What songs do you 'see'?

Subject: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 10:15 AM

Music moves me in many ways, I like different music for different reasons, sometimes for the melody, some for lyrics etc. There are a few songs though that take me to another dimesion, where I visualize the story as if I'm actually there. Dylan's Lilly, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts is one, whenever I listen to it, I 'see' it from the standpoint of being in the audience at the cabaret, I hear the din of the crowd the clink of glass, see and smell the cigar smoke, the cheap perfume, the room and characters always look the same to me.

Willie Nelson's "The Red Headed Stranger" (the whole album)is another one, maybe it's the western theme.

There are other songs that may have a verse or two that puts me in the middle of them, Barrett's Privateers, and Tangled Up In Blue as examples.

All the hallucinogenic jokes aside, does anyone have a song that has this effect on them?

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: musicfan
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 10:20 AM

When I hear O'Carolan's "Bridget Cruise" (second setting, I think) it's as if I can smell Bridget's perfume, hear her clothing rustle and feel her moving about in the room.

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: JedMarum
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 10:31 AM

Maybe this comment belongs in another thread (Sexism in Music forums) ... but I noticed that whenever I sing "The Scotsman" - (for those who don't know the song, it tells the tale of a drunken, kilt wearing scot who is inspected by some of the local girls while he sleeps by the roadside) the women in the audience seem to be visualizing the story as it progresses through the verses. I am quite sure you will find this indeed is one of those "visual" songs!

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: JedMarum
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 10:33 AM

hmmm, as I reread my comments above, I realize that the song is sure to be visual for men in the audience, also. Perhpas I never watched their response with as much interest!

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: KathWestra
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 10:42 AM

The many wonderful songs written by Joan Sprung and by Jan Harmon almost invariably create these kinds of pictures in my mind.

Joan's "Harbors of Home" puts me on the shore, waiting for the sailors who won't return. I can almost taste the salt air and tears.

Her "Where Have the Dancers Gone" (recorded on Folk-Legacy)captures the spirit of an old-time community dance. Several lines are particularly vivid: "dresses the colors of sunsets and fall, everyone stepping out graceful and tall, call a tune to the fiddler, cause he knew them all..." I can see those dresses, and hear that fiddler playing the dear familiar tunes. Also a verse that talks about the people dancing: "sweethearts whose feet never quite touched the floor, an old man whose partner was just three or four...". When I sing this song, I'm THERE.

Jan Harmon's songs also create visions as I sing or hear them. Her "Wild Birds" is one that never fails to transport me, full of evocative lines, about prairie rain storms ("you can see the rain coming for miles down the prairie, like a great herd of antelope running like fury..."), the amber aspen of Wyoming, and the birds that rise in clouds from the fields beside the road ("And all by the roadside the wild birds fly, out of the thistle and into the sky, red birds, black birds, they sing as they fly..."). I know those places, and see them clearly in Jan's words.

Jan's song about Yosemite National Park, "Loni," which Gordon Bok has recorded and which I sing, paints the most beautiful pictures of any song I know. You can see the shadow moving up the side of Half Dome as the sun moves higher in the sky, "bigleaf maples shined with mist," the moon rising over Tenaya....

So, yes, it happens all the time. The fact that it does makes these songs especially dear and special to me.

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Mbo
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 11:46 AM

I can imagine whole story lines for great songs like "Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore," "Tunnel Tigers," "Jenny O' The Braes," "It Belongs To Us," darn it, I visualize EVERY song that I play or hear! It just comes naturally to me to visualize any song I play, book I read, or radio program I hear--I tell you, I could make movies about the things I visualize when hearing music!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: MMario
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 12:35 PM

Mbo - you would frighten me, if I weren't almost the same way....whether or not I visualize as I read/sing/listen/watch is one of my criteria for whether or not something is "good"

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 12:55 PM

Ask Beethoven Mozart the same question and you would receive the same answer. I visually relate to all music. Isn't that what music is about? Yours,Aye. Dave

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 08:38 PM

gotta admit, I see some of the details in MRS. RAVOONall too vividly, which is why I only sing it once a year around Halloween

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 08:40 PM

whoops...try Mrs Ravoon

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: BK
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 08:59 PM

Definitely! As said, it's probably almost an unconscious criterion; the songs that move me, like "Wild Birds," essentially always make me visualize. I haven't heard "Loni" but I can bet I'll want to. One of the songs which does this most strongly for me is on an album (CD) by Danny Doyle (the title cut) "Emigrant Eyes." (Rego, R-3018; Great CD!)I can see, smell & probably even taste Ellis Island around the turn of the century, with it's lines of frightened, hopeful imigrants, close to "sweet freedom" & "torn from someone they loved." Powerful song..

