By Marco den Ouden
What is a rare event? This week’s topic proved to be a tricky one as ideas on rarity differed quite a bit. In the end I took a varied approach and looked at the topic from a few different tangents.
Not surprisingly, cosmic events proved popular. Our Landlord was inspired to put forward the topic because of the Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), also known as the Green Comet, that has been visible to the naked eye in some parts of the world. Not only comets, but other celestial phenomena were suggested. Most of these celestial songs were instrumentals and I have put them in a separate Instrumental C List.
But for this list, we’ll start with the rather spacey In The Unlikely Event Of An All Life Erasing Gamma-Ray Burst, This Is The Soundtrack by Processory. Gamma Ray Bursts or GRBs are, according to Wikipedia, “immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies”. They occur during supernovas when a star collapses to form a black hole and are “extremely rare (a few per galaxy per million years)”.
From the spacey we move to the ethereal. Billie Eilish uses Halley’s Comet as a metaphor for the rarity (for her at least) of falling in love. As rare as the appearance of Halley’s Comet. The song is wistful, sentimental and deeply moving.
In 1964, aerospace engineer Gary Flandro discovered that the planets would be closely aligned in the near future, allowing for a multi-planet space mission to take only ten years instead of forty. NASA jumped on the rare opportunity with the launch of the Voyager missions in 1977. Aboard those craft were two phonograph records known as the Voyager Golden Records containing Sounds of Earth compiled by a committee headed by astronomer Carl Sagan. Jim Moray tells the story.
The Voyager missions followed five years after the last manned Apollo moon mission. Tasmin Archer laments the end of an era in Sleeping Satellite. Why were the moon missions, the source of much excitement and interest from 1968 to 1972, abandoned leaving the moon a sleeping satellite? Men on the moon went from a short burst of being common to being, nay, not rare, but rarer than rare—non-existent.
Another rarity are certain ancient artefacts. The Nazca lines were mentioned. As were a collection of large stone pillars known as The Hurlers. Seth Lakeman personifies these monoliths as living entities in his song.
There was a plethora of songs on rare historic events. These included a light-hearted take on the disappearance of the passengers and crew of the sailing ship, the Marie Celeste. The Polecats imagine a lively party aboard the doomed vessel.
From that 1872 event we move ahead to the sinking of The Titanic, a ship touted as unsinkable. Mance Lipscomb gives us a bluesy take on this rare disaster.
Moving ahead to 1927, we have the great Mississippi Flood, “the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States” according to Wikipedia. The supergroup of Albert King, Pop Staples & Steve Cropper tell the story in Tupelo.
Rod MacDonald moves us forward to 2001 with a song about his seemingly ordinary neighbours, My Neighbours in Delray. Just ordinary folks who “went to the gym every day, rented a condo, studied to be pilots. They had rental cars, cell phones, used the library computers in town, struck out with girls in local nightspots.” They also hated America, hijacked a plane and crashed it into the World Trade Center.
While I tried to stick to real-life events, there were two pieces of fiction mentioned that fit this topic because of their rare significance. The myth of Atlantis was used by Plato as a warning about hubris. This seemingly invincible superstate is repelled by the Greeks and eventually sinks into the Atlantic never to be seen again. Donovan tells the story.
Another tale of hubris is Shakespeare’s account of Macbeth. Taking the three witches’ prophecy that he shall be safe until Great Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill and that no one of woman born shall harm him, Macbeth believes himself invincible. Forests don’t move, for God’s sake. And everyone is born of woman. In an intriguing telling of the tale, Cleo Laine tells us in Dunsinane Blues that MacDuff’s men cut tree branches and hid behind them as they advanced on Dunsinane, fulfilling the first prophecy. And MacDuff himself tells Macbeth he was born by Caesarian section, not a natural birth. Though I prefer Shakespeare’s language—that he was "from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd." Thus a seeming rarity, even an impossibility, can come to pass.
Although there were a good number of songs about the end of the world, Armageddon, the Apocalypse, I particularly liked the take by the dream pop band Cigarettes After Sex. The lyrics are somewhat cryptic and the androgynous voice of Greg Gonzalez makes the apocalypse seem dreamy and almost pleasant.
