Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot Com. Right, you little monsters, you
have a week in Scotland's shame.
Speaker 2: Hey, this is Jesse Carmichael from Room five.
Speaker 3: Hi, this is Phil Margol of the Tokens.
Speaker 4: Hello.
Speaker 5: It's Nicole Atkins on the Rock and Roll History Show.
Speaker 6: Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Rock and Roll History
Show and Hudson River Radio. I'm Brian Horowitz. Tonight is
the next installment of our limited run of well instruments
we don't like. I hate to say it that way,
but that's the.
Speaker 3: Way it is.
Speaker 6: And tonight happens to be my turn. I will disclose
my least favorite instrument in just a moment and then
catch all the heat that will be coming my way
for it. But before we hop in, allow me to
introduce all the crambones who are joining us here tonight.
First and foremost, from the Richter Observatory, he says, jokes
about mountains are always funny because they're hill areas.
Speaker 3: How are you doing?
Speaker 7: Everybody that is hill hilarious, isn't it?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 6: And from paranormally yours, she says, it's rude when people
cough near you. They should be coughing far away.
Speaker 3: From you.
Speaker 6: So if somebody coughs near you, you yell far cough.
Speaker 8: I wish I could have done that at work.
Speaker 3: Wait, I don't get it. You could you?
Speaker 6: Here, Gale, She'll tell you.
Speaker 3: Could you say it again a few times?
Speaker 6: Well, welcome back Gil from the silver screen. She walked
into a bar and the bartender said, Hey, I have
this super absorbent wine that's very absorbent when you drink it.
It's called pino more.
Speaker 7: Only if only brilliant. Hey, everybody, And.
Speaker 6: Last, but not least, the host of shaving cream. She says,
salads can sometimes be dry. It's something that needs addressing.
Speaker 7: Barbara Ville here, Well, you're not wrong.
Speaker 1: We'll just wash it down with some of the money.
Speaker 6: All right. I guess I have to disclose. My least
favorite instrument really is the bagpipes. And I think it's
just from my experience in the first responder world, working
all these parades where the pipe and drum bands walk
past and they all play that one song and only
that one song, And I understand how hard the bagpipes
are to play, but oh man, it just wears me down.
So I think that's killed my spirit. So our deal
when we do these episodes is the person who doesn't
like the instrument doesn't have to pick a song. But
I felt like I should do something, so I wrote
up a little thing about the history of the bagpipes.
Should I go over that real quick?
Speaker 8: And then nobody else thinks, all right, and there's bagpipes
from different countries there are.
Speaker 6: That was actually one of the things I was going
to point out. So when we think of the bagpipes,
especially when I think of the bagpipes, we think Scotland,
we think Ireland. The pipes in history are believed to
have come only second to percussion instruments, like one of
the first instruments that was ever made by people. It
started with hollowed bones or stalks.
Speaker 7: Or branches like a ditcherdo with the circular breathing.
Speaker 6: Along the same lines. Yeah, yeah, same idea. The ancient
Romans are the ones who added the reservoir, the bag
that gets squeezed. Now Nero played the bagpipes, not the fiddle,
while Rome was burning, so you know, historically, speaking from
their variations of bag pipes just spread around the world.
They were played in churches in the Middle Ages. King
Henry eighth enjoyed the bagpipes while he was sitting on
the royal throne, which was a big deal if you
know that little bit of history which we're not going
to go into. You know what I mean by royal throne.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I believe.
Speaker 6: So it was an event. Yeah, I don't know the stool,
yes exactly. Yeah, I wasn't going to, but you brought
us into it. But yeah, that was the thing. Apparently
it was an honor to be there, and I don't
need that kind of honor, so I'm glad I wasn't
around that time. So when we think of the bagpipes,
we're talking about the Scottish Great Highland bagpipe. It needs
an air supply, not the band air supply as in,
like the person playing it.
Speaker 9: They would be very busy.
Speaker 6: They would be they.
Speaker 3: That would be two strikes, you.
Speaker 6: Know, And I'm right there with you.
Speaker 8: Yeah, they annoyed me to begin with.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So you you have the person playing it. That's your
air supply. The bag which holds a reservoir of air
that's held under the arm and it's squeezed to push
air through the chanter read which vibrates as air passes
into the chanter. The chanter which looks like the recorder
that we all had to play in elementary school. Remember
that that has finger holes that change the pitch when
you cover them. Some bagpipe. Some bagpipes can have two
or three chanters. Think of you know Alex Lifland with
the double neck guitars. Just two chanters, not the same thing.
In my world, there's usually a drone, which is basically
a chanter without the finger holes that just holds the
same note the whole time you're playing. Air goes through
a read and the drone is the tonic note of
that instrument. Bagpipes don't use exactly the same temperate scale
that we're used to hearing. The bagpipes used equally spaced notes,
so they're closer to They start on an A, go
from A to A their scale, so it's basically more
like ABC E sharp D E F sharp G natural
in A.
Speaker 7: So that those are be able to remember that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so you're not taking up the bagpipes.
Speaker 7: Uh maybe I am.
Speaker 8: Now, Okay, let's all take up the bagpipes and annoy
Bryan ring it.
Speaker 1: Just give me an extra inhaler and I'm in there.
Speaker 3: You go.
Speaker 6: I wonder if you can hook up like a nebulizer
to the bagpipe.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that would just drown out the noise
of the bagpipe, and we don't want.