Cheers, BK

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: JenEllen
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 09:19 PM

What would we do without the songs that transport us to another place? I'll have to go with you Steve, on the Red-headed Stranger. Every time I hear it I think "OH! Don't touch that horse!" She does anyway.

Kate Wolf's "The Lilac and the Apple". I can imagine napping under two trees talking in the wind. Once again, I sit hoping against hope that someone will build there.

Janis Carper's "No Place Like Home". For all the travelers waiting to get home to the ones they love.

Clive Gregson's "Camden Town". Lost his heart to a girl "English as the coal dust and Irish as the rain". Poor sod.

Good lord, there's thousands of them. Have to give this some more thought. Thanks for the burr under my saddle Steve. Elle

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: JenEllen
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 10:29 PM

Okay Steve. Nowhere near a definitive listing.

Nanci Griffith's "Love at the 5 and Dime". The "dance a little closer to me"'s get me everytime.

Dougie's "Morning Cruel and Clear"

Jim Croce's "Out of Tennessee" Good day to hop a train.

NGDB's "Rippling Waters" only because my friend still to this day wears a plastic Viking helmet while he jumps on the couch singing "Oh little Jennifer, I'd give a penny fer, whatcha got on your mind"...

Ruth Brown's "Wild Wild Young Men"

Big Mama Thornton's "I Smell a Rat"

Koko Taylor's "Wang Dang Doodle" you can just imagine cleaning up after THAT one!

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Victoria
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 10:50 PM

For me the first song that leaps to mind is Danny Doyle's "The Moon on Clancy's Wings". I finally found a copy after looking for ages, but I find having it at hand to listen to makes the images stronger, if anything. Another one for me is Kate Rusby's version of "The Unquiet grave", Alan Reid's "The Green and the Blue", and Davy Steele's "Jimmy Waddell" - in addition to just about anything ever written by Stan Rogers - especially "White Squall". (For tunes (without lyrics) that inspire images, John McCusker's fiddling seems to do it every time.) :-)

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: ddw
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 11:23 PM

I grew up listening to radio drama, comedy, etc. and I think it left me (at least something did) with a little projector in my mind. I not only "see" spoken drama and music, but on occasion I "see" smells. I always feel like something weird just happened when I do, but it's more like a curiosity that I'd like to examine a little closer.

As for what songs I see, almost all of them — which I think is what makes me shy away from doing a lot of war songs.

david

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: JamesJim
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 12:08 AM

A tune most of you will not know, called "The Baptism Song." Written by Dick Albin and his ex-wife Annie McFee, this song is about 3 boys who get caught skinny dipping during a baptism. You have to visualize this song to remember all the words - It has a ton of verses. Jim

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: JenEllen
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 12:55 AM

Have to go along with ddw. I still can't play "Christmas in the Trenches" without bawling. Learning the chords was easy enough, but the lyrics trip me up every time. I need a third hand to hold the kleenex. Elle

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Helen
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 02:02 AM

Hi all,

The knack of "seeing" music or smells or other variations of crossovers between senses is referred to as synesthesia. This came up in a thread sometime in early 1999, and I know the thread was still active in March 99. I have always "seen" music and I see the images as animations in my mind's eye - moving shapes and colours, making patterns which change with the musical patterns. It can get quite intricate at times especially with descant harmonies or counter-pointed melody or percussion parts.

I'll see if I can find the thread again, but meanwhile try searching the net for the word "synesthesia" because there is some interesting information out there.

Helen

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: sophocleese
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 10:04 AM

A lot of songs are written with interesting visual images in them. One I've been listening to lately is written by Alex Sinclair of Tamarack called Elizabeth Would Walk.

Elizabeth would walk through grass so high / that when she lay upon the patient ground / all she could see was the blue, blue sky / she'd weave dandelions into crowns.

