Listening to Tony Blackburn's PoTP programme today I heard Vince Hill's rather poor rendering of 'Edelweiss' reminding me of the Christopher Plummer/Julie Andrews version towards the end of The Sound of Music.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtEzZEe_5kA
The childhood memory of the film and the symbolism of opposition to the Anschluss are quite emotional.
What has that effect or other forummers?
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 22 Mar 14 at 20:28
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Flower of Scotland - If Carlsberg wrote anthems.
Last edited by: R.P. on Sat 22 Mar 14 at 20:45
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Dreadful dirge is Flower of Scotland.
Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau is almost guaranteed to get one to pipe the eye - and I'm not Welsh.
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>> Dreadful dirge is Flower of Scotland.
>> Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau is almost guaranteed to get one to pipe the eye
>> - and I'm not Welsh.
>>
I'd go for either FoS or Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau or for that matter the Irish anthem for hairs on back of neck capacity. Pretty much anything in the world is more stirring than God Save the Queen.
Surely it's not beyond wit of lyricists to find less jingoistic words than those of 'I Vow to The My Country' to go with Holst's magnificent tune as an alternative for non state occasions.
While on national occasions why does the standard Remembrance Day version of O god Our Help in Ages Past omit the verse about Time Like an Ever Rolling Stream?
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 22 Mar 14 at 22:29
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Johnny cash's rendition of 'Hurt' has some impact: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go
As for nationalistic guff, FoS and Scots Wha Hae ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_Wha_Hae ) do indeed poop on God Save the Queen.
From a great height.
Last edited by: Lygonos on Sat 22 Mar 14 at 22:53
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I hoped for something lively Lygonos, but apart from the massed pipes and trap drum the actual song was a bit of a dirge, typical damn national anthem in fact, no better than God Save the Queen.
Doesn't seem to matter whether it's a small country or a big one, they are all finally about not being done over by the enemy through knavish tricks, enslavement and so on. Even the French anthem which is warlike and quite jolly musically for a national anthem has these ill-defined people of impure blood coming to mess up France's neat furrows... the ruling class in that instance I think, or its instruments.
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Don't forget I did refer to them as 'guff' ;-)
Anyhoo, the lyrics are more meaningful than the choons - and GSTQ is the lamest of the breed.
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Can I be the only one whose war was not rendered worse by the dreary songs of Dame Vera Lynn?
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>> GSTQ is the lamest of the breed.
Think of it like this Lygonos: it's only polite for a country secure in its borders, successfully imperialist and colonialist and fated to become even more successfully imperialist, to have a 'lame', non-militant dirge of a national anthem. Anything more militant would seem aggressive and triumphalist.
Of course it's different for countries or regions imperialised accordingly, toads so to speak beneath the harrow of English arrogance. Numerically the Celtic fringes are a minor component of this Britain-hating segment of the world population. And of course having been involved in the imperialist and colonial enterprises right from the start, militarily and politically, they are seen by everyone else as fatally compromised with the English, if not actually indistinguishable from them.
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Welsh were very prolific slave owners (Just think of many African Americans with "Welsh" surnames) Ironically as the English landlords in N Wales enslaved the Welsh in the slate quarrying areas.
As a new UK anthem how about I Vow To Thee etc....a brilliant WW1 patriotic anthem to Nationhood and love of country.
I think it's still right to love your country without being a swivelled eyed loon. I know it's unfashionable.
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>> I think it's still right to love your country without being a swivelled eyed loon. I know it's unfashionable.
Quite. People sometimes think they're above all that because they think they know what's what. But 'Revolution is not a mother country' (Régis Debray, Autobiography).
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Why do the Irish have 2/3 anthems?
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I must be some kind of sociopath. I don't feel or pledge allegiance to any group in particular. You are born, you live, and eventually you die. That's it as far as I'm concerned. If you manage to do that while conducting yourself with a degree of empathy for others and appropriate levels of respect for yourself that's about as much as it amounts to.
Emotional memberships of imaginary clubs or groups does little for me. I firmly believe we are all nothing more than smart monkeys trying to survive and prosper for our accidental allotted span. We aggrandise our activities by wrapping them up in emotive terms such as honour, glory and love when in fact our motivations are ultimately much more primitive. Food, shelter, sex and status are all we really seek. Everything else is window dressing.
