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Post by Lori on Jul 31, 2003 23:00:50 GMT
"Wake up!" "A good morning, ma'am. Your early morning call." "You must wake up!" "Wake up!" "Wake up, man!" "Wake up, child! Pay attention!" "Come on, wake up!" "Wake up, love!" "We should make the night, but see your little light's alive!" "Stop that lyin' and a-sleepin' in bed - get up!" "Little light" "Can you not see that little light up there?" "Where?" "There!" "Where?" "Over here!" "You still in bed?" "Wake up, sleepy-head!" "We are of the going water and the gone. We are of water in the holy land of water" "Don't you know you've kept him waiting?" "Look who's here to see you!"
"Listen to me, listen to me, baby. Listen, baby, help me, baby! Help me, help me! Listen to me, talk to me!" "You won't burn." "Red, red roses." "You won't bleed." "Pinks and posies." "Confess to me, girl." "Red, red roses," "Go down!"
"Spiritus sanctus in nomine" "Spiritus sanctus in nomine" "Spiritus sanctus in nomine" "Spiritus sanctus in nomine" "Poor little thing," "Red, red roses," "The blackbird!" "Pinks and posies." "Wings in the water," "Red, red roses, Go down," "Go down." "Pinks and posies."
"Deus et dei domino" "Deus et dei domino" "Deus et dei domino" "Deus et dei domino" "What is it, child?" "Bless me, father, bless me, father, for I have sinned" "Red, red roses!" "Help me, listen to me!" "Red, red rose!" "I question your innocence!" "Help this blackbird!" "She's a witch!" "There's a stone around my leg" "Uh! Damn you, woman!" "Help this blackbird! There's a stone around my leg" "What say you, good people?" "Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!" "Help this blackbird!" "I am responsible for your actions" "Oh-hoh-hoh!" "Not guilty!" "Help this blackbird!" "Wake (of) the witch!" "Get out of the waves! Get out of the water!"
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Post by brillo69 on Jun 12, 2004 21:23:09 GMT
"Wake up!" "A good morning, ma'am. Your early morning call." "You must wake up!" "[titter] Wake up! [titter]" "Wake up, man!" "Wake up, child! Pay attention!" "Come on, wake up!" "Wake up, love!" "We should make the night, but see your little light's alive!" "Stop that lyin' and a-sleepin' in bed--get up!" "Ma needs a shower. Get out of bed!" [words uncertain] "Little light..." "Can you not see that little light up there?" "Where?" "There!" "Where?" "Over here!" "You still in bed?" "Wake up, sleepy-head!" "We are of the going water and the gone. We are of water in the holy land of water" "Don't you know you've kept him waiting?" "Look who's here to see you!"
"Listen to me, listen to me, baby. Listen, baby, help me, baby! Help me, help me! Listen to me, talk to me!" "You won't burn." "Red, red roses." "You won't bleed." "Pinks and posies." "Confess to me, girl." "Red, red roses,"* "Go down!"
"Spiritus sanctus in nomine...[inaudible]" "Spiritus sanctus in nomine...[inaudible]" "Spiritus sanctus in nomine...[inaudible]" "Spiritus sanctus in nomine...[inaudible]" "Poor little thing," "Red, red roses," "The blackbird!" "Pinks and posies." "Wings in the water," "Red, red roses, Go down,"** "Go down." "Pinks and posies."
"Deus et dei domino...[inaudible]" "Deus et dei domino...[inaudible]" "Deus et dei domino...[inaudible]" "Deus et dei domino...[inaudible]" "What is it, child?" "Bless me, father, bless me, father, for I have sinned." "Red, red roses!" "Help me, listen to me!" "Red, red rose!" "I question your innocence!" "Help this blackbird!" "She's a witch!" "There's a stone around my leg." "Uh! Damn you, woman!" "Help this blackbird! There's a stone around my leg." "What say you, good people?" "Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!" "Help this blackbird!" "I am responsible for your actions." "Oh-hoh-hoh!" "Not guilty!" "Help this blackbird!" "Wake (of) the witch!" "Get out of the waves! Get out of the water!"
