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Emily Waldorf

Emily Waldorf

Mar 23, 2021
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I get a little bored sitting around with a broken ankle, so I'm going to inundate the "Christian Fellowship" forum with some of the music I've been listening to these past few days.

This is probably one of Johnny Horton's best-known songs--this one or Sink the Bismarck, another of my favorites.

 
lynnmosher

lynnmosher

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Feb 21, 2007
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Oh, dear! I'm so sorry you broke your ankle. Hope it's healing well. How long do you have to stay off of it?

I have two for you to listen to. The first one...you MUST use your headphones. Otherwise, you'll miss the fullness of it. And these guys are a cappella. The bass singer has a 7 octave range. They are wonderful!

This one is a great video. I sometimes put it on just to pep me up! ::D
 
Emily Waldorf

Emily Waldorf

Mar 23, 2021
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Will do! I was just about to put on some music now. 🙂

I may gradually apply more weight as pain allows, with the goal of full-weight at the end of 4 weeks.
 
lynnmosher

lynnmosher

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LOL Yup! You should hear reviewers talk about him. They can't believe he can sing that range. I think he even sings lower than the piano. ::D
 
Wes B

Wes B

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Jul 28, 2019
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Since you like "Sink the Bismarck." I hope i can jump in as the history buff. With a little historical context, you may appreciate it a little more...

The matter happened many months before the USA entered the war, and Britain was standing alone against Germany. The sinking of the HMS Hood, mentioned in the song, was a particularly huge blow to British morale. At almost the very start of the battle, the Bismarck got in a very lucky hit against the Hood, probably hitting one of its ammunition magazines. Rather than the prolonged sinking event as a ship fills with water, the Hood split apart, and was gone within minutes. way over a thousand sailors went down with her; there were only three survivors.

What followed was a huge effort by the Royal navy to remove a powerful German asset that had acquired a morale-demolishing mystique. They got the job done...

The song was made as a result of a British war film of the same name. Even though the Bismarck incident was recent memory when the movie & song were made, it was the song that made it familiar to the American consciousness. The film was quite popular in the USA; I saw it as a little kid. While the song did not appear in the movie as it came a tiny bit after, it was used in the American movie trailer.

The movie was based on a book (of a different title) by C. S. Forester, who has written an amazing number of really excellent novels about ships and sailors, and who is a shining example for all of us as to what can be done when a writer truly knows the subject they're writing about. They include The African Queen, made into an excellent old film with Bogart & Hepburn, and the absolutely spectacular Horatio Hornblower series, set in the days of the tall ships. Not exactly a Bismarck item, but since we're writers, it seemed worth a mention...

Oh.. and i hope you get well soon, BTW...
 
Q

quietspirit

May 29, 2018
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Emily: I am sorry that you broke your ankle. Having done that myself, I understand how painful that can be. RE: North to Alaska, I enjoyed the song. It brought back memories of when it was on the radio every day. I also like the movie; I try to catch it when it is on TV.
 
Zee

Zee

Mar 1, 2019
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I watched the Bismark movie as a child, and was completely traumatized by it. However, I did like the song (probably because it didn't feature in the movie.)

@Emily Waldorf, if you're still bored and sore, and looking for more good storytelling songs, here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

The Greenland Whale Fishery (if you can find the Peter, Paul and Mary version, it's the best)
The Battle of Shiloh Hill
The Everglades
The Baptism of Jesse Taylor
Drive On (Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson--killer combo)
The Highwayman (ditto)
Convoy
Deliverance Shall Come (this might actually be called Palms of Victory)
Three Score and Ten
The Great Silkie
The Handsome Cabin Boy
The Golden Vanity (this may also be known as The Lowland Sea)
The Ballad of Ira Hayes
Snoopy and the Red Baron (listen to the Royal Guardsman version if you can--the Hot Shots' is just too silly)
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda (not to be confused with the Australian folk song, Waltzing Matilda)
Cradle of Civilization (not as ballad-like as the others, but still tells a very strong story)

Go give 'em a listen and let me know which ones you like best!
 
