By Marco den Ouden
As our esteemed barkeep pointed out in his introduction to this topic, knots and the acts of tying and untying have a lot of symbolism attached to them. There are a lot of figures of speech attached to knots. Tying the knot, tie one on, tie me down, ties that bind, and the list goes on.
Let’s start with the unvarnished plain and simple knot in itself. There are a great variety of knots and several songs referenced different kinds of knots and one even mentioned the Boy Scout manual on knots. Ylvis tells us he knows lots of knots. But dang it all, the Trucker’s Hitch is a tough one to master. He rattles off all the knots he knows and ends with a lesson on that knot. Interesting country song with a touch of Psy. In case you want to tie it Gangnam Style!
Lisa Hannigan is a sweet gal who plays the ukelele. She sings about tying a knot to remember. The quirky video has her spray painted throughout the song. By the end she’s a fine mess. Hope she didn’t swallow too much paint!
True confessions time: I love quirky and odd. It’s hard to make heads or tails out of Yello’s Tied Up. It’s basically a dance number. “Tie me up to the babaumba beat!”
There were a few songs suggested about dreadlocks, mostly reggae. But the song that appealed to me most was Braided Hair by the electro-pop duo 1 Giant Leap with vocals from Speech and Neneh Cherry. Intertwined strands of hair are a symbol of brotherhood in the song.
There were a surprising number of songs about bondage. Yes I’m speaking of the erotic fetish. My favourite of the bunch was Tie Me Down by Shack. “It’s my fantasy,” they sing. “In that cupboard there’s some ties.”
Let’s move on to domestic symbolism. The Proclaimers sing: “We're ready for tying the knot. Let's Get Married, set the seal on the feelings we've got.”
After marriage come children. Harry Chapin told us about his messed up relationship with his son in a more famous song. But Tangled Up Puppet is a tender story of a father’s love for his daughter. Anyone who has had a daughter can identify with the lyrics. “I'm a tangled up puppet all hangin' in your strings.” Daughters wrap us around their fingers (so do granddaughters!). And there is a sad wistfulness when they grow up and leave the nest.
We follow up with two contrasting song. Lissie feels constricted in her relationship. Her lover needs to change his attitude. “I wanna loosen up. loosen up Loosen the Knot,” she sings. “The knot that is holding us, binding us. keeping us together now.”
But while Lissie wants to loosen the knot, Everything But the Girl’s Tracey Thorn wants attachment. She’s a childless woman who sees her friend’s baby and longs for a child of her own. We’ve heard about cutting the apron strings but she wants the opposite. “Apron Strings, cold and lonely for time brings thoughts that only will be quiet when someone clings to my apron strings.”
It’s almost Christmas. ‘Tis the season to be schmaltzy. As a lover of schmaltz I couldn’t resist Tony Orlando and Dawn’s Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree.
The last three songs all have a Christmas angle. I mentioned in the blog that two songs intrigued me enough to dig a bit deeper. The first is a bit of quirkiness from a woman named Shari Elf. I think it’s her real name too as her bio says her parents are Roy and Pat Elf. Ms. Elf is an artist and owns the World Famous Crochet Museum at Joshua Tree, California, 33.7 miles from Palm Springs. Elf is a local legend for her museum and artist collective. She’s gotten extensive media coverage from Palm Springs to Los Angeles and beyond.
Crocheting, as well as other forms of weaving and knitting, is a complex sort of knotting. And one of the mascots of Elf’s Crochet Museum is a crochet alligator named Bunny. She recorded a song called Bunny (Song for a Crochet Alligator) to the tune of Bobby Hebb’s Sunny. Let’s see if we can double the number of page views for the song from its current 84!
The eccentric Shari Elf, with crochet friend …
Our penultimate song is a nostalgic Christmas song from Kacey Musgraves and Leon Bridges telling us Christmas alone is like a Present Without a Bow.
Which brings us to our last song. What could be more appropriate for Christmas than a song about Mary, the mother of Christ. I was surprised to learn that Mary was known as the Undoer (or Untier) of Knots. She got this name from a late 17th-century painting of her done by Johann Georg Schmidtner. The legend goes back to a 3rd-century anti-Gnostic tract by Irenaeus. There is only one church in North America dedicated to Our Lady Undoer of Knots.
Detail from Mary, Untier of Knots by Johann Georg Schmidtner
Catholic evangelist Julie Carrick sings Undo the Knots, a tribute to Mary. “Holy Mother Mary, take this ribbon of my life. It’s full of knots of pain and brokenness. Your graceful fingers filled with love undo them all bringing peace and healing.” A nice benediction to this playlist, to this wretched year, and to the season. Merry Christmas everyone.
The Nicely Knitted A-Lis:
Truckers’s Hitch - Ylvis (Suzi)
Knots - Lisa Hannigan (ShivSidecar)
Tied Up - Yello (Shoegazer)
Braided Hair - 1 Giant Leap ft Speech & Neneh Cherry (IsabelleForshaw)
Tie Me Down - Shack (ToffeeBoy)
Let’s Get Married - The Proclaimers (ParaMhor)
Tangled Up Puppet - Harry Chapin (Loud Atlas)
Loosen the Knot - Lissie (Makinavaja)
Apron Strings - Everything But the Girl (philipphilip99)
Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree - Tony Orlando and Sawn (magicman)
Bunny (Song for a Crochet Alligator) - Shari Elf (TarquinSpodd)
Present Without a Bow - Kacey Musgraves with Leon Bridges (Noodsy)
Undo the Knots - Julie Carrick (magicman)
The Natty Knotty B-List:
Unravel - Bjork (megadom)
Harmonic - Hex (Nilpferd)
Houdini - Kate Bush (MussoliniHeadkick)
Tie Me Tight - Bob Kayli (philipphilip99)
Topknot - Cornershop ft Bubbley Kaur (happyclapper)
Women Tied Up in Knots - Bongwater (TarquinSpodd)
Tight Rope - Leon Russell (amylee)
The Ties That Bind - Bruce Springsteen (megadom)
I am a Natty/Knotty Knots - Jacob Miller & I Roy (pejepeine)
If There’s a Rocket, Tie Me To It - Snow Patrol (Shoegazer)
Just You, Just Me - Bing Crosby (Loud Atlas)
Sam Hall - Richard Thompson (treefrogdemon)
Tie Our Love in a Double Knot - Dolly Parton (Suzi)
Six Ribbons - Jon English (ajostu)
There’s a Love-Knot in My Lariat - Slim Whitman (Uncleben)
Words Tangled in Blue - Barzin (Shoegazer)
Mistakes - Tindersticks (Shoegazer)
Choucho Musubi - Aimer ft. Radwimps (ajostu)
Tongue Tied - Betty McQuade (TarquinSpodd)
Tongue Tied Over You - Rusty Draper (TarquinSpodd)
Fun With Ropes - The Go-Go's (IsabelleForshaw)
Double Windsor - Oyvind Holm (Makinavaja)
Reef Knot - Vibe 18 (Makinavaja)
Roots Natty - The Gladiators (pejepeine)
The Ups and Downs - Steeleye Span (Uncleben)
My Favourite Things - Julie Andrews (severin)
Cruel - Foxes (Loud Atas)
Wildcard Picks:
Stuck With You - Huey Lewis and the News
Pretty Paper - Roy Orbison
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations from last week's topic: Take a bow: songs about knots, ties and untying. The next topic will launch on Thursday at 1pm UK time.
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