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mizzshy
Reaching Out
"Oh darling, Make it go, Make it go away..."
Posts: 214
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Post by mizzshy on Apr 28, 2006 19:07:15 GMT
Yay! I never knew what the random latin sounding nonsense was before! Thank you! *hugs*
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Post by tannis on Nov 26, 2007 15:45:19 GMT
Fear, exhaustion, hallucination, crisis… Revisiting the cause ("Under Ice")… revisiting the past ("Waking the Witch")… The human need to locate oneself… within (dis)order… The survival instinct is trying to kick in, trying to surface through dreamwork - ‘Wake up! Pay Attention! Keep focussed. We can make the Night! Attend to the Light! Listen to me! Help me!’ But shock waves, weakness and disorientation plunge her into a Kafkaesque nightmare… internal schisms... …Her Right to Survive is on trial… …She faces the possible (machine-gun) firing squad of her own super-ego… …Will she condemn herself? …Will she sink or swim? …Her biggest challenge yet! Kate at her most terrifying! (EXORCISM AND PRAYER TO ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL?) Kate Bush: "I think even though a lot of people say that the side is about someone drowning, it's much more about someone who's not drowning, and how they're there for the night in the water, being visited by their past, present and future to keep them awake, to keep them going through until the morning, until there, uh, there's hope." "Waking the Witch" is a battle between Thanatos (death instinct) and Eros (life instinct). ‘Get out of the waves! Get out of the water!’ suggests a surfacing of the Life Force… Unconscious, she hears the wings of the helicopter and her survival instinct (EROS) kicks in, reminding her to focus on getting out… Alive! (‘The 9th Wave’ reminds me of the UK Channel 4 series, ALIVE). -- "And Dream of Sheep" - (little light/great hope… face lit up by both… ‘IF they find me…’ = doubting/hurting) - -- is followed by a dream that turns… ‘I can't be left to my imagination!’ …into a nightmare ("Under Ice"). -- Then another nightmare. THE WITCH-HUNT (The Witchfinder General) is like being surrounded by a ring of damning accusers and silent witnesses… "Wake up, child! Pay attention!" ... ... ...
"Red, red roses" ... "Pinks and posies." "Confess to me, girl." ... "The blackbird!" ... "Bless me, father, bless me, father, for I have sinned" ... "I question your innocence!" ... "She's a witch!" "There's a stone around my leg" ... "Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!" ... "Not guilty!" ... "Get out of the waves! Get out of the water!""Its lay aloft you lazy whores!" ... Ah, you pinks and posies! Go down you blood red roses go down!
On 'Red, red roses,/Pinks and posies' see the (plague) sea shanty "Blood Red Roses": www.sailorsongs.com/blood_red_roses_.htm"Originality is the art of concealing your sources" - Franklin Jones.In legend, roses purify and in times of plague people carried posies for protection (c.f. "Ring a-ring o' roses"). It is widely believed that the Great Plague's memory lives on in the nursery rhyme 'Ring-a-ring o' roses': the 'roses' refer to the red spots that appear over the buboes, and 'A-tishoo! A-tishoo! We all fall down!' recalls the violent coughing and swift death that accompanies pneumonic plague. www.historylearningsite.co.uk/plague_of_1665.htm('The Witch' is street slang for heroin; 'witch' and 'wings' are both street slang for heroin and cocaine; 'Black birds' and 'roses' are street slang for amphetamines.) In Waking The Witch, the protagonist is burdened by having sinned. The blackbird is a symbol of temptations, especially sexual ones. So is the nature of her transgression sex as sin? Is Waking The Witch a 'trial of conscience,' a 'Salem witch trial,' a crucible brought about by sex, sin, danger and mass hysteria? -- Witchcraft in Europe was often associated with weather-making. -- In England, witch-pricking was common. It was believed that the diabolical mark would neither bleed, hurt nor show a