carbonel

So this is all a bit convoluted, but I wanted to get it down before I forget. If anyone else finds it interesting, so much the better.

Last night, I was watching the movie The Searchers (part of the 4-star movie project), and there's a bit where you see soldiers marching what appear to be Native American women and children to a fort, and the music playing during that was very familiar, but I couldn't remember the name.

I fired up SoundHound, which identified the song as "The Searchers, 'Crossing the Snowbank.'" Which, just like the old joke about the guy who's lost and figures out he's over Redmond, WA, because of the unhelpfulness of the answer, was both correct and useless.

So I went a-googling. The first thing I wanted to do was eliminate one possibility, but I couldn't remember the name. I just remembered that it was the tune associated with George Custer. I didn't think that was it, but I wanted to be sure. Google told me that that the George Custer tune was "Garryowen." I listened to it and compared, and realized, yes, that was exactly the tune in the movie. Which turned out to make sense, since it's the tune associated with the 7th Cavalry.

And then I remembered that it was at a long-ago Winnipeg Folk Festival where I'd first heard the tune "Garryowen," except that it was entirely different words put to the same tune, and it was about dying to that tune. It was sung, I thought, by Tom Russell.

Google was less helpful this time, but I eventually found a thread on Mudcat about an entirely different version of "Gary Owen." And buried deep in the comments, someone had posted lyrics to "Gary Owen's Lament," to be sung to the tune of the original "Garryowen."

I went over to YouTube and found one version the song under that title, and more under the title "Mick Ryan's Lament," about a pair of brothers who left Ireland. One died at Vicksburg, and the narrator died at Little Big Horn. It turns out that while Tom Russell may have sung the song, it was written by Robert Emmet Dunlap. Which is why searching on "Garryowen" and "Tom Russell" had availed me not in finding the song.

This is the complete version of "Mick Ryan's Lament" performed by Tim O'Brien. And here's a page with an excerpt of the song by Robert Emmet Dunlap. Apparently he's turned the song and (fictional) story into an entire performance. I'd love to be able to see it someday.

But in the meantime, I'm glad to have tracked down the answer to a question that's been niggling at me for years. Thus the rarely used xkcd icon on this post.

Yesterday, I read a post where rachelmanija was trying to find out what instrument was being played in the opening instrumental in the song below, before the lyrics started up. (Consensus seemed to be that it was a harpsichord, probably an electronic version thereof.) But then I realized it was awfully familiar, and not because I'd heard the song before.

It kept repeating in my brain last night until I fell asleep. In the morning, something said "Al Stewart" to me, and a little while ago, I finally came up with "The Palace of Versailles."

My question is, is that the only place I remember that riff from, or is there some classic precursor that I should recognize as well?



(If that doesn't work properly for you, here's the direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXOhY2XXXVU)

Okay, it's time to start to destash. I have a corner of my living room that's currently devoted to CDs, videotapes, and DVDs, and I'd like to repurpose most of the space for fiber. So that means getting rid of stuff.

First off is Wiseguy, recorded off the TV, on videotape. I have the complete run of the show (I think), most of it recorded at 2-hour speed. It was recorded when WGN was rerunning it, so it might not be completely uncut -- but it has the original music, which the DVDs don't.

Available to a good home for the cost of postage.