I have a confession to make….I am secretly a Geographer !
Yes, shocking, I know, but from ‘A’ Level onwards this was my subject ( with a little Geology thrown in, hence my love of rock music).
One aspect of Geographical study that I found particularly intriguing was what one might call “perceptual” geography, how people “see” the world instead of what’s really there.
“So what ?” I hear you cry.
Well, last week I posted a “trip around the world” set of tunes and, thinking about it, realised that I had gone, automatically East – West as if that was the natural way to go.
Odd, when you think about it as North- South is an equally valid way to go round ( colder at both “ends” of course) and yet I and, I suspect, most of us, because we are used to seeing world maps orientated in a particular way “see” things E-W.
Anyway , to even things out, I thought I’d do a little North- South trip through music.
Of necessity it’s a bit more of a scrag bag of tunes than last week’s but, I’m a fair minded sort of a chap and I’d hate to hurt the feelings of North and South, so here goes.
We start in the furthest North I could find in my collection , Finland with rather scary “folk” ladies Varttina ( I’m sure they are lovely really but they look a little “witchy” to me) and a song called Mustat Kengat ( Black Shoes). A little taste of the Taiga.
Heading south we come to Germany, a land well known for it’s Sausage Dogs and cabbage based cuisine. Here’s Teutonic hero Heino and a song about a woodchopper “Die lustigen Holzhackerbub’n”, rousing !
Then a short hop takes us to La Belle France and perhaps the best known of the songs here. Jacques Dutronc and Et Moi, et moi, et moi. For a brief period , in the mid 60s, French pop had it’s own unique Gallic style and charm. What went wrong ?
Across the water to Africa next and some Rai from Algeria. Cheb Zahouani and Ma-Nsal. Real “rebel” music here. It was, frankly , dangerous to make this kind of stuff in the 80s-90s, at least one artist and the producer of this piece , Rachid, were killed by militants. Tragic and the reason why so many Rai artists relocated to Paris.
Of course it wouldn’t be an Ubu post without a trip to Hawaii. For a change we get away from leis and hula dancers and enter the world of the Paniolo or Hawaiian cowboy. Here are the Ho’opi’i Brothers with Hawaiian Rough Riders. The skill of the Hawaiians amazed the rodeo riders on the mainland when they first appeared over there.If you’ve seen some of the terrain they had to deal with you’d understand why they were such excellent horsemen.
Vietnam. Not somewhere you tend to hear a lot about these days, still it has had it’s own music scene for centuries and here’s a sample of the modern style Phoung Dung with “Khuc hat an tinh”
You may want to pass on the next one. It’s Wing ( cheating slightly here) from New Zealand and her unique take on Elvis’ In the Ghetto. I’ll say no more…
Nearly there ( there are, amazingly, no songs I could find from Antarctica, those penguins need to get their act together). So we are at the tip of Africa, South Africa to be precise and the almighty sound of Township Jive courtesy of Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens ( best band I ever saw). They bring us Sibuyile and a smile.
Rounding off, where else but the Land Down Under, Australia. Tricky one this. Could have gone for Nick Cave or Kylie , I suppose but it’s not like me to end on a low note so let’s have a blast of a song that will, surely, resonate with all of us “of a certain age”. Eric Jupp and Skippy.
There. Phew ! Job done and honour satisfied.
You’re the Michael Palin of music, Pair! Monumental, and indeed longtitudinal, stuff. Favourite stuff for me is the South African representation.
Reminds me of the mental playlist I keep nearly compiling, heading South to North through London: Buddha of Suburbia (Bowie); Croydon (Captain Sensible); Stay Free (The Clash); Up The Junction (Squeeze); Electric Avenue (Eddy Grant); Sonny’s Lettah (LKJ – Brixton Prison’s about half a mile north of Electric Avenue)…I tend to get stuck in Brixton, and the list falls apart around the Lambeth Walk and Waterloo/Waterloo Sunset (Belgium/Merseyside?) and then we’re norf of the river which is a mystery, and I don’t mean by Toyah.
I remember seeing the late , great Willy Rushton singing a song in praise of Neasden once.