wound when stabbed by a needle. -- “The beautiful song of the blackbird makes it a symbol of temptations, especially sexual ones. The devil once took on the shape of a blackbird and flew into St. Benedict's face, thereby causing the saint to be troubled by an intense desire for a beautiful girl he had once seen. In order to save himself, St. Benedict [The Exorcist; patron against witchcraft and those fighting temptation, etc.] tore off his clothes and jumped into a thorn bush. This painful act is said to have freed him from sexual temptations for the rest of his life.” -- Catholic guilt? … By the end of the song, the protagonist also identifies herself as a blackbird! … 'Go down!' 'Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,)... The rose and poppy are her flower...' - from Lilith, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Parenthetically, 'Lilith' is held as a goddess of witches, the dark feminine principle. Some regard Lilith as the very first vampire who cannot die because she left Eden before the fall of Adam and Eve. It is said that Lilith sent the snake to Eve in order to make her sin. Two primary characteristics are seen in legends about Lilith: Lilith as the incarnation of lust, and Lilith as a child-killing witch who strangles helpless neonates. She is the mother of all succubi; a demon-woman who hunts men, seduces them and drains their life with a kiss ( www.lilithgallery.com/library/ ). "The witch in her role as devil’s consort and the temptress and bitch / prostitute are some of the prominent dark Lilith archetypes and (particularly male) phantasies and projections in our Western societies." - www.islandnet.com/~licht/lilith_asteroids.htmIn Greek mythology Lilith corresponds to the figure of Lamia. In a fit of jealousy Hera destroyed Lamia’s children, whereupon Lamia gained revenge by seeking to destroy others’ children in her wanderings by becoming a serpent-woman and a succubus who ate children and sucked their blood. Lamia’s continual emotional state was extreme misery, similar to that of Niobe weeping over her own children destroyed by Hera.
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Dec 19, 2007 4:08:03 GMT
Waking The Witch, though I think of it as a hallucination of the protagonist, to me represents an awakening to the unconscious, and a judgement of and owning up to the whole self, positive and negative. By the end of Under Ice, she found herself drowning among all her demons, all her sins and desires and darknesses and witchery. She has awakened to them, finding herself marooned in their world, in a way. And now, in a way, she must integrate them into herself, thereby transforming them into something she can be the central artist of, and she will no longer be terrified and drowned by them. She must accept darkness to hold on to light, must journey willingly through the underworld to earn her life. (Does this make any sense at all? Ah well, I'm awfully tired. The judgement of Waking the Witch forces her to do that. There is a lot of very interesting symbolism in this song- the religious imagery, the roses, the blackbird (possibly a symbol of the muse, creative power?)... The white rose is a symbol of purity, and of death... I wonder if the red rose could represent life, and also sin, and also beauty and completion? Waking the Witch, for me, is about finding the truth about yourself, and that includes sin, certainly. But in my mind, sin is a neccesary part of the cycle of salvation. Our protagonist can only be blessed after she has sinned. And by acceptance of her darkness, the horror of it is dispelled. She is a witch, and a red rose, a blackbird, and blessed. So though there is incredible terror in WTW, our heroine seems to have come to the ineluctable truth of her red rose and her witchery. So in a way the immense cathartic roar of the Witchfinder does her a great service- he awakens her to acceptance of her full self and an intense desire for life, in all its sinful and sacred glory. And so she finds her footing in the disorder of a storm. Which brings us to WYWM...
