-- but for the life of me I can't figure out how to do it. Sorry to be a tease, but I promise -- I'm gonna make it my project for the next couple of days. I mean, there's a shitload of music I've always wanted to be able to post here for you fine folks, and I really should get on the ball.
That taken care of, here's a fun sort of Byrds-themed mini-playlist you might enjoy.
We begin with -- and this version, which appears on the aforementioned MOJO CD, was heretofore unheard by me-- a performance of "Kız Çocuğu" ("The Girl Child"), the classic anti-war poem by Turkish poet Nâzım Hikmet originally written sometime in the early post-War era.
Hikmet was an interesting guy, BTW -- very political in a lefty sort of way, and frequently in trouble with the right-wing Turkish dictatorships of his day. He's apparently now considered quite the hero in his home country; you can find out more about him over HERE. In case you don't speak Turkish (cue The Firesign Theater) the poem itself conveys a plea for peace from a seven-year-old girl who perished in the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
We then move to 1952, when Pete Seeger set an English translation of the poem to the melody of an old Scottish Child ballad (first anthologized circa 1860), and called it "I Come and Stand at Every Door."
Here's the original folk song, courtesy of Joan Baez...
...and here's Seeger's adaptation of it and the Hikmet poem.
Are we getting exhausted yet?
Anyway, in 1966, The Byrds -- remember them? -- covered it on (my personal fave of their albums) Fifth Dimension. I still remember the first time I heard it; suffice it to say the original folk song had been a huge influence on me (I actually wrote a solo piano semi-classical adaptation of it in 8th grade) and hearing it with those metallic folk-rock guitars and that brilliant David Crosby harmony on the last verse just completely blew me away.
Have I mentioned the song was a complete and total cultural touchstone for me? To the point where, in 2019, when I got a chance to make my first solo single, I decided to cover it as the A-side?
Man -- what a great idea. A deeply depressing song about a kid burned to a crisp in a nuclear attack. Talk about No Commercial Potential.
Anyway, I'll spare you most of the other extant versions, although I will say that the 1997 take by vastly overrated Brit punk poseurs The Fall...
...is not merely awful, but a crime against humanity in its own right.
Coming tomorrow: Actual upbeat melodic new music more appropriate to the theme of the blog you're reading.
5 comments:
Not upbeat, not new - but movingly expressing the universal urge of the human heart to protect children, so in that sense this song is powerful and popular.
As it happens, so far no more cities have been incinerated by atomic bombs, so that's good - it's still a real possibility, so that's less good.
Another situation affecting humankind as a whole has been developing for a while - no songs relevant to it come to my mind, but maybe that reflects my ignorance about more recent music - I refer to our ecological footprint. William Rees, co-developer of the concept, gives a 25-minute presentation on it that hits the important points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l73oIO8oG58
Thank you for calling out The Fall. That cat thought he was profound when all he was was annoying.
The Fall's version makes my skin crawl!
Captain Al
Purge the dirge.:)
VR
You mentioned Pete Seeger. The Seeger Tribute album has a pretty nice version of the number by Anne Hills.
Only saw Seeger once. Twas in 1997. Ed Pearl was trying to resuscitate the Ash Grove in a new location on the Santa Monica Pier. It was near the old wooden carousel. It was a benefit concert of some sort. Might have even been to help raise money for the Ash Grove itself. I made no plan to go to the show ahead of time. We were surfing that day and when we went to grab a bite on the pier we noticed he was playing later that night. Tickets were cheap so we checked it out. It was a Tuesday night and the small club was only about half full. He performed with his grandson. He looked older than his 78 years. Seeger's voice was pretty much shot. But he gave it his all and was good natured as he encourged the bashful, and largely unresponsive, audience to sing along. Since I had my D-7 Sony DAT in the trunk, I taped the show. I never bothered to listen to it again. It was pretty unremarkable. We were up close at a table right off the stage in front of Pete. The only thing that stands out about the show was that it looked like Seeger had a salami running down the side of his leg. It was too big to have been the old codger's penis. We were thinking it was some sort of bag to hold his piss or shit. It was disturbing. Still confounds me today.
He did not play "I Come and Stand at Every Door."
Re: VR & Seeger
My condolences. You have more patience than I. Trying to fire up the crowd into an old-style hootenanny must have been excruciating.
Who was the humorist that said "If I had a hammer... I would beat a folk singer with it."?
Post a Comment