Tags
Amanda Marshall, Canadian music, Dixie Chicks, Great Big Sea, Remembrance Day, RMS Lancastria, Simon and Garfunkel, Stan Rogers, The Tragically Hip
It’s Monday evening – so that obviously means it’s Twisted Mixed Tape Tuesday Time!
Do check out Jen Kehl’s fabulous hop and the other revellers here:
Well, it’s TMT Tuesday time for working mommy-me anyway. Given I’m out for most of Tuesdays, the party would pretty much be over by the time I got home and got the kids to bed Tuesday night. This way – I can join some of the early hoppers, and then join in again once the party is well underway. And this week on top of work, I’m heading out for some after work fun as well tomorrow night! But I promise to faithfully hop away once I’m back.
This week’s theme: Songs That Tell a Story.
Well! This is a theme I like! I mean, like Ms. Marshall says, Everybody’s Got a Story, right?
A few songs jumped right into my head – but it took a few days of thinking before I hit on this pick from Simon and Garfunkel:
I remember first reading Richard Cory as a poem in Grade 10 English class and loving it. And it certainly lends itself to the idea of everybody indeed having a story – and not necessarily the one you might imagine from the outside looking in.
Next up, I’m going to give you the second Canadian song in what – I’ve suddenly realized – is going to be a pretty Canadian heavy post this week. Apparently we like to tell stories up here.
I give you Great Big Sea performing Mari-Mac:
I just always think this is a fun song – and, well, there’s a story. Not like, a DEEP story or anything – but a story nonetheless. And my four-year-old likes the puppets. PUPPETS!
Because this one always puts me in an East Coast Pubbing kind of mood, I’m going to throw this one in as well (sung by a fellow Ontarian – so nowhere near a sea – but that doesn’t mean we can’t still get in the East Coast swing of things): Stan Rogers’ Barrett’s Privateers:
Next I’ll head south of the border for a few minutes to give you, well, some country music. I’m doing this because, a few weeks again on this hop when we all had to do a mix in a genre we don’t usually listen to, it because apparent there were quite a few closet country fans on this hop. So THIS ONE’S FOR ALL OF YOU!
Here’s the Dixie Chicks: Goodbye Earl.
And to wind up the night? I’m going to have to close once more this week with the Tragically Hip. This week, I give you Nautical Disaster. It was actually hard to choose just one Hip song that tells a story because so many do. Indeed, in surfing about, I even found this great post from a fellow WordPress blogger about using the Hip’s music to help teach Canadian History. I’d take that class.
But getting back to tonight’s choice, reading the You Tube comments it seems a bit unclear what it’s commemorating – but I’m putting my money on the sinking of the RMS Lancastria. In any event, it’s about losses during the Second World War. It seems appropriate for November 11. Lest we forget.
omg Yes!! Goodbye Earl! That song gets me every time – hilarious and I love the video. I remember the first time I saw/heard that I was hysterical laughing thinking what the what? Love how they just went there.
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I have karaoke memories to it 🙂 I just love the song.
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Oh, I remember teaching the poem Richard Cory to my students once. That was one great song, and I used this video to illustrate it too. You’ve brought back memories!
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It’s funny how at 15 I thought this was “unique” in a poetry book. Apparently not. Ah well – a good idea – and a good poem/song is just that!
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Goodbye Earl is the only Dixie Chicks song I really enjoy. The rest of your choices were all new-to-me, but wonderful to listen to.
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I think I agree with you re: Dixie Chicks. I have the album and I’ve listened through – but mostly it’s just for that one song. Glad you enjoyed the rest. Guess I needed to lure everyone in with country – huh?
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Goodbye Earl, yeah don’t mess with a country-ass chick unless you want bit of poison in your supper.
BTW, every time I visit your blog I smile at your title photo. Poor little guy.
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Thanks on both fronts – as for the little dude at the top. I knew it was love when I found him. Kind of sums up how I feel some days 😉
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Goodbye Earl – that song is hilarious. And puppets are ALWAYS a bonus.
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Thanks so much! And yes – I always think the Mari Mac video is fun with the marionettes 🙂
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This is a great mix. LOVED Mary Mac!! OMG, hysterical. And although I knew Goodbye Earl had never watched the video. Had to watch the whole thing 🙂 Awesomeness!
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Glad you liked it this week – and glad WordPress let you comment 🙂 I have to admit, when I posted Mari Mac, I wondered if your son would like it because I remembered you mentioning his liking the Louise Attaque one I posted a few weeks ago and its the same sort of genre (similar anyway).
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puppets! you do know there are…(well, you did mention them) puppets in the Mari Mac… and not the cute made-of-socks hand puppets.. but the marionette type with the frozen expressions.
(sorry, got thrown off by the puppets.) Really enjoyed the S&G and the Dixie Chicks were great for a bit of a ‘change up’ in the mood.
nice list
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Thanks! Yeah – the Dixie Chicks are a bit of an odd add on with the rest – but I figured it would pull in all the closet country fans on this hop 😉
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I think I may be a closet country fan too :). Thanks for these!
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Thanks for the comment and the visit! I think it’s hard to dislike Goodbye Earl – it’s pretty catchy. And welcome to the TMT blog hop!
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Haha the only song I knew on here was “Earl Had To Die” (let’s not read *too* much into that…) but I listened to the very first one and it was hilarious. She had me from the beginning when she started poking the screen. So clever.
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Amanda Marshall has a few fun songs – another is Sunday Morning After (or something like that) basically about her waking up after a night of binge drinking beside a stranger and realizing she has a new tattoo). Come to think of it – THAT might have been the better choice for this mix – but I liked how this one started the narrative 🙂
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I’ll have to check that out tomorrow while I’m spotifying at work!
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Awesome list!! Richard Cory is a wonderful song!! Goodbye Earl makes me laugh every time I hear it.
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Thanks a lot. I love them both too (for different reasons 🙂
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Hooray for the Great Big Sea! I love Mari Mac!
Also, I love Goodbye Earl. I remember when it came out, they wouldn’t play it on the radio in my hometown until after 10pm, so it was rare that I heard it, but I thought it was hilarious and had no concept of why it was scandalous (ah, to be a kid again).
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I was really excited to find another person who posted a Great Big Sea song. I see them in concert every few years. So much fun.
As for Goodbye Earl, my first memory of that song is a girl I knew who wanted to get up with the band at an Irish Pub and sing it. She was a bit too – well, tipsy – and I think the guys in the band ended up singing most of it. Which was … odd. But made the song stick out for me and I went and looked it up. Loved it ever since.
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