The song came out of letters that were written many years ago by the grandmother of one band member. Its beautiful. Now I have to learn it.

Sophocleese

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 11:49 AM

James Keelaghans "Captain Torres" does that to me.. I nearly get seasick with the mental pictures of being in a gale force 10 storm...

And I know what ya mean JanEllen about "X-mas in the Trenches"...

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 11:59 AM

JenEllen,

Well you've given me some research to do.

I know what you mean about the horse, one of my favourite verses ever is "In the shade of an oak, down by the river, sat an old man and a boy, settin' sails, spinnin' tales and fishin' for whales, with a lady that they both enjoy"

How about the "Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald"?

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Joan
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 02:16 PM

I see them all...a little mental movie of the action in the song. Some, of course, have words that stimulate really clear pictures in themselves:

"O'er his white bones the birds will fly, the wild deer run, the foxes cry." (Twa Corbies)

"Braken is gold in the sun." (Come by the Hills)

I find if I'm really focused on the pictures, the listeners can see them too--no hokey dramatizing--just making the song vivid and real for me and subconsciously transferring that to the audience.

Joan

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: kendall
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 02:23 PM

Songs have always been my vehicle for travel. In an instant I can be aboard the Edmond Fitzgerald, and just as suddenly standing alongside Sir Patrick Spence. Time and distance have no meaning here. I know that John Masefields, LOCH ARCRE is fiction, but, it sure feels like I was there.

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: JenEllen
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 06:12 PM

Steve: Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald used to be that way, then I heard the parody of the Wreck of Edna Fitzgerald, so now every time I hear it I think about them rescuing the blasted cat and get the worst case of the giggles imaginable....Lets see, others for your search...Oh, the best sad-ish one I've found lately would have to be Eric Bogle's "Now I'm Easy". If that doesn't get you, you aren't human...;) Elle

Subject: Lyr Add: NOW I'M EASY (Eric Bogle)^^^
From: JenEllen
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 06:32 PM

All right, here goes. (Joe, have mercy on my ignorant soul if I don't get this right ;)) For reference sake, a cocky is an Australian farmer, and Black Gins are aboriginal midwifes. I can just see this guy sitting on his porch, smoking a bowl, and rocking.....


NOW I'M EASY (Eric Bogle, 1983)

For nearly sixty years I've been a cocky
Droughts and fires and floods I've lived through plenty
And this country's dust and mud
Has seen my tears and blood
But it's nearly over now and now I'm easy

I married a fine girl when she was twenty
But she died while giving birth when she was thirty
No fine doctor then
Just a gentle old black gin
But it's nearly over now and now I'm easy

She left me with two sons and a daughter
On a bone dry farm where soil cried out for water
Though my care was rough and ready
They grew up fine and steady
But it's nearly over now and now I'm easy

Well my daughter married young and went her own way
My sons lie buried On the Burma railway
So on this land I call my own
I'll end my days alone
But it's nearly over now and now I'm easy

Now the city folk they all despise the cocky
On doles and subsidies they say there are plenty
But there's no drought or starving stock
On a pure suburban block
And it's nearly over now I'm easy

For nearly sixty years I've been a cocky
And droughts and fires and floods I've lived through plenty
This country's dust and mud
Has been my tears and blood
But it's nearly over now and now I'm easy
But it's nearly over now and now I'm easy

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: reeebop
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 06:37 PM

the song kilkelly, ireland....i have never once played it (alone or in front of anyone) without crying through the last couple of verses....it just reaches out and grabs my heart--ya know?

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: TerriM
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 07:09 PM

For songs that make me sob, you can pick just about any one of Eric Bogles but especially Singing the Spirit Home which almost caused me to crash my car, I was blubbing so hard.I still can't sing it, much as I'd love to. For sheer, slap stick silliness I love Brother Gorilla which was translated from the French by Jake Thackeray,that I can sing but I always get the giggles.

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Helen
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 11:31 PM

Elle,

A gin was a term for any Aboriginal woman, not just a midwife. The Macquarie Australian disctionary says that it was an Aboriginal word.

