professor; but he had no heart for poetry these days. He had no heart for anything, it seemed. Life had become an empty dream. But this could not go on, he told himself! He was letting the days slip by, nursing his despondency. Life was not an empty dream! He must be up and doing. Let the dead past bury its dead. . . . Suddenly Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was writing in a surge of inspiration, the lines coming almost too quickly for his racing pen. Longfellow called his poem "A Psalm of Life." He put it aside at first, unwilling to show it to anyone; for as he later explained, "it was a voice from my inmost heart, at a time when I was rallying from depression."
But later he allowed it to be published . . .and it went straight to the hearts of millions of people. No poem ever written became so well known so fast. It was
taught in schools, recited on the stage, discussed from pulpit and lecture platform. It crossed the ocean, and spread like wildfire through England. It was translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Danish--even Sanskrit! In China it was printed on a fan and became immensely popular. A whole generation of school children grew up under the influence of Longfellow's "Psalm." Many prominent men later acknowledged that influence with gratitude. Henry Ford,
for example, memorized it as a lad, and in later years often said that the sixth and ninth stanzas came back to him all his life, inspiring him to effort and achievement. Firestone also freely acknowledged his indebtedness to the poem, as did many other famous men. Edward Bok made a special visit to Longfellow
to tell him how much the last four lines meant to him. Even Gandhi, on the other side of the world, quoted a favorite line from it just a few days before his death
("....things are not what they seem"). The call to courage and action of a man emerging from a great sorrow, "A Psalm of Life" is one of the best-loved and most widely read poems in the world. Its lines are full of and hope, its message clear and unmistakable. Its appeal is as vital and timely now as it ever was; in a recent poll to determine the nation's favorite poem, it easily won first place.
For over a hundred years "A Psalm of Life" has helped the weary, unhappy, and discouraged to be "up and doing, with a heart for any fate." No poem more richly deserves its place among the inspirational classics of mankind.
Comments
"The Clock", by The View which was 3 week's ago free iTunes downblow. bwahaha. Yes, I said iTunes picked a good one. At least it did for me, and I just listened to it again & still like it - the lead vocalist's voice just sends me & I'd like to touch the lead guitarist's hand.
Anyway, I thought it was a perfect fit to working overtime. Although this might have been written about having cancer or something much more dire.
The fire exit door has never agreed with me
Im never sure whether to burst or burn
The fire exit door has never agreed with me
And leave me burning and Im born the firm
[Chorus:]
And oh the clock ,the clock has no sympathy
And oh the clock ,the clocks had its way with me
[Verse:]
Sway away if youre fed up off me
Ill never give you the time of day
If you wont get me my way
Ill never say something that I dont mean
Unless I really mean it,
And I really mean it now
[Chorus:]
Cause oh the clock ,the clock has no sympathy
And oh the clock ,the clocks had its way with me
And oh the clock ,the clock has no sympathy
And oh the clock ,the clocks had its way with me
[Bridge x4:]
Theres no fighting and no hiding
Now my pains is gone
[Chorus:]
And oh the clock ,the clock has no sympathy
And oh the clock ,the clocks had its way with me
And oh the clock ,the clock has no sympathy
And oh the clock ,the clocks had its way with me
Seal me up
[Outro:]
Cause the clock has no sympathy
And the clocks had its way with me
And the clock has no sympathy
And the clocks had its way with me
Full-length audio on Soundcloud
Now waiting for a song to strike my fancy
Amazon's description of the album says, "Nuala Kennedy is an Irish singer and flute player whose music features her liltingly beautiful vocals, adventurous instrumentation, and an imaginative mix of influences. On NOBLE STRANGER, Nuala's third release, the music shines with the raw energy, purpose and confidence of an artist who has come of age. Since the release of her last album, Nuala has become one of the hottest up and coming acts on the North American folk circuit."
This album is wonderful from start to finish, but the song I kept coming back to was 'Lord Duneagle'. It is an old Scottish tragic love song similar to many of the old celtic ballads recounting the sad tale of two lovers - one goes off to see the world and in the end the one left behind dies of "true love" and the other dies of "sorrow." Such songs in the celtic tradition are usually sung mournfully and slowly, but in Nuala Kennedy's case, she puts a faster pace to the song with lots of percussion that adds urgency to the story. Kennedy's voice has a beautiful Irish lilt to it, and the musical accompaniment of guitar, mandolin and percussion is brilliant. Towards the last minute of the song, there's a mean mandolin that really wows me.