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>>I don't feel or pledge allegiance to any group in particular. You are born, you live, and eventually you die. That's it as far as I'm concerned. If you manage to do that while conducting yourself with a degree of empathy for others and appropriate levels of respect for yourself that's about as much as it amounts to.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjz16xjeBAA
Runfer/Brian's Sunday morning sermon.
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>>www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjz16xjeBAA
Runfer/Brian's Sunday morning sermon.
=>LOL<=
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Brilliant! - goes with "You are born, you live, and eventually you die"
I also go along with " Food, shelter, sex and status are all we really seek" although not necessarily in that order.
;-)
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>> I must be some kind of sociopath.
You are nothing of the sort as you well know.
>> I don't feel or pledge allegiance to any group in particular.
But it wouldn't take much to make you recognise and even admit that you belong to one or two groups in particular.
>> We aggrandise our activities by wrapping them up in emotive terms such as honour, glory and love when in fact our motivations are ultimately much more primitive. Food, shelter, sex and status are all we really seek. Everything else is window dressing.
You have a sense of honour Humph. You feel love and behave accordingly.
Is the pursuit of knowledge and understanding - the scientific bent - mere window dressing? Me don't tink so...
What you need is a couple of large ones to remind you of how fascinating you really are.
:o}
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In reply to Duncan,
The anthem of the Republic is unequivocally 'The Soldiers Song' or "Amhrán na bhFiann" in the Irish language. It is however played in different tempos on different occasions.
As a rebel song it's at least implicitly anti British and as a symbol of Nationalism/Republicanism it is controversial in the six counties of Ulster/Northern Ireland. For that reason the Ireland rugby team, drawn from the whole of the island, uses a specially composed 'Ireland's Call'. At matches in the Republic it is played alongside "Amhrán na bhFiann" but is the sole anthem used elsewhere.
I believe the folk song 'Fields of Athenry' has the status of unofficial 'second' anthem and is certainly another candidate for tear/lump:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLZRWNdGCUc&feature=kp
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 23 Mar 14 at 09:48
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Oh that's another one....particularly this version....staged in Hollywood but the rendering is incredibly full of emotion.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM-E2H1ChJM
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>> Oh that's another one....particularly this version....staged in Hollywood but the rendering is incredibly full of
>> emotion.
>> www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM-E2H1ChJM
What's the tune the Germans are singing? Horst Wessell?
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>> >> Oh that's another one....particularly this version....staged in Hollywood but the rendering is incredibly full
>> of
>> >> emotion.
>> >> www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM-E2H1ChJM
>>
>> What's the tune the Germans are singing? Horst Wessell?
this maybe?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JDkdc246QQ
or this maybe?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7IyijkgdhA
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David of the White Rock/Dafydd y Garreg Wen....also played at the Cenotaph.
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I always thought that the "Land of Hope and Glory" would have been a great improvement on our existing Anthem, but in the end we've got a land of "Dopes and Tories"!
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Tomorrow belongs to me from the film Cabaret raises the hairs on the back of my neck, probably for all the wrong reasons.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Mg6Gfh9Co
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'The Slow Train' by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann or, better, the version by The King's Singers.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0bfRvfW3WA
Well it works on an ageing expat...
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Luke Kelly - Scorn Not His Simplicity, written by Phil Coulter
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTBC7ckTWpo
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My Dads passing: youtu.be/sUgoBb8m1eE
I had the privileged of parading at the Cenotaph in Whitehall a number of years ago, my Father had recently died and I wore his medals with pride. When the Marines band played that it did me for me.
Eva Cassidy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKtqTYSOBCg
Gladys Knight: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FT5QF4JZUA
Last edited by: Fullchat on Sun 23 Mar 14 at 21:45
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It would be nice to think that we'd meet up with old friends again one day - on the ledge:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=avX5VlU7MXM&feature=related
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>> My Dads passing: youtu.be/sUgoBb8m1eE
That was at my Dad's too. Part of me would have added Hamish McCunn's Land of the Mountain and the Flood:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-F5dmRV5Bc&feature=kp
But the images of the mountains and streams are powerful enough without thinking of him in a box at Rawdon Crem every time I hear the piece.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 23 Mar 14 at 22:35
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>> This does for me -
>>
>> www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntt3wy-L8Ok
Thanks for that Robin. Reminds me, albeit the accent is different, of our local hero Walter Tull.
