Sean Daily is an English major from New Jersey now living in Las Vegas, the Other City of Lights. "I consider 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' to be comfort reading, I like the al pastor tacos at Tacos Mexico and I count among my literary influences the Chainsaw from 'Doom'. 'RRRRRR! You don't like that, do you, Mr. Undead Marine! RRRRRR!'"
Shanoah Alkire is our Discordian at large. "Born in Santa Cruz, I grew up in Grass Valley and the Bay Area, and now lurk in Las Vegas. My literary influences include Ray Bradbury,
Lewis Carroll, and Douglas Adams. I also program as a hobby,
and currently maintain the Gtk port of Angband. You can find
a rather old bio of me here."
I think I’m going to dip into the oeuf (literally, the Denver omelet) of The Real Tuesday Weld again for today’s neat thing. It’s is a cover of ABBA’sThe Day Before You Came, off the Six Degrees Records compilation album Backspin: A Six Degrees 10 Year Anniversary Project, released in 2007, and it’s not quite as scat-intensive as either Clerkenwell song that we’ve featured here.
This video is doubly neat because it’s from the 1928 Felix the Cat silent cartoon Comicalamities, and it’s triply neat because it has some real Dark Side of the Wizard of Oz moments.
And yes, I’m starting to like The Real Tuesday Weld.
After a bit of thought, I elected to go with a simple theme today: songs about Gypsies. I’ve always liked Gypsies, and I’ve been told that if you trace my family tree back long enough, that there are Gypsies in my ancestry.
Unfortunately, that is way back in my ancestry, and I’m left with nothing but a liking for colorful clothing and music.
My family ancestry’s kind of weird, anyways. My dad’s side is one of these family trees that can be traced all over the place. And my mom’s side can’t really be traced further then her great-grandfather.
Whole bunch of Germans, Americans with German ancestry, and a few other countries in there, IIRC.
Anyways, on with my Gypsy theme for today. None of this is real Gypsy music, but all of them have Gypsies in the title, at least:
Gypsy – Fleetwood Mac
Stevie Nicks wrote this song about her best friend, Robin Anderson, who was dying of leukemia at the time. Classic, classic song.
Gypsy (Of A Strange and Distant Time) – Moody Blues
This song, on the other hand, was supposed to have been inspired by Doctor Who. Whatever it was inspired by, the Moody Blues have put out some amazing music, and this is one of their more memorable songs.
Unfortunately, these days, neither Mike Pinder not Ray Thomas is in the band, and something seems a bit missing to me without them.
Raggle Taggle Gypsies – Big Paddy
And this is a traditional folk song[1] sung by many people, which also goes by the titles of “The Gypsy Laddie”, and “Black Jack Davy”. As with a lot of folk songs, the details vary.
It’s usually about a noble lady who leaves her husband for a gypsy. In some versions they get away, in others the gypsy band is hung.
Joni Minstrel does a great version of this song, too.
What do I care for my house and my land?
What care I for money-o?
What do I care for my only wedded lord?
I'm away with the raggle-taggle gypsies-o.
[1] Traditional as in “I have at least 4 copies[2] of this song being sung by different bands”.
[2] Celtic Stone, Joni Minstrel, Finnegans Wake, and Shamus O’Blivion. Possibly more, given the way it changes names[3].
[3] And I have Heather Alexander singing a song called “The Black Jack’s Lady” that’s well, sort of a sequel, about how Black Jack Davy takes off afterwards, and the ladies pursuit of him. Very entertaining, and not on youtube, just the album “Life’s Flame”.
One Neat Thing a Day 