Let us say farewell to the month of January with the collect for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany – “O God, who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright : Grant to us such [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Music’
“We Cannot Always Stand Upright” (and George Winston’s January Stars)
Posted in Arts, Church of England, Music, Religion, tagged Church of England, George Winston, Music, Winter on January 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
January Hymn : the Decemberists
Posted in Arts, Music, tagged Decemberists, Music, Winter on January 16, 2011 | 2 Comments »
A new and very welcome addition to the tiny canon of songs inspired by the month of January, from the Decemberists’ new album The King is Dead (out now in all good records shops, if any still exist). It’s a lot better than Pilot’s effort anyway, and makes me a little nostalgic for the snow [...]
Spanish Bombs : Cecilia Bastida
Posted in Arts, History, Music, Politics, tagged Ceci Bastida, Christmas, Music, Politics, Spanish Civil War, The Clash on December 11, 2010 | 2 Comments »
To continue with the seasonal theme of the Spanish Civil War, here is a version of The Clash’s Spanish Bombs, performed by the Mexican singer Cecilia Bastida. As she mentions in her introduction, she originally sang a more up tempo version of the song with the band Tijuana No. It wouldn’t be too difficult to come up with [...]
Cloud and Majesty and Awe : Advent Sunday with Sufjan Stevens
Posted in Arts, Church of England, Music, Religion, tagged Advent, Christmas, Church of England, Music, Sufjan Stevens on November 28, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Advent Sunday : “O my God, in thee have I trusted, let me not be confounded ; neither let mine enemies triumph over me …”. Amen to that. The C of E doesn’t often do “cloud and majesty and awe“, but I think the humblest congregation can aspire to a sense of the numinous with a [...]
Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Infanta), by Maurice Ravel
Posted in Arts, Music, tagged All Saints, All Souls, Maurice Ravel, Music, Spain on November 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
By way of contrast, here, for All Saints ‘n’ Souls, is Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Infanta) by Maurice Ravel, played by Kathryn Stott. Ravel’s mother was Spanish and grew up in Madrid ( though she was of Basque origin). This is one of a number of pieces he wrote in a vaguely Spanish style (most famously Bolero). The [...]
A Song for Halloween : Spooky, by Lydia Lunch
Posted in Arts, Music, tagged Halloween, Lydia Lunch, Music, Spookiness on October 31, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Last year I see I marked Halloween by giving what I thought was a rather interesting little lecture on the theology of the Feasts of All Souls and All Saints, and various associated folk customs. If – by any mischance – you missed it, it is available here. This year I thought I’d take a [...]
Autumn Almanac : the Kinks
Posted in Arts, Music, tagged Autumn, Kinks, Music on October 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
No point avoiding the obvious for the sake of it. It’s Autumn, and so this is Autumn Almanac by the Kinks. A slightly puzzling feature here is why Ray Davies is festooned in rosettes. Assuming this clip is from November 1967 – which is when I think it must have been in the charts – [...]
Scarborough in a Changing World (1973)
Posted in Arts, Cricket, Magazines, Media, Music, Sport, This England, tagged Cricket, Gerald Pawle, Music, Scarborough, The Doors on September 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
On my last visit of the season to Grace Road I picked up a couple of old Cricketers (not cricketers) in the Friends of Grace Road shop – from December 1973 and the Spring Annual from 1975 (a relic from the days when cricket had seasons that co-incided with those of the natural world). Given a full set [...]
The Kingfisher of Little Bowden : the Search Continues (with Donovan and Shawn Phillips)
Posted in Arts, Birds, Music, Nature, tagged Birds, Donovan, Kingfishers, Little Bowden, Music, Shawn Phillips, Stratagems and Ruses on September 11, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday morning I spotted the Kingfisher of Little Bowden for the second time, but once again it eluded my camera. I feel this could turn into one of the great Man Hunts Beast stories, such as that of Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, or Val Doonican and the Bright Elusive Butterfly of Love. My best strategy would be [...]
Early Doors : Summer’s Almost Gone
Posted in Arts, Cricket, Music, Sport, tagged Cricket, Jim Morrison, Music, Scarborough, Summer, T.N. Pearce's XI, The Doors, Yorkshire County Cricket Club on August 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
A sign that Summer is almost gone is the arrival of the Scarborough Festival. I see that what’s left of it begins tomorrow with a 40 over match, followed by a Championship game (with Yorkshire in a strong position to win the title). Let’s hope it doesn’t rain! In days gone by, of course, the Festival was [...]