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Post by tannis on Apr 24, 2008 21:47:35 GMT
Waking the Witch
Kate Bush: "What fascinated me in doing that song was the idea of a witch-hunter hiding behind the priesthood, as a guise, and coming to get this woman who isn't a witch, but he wants to make her so. The girl closes her eyes to get away from it and goes to a church where it's safe and secure. You know, churches are supposed to be places of sanctuary and their doors are never shut, even perhaps for people being chased by the Devil; but the priest turns out to be the witch-hunter. I didn't really have any heavy experiences like those that the song is about. It's based very much on other people's imagery of Roman Catholicism which I've found fascinating--you know, the kind of oppression, even madness, it can create, I suppose, in some people. And it's much more that, really, than any personal experience of my own. My school was Roman Catholic, so there was a big emphasis on religion, but it wasn't incredibly strict, and I didn't really go to church an awful lot, so I don't think the experience of religion was as heavy for me as for a lot of people..."gaffa.org/reaching/i85_swa.htmlWAKING THE WITCH and LILY and THE SPANISH INQUISITIONKate Bush - Lilywww.youtube.com/watch?v=MWaqPOnR5wUThe Spanish Inquisitionwww.youtube.com/watch?v=Tym0MObFpTI&feature=related8:00 Confess... Confess... Confess... Confess To Me Girl! ... KB has cited Woody Allen, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and The Young Ones as particular favourites. Monty Python man Terry Gilliam and comedian Robbie Coltrane are credited on her latest album Hounds of Love and she speaks of their work with affection. KB: "Childish things amuse me, noises and silly faces. I adore Faulty Towers and The Young Ones, the psychology behind them is intriguing." "What Kate Did Next" (1985)gaffa.org/reaching/i85_what.htmlWell, are people clued in enough to pick up on all these sort of subtleties and allusions in your songs, generally, and to know what they mean? When you talk with people, by and large do they show a good understanding of the concepts? KB: "You know, I think that the majority of the people really do. Yes, I really think they do. Because, if they bother to listen, then after about three or four times they start putting the words or the ideas together. And I mean the one that really amazed me, we did a video of Breathing and the idea was being in this huge inflatable; and I was at this conference somewhere and there were all these women in their forties and fifties, real Monty Python sort of women, and they all came up and said (Kate affects a strong London accent, which requires merely an exaggeration of her normal accent): 'Oh, we loved your video!' And then one of them says: 'But listen, you must tell me, I had this, you know, this argument with my daughter; you were meant to be in a womb, weren't you? I mean, that is what it was meant to be wasn't it? A womb?' And I said yeah!" Musician (unedited) by Peter Swales, Fall 1985gaffa.org/reaching/i85_swa.html
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Post by tannis on Jul 13, 2008 8:37:08 GMT
KATE BUSH: A star in strange ways... "I'm interested in theatre," asserts Kate. "Films...I really don't know about. I don't consider myself an actress. Unless something came up that I felt I could do, then I wouldn't do it. I have had film offers--like, there's been a couple of vampire films, and a rock musical. That's an obvious one because I'm a singer. But I wouldn't have thought I was a vampire!" The Pop Star, "Fangs a Lot Kate!" (1979)gaffa.org/reaching/i79_ps.htmlMay 1981: Kate is tempted by the offer for her to play the Wicked Witch in the Children's TV series Worzel Gummidge, but she is already too far involved in the album and has to turn down the offer. A Chronology of Kate Bush's Career gaffa.org/garden/chrono.htmlKATE BUSH: Waking The Wicked Witch of the West
Waking The Witch brings to mind The Wizard of Oz (1939). The song features helicopter sound effects, and spins around like a windy tornado. After being struck unconscious during a tornado by a window which has come loose from its frame, Dorothy dreams that she, her dog Toto, and the farmhouse are transported to the magical Land of Oz. There, the Good Witch of the North Glinda advises Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road to Emerald City and meet the Wizard of Oz, who can return her to Kansas. During her journey, she meets a Scarecrow, Tin Man and a Cowardly Lion, who join her, hoping to receive what they lack themselves (a brain, a heart, and courage, respectively), all of this is done while also trying to avoid the many plots of the Wicked Witch of the West, in her attempt to get the ruby slippers that Dorothy received from the squashed Wicked Witch of the East. So maybe The Wizard of Oz (1939) was an inspiration... "There's no place like home." For millions, Kate Bush has become the Wizard of Oz hiding behind the curtain... The Sunday Telegraph (Sidney), August 14, 2005gaffa.org/reaching/rev_aer_aus.htmlDOROTHY: Oh, but anyway, Toto, we're home! Home! And this is my room -- and you're all here! And I'm not going to leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all! And -- Oh, Auntie Em -- there's no place like home!