There’s also Peter Sellers and Bal-ham, gateway to the South.
lessee, off the top of my head –
Pogues – Rainy Night in Soho and Dark Streets of London (Hammersmith Broadway). Clash – Hammersmith Palais. Street Fighting Man (St. John’s Wood). Elvis Costello – Chelsea.
But Pete Doherty has a lot of the UK covered in one song (RTJ perpetual assfairy too).
Deptford, Catford, Walford, Digbeth, Mansfield, Semford, Woville, Newcastle,Wrexham,Oldham,Bristol.
I just realized i wrote Street Fighting Man. No, that would be Play With Firs for St. Johns Wood. I need a vacation.
ahem……..
Artillery Row – The Bevis Frond
Killing Joke – Ghost of Ladbroke Grove
In depth research adds-
Morrissey- Picadilly Palare ( also covers Earl’s Court) and You’re the one for me, Fatty ( Battersea).
Ian Dury- What a waste ( Fulham Broadway)
Television Personalities ( King’s Road)
Clash- London’s Burning ( Westway) and The Kinks – Dedicated follower of fashion ( Carnaby Street).
Al Stewart (Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres); The New Vaudeville Band, (Finchley Central); Fairport Convention (Possibly Parson’s Green) and something by Donovan that I can’t remember …
ahem – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Kings Road
Mornington Crescent.
And The Jam “A” bomb in Wardour Street, of course.
Dorian once did a London underground map trying to connect bands – I thought it would be more interesting to do bands on the stations or in the areas – (then I got bored)
“5,6,7,8″ by Shut Up And Dance (Hackney, Stoke Newington etc. many other tracks too)
“Archway People” by Saint Etienne (loads of mentions)
Battersea Bridge Baptism by Chris T-T (whole albums about the thames and the 368 bus route)
“Bathtime in Clerkenwell” by The Real Tuesday Weld
“Birdman of EC1″ by Saint Etienne
“Bow E3″ by Wiley
The Boy Looked at Johnny” by The Libertines
“Carnaby Street” by Booker T. & The MG’s
“Carrion” by British Sea Power
“Chelsea Girl” by Ride
“Clark Gable” by The Postal Service
“Cockney Rhythm” by Rebel MC
“Cockney Translation” by Smiley Culture
“Common People” Pulp
“Dettwork Southeast” by Blak Twang (mentions Brixton, Clapham, Hackney, West Ealing, Seven Sisters, SE8)
“Duffer St. George” by The Fiery Furnaces
“Eyeless In Holloway” by Johnny Flynn
Harrow Road” by Big Audio Dynamite
“Has It Come To This?” The Streets
“King’s Cross” by Pet Shop Boys
“A Knife for the Girls” by The Long Blondes
“Night Terror” by Laura Marling (‘I woke up on a bench on Shepherds Bush Green’)
“North West Three” by Fatboy Slim
“The Only Living Boy in New Cross” by Carter USM
“Pissed Up in SE 1″ Aphex Twin
“Real Estate” by Blak Twang(mentions SE8, Tanner’s Hill, Stockwell Park Estate, Stonebridge, Broadwater Farm, Baskerville residents, New Cross)
“Rich Ah Gettin Richer” by Rebel MC (references Tottenham)
“Ska Night Bus to Dalston” by Bad Manners
“Soho Square” by Kirsty Maccoll
“South London Boroughs” by Burial
“The Liberty Of Norton Folgate” by Madness (references Spitalfields, Whitechapel, Tower Hamlets and Bow as well as Norton Folgate
“The Taking of Peckham” by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine
“UFO’s over Leytonstone” by Squarepusher
“Unemployed in the summertime” – emilliana torrini (Primrose Hill)
“Waterloo Station” by Jane Birkin (lyrics by Rufus Wainwright)
“West End Girls” by Pet Shop Boys
“Westminster Chimes” by Sonic Youth
st etienne, street, blak twang, madness, ian dury, Chris T-T
Not forgetting Latchmere by The Maccabees – in praise (i think) of the leisure centre on Lacthmere Road (clapham/battersea).