Full-length audio on soundcloud.
Somebody mentioned 'song of the week' would be a good idea for MiG. Your writing about the Robert Wyatt song and your musings about it in the context of your current surroundings should go there. I was thinking about submitting some, too. I think we should do it.
ETA: - and a lovely video.
Robert Wyatt is one of my "desolate island" artists, and has been so ever since I heard his cover version of Strangers In The Night in the radio many many years ago: Robert Wyatt & Eve Risser- Rangers In The Night - Not this version, though.
@ Kez: Get the album !
@ GP: Thank you.
@GP - do think about submitting your piece, too. It is too good not to.
@Brighternow - thanks for the youtube link to Catholic Architecture, and also the Strangers in the Night. I found an mp3 of Catholic Architecture on Amazon that I will download, but haven't found a source for the album yet. Will keep looking. I want to explore more of Robert Wylie's albums, too.
Nothing complex here, just a solid beat, catchy guitar riff, and lyrics you can sing along with. But the thing with songs that seem formulaic is that you still have to execute the formula well for the song to be memorable. I'd say Beat Club pulls it off.
Yea verily, give this an actual listen before ye judge. It still holds up.
MADONNA - BORDERLINE
Something in the way you love me wont let me be
I dont want to be your prisoner so baby wont you set me free
Stop playing with my heart
Finish what you start
When you make my love come down
If you want me let me know
Baby let it show
Honey dont you fool around
Just try to understand, Ive given all I can,
cause you got the best of me
Chorus:
Borderline feels like Im going to lose my mind
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline
(repeat chorus again)
Keep on pushing me baby
Dont you know you drive me crazy
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline
Something in your eyes is makin such a fool of me
When you hold me in your arms you love me till I just cant see
But then you let me down, when I look around, baby you just cant be found
Stop driving me away, I just wanna stay,
Theres something I just got to say
Just try to understand, Ive given all I can,
cause you got the best of me
(chorus)
Keep on pushing me baby
Dont you know you drive me crazy
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline
Look what your love has done to me
Come on baby set me free
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline
You cause me so much pain, I think Im going insane
What does it take to make you see?
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline
@Katrina - My first thought, Madonna? But yeah, it works. I can definitely see how it's the perfect song for exactly what you describe.
When I first changed from vinyl to CD, I bought one classical, one jazz, one rock CD . This is the best of the best. I love every track on this album, but I think I love this one the best. It changes for me over the years, and I don't know how those young musicians wrote something so timeless. I also love the MONEY track, but TIME is what has always spoken to me. How could someone in their 20s know to write the line, "And then the one day you find ten years have got behind you"? I found that line interesting when I was 15, spooky when I was 25, and now in my 50s, I'm gobsmacked.
PINK FLOYD - TIME
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then the one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but you're older
And shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desparation in the English way
The time is gone the song is over, thought I'd something more to say
Home, home again
I like to be her when I can
WHen'
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire
And hear the softly spoke magic spell
Youtube
Tortured love songs like this are not usually described as being exactly what you would call deep or thought-provoking, but this one is. There is an excellent commentary on this song on a blog I came across, which describes it like this: "Though Red River Shore is a kind of love song, its concerns are ultimately far wider and more transcendent. In many ways it is a classic piece of romanticism, which echoes the nature poems of Burns, Keats, Shelley and Wordsworth. The girl herself seems more elemental than real, a kind of spirit of nature who may be taken to symbolise the poetic imagination itself." Much more on the analysis of this song can be read at the blog here and definitely adds to one's appreciation of the song. Well worth reading the entire piece!