Helen

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: JenEllen
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 05:05 AM

Thanks Helen for the correction, I was just reading the notes on the cover! Elle

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: BK
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 12:24 AM

Victoria: At last, another Danny Doyle fan!! "The Moon On Clancy's Wings" is definately another great one & it's also on the "Emigrant Eyes" CD I mentioned. (Written by two Aussies, acc to the liner notes - Jimmy Stewart & Doug Ashdown - surprised me, since it's set in the US) Eric Bogle, of course has also written many that grab me - I almost wrecked a borrowed car in the North of England, driving up to Scotland, foolishly tryin' to learn "Green Fields of France" as we were driving (has other names; "Flowers of the Forest," "No Man's Land," etc.) My wife & I were both ballin' our eyes out. All I could think of was those poor Marines blown away by a truck bomb. Took me years to learn to sing it & mostly get through w/out cryin'.

Cheers, BK

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Joan
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 02:38 PM

Hey, Kath, just today looked at this thread from the beginning, and hadn't seen your post. Thanks for the nice words about my songs. If you can see the pictures, guess I did it properly. Joan

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Mudjack
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 02:58 PM

Visual stories is what most good songs are about. Eric Bogle's "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" paints an ugly picture of the effects of war.But... a song with conscience.
Here is a reversal of song painting an image. I cannot hear "Red River Valley" with out seeing images of Hank Fonda giving his dramatic speech in "Grapes of Wrath" The instrumental rendention in the backgroud is haunting and perfect for the scene.
Mudjack

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Jan 00 - 01:04 PM

'David', as sung by Roy Bailey, esp. the chorus - 'Summer brings me songs, he said, Autumn is the cruelest season; Winter has its reason; Spring will bring love, David.' Heard Roy do it just after I'd found out a long term love called David, was still alive, after a protracted stay in China and India, at a time when the Chinese were interring and torturing Europeans. Was sniffling during the first chorus and bawling myself silly by the end.....

Still gets me even now, years later, he has a wife and two children, I've got my little horror, and still just a mention of his name does that warm thing to me.....

LTS

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Bluesy
Date: 09 Jan 00 - 02:35 PM

Songs that give an another image, hmmm? I can't hear CCR's Suzie Q without thinking of the Playboy Bunnies dancing scene in Apocalypse Now.

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Victoria
Date: 09 Jan 00 - 07:55 PM

BK:I had never heard Danny Doyle, until one night I heard an Irish folk singer friend of mine do "Moon on Clancy's Wings", and begged him to tell me where he'd learned it. He gave me the name - and I AM a Danny Doyle fan, now!:-) I see a lot of people have listed Eric Bogle songs in this thread - isn't he amazing? "Green Fields of France" can get me every time too. (I'm also known for losing it on "Four Green Fields" and "Christmas in the Trenches) There's also a song called "The Dutchman" (I have it by Makem & Clancy) that I find I can't get through, having lost a dear family member to alzheimers. That's the wonderful thing about folk music,though,isn't it? The way that it speaks to people......

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 09 Jan 00 - 08:20 PM

Hi Jen, I'm sure "Fine Doctor" was a typo for "Flying Doctor".The story is a true one. I heard Eric tell how it came to his pen, as best I can remember. Eric was sitting at a bar when an old man beside him started relating his life story to Eric for no apparent reason & every so often repeated the phrase "it's nearly over now & now I'm easy". After the man finished his story Eric scribbled the man's life on paper & made a most wonderful song of a very hard life. Barry

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Midchuck
Date: 09 Jan 00 - 09:45 PM

Every damn one Tom Russell ever wrote.

Peter.

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 09 Jan 00 - 10:38 PM

I see " Dancing at Whitsun" when ever I hear it. I can imagine it through the eyes of an old woman who lived to see her men off to war. None to return.

I have been in small boats on big water with men who knew their jobs well. Only to know that no matter how well the job was done the water would have it's ultimate way with us. I hear "The Jeanie C" and I see that battle.

And I have worked with watermen who would go out in any gale to save a friend or loot a wreak if the chance was better than even that they would come back with a living person or Napoleon Brandy from "The Athens Queen"

I have lived among farmers and I see "The Field Behind The Plow". And I remember my parents at 50 when ever I hear "Lies". And seven brothers and sisters who got to view the kind of love and affection so well displayed there.

If I could win the Lottery I would make a movie of "The Ballad of St. Anne's Reel" There is a beautiful love story in that song.

