Novel & scholarly essay writer,
English teacher,
Music fan,
Fantasy & horror hound
4 January, 2025. First new song learned on my new instruments brought by Santa (at Christmas 2024, of course).
Lyrics and music by English folk singer Graham Moore (1995).
But my main reference, personally, is the English-Welsh folk band The Trials of Cato's version (2018)
(I wrote about them in this musical stroll).
8 January 2025
1. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (traditional) 0:00
2. Bells Over Belfast (The Irish Rovers) 2:59
3. It's a Terrifier Christmas (Dave Eggar, Jon and Al Kaplan) 6:50
Many people have played "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", which is an English traditional Christmas carol, listed as n°394 in the Roud Folk Song Index (thanks Wikipedia for the info), but here are my main personal references as far as this song is concerned: Nat King Cole's version (1960); The Chieftains' version (1991); The Irish Rovers' version (1999); and the version by Dave Eggar, Quilted Lunchbox and Teni Rane from the EP Blood Before Pride Presents: Tidings of Macabre Joy (2024), which is also featured in Damien Leone's movie Terrifier 3 (2024).
"Bells Over Belfast" comes from the album Songs of Christmas (1999) by the Irish Celtic folk band The Irish Rovers.
"It's a Terrifier Christmas" is a funny, Art the Clown-themed fake Christmas carol, by Dave Eggar, Jon and Al Kaplan, which is part of the soundtrack of Damien Leone's movie Terrifier 3 (2024).
The font for the titles is Lucida Handwriting (© 1991 Bigelow & Holmes Inc.).
11 January 2025. When you like folk songs, Christmas carols, funny songs AND horror movies...
The first one is "It's a Terrifier Christmas", a funny, Art the Clown-themed fake Christmas carol, by Dave Eggar & Jon & Al Kaplan, which is part of the soundtrack of Damien Leone's movie Terrifier 3 (2024).
The second one is "The Clown Café", de Jon & Al Kaplan — the folksy happy fake-ad song Leah Voysey performs in the nightmare scene in Damien Leone's movie Terrifier 2 (2022).
The first image is from my Christmas tree.
The second one is art (or, literally, "Art") by Em1rc4n (Deviant Art).
The font for the titles is "Massacre", by Norfok Incredible Font Design.
31 January 2025
My posthumous tribute to the recently departed David Lynch, in the form of an adaptation (into my kind of mindless strumming) of Angelo Badalamenti's haunting opening credits theme (1989) to Lynch's dazzling TV series "Twin Peaks" (1990-1991, 2017).
Thanks to two much more talented tutorialists out of whose examples I whipped up that thing, like Adriano Tarullo and particularly Romain CNC.
17 March 2025
Original lyrics by Irish author, songwriter and publican Cathal McGarvey (1866-1927) at an unclear date.
The music is that of the English traditional folk song "Dives and Lazarus" (number 477 in the Roud Folk Song Index), and it was recycled by some Irish folk singers as the background music both to the ballad "My Love Nell" and to "The Star of the County Down".
The first version of this song I've ever heard is that of Fair Isle Folk (1985), on a compilation of "Irish Pub Songs". Since then, though, I've been particularly thrilled by the live version of French Celtic folk band Tonynara (1999). But obviously the classic versions of The Chieftains (1988) or The Irish Rovers (1996), or the punk-ish version of The Pogues (2005) are all very important and striking iterations of the song.
More on the lyricist, McGarvey, and the history of the song, in note of 13 of this musical stroll.
27 March 2025
Obviously, lyrics byPaul Simon, music by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel (1964). The cover is dedicated to Maëlle Tessier, who "commissioned" the video.
31 March 2025
The actual original version (or the "original original") of this song was created by Tears for Fears (1982), with words and music by the lead singer and lead guitar player Roland Orzabal, but sung by bassist Curt Smith.
However, I really don't like this version at all.
The song was covered in 2001, as part of the brilliant, eerie original soundtrack for the brilliant, eerie movie "Donnie Darko", with vocals by Gary Jules, while the music was arranged and is performed by Michael Andrews (who also created the rest of the movie's score). I feel like these two guys took a lackluster song by a band I admittedly don't care much for, and changed it into a magnificent piece of heartbreaking perfection.
Obviously, it's the Jules/Andrews cover, rather than the Tears for Fears original, that inspired me to learn this song.
4 April 2025
My favourite song by Bob Dylan (1964) (with a bit of a borrowing from the traditional Scottish ballad "Mary Hamilton" (Roud Folk Song Index 79) for the melody of the chorus).
A beautiful, tragic indictment of the horrors of segregation as well as the privileges of rich, connected criminals (and not much has changed in that regard, don't you think, Donald? Elon?).
The Dylan portrait in the background is a replica, by my good friend Maryse Bellenger, of Malika Favre's New Yorker cover for 13 October, 2016 (the day when Dylan got the Nobel Prize for Literature).
And my Dylan Dog T-shirt is no more than a fortunate coincidence.
10 April 2025
I'm not particularly a fan of the Rolling Stones, generally speaking, but that specific song (1966; lyrics and music by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), I fucking looooooove it.
Here's also a fun parody, which I love too.
Here's a little tune specially for you on your special day! 😉
Also, it's supposed to be a mixture of a melody for a song called "Good Morning to All" (1893) by Patty and Mildred Hill, and lyrics that were then put to it at an indeterminate time, but the first actual copyright registration was made in 1935 and credited Preston Ware Orem and Mrs. R. R. Forman for the lyrics.