Oh Leyton Buzzards- Saturday Night beneath the plastic palm trees
( Seven Sisters Road).
Roxy Music – Do the Strand
erm… Fergie – London Bridge
Genesis – Dancing with the Moonlit Night
(Old Father Thames)
Richard Thompson Old Thames Side and Cooksferry Queen
Genesis – Battle of Epping Forest
Anyone mention Hilly Fields (Brockley) by Nick Nicely?
London South – Nick Nicely
I haven’t listened to the musical delights yet but the idea of “perceptual geography” intrigues me. I think it was the rise of Communism and the Cold War that led us in Britain and the USA to talk about East and West all the time.
The trouble is we still do it even though, more often than not, we are talking about the North and the South when it comes to the things that divide us, ideologically or economically.
Incidentally, the Australian art historian and social commentator Robert Hiughes said that his father always referred to Japan as “the far east” even though for them it was actually the near north.
I read a book , years ago, about Aztec thought. They had an interesting way of seeing the world. Everything centred on their capital at Tenochtitlan ( Mexico City). If they traveled they went away from the centre. They were “in” the North in a very real sense.
I wonder if the Romans ( and, probably, some of the Empire dwelling Brits) had the same sense. There was a Golden Milepost in the Forum in Rome that marked the distances to various places in the Empire.
We, in the West, tend to measure our world from where we are, I think. Rather than fixed points in that way.
It’s an interesting concept.. coming from the “end of the world”, as I do, we have an almost diametrically opposed view to the Aztecs.. anytime we go away from home, we’re getting closer to the “centre”. I also think we’re conditioned by our own country’s structure into thinking in terms of “centres” or “networks”, which we also map onto our understanding of cities or towns.. the urban theorist Kevin Lynch developed a cognitive language based on paths, nodes, edges, landmarks and districts to explain how we “navigate” cities (or countries) in our minds.
I did an art course years ago and there were various learned writings about how we are conditioned to see art from a western perspective – applies to anything, of course, but there was a particularly interesting bit about maps and examples of old and new maps from different parts of the world, each with different perspectives. Which doesn’t add anything to what has been said, but I’ve typed it now so may as well post …
Most school text-books in Australia/NZ- at least during my school years- still came from the US or Britain, so we did have a certain “dislocation” between what we learned and where we lived… it’s hard to get over saying “far east” when it’s written in every single book you read. Our school syllabus was basically lifted directly from Northern Hemisphere models, with the addition of a token “living in the Pacific” module. In the same way, christmas decorations consisted of “fogged” windows with snow and holly, although it was the middle of summer.
I’m currently ploughing through my annual summer holiday,non-fiction, ‘big’ book, which this year is Guns, Germs and Steel. it looks at the development of civilization(s) and why there are differences in said development. One major premise is that the spread of civilisation is based on the discovery/development of farming (domesticating wild crops and animals) as opposed to hunter/gathering as the main food source. The spread of domestication (and all that infers – the quantity of food produced by farming freed up more members of society to specialise in things like inventing stuff) moved easier and quicker on an East/West axis as opposed to a North/South axis mainly because there is less climatic change, as well as fewer insurmountable physical barriers (e.g the Sahel in, the Darien Gap). A fascinating study that has opened my eyes to the influence of ‘geography’ in the study of human development. A bit dry at times, but Recommended Reading (as opposed to Readers Recommend?).
I’ll get me coat.
Ooh, that’s one of my favourite books, tempus – also love his Collapse about how civilisations fail.
Jared Diamond, everybody.
You maybe need to take a rock to your globe, if you’re under the impression that South Africa and Australia are further south than NZ.. even Auckland, if you’re counting Wing’s base, is nearer the pole than the Cape of Good Hope is. Just saying.
If you wanted to feature a musician from one of the world’s southern-most cities, you could have gone with Chris Knox, who’s from Invercargill. You might even like his music, come to think of it.
I took a few geographic liberties in order to get that perfect playlist balance.
Interesting song there !
With some of those tunes you spoil me – (with others you torture me) – much fun!