And then I'm moved on to one of the names on the memorial for those missing but never found at Thiepval; GSK Butterworth of the Durham Light Infantry. Littleton of his work survived but what else could the man who wrote this masterpiece have achieved:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Q9dz1kse8&feature=kp
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The Green Fields does it for me as well. The ANZAC equivalent is just as good.....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VktJNNKm3B0
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Shouldn't have posted this one.....2 day old grandson......10 yrs ago now.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5W4RjTW3zQ
Made I cry.....again !
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And one for our friends and relatives Down Under:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOlPCmFG2pc
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If I could sing at all this would still make me waver off-tune:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6q6Z_FonF0
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No one who hasn't been one can readily understand how very philistine and hard-hearted public schoolboys are.
Yet at my last school everyone liked it on the quite rare occasions when we had to sing a Latin Paternoster, a lowering melody well suited to a large, roaring male choir. That one can bring a tear to the eye.
So can the Internationale. There are other stirring tunes, but not like those.
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>> No one who hasn't been one can readily understand how very philistine and hard-hearted public schoolboys are.
:-) I don't think I've shed a tear since I was about 8 years old. We used to be hit if we did. Sort of cures you of it.
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>>
>>
>> So can the Internationale. There are other stirring tunes, but not like those.
>>
Not a patch on the old USSR anthem in my view. That beats all other anthems hollow, even the czarist, and the WI jam-makers'.
As for the Welsh one - I'm with John Redwood on that. :)
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>> Not a patch on the old USSR anthem in my view.
The tune is still used as the Russian National Anthem. It was re-introduced after a post-Soviet change proved unpopular. The words are, however, different now. Bit like the German one after WWII.......
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>> And one for our friends and relatives Down Under:
>>
I lived in Australia when the Seekers first became popular, Judith Durham had an amazing singing voice. Good to see that she has recovered from her brain haemorrhage and is returning to singing but at 70+ lets hope she knows when to retire.
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>> I lived in Australia when the Seekers first became popular, Judith Durham had an amazing
>> singing voice. Good to see that she has recovered from her brain haemorrhage and is
>> returning to singing but at 70+ lets hope she knows when to retire.
They're touring the UK in May/June and I managed to get a ticket for one of the dates at RAH. Several venues, including Symphony Hall Brum, were sold out.
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Ah bliss - Judy Durham's voice :-)
Listen to her in "The Carnival Is Over" - once of her very, very, best, IMO.
Sadly we cannot afford the price to see them live in Nottingham later this year.
Last edited by: Pigs-Might-Fly on Wed 26 Mar 14 at 12:20
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Listen to her in "The Carnival Is Over"...
I just did, in case I'd missed something. Nope, still about as expressive as a beige cardigan, sung in the same register and at the same volume from start to finish, with no hint that there's anything emotional going on. A non-English speaker might think she was warbling a shopping list.
At least it didn't make me leave the room, though, as some Seekers stuff does, so maybe it is one of their best.
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>> At least it didn't make me leave the room, though, as some Seekers stuff does,
>> so maybe it is one of their best.
>>
To each his own I guess but I love that song and JD's rendering of the Londonderry Air is one of the best:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mpJYIACehQ&feature=kp
the guys in the band could sing too:
Four Strong Winds
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmnzwNymFb0&feature=kp
Red Rubber Ball
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLnWtTbNLDE&feature=kp
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>> At least it didn't make me leave the room, though, as some Seekers stuff does,
>> so maybe it is one of their best.
^^^^^^ Wot he said ^^^^^^^
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>>
>> >> At least it didn't make me leave the room, though, as some Seekers stuff
>> does,
>> >> so maybe it is one of their best.
>>
>>
>> ^^^^^^ Wot he said ^^^^^^^
>>
Philistines. :-)
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Working through the D playlist in the car the other morning, I was caught unawares by something I hadn't played for a while, a real education for those who mistake the Seekers' syrup for real emotional expression.
Couldn't find a good audio link to it but those with Spotify or Pure Music should have no difficulty. It's Bonnie Raitt's live 1995 performance of Richard Thompson's Dimming of the Day. And that, gentlemen, is how to do a come-back-I-miss-you song.