Wes B

Wes B

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Jul 28, 2019
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Zee said:
I watched the Bismark movie as a child, and was completely traumatized by it. However, I did like the song (probably because it didn't feature in the movie.)

@Emily Waldorf, if you're still bored and sore, and looking for more good storytelling songs, here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

The Greenland Whale Fishery (if you can find the Peter, Paul and Mary version, it's the best)
The Battle of Shiloh Hill
The Everglades
The Baptism of Jesse Taylor
Drive On (Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson--killer combo)
The Highwayman (ditto)
Convoy
Deliverance Shall Come (this might actually be called Palms of Victory)
Three Score and Ten
The Great Silkie
The Handsome Cabin Boy
The Golden Vanity (this may also be known as The Lowland Sea)
The Ballad of Ira Hayes
Snoopy and the Red Baron (listen to the Royal Guardsman version if you can--the Hot Shots' is just too silly)
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda (not to be confused with the Australian folk song, Waltzing Matilda)
Cradle of Civilization (not as ballad-like as the others, but still tells a very strong story)

Go give 'em a listen and let me know which ones you like best!
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"Convoy," by C.W. McCall, was great fun, and if you're of my generation, you'll remember how it started the craze where many many people had CB radios installed in their cars, and were chatting with each other & the truckers, as they travelled the highways. (Cell phones & the internet were still years and years away...)

What a lot of folks may not have seen was that just a couple of years before doing that song, C.W. McCall did songs for a long series of bread commercials in the American midwest. While they sold lots of bread, they also cleverly told the tale of a budding romance between a trucker (also named CW McCall...) and a waitress named Mavis at a place called "The Old Home Fill 'er Up and Keep On a-Truckin' Café."

They are incredibly cute (some were borderline hilarious), lots of fun in their very dated way, and sound so very much like "Convoy," though they make up a completely different story. If you go to YouTube and search on: Old Home Bread Commercial you can enjoy some of that lost Americana...
 
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Emily Waldorf

Emily Waldorf

Mar 23, 2021
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@Zee that was almost an entirely new playlist for me. I think my favorite was "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda"
I enjoyed the version I heard so much I went looking for more from that album, and found a whole bunch of new listening.

But I also liked "Drive On" and "The Ballad of Ira Hayes"--and "The Great Silkie."
 
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Grey_Skies

Grey_Skies

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I was just thinking, for a couple more storytelling songs, you can't go wrong with the singer/songwriter Harry Chapin.

I recommend "Cat's in the Cradle" and "Taxi".
 
Wes B

Wes B

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Jul 28, 2019
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Grey_Skies said:
I was just thinking, for a couple more storytelling songs, you can't go wrong with the singer/songwriter Harry Chapin.

I recommend "Cat's in the Cradle" and "Taxi".
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If you like "Taxi," are you aware that Harry Chapin did a follow-up song to the story, called "Sequel?" The two meet again, ten years later, where so, so much has changed. While a lot of Chapin's songs carried a heavy note of regret, this one's mildly upbeat, in an ambiguous sort of way...
 
Grey_Skies

Grey_Skies

Struggling writer hoping to make dreams come true
Dec 27, 2020
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Wes B said:
If you like "Taxi," are you aware that Harry Chapin did a follow-up song to the story, called "Sequel?" The two meet again, ten years later, where so, so much has changed. While a lot of Chapin's songs carried a heavy note of regret, this one's mildly upbeat, in an ambiguous sort of way...
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Yes, definitely! I've heard "Sequel", thought it's been a while, back when my dad showed it to me. I always thought it was oddly amusing that there could be a legitimate sequel for a song, and not just a book or a movie. I should give it a listen again . . .
 
Wes B

Wes B

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There's actually quite a list of sequel songs out there. A quick google search shows that I probably haven't even heard most of them. While "Taxi" would easily be the more popular of the two, owing to its visceral impact, "Sequel" is such a satisfying follow-up, and we're all the richer that Chapin ended up writing it before his sudden death. It's a lesson, maybe, to never put things off...
 
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