Thanks ( I think !) . That’s what I aim for. I’ve long been a creator of “challenging” mix-tapes ( as my brother will attest).
I don’t hate you like everyone else!
I really admire your eccentric taste in music. Anyone who can have “Skippy” and Finnish witches in the same playlist deserves respect (or imprisonment)
I liked all the tracks actually, and it is a great idea to go from north to south but some how evade Japan!!!
I loved the fist track, it really moved me but why did you say it reminded you of witches? For me it was more like a really nice folk song with all the history and legend that the very best folk has.
Heino was lovely!!! I love his music, which I discovered from you actually!!! I always think of healthy and energetic older gentlemen and ladies having a nice time in a mixed spa….and for a reason I do not really understand, but I always find myself trying not to think of my mum and dad when I listen to his music!!!!
The French connection sounded like a stones track actually.but then they did spemd a lot of time in France. Maybe nothing really went wrong, but the mixing of music created from a common cultural matixa???
My favourite!!! I loved this and even if everyone else hates you, I will always tolerate you because you showed me this track!!!
Hawaii and the Ryukyuan Islands are ethically similar in language and culture so this song really sounded very familiar, even the yodelling!!
On my home island we have a German cultural centre which was given to us by the King of Germany because in the past there was a terrible storm and a German ship was sinking in the storm. There is a brotherhood of the sea and so the fisher men of my Island could not bare to stand still and see the German ship and the crew be lost. So even if it was really dangerous the fishermen of my island went out in the storm and saved the crew of the German ship and kept them safe on my island until the German king could take them home again. In his gratitude he made a German cultural centre on my Island. From this we learnt to yodel and play the accordion!!! Music is a wonderful way to cross cultures!!!
Like in this song in Miyakojima (my home home island) we yodel also!!!
Maybe the Vietnam song is my favourite, it mixes so many influences, and Vietnames and Mandarin are similar so I can understand it a little. It is a lovely song and I will down load it and I am sure I will listen to it often. Thank you for showing it to me.
In The Ghetto – I love it when I hear a new version of a song I know and love, it makes me understand the original better. This song really made me think about the song and what it means, I do not know but maybe it is like 40 years since the original version and it is sad to think this is still so true.
Almost finally, I find this song so positive and sunny!!! I do not knowe the words of course but the vibe is wonderful.
Skippy – there are no words……….no words!!
Thank you Pairubu!!!
Thank you , HoshinoSakura, you really should be writing for a music magazine !
I thought I’d bypass Japan this time, I’ve been thinking that people might be getting a bit fed up with me banging on about it ( not you, obviously).
Interesting stuff about Okinawa, I’d noticed the accordion like sounds in some of the songs and assumed it was traditional, now I know it’s German.
Hawaiian music, of course, is a bit of a mixture too, the ukulele developed from a Portugese instrument brought over by sailors.
As for Varttina, it’s not so much the song as the ladies themselves that remind me of “witches”, in a good way, more “shamaness” perhaps. If you watch them on Youtube you might see what I mean. Think of them in bleak, snow covered Birch forests, dressed in black and singing to the mooses.
Did you listen to last weeks post, there was another track from Samingad, the Taiwanese lady, that is really, really good.
Thank you for your kind words Pairubu!!! I hope you do not mind me teasing you a little bit!!!
Actually the German connection is not really for the all of Okinawa prefecture it is really just Miyakojima where am from that has this strong German connection.
Here is the link to the German Cultural Village on my Island.
http://www.okinawa-information.com/content/german-culture-village-miyakojima
I did listen to last week, but I did not comment as I was so busy with work and so tired from the journey to and back from each day that I did not have any energy left at the end of the day.
I really like Samingad!!! She is She is an ethnic Puyuma and sings in Puyuma dialect. I think her voice is so wonderful!!!
That was me!
Hope you are feeling a bit less tired now.I quite understand. I used to work in a big florists in London and on big days like Valentine’s or Mother’s Day I would come home too exhausted to even eat.
Hard life, eh ?
So glad you like Samingad, I think she has a great voice too. Imagine, all over the world there are really great singers that we never get to hear.
