Lyr Add: Schenectady Calling ... (Michael Marra)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schenectady Calling ... (Michael Marra)
From: peteglasgow
Date: 09 Feb 19 - 04:42 AM

about 10 years ago i was at the tartan heart festival at belladrum near inverness. michael marra was singing in a small tent with a small keyboard. while he was singing Hermless (scotland's other national anthem, the power went off across the site. which was not a problem to the packed tent who sang the rest of the song with michael. a lovely moment.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schenectady Calling ... (Michael Marra)
From: Andy M
Date: 07 Feb 19 - 10:22 AM

Great men both, and I am pleased to have spent time with each. Michael Marra is the closest I've been to genius, or at least, talent beyond anything I could imagine. I wish his songs could be sung without the need to imitate dialect words if they don't come naturally; 'da noost' surely represents 'the nest' and all that implies?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schenectady Calling ... (Michael Marra)
From: GUEST,Dave D
Date: 07 Feb 19 - 09:17 AM

"Noost" is a hollowed out area just above the shore where you pull up boats in winter. Pretty sure the word has norse origins. By extension it's a good pub name because it implies winter shelter, snugness, etc.

Such a great song. So miss MM.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schenectady Calling ... (Michael Marra)
From: Jeri
Date: 29 Sep 10 - 01:30 PM

Da Noost appears to be a pub in Lerwick, Shetland.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schenectady Calling ... (Michael Marr
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Sep 10 - 12:43 PM

What about "noost"? Is that a real word?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schenectady Calling ... (Michael Marra)
From: Anglo
Date: 28 Sep 10 - 11:21 PM

Aly Bain introduced me to Peerie Willie at Sandy Bell's when I was on a trip back to Britain in 1978. What a wonderful guitarist, what a wonderful character!

I was living in Vermont then, but I've been in Schenectady for the last 20 years.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schenectady Calling ... (Michael Marra)
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 17 Sep 09 - 01:29 PM

I didn't see the request, otherwise I'd have posted a transcription I already have. I have:

  And let the cymbols tingle in a distant ear

and as John says above it should be the Bressay Pier. Otherwise I have the same as posted.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schenectady Calling ... (Michael Marra)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Sep 09 - 12:55 PM

distant ear, I think, the next line ends Bressay Pier, Bressay is an island in the Shetland group

Subject: Lyr Add: SCHENECTADY CALLING ... (Michael Marra)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Sep 09 - 12:29 PM

This was requested in another thread.

You can see and hear Michael Marra singing SCHENECTADY CALLING PEERIE WILLIE JOHNSON in a video at YouTube. There is also a long introduction in which he tells the story behind the song and how he came to write it.

Here is my transcription (omitting the spoken introduction):


SCHENECTADY CALLING PEERIE WILLIE JOHNSON
Michael Marra

Schenectady calling!
Schenectady calling!
Take these notes into the night
And run them by the northern lights.
Transport these golden bars.
Let this music touch the stars
And snuggle down into Da Noost
Where Peerie Willie makes his hoose;
And let this music run through his fingers.
Let it touch his very soul.
Schenectady calling!
Schenectady calling!
And let the cymbals tingle in a distant ear,
The signal twinkle by the Bressay Pier.
In that long dark night, let Eddie Lang be near
This sophisticated man.
And so to Willie, Harlem speaks,
His fingers painting what his soul receives.
Blessed Django comes to call,
Smashing down those foolish walls.
This signal flies into the night
And flashes by the Lerwick lights.
A nice explosion run through his fingers and ignites his very soul.
Schenectady calling!
Schenectady calling!
We love you madly.
Schenectady calling!


[And here is some information about "Peerie" Willie Johnson.]

[Corrections made as suggested by later messages.]