April 5th youtube
Here she comes
Silent in her sound
Here she comes
Fresh upon the ground
Come gentle spring
Come at winter's end
Gone is the pallow from a promise that's nature's gift
Waiting for the colour of spring
Let me breathe
Let me breathe the colour of spring
Here she comes
Laughter in her kiss
Here she comes
Shame upon her lips
Come wanton spring
Come for birth you live
Youth takes it's bow before the summer the seasons bring
Waiting for the colour of spring
Let me
Let me breathe
Let me breathe you
Let me breathe
Let me breathe you
Let me breathe
And although it's hardly been a gentle spring, it's still a time of rebirth.
-always
Ps Thanks for the Jimmy LaFave. I was thinking about him the other day as I was exploring
the tip I got from amclark2 about this free album Michael Chapman and the Woodpiles - Natch 7. I'll be adding Red River Shore, Deportee and When It Starts to Rain to the experiment. I'm pretty sure there's some parts of the Natch series you'd enjoy and I've posted some links in the experiment. I'll look forward to your suggestions for this years tests.
PPs I'll look forward for suggestions from all my old friends too. It's nice to have a tune to remember you by.
Live version
An oldie but a goodie
Maybe its the wall to wall coverage and all this talk of what a good kid he was
When I look up at the stars at night
What could I find beyond the light
A hundred million worlds that we ignore
Who can restrain Pleiades or know the laws of heavenlies
How many times have we been wrong before
Far off in the field I see a castle
Today the people gather at the pole
He tried to tell us all the world was spherical
They burned his body but not his soul
Working back from the end, clearly it seems to refer to the scientific revolution - maybe, as someone suggested, to someone like Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake for theological heresy and also held Copernican views (which very probably had nothing to do with the burning for heresy), or maybe (as I am inclined to think) just more generally/impressionistically to the times of Galileo and Copernicus. People are burned at the stake in wars over interpretation. Perhaps the present tense, "Today", hints that this is not just about the Middle Ages.
But the middle couplet complicates the picture beyond a straight "science versus religious dogma" picture - "who can restrain Pleiades" is a line of God's speech from the biblical book of Job (38:31) from the section where God is telling Job in dramatic terms that he, Job, does not know nearly as much about God and the world as he thought he did, reminding him of his smallness in the grander scheme of things. And so the Bible is quoted but on the side of wonder and humility (the last word is "soul", not "mind" or "reason" - perhaps not only for the rhyme); the duet is now a trio, science, religious authority, and a biblical picture of God (here neither particularly against science nor necessarily for religious authority).
The last line of the first verse, like the Job quotation, succinctly yet vividly captures the smallness of our mental worlds against the backdrop of the universe. And so the universe makes four, it's a quartet now - there are those stars too that we can contemplate just by looking up, and for which the song is titled. The rest revolves around the stars (we circle the sun, not the other way around). The first two lines now seem (to me) to carry a couple of meanings - there's the literal picture of glimpsing the universe outside the bubble of electric light (try viewing the night sky somewhere far from a city, where our own lights don't paint over the heavens), but it also seems to me to set up the rest of the lyric: when we look at the stars what does what we see say about us, reveal about the beliefs we view the world through? Just pinpricks of light, a backdrop for our own small dramas? The triumph of modern scientific reason over old-fashioned dogma? Comforting signs of a tidy cosmos in which everything is explained by faith? Something wondrous that tells of the vastness of God and speaks of humility? Who can capture Pleiades?
Heady stuff in a small package.
And the music absolutely rocks. Turn it up.
@GP - your insightful take on the Pleiades lyrics was very thought-provoking. I highly, highly enjoyed reading it. Really. I feel like I should say more, but I can't think of any more words that are adequate.
John Paul Taylor - Care Enough
When somethings just not right
Not the way that it should be
We can choose to join the fight
Or pretend we just dont see
But when its right before your eyes
It can reach inside your soul
Theres just no place to hide
Let your heart take control
(chorus)
When are we gonna care enough
To let our minds see through our eyes
When are we gonna really see
The way things are happening?
Oh, when are we gonna care enough?
Oh, when are we gonna care enough?
If a tree falls in the forest
Five thousand miles from here
Does it even make a sound?
Is the question that you hear
But the sound, it doesnt matter
As its falling to the ground
But how many more will follow
Til the last ones taken down
(chorus)
When are we gonna open our eyes
When are we gonna realize
The way its gonna be
Its up to you and me
(chorus)
Thanks.