I could do with another 1000 years or so to investigate it all.
p.s.
Thanks for the link, what a beautiful place !
Reminds me a lot of Kauai ( my favourite place in the whole world) and the German castle is brilliant.
One day, I will visit Japan. Top of my list is Hello Kitty Theme Park, obviously, then Gifu and now Miyaojima.
All I need to do now is get rich !
Give me a couple of weeks….
It is so true that there are wonderful musicians from all over the world we never hear! I have so limited knowledge of African and South American music for example, or Indian music…..
I actually worked in the Hello Kitty Theme Park in Odaiba district of Tokyo on time doing some promotions, but that one is not like a real theme park there are no rides and it is all inside, but it is very nice and quite large actually, but the main Hello Kitty Theme Park is in Sanrio Park Harmonyland in Oita, and that has nice rides and things for the kids and is really nice so people say.(I have never been yet)
Really enjoyed this playlist – anything that gets me away from my usual cultural fare. If I can’t travel physically, then a musical journey is the next best thing. I hope you find it worthwhile to post some more moveable feasts like this Pairubu.
Pairubu, this the song for geologists! (I’m quite serious about this – I used to share a flat with geology students and they managed the seventh beer of an evening without bellowing a chorus or two of this)
Oops, forgot a ‘never’ in the last sentence…
Good grief ! That hair is positively Jurassic !
Nice work, Shane. Now crack on with a new playlist will ya? Mr Dury’s Busdriver’s Prayer deserves a mention (he did put it to music, but prefer the spoken word version:
Our Father,
Who art in Hendon
Harrow Road be Thy name
Thy Kingston come
Thy Wimbledon
In Erith as it is in Hendon.
Give us this day our Berkhampstead
And forgive us our Westminsters
As we forgive those who Westminster against us.
Lead us not into Temple Station
And deliver us from Ealing,
For thine is the Kingston
The Purley and the Crawley,
For Iver and Iver
Crouch End
thanks Shoey..
‘spills been busy – keep nearly getting there with playlists – then life takes over.
love the prayer ( didn’t finish saying : st etienne, streets, blak twang, madness, ian dury, Chris T-T all have loads of mentions of london place names )
Shane -
sorry, but don’t know where else to post this. I had a look at the RR Facebook page. Just to add a bit more fuel to your fire, here’s a later comment i made re: Welcome to the Pleasuredome. Meaning that i’m very happy to have it listed as it’s a great song, but i all but withdrew it for not being on topic. (And com to think of it i do remember you nomming it for Xanadu for Poems).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/aug/19/readers-recommend-songs-visitors?commentpage=14#comment-12085907
Amy –
I know, I read it as I skimmed through (I was away too, so didn’t even concentrate very well) – which is why I was slightly digging at the A listing.. it’s not your nomination of it (or my B listing – the rules are B listers don’t count -so it’s still game) – just the standard of Guru effort.
Peters and Lee not getting nominated, but picked – really riles…also:
“I thought it might be nice to pick songs by bands and musicians who are themselves visitors to Readers Recommend, who don’t get seen much round these parts”
he didn’t – he picked tunes (like Jon Dennis Does) – that he knows and wanted in HIS playlist – I want a Guru who reads and takes on board Readers Recommends – not the “middle aged White man” column. I can read the glossy magazines for that.. Q, Mojo, Uncut, the Word all do that job for £50 man.
so we get:
spirit gets a 3rd A
FGTH – 2nd A – but B’d lots with mention constantly.
Carpenters – 3rd A – and constant mentions
Black Uhuru – 3rd A
etc etc etc.. PEOPLE MENTION THESE BANDS ALL THE BLOODY TIME.
Beach Boys, Springsteen…. jeese don’t get seen much – what?
Just because all you took notice of is Dylan, Beatles and Cohen (and Cohen was discussed really well this week- unlike Peters and Lee – which makes it a really strong RR)
(you get my drift) – why write something that is incorrect – they are writers allegedly – they can make up a little intro to ‘visits’ without pissing off those that have a knowledge of what has been going on for the last (however) many years.
