For such a relatively small country (population just over 5 million) Scotland has always had an enormous amount of musical talent. I’ll kick off with Annie Lennox and a track called Little Bird. This is from her 1992 solo début album, ‘Diva’, which was a commercial and critical success and got to No.1 in the UK charts. Annie Lennox is, arguably, one of the greatest singers of modern times…
A change of style now, with a piece by The Karine Polwart Trio called I Burn But I Am Not Consumed. This was first performed in January 2017 at the Celtic Connections festival, which took place in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. The Karine Polwart Trio were the opening act and I Burn But I Am Not Consumed was the first song they played. The piece had been specially written for a certain Mr Trump, who was due to be inaugurated the following day…
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If interested you can find the video of this performance here.
Next up, Edwyn Collins and a track called Falling And Laughing, which is one of my all-time favourite songs (it’s the guitar rift that always gets me). Released in 1980, it was the debut single by the band, ‘Orange Juice’. Incidentally, in early 2005 Collins suffered a brain haemorrhage and was rushed into the Royal Free Hospital in London. While in intensive care he had a second haemorrhage. The doctors said that Collins chances of survival were practically nil, but survive he did after undergoing a lengthy operation. He was left paralysed on the right hand side and had difficulty speaking. There followed years of rehabilitation that he is still undergoing. Edwyn Collins is now making music again and you can find my post about him here. The amazing thing is that although Collins could barely speak he could still sing perfectly well. The mysteries of the brain, ay.
I suppose I can’t let this post go without including some pipes. I don’t know much about Brighde Chaimbeul, beyond that she was born on the Isle of Skye, is barely out of her teens and hails from a very talented musical family. Oh, and in 2016 she won the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award…
As part of the prize for winning the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award, Brighdie Chaimbeul got to play a set at Fairport Convention’s Festival, Cropredy. This sort of brings me onto the final track in this post. In 1969 Fairport Convention released their seminal album, ‘What We Did on Our Holidays’. The album contains a track called She Moved Through the Fair, which is a traditional Irish folk song of unknown origin that’s been covered by many artists. I would have liked to finish up with the very good Fairport Convention version, but in this post I have to keep to all things Scottish. So, here’s an equally good re-worked version by Simple Minds, called Belfast Child, which was released in 1989 and uses the tune of She Moved Through the Fair…
And let’s not forget
The Krankies – It’s Fan-Dabi-Dozi!
https://www.discogs.com/The-Krankies-Its-Fan-Dabi-Dozi/release/1565277
………………….
ok let’s forget, please let’s forget
Peter, yes there’s a lot of dross, and you can say the same for England, Wales and the island of Ireland. I would say, though, that post-colonial rule, the British Isles and Ireland have produced an extraordinary amount of great music. Here’s a little gem for you. It lasts for exactly two minutes (light-up a cigarette afterwards)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Mi995ggFU
Peter, always good to criticise! ?
Here’s another Scottish band, criticising the national treasure who was Albert Tatlock (think he was on Cornation Street!).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=frHjqtRpLY4
Quite a mix there, Rob. Edwyn Collins has built a recording studio up in Helmsdale, Sutherland, and has been busy enticing bands to record up there. Here’s what he helped Teenage Fanclub produce up there, with some nice beach shots!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLCX_SlmERpROebSWbBPOLOeo1nLzA4566&v=FDOLKSp2AWU
John, because the attention span thesedays is five seconds I tend to keep my full music posts to five tracks, rightly or wrongly.
Of course, it’s impossible to sum-up Scottish music in such limited space.
Although a big fan of ‘pop music’ my favourites here were Karine Polwart and Brighdie Chaimbeul (Polwart’s take on Trump is a classic).
Hi Rob, my wife is a fan of Karine and this led her to go and see The Burns Unit, a collection of musicians and songwriters. This clip gives you a flavour of the group.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiGZMmWsgTQ
King Creosote is another from this group and here’s a song from his collection ‘From Scotland with Love’, music he put together to accompany home movie clips from the archives.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rGFnClH0E94
Slainté / Santé
John, thanks for the links. I found The Burns Unit very interesting and they’ll be the subject of a future music post.
“pop music” …….. Its not the answer but it helps with an explanation.
Not everyone has the same taste, my best could be your worst but it’s what’s in our “it’s ok” that decides on where we have common ground.
Standard Deviation. The Pop Charts are determined by the Middle Grounders (or rather the “Activists” that purchase the music)
Music is written for the Middle Grounders …….. to make money from them. They are then manipulated into what they should like and if they don’t conform they become outsiders. If they want to stay with the “in crowd” they they have to conform to the expected norms.
And so it is with Pop Politics, the entire Middle Ground taken up by Tory and Labour Expected Norms. Designed, Paid For and Dictated by the “Establishment”. Managed by the Senior Civil Service for spectacular rewards funded by the Befuddled Taxpayer.
And how is the Madness held together? Answer; By the same methods that the music industry employ, the reliance on intellectual laziness and fear of not fitting in.
And then distributed in multiple Propaganda packages honed by Goebbels, fucked by Blair.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fascism/2017/03/how_nazi_propaganda_encouraged_the_masses_to_co_produce_a_false_reality.html
If it wasn’t for Blair the emerging generation would believe in, and endorse the shit that our parents did. We are lucky we are seeing the transition. That may bring about WWIII but what the heck, we can now all die knowing the truth.
But until that happens I am supporting Andy Stewart for his questioning of where Trump’s Troosers were (we now know, that for the large part, they were around his ankles)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqtFnAZu1YI
Peter, every artist I’ve featured here is fearlessly independent (they wouldn’t make my list otherwise).