By ajostu
Treasure! The lure of ill-gotten wealth and fortune. As the Landlord pointed out, there have been several loot-related topics that have come up in the past – money, gold, coins, pirates. However, not so long ago, we also had the topic of quests. Treasure isn’t necessarily something you have to go and hunt for. It’s not always at the end of the rainbow, buried on a distant isle or waiting to be found in a newly discovered goldfield. There is the personal treasure of family and friendship, for example. Or memory. But, for me, the association between treasure and quest is strong – when treasure is used in a more intimate context, it seems to carry the association: “I can’t believe my good fortune that I have this without having to search harder for it.”
Speaking of treasure, eight cheers for the Bar and all those who visit. To the Landlord and his sterling efforts over the last eight years. And to Marco and all those who make the Bar such a valuable resource. Some of my main musical interests in recent times have come about as a result of tracks nominated here, so let me express my thanks to all of you with your intelligent and wide ranging musical tastes and opinions. Let’s see what treasures you’ve nominated this week.
The A-List:
“That damn music follows me everywhere,” grumbled Harrison Ford at a tribute night for John Williams. A thought struck me while listening to The Raider’s March: this iconic music for treasure-seekers was written by Williams in his late forties, and he has kept on being creative for the last forty or so years. I get writer’s block looking at a blank sheet of lined paper; the twenty odd staves of a blank orchestral score would terrify me. I suppose the answer is “start somewhere, do something and stick at it”.
Troy Banarzi’s take on Fifteen Men on a Dead Man’s Chest gave me the chance to play to the piracy aspect of our topic. The thing that strikes me about piracy is the number of options available across the whole arc of your career. You even have a wide choice in the manner of your death. I loved the chunky sound of what I assume is concertina underlying the song.
The master of The Servant Man has gold for treasure. He also has a daughter. Gold can be hoarded and kept under lock and key, but a soul must be free to find its own path, as the master finally realises. There’s lovely singing in this performance by The Full English – and a beguiling string arrangement.
I once went to the outback town of Lightning Ridge. It was a rough old mining town, and treasure was hard to find, so the miners could only dream of being Constant In Opal. My parents and I spent a few hours with a miner while he worked his small holding, and we were lucky(!) enough to find a few small stones of the common, colourless worthless variant of opal called potch. This early track by The Church captures the difficulties and desolation of chasing down a rare and capriciously hidden gem.
The story of Jason and the Argonauts is one of the great stories of Greek myth. In XTC’s modern metaphorical retelling, there may be no golden fleece, but the arduous journey and strange mythological creatures are still there.
The gang of French, Frith, Kaiser and Thompson come together to sing about the Killerman Gold Posse and their manifesto, rooted in the classic Robin Hood tradition. I’m not sure they’ve quite caught the moral nuances of the original story. I loved the song because it was short and punchy. Rather like the song’s protagonists.
For 17 Hippies, they don’t need to seek to find El Dorado, it’s the loving look of their sweetheart. I’m writing this on Valentine’s Day so a simple song about finding treasure in the love and company of another seems appropriate.
For Astrud Gilberto, it’s not about buried jewels or gold. In Take Me To Aruanda, the place itself is the treasure. Wikipedia tells me that Aruanda is “a concept present in Afro-Brazilian religions… it describes a place in the spirit world”. No wonder I couldn’t find it on TripAdvisor.
I’ll quote nominator Isabelle here: The Black Sorrow’s song Hold On To Me is a song with a “modern day piracy theme around migrants arriving by boat to a new country, Australia. only after handing over the family jewels for passage”. I always thought this was a killer song – with a brilliant guitar riff – that deserved greater success than it got.
For the Pigram Brothers' song Saltwater Cowboy I will also defer to Nicko’s description (I hope he’ll forgive my edit): “The 'cowboy' is a deep sea diver for wild pearls. Here they are sailing home, on distinctive shallow, wide-beamed boats called luggers, after weeks at sea. The biggest industry was out of Broome until the pearls were fished out and it became all cultured pearls. Broome was a cultural melting pot before multiculturalism. Indigenous, Malays, Japanese etc all lived there, some bonded in near slavery. The Pigrams reflect the mix. They allude to their traditional country here. Being the sea. A touch of indigenous language but also Malay and Japanese saying goodbye.”
Our Landlord gave the TV show Detectorists a lovely synopsis in his introduction, so I needn’t add more, only to say: what a lovely idea by Johnny Flynn to write the theme song from the perspective of the treasure itself. I wonder how much that adds a little psychological nudge to the viewer, that one day the treasure will be found?