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Post by tannis on Jul 13, 2008 23:35:08 GMT
WAKING THE WITCH: You want my reply? What was the question?KB: "'The Big Sky' is an example of a real freak on the album, in that it consistently changed until we got there in the end, and 'Waking the Witch' on side two was totally written through a guitarist--the electric guitarist. I knew what I wanted, but it wasn't a song that would sound right if it was based around a keyboard. It had to be written through the electric guitar. So the guitarist came in literally working to just a Linn pattern, and, um...I just told him what I wanted, and it was a very different way of writing. I've never done it like that before, but I think it was very successful." I: What about the idea behind that song. I'm glad you mentioned that, because to me, it's weird. I mean it's with the "Wake up--whee!" KB: "[Laughs.] Yes. That's good!" I: Do you agree or not? What was the idea behind that song? KB: "Well, I'm glad you say that, because I would be disappointed in a way if you thought it was ordinary. I definitely wanted to create a weirdness, yes. It's all part of the story off the second side, about the person who's in the water for the night, and they just have to try and keep going until the morning, and at this point they've just woken from a dream and have surfaced on the water, trying not to drown, and I suppose it's the horror of then being faced with something that wants to put you straight under the water again, whether you are innocent or guilty, they're going to put you down--under the water again..." I: Can I just ask you something--From a personal point of view, did you ever feel that was happening to you in the music business? KB: "[Laughs.] No, not at all! No, I think that's very much something that..." I: People have made up? KB: "Well, that is an outside personal view of construing subject matter. I think that, very much, this whole thing is tied in with water -- [laughter from audience] -- and if I was thinking of going under water it wouldn't be to do with the business at all, it would be to do with myself as a person, relationships, all that sort of thing. They're what concern me, that's what would make me go under, I think. But no--I haven't...I don't feel that is even relevant to things in my life because at the time when I took that break, and I was writing these songs, it was one of the most content, happy periods of my life for quite a while, in that I actually had time to breathe and work creatively. And I think what's interesting is that I've always felt, in the past--and it's almost a sort of code from certain areas of life--that in order to write something, you know, that has meaning or whatever, that you have to be unhappy, that you should be in some kind of torment. And what was surprising was that for being actually very happy at this point in my life, I felt I wrote some songs that were saying very different things from that." I: Would you say that 'Waking the Witch' is one of the most complex songs on the album, one of the most difficult songs to record? KB: "No, I'd say it was one of the quickest, and it's actually one of the simplest in that it's almost one chord all the way through the song, and the whole movement is to do with moods and the people that you're dealing with, rather than musically. The structure of the song is so simple..." I: But there's a lot going on in there, that's what I mean. KB: "Yes, there is! But I think it's stuff that travels. The whole track is traveling, and if that bit comes up, it will go again, and then maybe come back later." I: So what was the most difficult song on the album to get done, you think? KB: "I think...[long pause]... The Big Sky..." The Tony Myatt interview, Nov. 1985gaffa.org/reaching/im85_tm.html
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Post by Al Truest on Jul 14, 2008 0:04:52 GMT
Co incidentally this was the last song I played in my car on the way home. Thanks for the info...
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Post by tannis on Aug 7, 2008 6:19:04 GMT
WAKING THE WITCH and BLOOD RED ROSESchorus: Oh, you pinks and posies, Go down, you blood red roses, Go down."You won't burn." "Red, red roses." "You won't bleed." "Pinks and posies." "Confess to me, girl." "Red, red roses," "Go down!" ... "Poor little thing," "Red, red roses," "The blackbird!" "Pinks and posies." "Wings in the water," "Red, red roses, Go down," "Go down." "Pinks and posies." ... "Red, red roses!" "Help me, listen to me!" "Red, red rose!" In Waking The Witch, Kate B. seems to draw on the halyard sea shanty, Blood Red Roses. The shanty is used in Moby Dick (1956).