Don

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Arkie
Date: 09 Jan 00 - 11:53 PM

A few more to add to the list, Sonora's Death Row, The Dutchman, Old Lovers, Old Shep, and Don't Make Me Go To Bed and I'll Be Good. Once heard Stoney Cooper sing the latter and I doubt there was a dry eye in the house.

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Jan 00 - 10:51 AM

On the lines of Suzie Q and the dancing whatevers, I'm afraid that 'American Werewolf in London' has spoiled a lot of people with 'Bad moon rising'. Even now, I still see that transformation scene and the huge moon shining over London. I didn't mean to call you a meatloaf, Jack!

LTS

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: BK
Date: 10 Jan 00 - 08:29 PM

Victoria; I did "The Dutchman" at church a while back & had a tremendous positive response. But at least one lady was crying afterwards & told me she wasn't ready to hear something that powerful... Still a fantastic song, but I could see her point, sort of.. (& I can see an old dutchman wandering thru the streets & especially waving at tugboats when I sing it..)

Cheers, BK

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Bert
Date: 11 Jan 00 - 12:06 PM

Song for a Winter's Night by Gordon Lightfoot. The first line...
The lamp is burning low upon my table top...

Takes you right into that cabin.

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Dan Evergreen
Date: 12 Jan 00 - 12:51 PM

a really good thread on this about six months ago but I can't do the blue clickey thing. It was called something about visual or mental images.

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: peg
Date: 12 Jan 00 - 01:56 PM

it si fascinating to "see" (read) what moves peoplei this way.

I am a very visual person and songs with imagery are always more moving to me than songs without, usually..

Also, wondering if anyone else does this: I almost always close my eyes when singing ballads or dark, a cappella tunes in performance. I "see" better that way. I realize it may put off some audience members but I try not to do it on anything upbeat...

anyway, songs whose imagery I am particularly fond of...

John Barleycorn

She is Like the Swallow

Dark Innishowen

Turlagh og O'Boyle

The Blackbird

I Love my Love/Maid in Bedlam

Black Waterside

Ca the Yowes

peg

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Big-Aggy
Date: 06 Nov 07 - 09:17 AM

I myself love the Davy Steele song "Jimmy Waddell". I have heard on of his friends sing this, and everytime i just fall in love with it again.

Does anyone on here by any chance have the lyrics?

Cheers

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 06 Nov 07 - 10:25 AM

Perhaps because I'm more concerned with the structure of the music than the lyric, the images that come are all geometric. "The Prince of Denmark's March" (attrib. to Purcell) always produces an infinitly rising series of arches as the theme swells; like aquaducts piled atop one another. Even though I'm a sucker for the tear jerkers, it seems an unwarranted intrusion into something to place myself in the scene.

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Bernard
Date: 06 Nov 07 - 11:45 AM

The Prince of Denmark's March (aka Trumpet Voluntary) was by Jeremiah Clarke...

One of my favourites for giving me a vivid picture as I sing it is 'Queen Eleanor's Confession'... mind you, I do ham it up rather a lot, based on the version that Rosie Hardman nicked from June Tabor (I think?).

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Nov 07 - 11:55 AM

Don't know how I missed this thread! There are a lot of songs I visualise, but one instrumental is esp. vivid. That is "Nazareth Pilgrim Blues" by Mudcat's own Justa Picker. (He doesn't have the audio up for that tune, but the others are equally as provocative, imo.) As soon as I heard it, I had a very clear "video" in my mind.

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: topical tom
Date: 06 Nov 07 - 12:04 PM

Whenever I hear David Massengill's "Jesus the Fugitive Prince" tears come to my eyes.I follow the story visually from the patients in the asylun to the final heart-wrenching scene on the telephone wire.I believe that few indeed are the people who are not moved by this song.

Subject: RE: What songs do you 'see'?
From: Little Robyn
Date: 06 Nov 07 - 02:04 PM

Many of Bogle's songs - even the 'Aussie Barbecue', but also some of John Warner's songs too. I'm thinking epecially of 'Gippsland' and I can almost smell the chalk dust in the old school room.
The other one I love is 'Anderson's Coast' - 'and watch the moon, the lonely moon light the breakers on wild Bass Straight.'
Robyn