Sunday, July 1, 2012

'Crate Digging' For Music

I really have let myself go when it comes to editing this blog :)
I Apologize; can prolly blame it on the fact that I've spent more time editing my other blog which mainly deals with a hospital website project.

Anyway, just wanted to 'pen' something different for a change. Besides the dastardly humidity which makes being outside something of pain recently, it's been a great week for me, musically speaking. No, I didn't take music lessons, write any songs or learn how to play an instrument; I'm talking about the music I was able to find.

When I hear a good song - the kind that you just can't get out of your head - I go into 'crate-digging' mode and seek out the song. Search engines (Google) and Youtube have made this much easier for the vast majority of songs these days, but then, they could just as well frustrate you if you don't have the specific details for the song (Imagine sifting through 20,000 listings for your item!)

Well, in these past weeks, I had three big victories:
  • Julie Fowlis  - Tha Mo Ghaol Air Aird a' Chuain
  • Mumiy Troll - На перекрестках судьбы (Стань человеком)
  • Billy Preston f/ Syreeta - With You I'm Born Again
Pretty eclectic list, huh :) 
Takes searching for them to a whole new level of difficulty. Let me start this in order of difficulty (and duration searching)

With You I'm Born Again




This track was originally sung in 1979 by Billy Preston and Syreeta Wright. My first encounter with the song,  though, was in a 1988 British made-for-TV Cinderella musical  (performed by Cheryl Baker), and later I heard the original on radio. For years, on-and-off I'd searched for the song by basically looking for the British musical (a Google nightmare). Previously I didn't even know what the song was called, nor did I even remember any lyrics. Some things are just bound to be found, and now I have this beautiful gem in my favourites collection. (On Youtube, I found other performances of the song, with the Mariah/John Legend piece appearing to be the biggest in spectacle, but they all pale in comparison to the beauty of the original composition).


На перекрестках судьбы (Стань человеком)


Yes, this is very much a Russian song. Translates into something along the lines of The crossroads of fate (becoming human). This theme is played a few times in the movie "Day Watch". I had searched for it for some time, but failing to find it I figured that the short instrumental piece was only a part of the movie score and a lot of films are not in the habit of releasing their musical scores, so ...dead end! In the past week though, a Youtube search for the "Daywatch ending" led me to the actual song and the band responsible for the composition, and now I can enjoy it in its entirety :)

Tha Mo Ghaol Air Aird a' Chuain




The latest addition to the 'favourites' is this beautiful haunting melody by Julie Fowlis (from her debut album no less). This is sung in Scottish Gaelic - as is most of her music - and is translated as My Love is on The High Seas. A lot of people probably came across this song the same way I did: the Trailer for Disney/Pixar's BRAVE. This song, with all its all encompassing peace and emotion totally defined the final 40 seconds of the 3rd trailer. One would think that this song would be easier to find because the movie is meant to be a huge Hollywood spectacle, but alas, it wasn't; tried to track this one down by checking on the movie's soundtrack, but it wasn't there. Movie trailers have taken a life of their own nowadays, and the trailer ends up being its own standalone work of art :(
Thankfully though, other youtubers recognized the song and pointed me in the right direction, and led me to discover a great artist.

This version of the video is the best, because once you get over the mere chilling beauty of her voice and the setting for this song, you can then enjoy it for the deeper love story, which is a testament to true love.

Thank God for the joy of music.
God Bless