KB: "First songs I ever sang were dirty sea shanties. I'm very proud of it, I can't think of a nicer influence..." Melody Maker, "Paranoia and Passion of the Kate Inside" (1980) gaffa.org/reaching/i80_mm.html
One of the best of halyard shanties, Blood Red Roses is unusually well evolved. Its first mention in print is 1879. A version was recorded in 1956 by A.L. Lloyd. Old Cape Horners have been unable to suggest the meaning of the refrain. Since it is widely believed that the Great Plague's memory lives on in the nursery rhyme 'Ring-a-ring o' roses', could the Blood Red Roses refrain hold the same memory?
The chanteyman often used improvisation and parody in his solo lines to the advantage and amusement of the crew, but the chorus lines, on which the work action was based, were repetitive and changeless. For example, in using Blood Red Roses to raise the top-sails, top gallant sails (t'ga'n's'ls), or sky-s'ls, the chanteyman, who on some ships also put his back to the task, would have sung:
Chanteyman: Our boots and clothes are all in pawn Crew: Go down Ye blood red roses. Go down Chanteyman: And its flamin' drafty 'round Cape Horn Crew: Go down Ye blood red roses. Go down The word Go, was the signal for the men to haul back on the halyards.Blood Red Roses www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WwC4fTLqog
Our boots and clothes are all in pawn Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. It's mighty draughty around Cape Horn Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. chorus: Oh, you pinks and posies, Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. It's 'round Cape Horn we all must go Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. For that is where them whalefish blow. Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. chorus: Oh, you pinks and posies, Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. Oh my old mother, she wrote to me, Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. My dearest son, come home from sea. Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. chorus: Oh, you pinks and posies, Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. Just one more pull and that will do Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. For we're the boys to kick her through. Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. chorus: Oh, you pinks and posies, Go down, you blood red roses, Go down.Moby Dick 1957 - Il Pequod salpa www.youtube.com/watch?v=c32DJIe2jYU Blood Red RosesSOS Titanic ~ Waking The Witch"Red, red roses" "Pinks and posies" "Red, red roses, Go down"In Waking The Witch, Kate B. seems to borrow from the halyard sea shanty, Blood Red Roses.
Frankie Goldsmith, a third class Titanic passenger, is quoted as saying that he snuck down to one of the boiler rooms and saw the stokers and firemen singing and banging their shovels on the grates to keep time. Maybe they sung and rattled old sea shanties?
chorus: Oh, you pinks and posies, Go down, you blood red roses, Go down.
Titanic Documentary part 5 www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8jwwAtpr5o 0:57 ~ We young boys spent time watching the stokers and firemen at work. They were singing songs, rattling their coal shovels, keeping time with their singing...see more: THE NINTH WAVE: A Night to Rememberkatebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=houndsoflove&action=display&thread=1724&page=3
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Aug 7, 2008 15:06:22 GMT
^ Good connection. Seeing as Kate did say she used to sing a lot of dirty sea shanties, I bet you're right that this was an influence. And with the nautical, oceanic theme of The Ninth Wave, of course it fits very well.
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Post by Barry SR Gowing on Aug 7, 2008 18:36:05 GMT
Frankie Goldsmith, a third class Titanic passenger, is quoted as saying that he snuck down to one of the boiler rooms and saw the stokers and firemen singing and banging their shovels on the grates to keep time. Maybe they sung and rattled old sea shanties? chorus: Oh, you pinks and posies, Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. Now that's a scene I'd like to see in a film, tannis! That would be tremendous seeing them sing that song, knowing what we know is going to happen... I've seen A Night To Remember. I think I prefer it to the other film even though it's done on a much more modest scale. The connections to Waking The Witch are fascinating. --Paul--
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Post by tannis on Aug 8, 2008 15:18:27 GMT
Now that's a scene I'd like to see in a film, tannis! That would be tremendous seeing them sing that song, knowing what we know is going to happen... In A&E's Titanic (1994) documentary (part 5), a "Too-ree-ay" sea shanty accompanies the boiler room photograph and 9 year old Frankie Goldsmith's eye witness account. [Kate B.'s Not This Time features a "Too-ree-ay" chorus.]