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Blimey - I didn't think anyone on here was sufficiently sophisticated to be a Richard Thompson fan ;-)
Still, hasn't Mrs RP got a Lowden?
I think this duet with Teddy is terrific youtu.be/U3DS6xglAfQ
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>> I just did, in case I'd missed something. Nope, still about as expressive as a
>> beige cardigan, sung in the same register and at the same volume from start to
>> finish, with no hint that there's anything emotional going on. A non-English speaker might think
>> she was warbling a shopping list.
Listened to a Seekers playlist on Friday while on outbound leg of Family taxi's end of Semester trip to Sheffield.
Can see a bit of WdB's point but also an explanation.
The singing, and the playing of guitar and double bass, hark to an era before performers had use of proper amplification.
Projection of the voice, including clarity of pronunciation, are more important than trying to capture feeling/emotion. Not wholly unexpected of a group that cut their teeth in sixties Australia and as performance artists on a returning emigrant ship of same era.
Gracie Fields demonstrates same technique in songs such as Perfect Day, Woodpecker Song or Song of the Mountains.
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>> Ah bliss - Judy Durham's voice :-)
>>
>> Listen to her in "The Carnival Is Over" - once of her very, very, best,
>> IMO.
>>
>> Sadly we cannot afford the price to see them live in Nottingham later this year.
>>
The Nottingham gig, along with Brum, Cardiff, Liverpool and Gateshead is now sold out. A few seats left at the RAH.
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Privileged to be at the last concert of the Seekers 50th anniversary UK tour at the Royal Albert Hall last night. They performed from 7:30 until around 10:00 with no support and just a 20 minute interval. Never stopped singing for long but each of the band took it in turns to describe bits of history and how tunes came to be. Particular mention for Tom Springfield (brother of Dusty) who was an early mentor/writer and for another piece, Red Rubber Ball, co-written by Bruce Woodley and Paul Simon. Several bits of archive film, particularly of an NME awards ceremony at 'The Empire Pool Wembley' c 1965/6 where they rubbed shoulders with the Beatles and Rolling Stones. One of their tracks actually knocked Ticket to Ride of the No 1 slot.
Athol Guy (the big chap who plays the double bass) seemed to be master of ceremonies but in no way dominated.
Played most of repertoire from I'll Never Find Another You via Morningtown Ride through to The Carnival is Over as an encore. None of their voices have aged, Judith's performance both in the band standards and her iconic solo The Olive Tree has lost nothing. She looked a little frail walking but stood pretty well throughout and showed no hesitation in her speaking parts.
We'll be very fortunate ever to see them perform the UK again but hopefully a video DVD of either last night or a tour compilation will follow.
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History in the making, I agree with Bromp...
SWMBO and I were also in the Albert Hall last night, musically excellent, nostalgic and emotional. An extremely enjoyable evening.
I would expect a video to be available soon given the cameras that were there last night and 10 days before in Bournemouth.
Anyone for a 60th anniversary reunion in 10 years ?
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>> Dreadful dirge is Flower of Scotland.
I like it but would prefer Scotland the Brave to be restored at football and rugby. It's actually about Scotland rather than being just English-bashing.
>> Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau is almost guaranteed to get one to pipe the eye
>> - and I'm not Welsh.
If you struggle with the oldest surviving Indo-European language as I do, this handy rough translation in to English served me well at the Millennium Stadium last week:
My hen laid a haddock on top of a tree
Gald farts and centurions throw dogs in the sea
I could stew a hare here, and brandish Don's flan
Don's ruddy bog's blocked up with sand
Dad! Dad! Why don't you oil Aunty Glad?
When whores appear on beer bottle pies
Oh butter the hens as they fly.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 19 May 14 at 01:23
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Ladies of the night? In the swear filter? Whitehousian in the extreme.
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>> Whitehousian in the extreme.
The swear filter is unable to distinguish between you using it for innocent reasons or as an insult.
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Fairy nuff I suppose. I wasn't thinking of insulting anyone. Today. Yet.
;-)
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Seasons in the Sun - Terry Jacks
The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve
New England - Billy Bragg/Kirsty MacColl (either version)
Many others too, can't think of them all right now.................sob.
Oh yeah. Jerusalem (chose it for Dad's funeral when I was 13).
