SOUNDTRACK: THE CHIEFTAINS-The Long Black Veil
Like the Dubliners, The Chieftains are a bunch of old men who play traditional Irish music. Unlike the Dubliners, they have gained a fan base beyond the trad scene. This album in particular features a great deal of crossover material.
Guest singers include: Sting (singing in Irish!), The Rolling Stones, Sinéad O’ Connor, Marianne Faithfull,Van Morrison and Tom Jones (!)
The Sinéad tracks are really great, as she uses her voice wonderfully on the spare musical tracks. “The Foggy Dew” is particularly powerful, and “He Moved Through the Fair” isn’t too shabby either).
Sting’s track is very Sting (with trad accompaniment); Mick Jagger sings the title track, but it doesn’t do a lot for me. Van Morrison is Van Morrison, regardless of who he’s playing with. And Tom Jones is so over the top on “Tennessee Waltz” that it’s hard not to laugh with him.
The song with no guests, “Changing Your Demeanor” is a cute Oirishy song with deedly-ee-ayes.
It’s the final song, “The Rocky Road to Dublin” (which I’ve already said is a favorite by other artists) that fares the worst here. About midway through the song, The Stones seem to burst in (think Run DMC & Aerosmith but a lot older) and play a really sloppy version of “Satisfaction” while The Chieftains are playing their trad song. Nobody fares well in this version and it’s a shame to have included it on an otherwise good disc.
This is not really a good place to hear the Chieftains as a trad outfit. It’s certainly more of a showcase album. But it might work as a crossover introduction to some of these songs. And yes, the album is very adult contemporary…there’s not a lot of rocking going on here.
[READ: Week of August 16, 2010] Ulysses: Episode 15 [Circe]
This is the Episode I remember most from my previous reads. I didn’t remember the details, mind you, just the absolute insanity of it. This is also the place where you can look if you’ve ever wondered why this book was brought up on obscenity charges. Those first few chapters, with the outhouse and the impure thoughts are mild; even Bloom’s masturbation, while controversial doesn’t hold a candle to all of the insanity that is contained within this Episode.
It was also the only week where we read just one Episode. And that’s because it is loooooong. True, it is written in play form (ie, lots of white space), but it is still about 4 times longer than any other Episode. And man is it a doozy.
I’ve already read that Daryl was just going to write WTF about this Episode. Of course, that’s sort of what I felt about the previous one, so I guess it’s no surprise that I did enjoy the nonsense of this one. I’ve always had a great appreciation for the absurd, so this is right up my alley. This is not in any way to suggest that I understood it, even a little. But there were parts that I laughed at and parts that I smiled at and parts that I practically blushed at. Good fun!
Of course, the big question in this chapter is (aside from what the hell is going on and why is it so long) what’s real and what’s Bloom’s fever dream. This is preceded by the big question of why Bloom is having these fever dreams (or whatever they are). I’ve been under the impression that he is drunk (but my tenuous following of the previous chapter makes me a little unsure just how drunk he was or if he drank at all.)
In a nutshell what happens is that Stephen (and Lynch) go to the red light district. Bloom follows behind. Bloom had a massive memory flashback/acid trip/freak out, and then he “rescues” Stephen (and his money) from the brothel. He can’t save Stephen from getting punched in the face by a soldier, but he is able to keep him from getting arrested (with Corny Kelleher’s invaluable help). Bloom, despite his inaction, then offers to take Stephen home. (more…)
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Because I am a glutton for punishment, I decided to listen to the abridged version of Ulysses as well (what’s 4 more hours of my life?). (This edition is by Naxos, which Amazon is selling as a download). I decided that the main reason was that since I have the text so fresh in my mind, it would be interesting to see what they abridged. I mentioned in a recent post that the abridged version is 4 discs (just under 5 hours). That is a serious abridgment, from 40 to 5 hours (actually the Naxos unabridged version is only 22 discs…how come theirs is so much shorter? It seems that Jim Norton reads much faster). And I am curious to see what they consider the “essential” text of the book. Plus, realistically, I would never really want to do it at a later date.
I Just Read About That... 