Work songs and sea shanties flourished during the 19th century and helped workers and seamen perform repetitive tasks and build morale. For every five crew members that were aboard Titanic, four of them hailed from Southampton. So Goldsmith's memorable account of impromptu sing-songs certainly suggests sea shanties and traditional music of the sea.
So, yes, given the dramatic irony of so many of the Titanic films, a scene showing stokers and firemen singing and banging their shovels to "Go down, you blood red roses, Go down" would not seem out of place!
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Post by musiclover on Feb 9, 2009 2:42:51 GMT
This song is kind of creepy!
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Post by tannis on Jun 27, 2009 1:27:37 GMT
KT: "First songs I ever sang were dirty sea shanties. I'm very proud of it, I can't think of a nicer influence..." Melody Maker, "Paranoia and Passion of the Kate Inside" (1980)[/b][/color] gaffa.org/reaching/i80_mm.html'Waking The Witch' ("Red, red roses/Pinks and posies/Go down") borrows heavily from A.L. Lloyd's halyard chantey 'Blood Red Roses' ("Go down, you blood red roses, go down/Ah, you pinks and posies/Go down, you blood red roses, go down").
Blood Red Roses: This halyard chantey was popular in Cape Horn ships out of Liverpool. It is most probably based on a family of Irish and English folk songs concerning the Napoleonic Wars. The -blood red roses- may be a reference to British redcoat soldiers, or it may be the capitol cities of Europe, referred to as the -bonnie bunch of roses- that Napoleon tried to gather and lost, in an Irish song of that name.
However, others put the origin of the phrase "blood red roses" down to A.L. Lloyd himself, and the film Moby Dick (1956). Prior to Moby Dick, all sources give the chorus as "Come Down, you [bunch of] roses". So it is suggested that Lloyd contrived what is now our ~new~ oral tradition to reference whale blood. [As the whales slowly died, the spray got less and less. This made the men's job of towing the whale to the ship easier; and therefore was something they all wished for. Hence the line "Go down, you blood red roses, go down!" Until the whales were dead they often towed the harpooneer and his mates long distances, and this was a dangerous event known as a "Nantucket Sleigh Ride".] mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=34080
'Blood Red Roses' was recorded in 1956 by A.L. Lloyd and chorus for his, Ewan MacColl and Harry H. Corbett's album The Singing Sailor.[/i] This track has been reissued lots of times, on their albums Row Bullies Row, Singing Sailors (Wattle Records), Off to Sea Once More (Stinson Records), and A Hundred Years Ago, and on the compilations Sea Songs and Shanties (Topic Sampler No 7), Chants de Marins IV: Ballads, Complaintes et Shanties des Matelots Anglais, Classic A.L. Lloyd, and Sailors' Songs & Sea Shanties. It is unknown who sings chorus although Ewan MacColl's voice can be detected. A.L. Lloyd commented in the A Hundred Years Ago sleeve notes: "One of the best of halyard shanties, undeservedly little known until it became current in the folk song clubs fairly recently. Old Cape Horners have been unable to suggest the meaning of the refrain. Stan Hugill, in his excellent Shanties from the Seven Seas quotes a fragment that may be relevant: Ho Molly, come down/Come down with your pretty posy/Come down with your cheeks so rosy/Ho Molly, come down"[/color] Sea Shanties in Moby Dick (1956) www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdiFYCUP9oU This scene contains two chanteys (shanties). The first is "Blood Red Roses," which is being used to haul up a tops'l yard. Lloyd sang it in his uncredited role as lead shantyman in the movie Moby Dick, directed by John Huston in 1956.Blood Red Roses: This is a traditional sea shanty with minor variations by Fariña. There is dispute over the meaning of the title, referring either to the red uniform of British soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars, or the bloody spout of a harpooned whale, or the prayer of petition to Mary ("Hail, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, my Mother Mary, hail! At your feet I humbly kneel to offer you a