We end our set with one of several songs suggested about figures of speech indicating rarity. Another song with an ethereal and dreamlike quality has the Cowboy Junkies singing about the Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis). Thank goodness great songs like this do come around more than once in a blue moon!
A Rather Rare A-List Playlist:
1. In The Unlikely Event Of An All Life Erasing Gamma-Ray Burst, This Is The Soundtrack by Processory (BanazirGalbasi)
2. Halley's Comet by Billie Eilish (magicman)
3. Sounds of Earth by Jim Moray (tincanman)
4. Sleeping Satellite by Tasmin Archer (pejepeine)
5. The Hurlers by Seth Lakeman (Suzi)
6. Marie Celeste by The Polecats (OliveButler)
7. The Titanic by Mance Lipscomb (Nicko)
8. Tupelo by Albert King, Pop Staples & Steve Cropper (Nicko)
9. My Neighbours in Delray by Rod Macdonald (Loud Atlas)
10. Atlantis by Donovan (amylee)
11. Dunsinane Blues (After Macbeth) by Cleo Laine (megadom)
12. Apocalypse by Cigarettes After Sex (Shoegazer)
13. Blue Moon Revisited by Cowboy Junkies (Shoegazer)
The Barely Experienced B-List Playlist:
1. Big Bang Theory - Barenaked Ladies (amylee)
2. Higgs Boson Blues - Nick Cave & Bad Seeds (megadom)
3. C.T.A. 102 - The Byrds (megadom)
4. Once in a Very Blue Moon - Nanci Griffith (BanazirGalbasi)
5. Needle in a Haystack - The Velvelettes (megadom)
6. Morning Dew - Bonnie Dobson (ShivSidecar)
7. Supermoon - Charly Bliss (Noodsy)
8. A Total Eclipse of the Sun - Don McLean (Joelle)
9. 100 Year Flood - String Cheese Incident (BanazirGalbasi)
10. Stars Fell on Alabama - Billie Holiday (Nilpferd)
11. Santa Never Made It Into Darwin - Bill & Boyd (Nicko)
12. Poor Jason White - The Abyssinians (Nicko)
13. Tempest - Bob Dylan (Nicko)
14. California Mudslide - Lightnin’ Hopkins (Nicko)
15. Exploding Suns - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (OliveButler)
16. Once in a Blue Moon - Van Morrison (Loud Atlas)
17. Last Words of a Shooting Star - Mitski (Max Visconta Nuclerosea)
18. Back to Normal - Paranoid Visions (Carpgate) *
19. Louisiana 1927 - Randy Newman (Nicko)
* Back to Normal - Paranoid Vision (playlisting restricted but is here:)
The Instrumental C-List:
1. Kometenmelodie 2 - Kraftwerk (OliveButler)
2. Asteroid - Pete Moore (OliveButler)
3. Rare Events - Michael Lowenstern (BanazirGalbasi)
4. Solar Flares - Sven Libaek (pejepeine)
5. The Final Eclipse - The Comet is Coming (ajostu)
6. Halley's Comet - Al Cohn Quintet (Nicko)
7. Skylab - The Monks (Nicko)
8. Prince of the Sea - Lenny White (Fred Erickson)
9. Kahoutek - Journey (Fred Erickson)
10. Oumuamua - Armin Van Buuren (George Boyland)
11. Spontaneous Combustion - Cannonball Adderly (severin)
12. Outlier - Snarky Puppy (Nilpferd)
13. Black Swan - Wayne Krantz (Nilpferd)
Guru’s Wildcard Picks:
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: Scene 2: The River: What do you see now? - Michael Nyman
I B-listed this for Songs About the Brain. It describes a rare mental disorder known as visual agnosia.
If the World Was Ending - JP Saxe with Julia Michaels
How would the impending end of the world affect one’s relationships? Would you recognise that the one you thought of as a casual friend is much more than that? A bittersweet song of trying to capture something before it’s too late.
I’m My Own Grandpa - Ray Stevens
So let’s finish with something light and amusing. Thanks to my son for suggesting this one!
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: The comet is coming: songs about rare events and experiences. The next topic will launch on Thursday at 1pm UK time.
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