Yesterday, I shared some of the books and movies we’re reading and watching to get in the mood for Scotland. And I got some suggestions of ones to add to our list–thank you!
The third part of the Scottish arts triumverate is music, of course. I love music, and while I’m not musically talented myself (be here during family karaoke if you don’t believe me), I’m constantly singing and listening to music. Good lyrics are poetry, and songs are about the only form of poetry I can actually memorize.
Anyway, we’re listening to lots of Big Country, and I need to pull out CDs of Snow Patrol, Jethro Tull (Ian Anderson was born in Scotland and owned–still owns?–an island where he lives and runs a fish farm), and, of course, Midge Ure (he’s the behind the scenes guy who did much of the work organizing Live Aid, for which Bob Geldof gets all the credit).
We thought it would be fun to see a concert in Scotland, but it’s working out in kind of a strange way.
Sadly, Big Country no longer exists in the form we love, since Stuart Adamson’s suicide in 2001.
Here’s one of my favorite Big Country songs,
The Seer:
Long ago I heard a tale I never will forget
The time was in the telling and the banquet scene was set
The sky was rolling blindly on, the daylight had not gone
She washed her hair among the stones and saw what was to come
All this will pass
There will be blood among the corn and heroes in the hills
But there is more to come my boy before you’ve had your fill
Read the rest here. Or watch this live performance:
“Ships” is another favorite of mine. The anguish in this song is visceral.
OK, LiveJournal apparently doesn’t like embedded videos, because entire chunks keep disappearing. I thought I did something wrong the first time, but now I see it’s just randomly chopping things off.
So I’ll keep this short:
We’ve seen both Snow Patrol and Jethro Tull in the past couple of years here in Minneapolis, so although Jethro Tull is touring Scotland while we’re there, they’re never where we’ll be, and we don’t feel strongly enough to change plans. Plus we’d love to see someone we haven’t seen before.
Midge Ure is who we most would have liked to have seen, and he’s going to be playing a month before we go. I’m so sad. We’ll never see him here in America because he’s not well-known here at all. For him, we would have changed plans of which city we’ll be in when.
If you’re tired of politicians and preachers and everyone who claims to have all the answers, watch Midge Ure’s “Answers to Nothing.” “Dear God” is another fantastic one. The lyrics to both of these are poetry in the best sense.
But, no Midge Ure.
So who are we going to see while we’re in Scotland? Matchbox Twenty, a purely American band! They also played here recently, though we didn’t go. Ha. Who would’ve thought we’d go to Scotland and see a U.S. band. But it should be fun. I like their cd from 2002, and now I need to get last year’s release. A few songs I like by them are (click links for lyrics) Unwell, If You’re Gone, and Bright Lights. Not exactly happy songs, any of them! But I tend to be drawn toward darker songs, anyway.
Hopefully we’ll get a chance to hear some homegrown Scottish music while we’re there. I really want to hear some bagpipe playing. Love their mournful sound. Don’t know how common it is outside of Highland Games celebrations, though, which won’t be going on while we’re there.
If you have any recommendations for Scottish rock or traditional music, I’m all ears. Thanks!