Crown of Roses - blood red roses to remind you of the passion of your Divine Son..."). However, the phrase "blood red roses" is a stock epithet endemic to oral composition (as in "blood red wine," "fair young maid", "milk white arms", etc.), so the connection to the prayer to Mary is probably just coincidental. Bert Lloyd wrote of the song, "For a halyard shanty this one is unusually well evolved. Stan Hugill thinks it probably started life early in the 19th century. I'd have thought later, by its shape. Its first mention in print is 1879. Old Cape Horners have been unable to suggest the meaning of the refrain. In some Napoleon ballads the British army is referred to as "the bunch of roses". More probably it's an image garbled from a scrap quoted by Hugill: "Come down with your pretty posy/Come down with your cheeks so rosy."
"Blood Red Roses" also appeared on The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem Sing of the Sea (Columbia CS 9658) in 1968, curiously the same year that Richard & Mimi's recording appeared belatedly on Memories. Pat Clancy wrote in the liner notes: "Blood Red Roses - Never did know what was meant by "go down ye blood red roses." It may be something to do with the blood from the harpooned whale. I read the song is of Scottish origin and also that it was mentioned in a book On Board the Rocket, as being sung by the Negro crew of an American ship in 1879 to masthead the main topsail. I know I learned it in the back room of the White Horse Tavern in New York - can't remember from whom." [n.b. 1879, Captain R.C. Adams, ON BOARD THE ROCKET, gives the chorus (no tune) of "Come Down, you bunch of roses".]Blood Red Roses www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcbrdsfhpJU Mimi & Richard Farina, Memories (1968)Blood Red Roses: It is possible, then, that Pat Clancy learned it from Richard Fariña, who also hung out at the White Horse Tavern in the late fifties and early sixties when he was living in Manhattan. But it's also possible that they both learned it from a third person at The White Horse. Ewan MacColl sang this song before the sixties and recorded it on an album for Bert Lloyd. MacColl knew Richard in New York as well as in London, where Richard knew Dominic Behan (Brendan's brother), Ewan's personal friend. The arrangements of "Blood Red Roses" by Richard & Mimi, the Clancy Brothers, and Ewan MacColl are all different from each other. Here are the lyrics of Tommy Makem's version, from his website:
Our boots and clothes are all in pawn Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. And its flamin' drafty 'round Cape Horn, Go down, you blood red roses, Go down.
(chorus) Oh, you pinks and posies, Go down, you blood red roses, Go down.
My dear old mother said to me, Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. My dearest son, come home from sea. Go down, you blood red roses, Go down.
It's 'round Cape Horn we all must go Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. 'Round Cape Horn in the frost and snow. Go down, you blood red roses, Go down.
You've got your advance, and to sea you'll go Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. To chase them whales through the frost and snow. Go down, you blood red roses, Go down.
It's 'round Cape Horn you've got to go, Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. For that is where them whalefish blow. Go down, you blood red roses, Go down.
It's growl you may, but go you must, Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. If you growl too much your head they'll bust. Go down, you blood red roses, Go down.
Just one more pull and that will do. Go down, you blood red roses, Go down. For we're the boys to kick her through. Go down, you blood red roses, Go down.Blood Red Roses www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WwC4fTLqog The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, Sing Of The Sea (1968)see more: THANKING THE CHEF: Jig of Life katebush.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=houndsoflove&action=display&thread=1723&page=3 THANKING THE CHEF: The Sensual Worldkatebush.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=thesensualworld&thread=1732&page=4
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