Now, I know it’s only a game – but I am one of those that pays for the Newspaper, the blog is still under the Guardians radar.
I pay to have intelligent things written – because I can’t.
If your job is to do that – then bloody well do it.
All I ask is a defined Theme, asking for thought about a nomination and it then being read by the Guru- it would save them a lot of work in the long run.
I would gladly swap that and go back to it being about the nominations (rather than petty squabbles) – than ever get an A list again.
And to clarify, I don’t want them to please everyone all the time.. I want the blog to be read and taken in. THAT IS ALL.
Sorry.
Shane -
I rarely complain publicly about the lists unless there’s something glaring, because it is a game and the blog is really the thing. But even i have shot off a grumpy email about them lately (to Maki, because he was grumper in chief that week so i picked his ear to vent in). I think the lists have been distinctly samey and unadventurous lately, and if it’s a list that my mom would probably like for more than one week, something is wrong. And a big reason i’m lamenting the demise of the B-list, PaulMac was pretty openminded and at least would get some un-PC stuff on there. Sure i’d love to get my classic un-PC Stones tunes listed, which probably won’t happen now. But it’s new music i’m really on there for, although i haven’t had much time for it lately.
If I may join in here. I’ve been thinking pretty much along the same lines but working on a “if you can’t say anything good don’t say anything at all” basis.
I find the lists really dull, frankly. Week after week it’s the same kind of stuff.
I forgive Paul this week as it’s a tough job filling in but when I saw the word “outsider” I was expecting something a bit further out than Bruce Springsteen !
Ah well ! We soldier on.
Yes – the Springsteen was my nom, but what he said about it was so peculiar, I felt it was nothing to do with me at all.
“if you can’t say anything good don’t say anything at all”
is usually me too – but I like RR a lot – there’s little digs and disagreements that can normally be brushed off – but only on a happy RR that has focus.
I know there are different personalities:
those that don’t care.
those that go by the way of the hippo
those that care too much and have had to leave before something really nasty is said.
those that agree with a boss even if they are committing genocide (joke).
and those of us silently peeved at the sameness.
Well, I did shut up…maki and shoey have calmed me down on numerous occasions… ((you know you are going too far when shoey is the angel on your shoulder with a voice of reason)) – but then- why should I?
……..And the only reason I’m
singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar
situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if your in a
situation like that there’s only one thing you can do and that’s walk into
the shrink wherever you are, just walk in say “Shrink, You can get
anything you want, at Readers Recommends.”. And walk out. You know, if
one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and
they won’t take him.
And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,
they may think they’re both BoyBand Fans and they won’t take either of them.
And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in
singin a bar of Readers Recommends and walking out. They may think it’s an organisation.
And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said….
fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Readers Recommends and
walking out. And friends they may thinks it’s a movement.
And that’s what it is , the Readers Recommends Anti-Massacre Movement, and….
all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come’s around on the
guitar.
With feeling. So we’ll wait for it to come around on the guitar, here and
sing it when it does. Here it comes.
Pairubu -
Of course you can join in, its your thread. In fact, i’m glad you did because i don’t feel quite as bad for hijacking it.
‘Tis tricky. Am inclined to voice an opinion (as you may have noticed). Am with Nilpferd, in that if you have an RR axe to grind, do it there & brace for fall-out. Not here, Facebook or anywhere else in public. Private e-mails are great for venting. Let’s break that rule one more time.
The problem with dissing the picks is that, as well as the Guru, you also risk dissing whoever suggested it in the first place. Nobody likes criticism. (For me ELP represent the worst aspects of music: dullness, self importance, self-indulgence etc. In a rare moment of restraint, managed to hold off saying anything because I hadn’t listened to that particular track). There have been a number of comments about lack of variety recently. Would hope that the expanded A list gives more room for maneuver, and we’ll all find something else to moan about. If not the criticism will likely continue & why shouldn’t it?
TFD, getting both acknowledged & ignored is a new one. Think you are perfectly within your rights to explain why you don’t agree with the basis for selection.
We’re all going to have our favourite judges. My rule of thumb is if there are at least 3 songs on the final list that you like; then it’s been a pretty good selection week.