This time it’s untergunther who does my job for me: “One Day by Ms Fatoumata Diawara. Pretty, gently paced song about the treasures to be found in the Timbuktu Manuscripts. Families have safeguarded them for generations and now they have been digitised and preserved for future generations to study. There is hope for the wisdom contained in the manuscripts to become even more recognised worldwide.”
And then a sudden interlude. The Cowboy Junkies’ Mining For Gold. A single voice, in isolation, desolate from a life spent in the service of other people’s demand for treasure.
Joni Mitchell has always had a gift for writing songs that are simultaneously descriptive and introspective (I’m sure Amelia’s not just about a plane). I guess The Dawntreader might throw in a few literary allusions as well. I should read the book, eh? Joni casts her searching eye for treasure of the soul.
Finally, a gorgeous if melancholy song where the treasure is not gold or jewels or great wealth. In Pearls, Sade sings of a woman’s desperate search for food for her child. One of those songs that demanded attention – and an A-listing – as soon I heard it.
Abundant Unearthing A-List Playlist:
John Williams - The Raider's March (Loud Atlas)
Troy Banarzi - Fifteen Men On A Dead Man's Chest (Loud Atlas)
The Full English - The Servant Man (Suzi)
The Church - Constant In Opal (Nilpferd)
XTC - Jason And The Argonauts (ParaMhor)
French Frith Kaiser Thompson - Killerman Gold Posse (ShivSidecar)
17 Hippies - El Dorado (Maki)
Astrid Gilberto - Take Me To Aruanda (Nicko)
The Black Sorrows - Hold On To Me (Isabelle Forshaw)
The Pigram Brothers - Saltwater Cowboy (Nicko)
Johnny Flynn - Detectorists (Shoegazer)
Fatoumata Diawara - One Day (untergunther)
Cowboy Junkies - Mining For Gold (MussoliniHeadkick)
Joni Mitchell - The Dawntreader (tincanman2010)
Sade - Pearls (pejepeine)
Bountiful Bonanza B-List Playlist:
Chris Squire - Hold Out Your Hand (Fred Erickson)
Our Last Night - Oak Island (BanazirGalbasi)
Howling Bells - Treasure Hunt (Fred Erickson)
Gorillaz - Fire Coming Out Of Monkey’s Head (Traktor Albatrost)
Culture - Lion Rock (Shoegazer)
The Maytals - Gold And Silver (UncleBen)
Pat Thomas - African Gold (nosuchzone)
Linda Lewis - Fathoms Deep (pejepeine)
Traffic - Forty Thousand Headmen
Gwenno - Tresor (happyclapper)
Peter Hammill - Material Possession (Tatanka Yotanka)
Alan Parsons Project - You Can't Take It With You (BanazirGalbasi)
Hold Out Your Hand and the treasure of the universe are at your feet. I’d take the pipe organ. A favourite song from a favourite album (Chris Squire’s Fish Out Of Water)
Oak Island gives the guitars some proper distortion. Wiki tells me the band Our Last Night are post hardcore. I’m sure the lyrics are great but I was too busy air-guitaring away.
Treasure Hunt was another song where the riff hooked me in. Ashamed to learn that Howling Bells are an Oz band that I’ve never heard of.
Then onto early Gorillaz. Fire Coming Out of Monkey’s Head establishes the formula that works so well: funky bit followed by Damon singing for a while.
There were several great reggae tracks nommed this week, but Culture’s Lion Rock and The Maytals’ Gold and Silver stood out for me.
Pat Thomas’s African Gold is a terrific live performance. There’s a studio album up on YouTube under Thomas’s name. I gave it a quick flick through and I’ll definitely be giving it a proper listen.
Linda Lewis’s Fathom’s Deep appealed to me thanks to its terrific arrangement (and Lewis’ singing of course). Though it’s a very different song, Traffic’s Forty Thousand Headmen appealed for the same reason.
I looked up the lyrics to Gwenno’s Tresor and they seemed a bit abstract and ethereal (though maybe that’s just the translation), but then again that suits the vibe of the song.
Peter Hammill’s Material Posession and Alan Parson Project’s Can’t Take It With You end the B-list on a cautionary note.
Guru’s Wildcard Picks:
Two instrumental tracks with two very different moods. Gold Gate is the moody opening track from Todd Sickafoose’s Bear Proof album from last year. The album is a connected set of pieces ruminating on California’s gold rush past. Takarajima (translated as “Treasure Island”) was originally an instrumental track by Japanese fusion band The Square (later changed to T. Square) released in 1986. The original version is a great slice of 80s soft jazz, and well worth a listen. An exuberant arrangement for concert band performed by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra was released the following year, and it became a hugely popular standard for concert bands in Japan.
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: Song Bar Birthday Special: Pieces of eight? Seeking songs about treasure. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
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