Edit - "One" by Metallica.
Last edited by: Alanović on Mon 24 Mar 14 at 09:52
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Oh yeah. Jerusalem...
Worn thin by overuse lately. The nonsense of wheeling a warbler out to sing it on every morning of a Test match has to stop.
I was part of the party that sang it on a Cheshire hilltop after a humanist wedding. That was fun.
Steve Earle's song of the same name has the lump-in-throat effect on me - a message of personal hope at the end of an album about terrorism and post-9/11 domestic repression. The harmonica intro is spine-tingling.
Imaginary Supernatural Being Rescue the Unelected Head of State is just cringemaking, though. Even ignoring the outdated words (which most anthems have, if we're honest) it's just a dreadful tune that sounds even worse when sung slow and flat by a crowd.
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The magical tone of my Astra 1.3 diesel after starting on a cold morning ……… it takes me back to my childhood, the sweet 1950s, and the rhythm of the blue Fordson Major ploughing the field behind our prefab.
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The National Anthem. Every time. Love it.
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This is a festive favorite of mine! - especially just as our elderly relatives are sitting down to dinner!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2nFE_kuyeA
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Neither a Lump or Tear but I like this.
Wait for the massed bands.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oieFS785QPk
Last edited by: Uncle Albert on Wed 26 Mar 14 at 09:05
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"Abide with me", properly sung by 100,000 voices at the cup final is a real tear in the eye song. Or at least it was before they handed it over to some screeching celebrity instead of letting the crowd do it justice, as they've done in recent years.
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>> "Abide with me", properly sung by 100,000 voices at the cup final is a real
>> tear in the eye song.
Add "Bubbles" sung by 50k people at the old wembley cup final. I cried. 1975.
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must........not.........rise..............to.............bait.........
......
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>> must........not.........rise..............to.............bait.........
>> ......
>>
>>
Bearing in mind the average Fulham crowd could barely rustle up a Barber Shop Quartet.
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>> >> must........not.........rise..............to.............bait.........
>> >> ......
>> >>
>> >>
>> Bearing in mind the average Fulham crowd could barely rustle up a Barber Shop Quartet Trio - don't forget they removed Michael Jackson from the ground.
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>> some screeching celebrity instead of letting the crowd do it justice, as they've done
>> in recent years.
>>
Blame us.
Why? Because when the 'old' South Africa became the new nation, they 'amalgamated' the national anthems, so it starts off in isiZulu - Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika - then switches to Afrikaans, then to English, for a gloriously-bad mish-mash hybrid of an anthem.
Result? Nobody sang it. Especially not the hardliner rugby types, who only started belting out 'their' anthem after dead silence in the first part.
To combat this, they started bringing on some arbitrary songstress/songster at international matches, to sing the anthem.
Obviously the idea caught on, and now every X-Factor also-ran is hoping for their day out at Twickers/Wembley/Lord's wherever.
On a similar note to the original post - watching the All Blacks doing the Haka always gives me a thrill.
Last edited by: Ian (Cape Town) on Wed 26 Mar 14 at 14:31
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>> On a similar note to the original post - watching the All Blacks doing the
>> Haka always gives me a thrill.
Its supposed to give you the heebie jeebies.
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Slightly off topic but this lot make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up if heard live. Pump up the volume!!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1gCC31wJ4
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Was due to be at my Mother's at 13:30 today but courtesy of a shunt between M1 J16 and 17 I was delayed 20mins. As a result I heard most of a Radio 4 programme about the Welsh song Myfanwy. Part of a series called Soul Music which I must re-visit on listen again. If ever there was a tune to do wht this thread title says this was one.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0418kfw
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The Fureys were always a good source of weepy songs. Here's 'Leaving Nancy'.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcH7pBDvdYc
An Irish soldier leaving for the front ?
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And then there's tonight's Prom based around music and musicians from 1914-18. Includes work of George Butterworth, a great musical talent lost on the Somme and who's name is inscribed on the memorial at Thiepval.
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On another nostalgic note the irreplaceable Desmond Carrington's show tonight included this:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJXqdEdeo-Y
The version played was on flute and most of us, of a certain age, probably remember it on piano.
Are you sitting comfortably?
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Tunes that Bring to Throat a Lump or Tear to Eye - NortonES2
