Friday, October 3, 2014

Friday Night in Llanfair­pwllgwyn­gyllgo­gery­chwyrn­drobwll­llanty­silio­gogo­goch

Well it's Welsh night and despite the howls of protest from the haters, herewith the incomparable Sir Tom Jones.  No throwing of knickers at the screen please ladies.

When Tom became a star in the UK he was referred to as "Jones the voice" and this is how I still think of him.  It was common in rural Wales, where eight out of ten people have the surname Jones, to identify them (menfolk in particular) by their vocation.  Thus we have Jones the blacksmith, Jones the butcher, Jones the pitman.

And now, Jones the voice:



I don't remember ever not knowing who Dame Shirley Bassey was, she was there throughout my childhood. An exotic, mysterious, and somewhat scandalous star who hailed from one of the most depraved areas of Wales, Tiger Bay. She wasn't scandalous because of her behaviour but because of her birth. She was referred to as a "half-caste" having a white mother, who appeared to have a number of children "out of wedlock" and a black merchant seaman father. The illegitimate, dark skinned singer also had a moniker, "The Girl from Tiger Bay"



Moving away from the dinosaurs, a couple of contemporary Welsh artists. Fflur Dafydd is an author, songwriter and singer. The words to this song are based on St. Paul's First letter to the Corinthians and the music is composed by Danny Whitten of Crazy Horse written for his song "I Don't Want To Talk About It". I think it's stunningly beautiful. Faith, Hope, Love.



And to round out the night a passionate and rousing version of Welsh patriotism as expressed in the song Yma O Hyd which I've seen variously translated as "Here For Ever", "Still Here" and "Here Still". Sung by Ryhdian, a young man who finished second in the 2007 British X Factor show. But don't let that colour your judgement, he's fabulous.

24 comments:

  1. No throwing of knickers at the screen please ladies.

    img:"http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/lewy14/imgres_zps97d266ea.jpg"

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    1. No throwing of knickers at the screen please ladies. Or men either...

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    2. "No throwing of knickers at the screen please ladies."

      Damn.

      img:"http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/floranista/undies_zps5306fabc.jpeg"






      heh, heh...remember that, Fay?

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  2. I absolutely loved Fflur Dafydd. I was transfixed listening to the pronunciation of the written words. It's a beautiful song.

    Thanks for all the wonderful music Fay! Now you'll have to excuse me as I throw my granny panties at Tom. :)

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    1. I loved her as well lady red. I have read quite a bit about her and am interested to learn that she has rewritten her Welsh language books in English. Think I might order a couple.

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  3. Knickers be damned...how does anyone honor the Welsch with out the Men of Harlech?

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    1. My post wasn't in honour of the Welsh. It was intended to be a "fun" post featuring a very limited amount of music by Welsh artists. I am very familiar with Men of Harlech. and if the intention of my post was to honour the Welsh and their music, it would most certainly have been included. Just like on my |"Scottish" music post, where "Scotland the Brave" wasn't featured, precisely because my post was a series (like this one) of fun Friday Night Music posts.

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    2. Anyone in our community is free to post whatever they wish. Please feel free to post as many patriotic, military music selections as you like.

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    3. Hey Fay... what about a shout out to this Welsh rapper!

      [I was going to post something snarky like "wish I could hear some of that old school Welsh rap" and then realized, hey, better check first... and sure enough...

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    4. img:"http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/floranista/emoticons/gaa.png"

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    5. I was going to post something snarky like "wish I could hear some of that old school Welsh rap"

      Interestingly enough, I did quite a bit of digging into Welsh rap, prog rock, etc. in an effort to include something from that genre in my post. Although there seemed to be quite a lot of source material to pick from, all of it was complete and utter crap. So, you can thank me for saving your ear buds the trauma that such an experience would most certainly have inflicted.

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  4. Yes, I know, I am moved by music military. Mainly because I do not want not one single soldier of ours to die on any battle field anywhere ever again. No where else deserves that blood.

    Yet, if we must go out an sacrifice our blood once again, then let us do it by obliterating everyone in our way, every man, woman and child, all resources of the enemy, down to the very last worm. Nothing else will work. Nothing. Anything less than total war is a waste of our own blood. If, for example, ISIS resistance exists in Aleppo, then reduce Aleppo of rubble, or a sheet of glass if I had my way. Let no one live.

    If you think I am crazy, recall that if they enemy has its way, they will et none of us live. Period.

    I just spent yesterday celebrating EID al AdHa with neighbors who are friends. None of them disagreed with me. Not one. Sacrifice means you give up something, and that is what al Adha is all about. Not so different than Yom Kippur, atonement where you submit your ego to honor. Very hard to do, oddly ....even for Christians.

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  5. Hear, hear, Aridog.

    I was talking to Tom last night about the latest victim of ISIS. I said there is no doubt that I would rather be blown up by a US bombing blitz than have my head sawed off in a propaganda video for these freaks. Even if we had a successful rescue operation for the hostages, without total annihilation they will continue kidnap any westerners for future savagery.

    Rain hell down on them.

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  6. I'm so glad you used "Llanfair­pwllgwyn­gyllgo­gery­chwyrn­drobwll­llanty­silio­gogo­goch", Fay! Now I will listen to the tunes and give my review...

    :-)

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  7. I was SO crazy for Tom Jones when I was a teen. He's aged very well too, he's still HAWT!

    I've heard of Shirley Bassey but am not familiar with her music. She has a beautiful, true voice. It's great that so many of these older performances were recorded so that we can acutally see them! I didn't know she was Welsh.

    Fflur Dafydd = very pretty, very folksy.

    I'm partial to tenors so I enjoyed Ryhdian as well.

    My contribution: Zep isn't Welsh but they wrote some wonderful music while on a working vacation in Wales.

    Bron Yr Aur

    I know he wasn't a singer but when I think of Wales, I think of Richard Burton.
    *swoon*

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    1. I seriously considered including a video of Richard Burton reciting Dylan Thomas as his voice (as is the Welsh accent) is very melodic. I decided against it as I didn't want to bog down the Friday Night MUSIC post with prose. Although that does give me an idea for a spoken word video selection...hmm, great possibilities: Burton, O'Toole, Hopkins, Connery etc.

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    2. I would LOVE that, Fay. I have a wonderful youtube saved of Peter O'Toole and Richard Harris reminiscing about their rugby days before a game interspersed with singing phrases of Carrickfergus (my all-time favorite Irish song). It always cheers me up if I'm feeling blue. Of course, only hard-core fans of Harris, O'Toole, Ireland and Carrickfergus would appreciate it, lol.

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    3. I've seen that video florrie, it's great. Wonder if it would pass the aridog sniff test...

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  8. Here's something for Fay & Jourdan. I guess no one ever told this guy that you can't ice skate over cloth.

    oopsie!!

    :-)

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    1. I saw that a few days ago florrie. We have seen this guy on numerous occasions singing the anthems at Canucks games. I have to say that I find it very disrespectful to be skating around the ice whilst singing the National Anthem. But maybe that's just me. I hear the video is "viral".

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    2. I thought it was a little strange as well to be skating and singing but I have to give him props for carrying on after the face plant.

      Well, it's nothing like Rosanne Barr's rendition of our national anthem at a baseball game years ago. Yetch.

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    3. I believe we have no claim o Rosanne Barr LOL. She's all yours, enjoy :)

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