Shoey -
I agree with you about dissing individual songs, except to maybe correct something in the writeup, or debating its topicality, which i think is fair enough. Beef, which many of us made on the actual blogs, were for the lists as a whole, and the general trend. Which i think is fair enough. Along with a comment that “songs that weren’t worth listening to” wouldn’t make the list.
shoey –
the results section was opened up to vent opinion – and keep it away from the main blog.
I’ve done that on numerous occasions – Jon then takes it to the main blog (away from where we’ve been discussing it) – and says: “to reiterate, I can’t please all the people all the time”.
..as that has never been asked for – just to expand his breadth of era/style from those readers that recommend – so I discuss it with people elsewhere too – sometimes privately, sometimes facebook – he started it so…na na na na ….. na.
so I shall just reiterate here:
I’m not dissing the picks as such, or whoever suggested it in the first place… I’m dissing the fact that it’s such a limited palette he picks from (in comparison to the breadth on RR)
Paul L’s picking of a non nom’d song – just summed RR’s guruship at the moment – it’s not READERS RECOMMENDS.
I ranted with TFD – but it’s one week – so didn’t bother on the results section.
I wanna give JonD a break – shall see how the expanded A looks – obviously not this week – as it’s a novelty RR…. but it’s been ‘a distinct taste’ for a lot of these 8 months.
My rule of thumb is: if there’s a varied selection (whether I like them or not) from great readers recommends*, then it’s been a pretty good playlist… if I’ve found a few wows while reading through (the blog) that’s a bonus week.
(*as I’m sad – I do cross-reference to see what makes a good readers Recommend!)
’nuff said – I’ll shut up again – at least they get a break this week.
I ranted on Facebook because, as Paul Lester was only there for a week, I thought it was a bit unfair (and not productive) to use the results blog.
But I was mightily disheartened.
I have to disagree with Shoegazer. I don’t think the RR pages are the best place to vent spleens. It could be seen as an attempt to manipulate the Guru ( which is both illegal and immoral).
I used to tease Paul Mac a bit because I felt that he could take the ribbing. He gave as good as he got and always with good humour.
Don’t feel that way about most of the other writers.
I don’t want to be mean to anyone ( Gurus included) really, we all have our tastes and blind spots and that’s what make the world go round.
I’ve just had a nagging feeling , for some weeks, that we are offering up caviar and being served boiled sprouts in return.
From the North I’ve got Hector Zazou with “Songs from the Cold Sea” Featuring, among others, Bjork and her recording of the Icelandic song “Visur Vatnsenda-rosu”
As a personal Link I’ve got Paul Weller’s album “Stanley Road” as I lived in a Stanley Road in Carshalton, Surrey for many years.
For South Africa there is The Tananas with their album “Unamunacuna” ( the tears you cry while dreaming )
And all the way down to New Zealand for Hayley Westingra’s first album “Hayley Westingra” (2001) and the bonus track “God Defend NewZealand” their ‘other’ National anthem.
Hector Zazou – great stuff.
Doh !
Iceland ! Of course. Silly me.
Then again, there’s probably an album of “Sarah Palin Sings” somewhere out there.
Still no penguins though.
Not sure (because I’ve only got a download of the Cold Seas album), but I think there are also songs from Lapland and a duet from two Inuit ladies.
@Dsd knows more about this I believe.
Think DsD put me onto it too:
it’s a long musical voyage across the seas of the North — the Chukchi Sea, the Greenland Sea, the North Sea, The Atlantic Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, the
Barents sea, the Kara Sea, Baffin Bay, the Labrador Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Berings Sea, and many others. Eleven times during this voyage, land was visited and local traditional songs and rhythms were sampled and brought back. Thus Songs From The Cold Seas contains exotic singing and percussion playing from the Ainu people of Hokkaido Island, from Eskimos in Baffin Island, from shamans and Yakuti people in Siberia, joik chanting from the Sami people of Lapland, and music from more familiar Nordic places such as Finland, Sweden, Ireland, The Hebrides, Greenland, Iceland and Newfoundland.
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