Speaker 6: That, or yeah, yeah, I kind of do. So going
back to the bag early on, it was made from
animal skins because that was what was available. Nowadays they're
usually gortex or synthetics. Either way, you're blowing your warm,
moist breath into an enclosed, dark, warm moist reservoir. So
what can happen? Yeah, so the fun guy, the mold
can grow. If they're not properly disassembled and cleaned, which
they almost always are to their credit, pipers can theoretically
get what's known as bagpipe long causing coughing, shortness of breath,
or a lesions from infections. It sounds gross, it makes
for a good story, but it's actually super super rare
because pipers are generally responsible people and disinfect what like
they're supposed to do well.
Speaker 3: Maybe nowadays, yeah, but back.
Speaker 6: Then, before we knew what germs were and all that. Yeah,
I don't know how sick they got. I would imagine
whiskey would finish, would fix whatever the problems are. Certainly
couldn't hurt. So that's why I had the occasional whiskey,
so I don't get bagpipers lungs, even though I've never
ever ever played a bagpipe in my life.
Speaker 3: That happen.
Speaker 8: Well, friend, just be glad you're not the British monarch so.
Speaker 6: I don't have to sit on the stool and be admired.
Speaker 8: There is a piper to the Sovereign who with Queen
Elizabeth the second he would wake her up or whatever
at nine am. I think she was probably up sooner
than that, but he would play at nine am for
fifteen minutes and apparently I don't know if the time
is still the same, but King Charles still has the
royal piper, you know, play in the morning, and he
would also play at night when she was going to bed.
Speaker 6: Because she wanted to be full of rage when she's
trying to take a nap.
Speaker 8: And the Piper to the Sovereign goes everywhere with the
sovereigns so they don't have to miss a day.
Speaker 6: I honestly can only imagine what that has to go
through to get that spot.
Speaker 3: A lot of whiskey, I think, yeah.
Speaker 6: I'm guessing you have to know somebody, or be related
to somebody or something and know how to play the
bagpipes correctly.
Speaker 1: I just looked up the ICD ten code for bagpipers,
look because I was curious. Now, for those of you
that aren't familiar, in ICD dent code is like international
classification of diseases that has to be on medical claims
when they are filed. And the closest thing I could
find is J six seven point eight, which is hyper
sensitivity pneumoniitis due to other organic dusts.
Speaker 7: Okay, all right, Brian, I do want to jump in
with a story, but you tell me when go ahead. Okay,
So last weekend I went to see a friend of
mine who is doing a one man show. I grew
up with this guy since kindergarten and it's he's doing
this one man show called Officer the Story of a
South Bronx Cup.
Speaker 1: So he.
Speaker 7: Plays the bagpipes, okay, and he has played his His
website is the Royal Piper because he has played for
the Queen like more than a handful of times. He
also has played for Mother Teresa. And Mother Teresa and
Princess Diana were like confidants. They were like good friends.
And Diana had come in to see Mother Teresa in
New York with my friend where my friend Al was
and he was with them, and she Princess Diana had
to get to Teeterborough Airport and there was like some
parade going on or something. I think it was a
Puerto Rican Day parade, and Al said, get in the
car with me, I'll take you. And of course got
stuck in the parade because he you know, it was
before you know, Google maps and all that. And she
rolled down the window and started waving to other people.
Some guy like stuck his whole head in the door
and went.
Speaker 8: Oh my god.
Speaker 9: So it was.
Speaker 7: It was a fascinating play. It was all about his
experience in the South Bronxon. Yeah, it was really great.
But anyway, he does play the bagpipes, all right, cool?
Speaker 6: Yeah, worth looking up. So I will admit that there
was one show I saw with bagpipes that was phenomenal.
We were in Scotland. We were at Edinburgh Castle and
they do the Military Tattoo, which is an international festival,
and the drawbridge comes down in hundreds, if not thousands,
of pipers and drummers come walking out from countries around
the world. Unbelievable. I will if that was my introduction
and normal experience with the bagpipes, we would not be
here today. But there's also a reason why they're playing
at this military tattoo and you know, not your local
thanks to Saint Patti's Day parade. What can I say,
but here we are. So the rest of the show,
I just get to sit back and be tortured. So
I guess we might as well hop in and Barbara
take it away, all right.
Speaker 1: So my song just has bagpipes in the beginning of
the song. So I tried not to torture you too much,
but you still may find it a little unpleasant if
you really hate bagpipes that much. The song I've chosen
for this topic is called Shoots and Ladders. It's by Corn,
and Shoots is spelled shoots, not cud, and I will
talk about the spelling of Corn in a bit. Corn
is known as an American new metal band. They formed
in nineteen ninety three. They got their start by making
a demo tape called Niedermeyer's Mind and distribute it free
to record companies and to the public. When trying to
come up with a name for the band, it was
suggested that they use the name Korn spelled the traditional way,
and they rejected that. Band member James Schaeffer had the
idea to call themselves Korn, but with a K. I
think backwards are like toys r Us used because many
of the band members previously worked there. Shoots and Ladders
was released in nineteen ninety five as the band's third
single off their self titled debut album. So I've Got
a bit more But let's pause here and cat.
Speaker 2: Listen Well says fuck your block.
Speaker 10: Cow says ashis ascious way of fault three, Hello louses,
I get the luck couches Ashious houses.
Speaker 4: Way out fo.
Speaker 10: Se six, Future should.
Speaker 11: See two came on Show three four, Shutter Top five
six cock ups E seven, Agela.
Speaker 12: Just following.
Speaker 5: Much name mag Patty went and give a tug a bone.
The so man came rolling home, and Patty wouldn't give
a dog a bone.
Speaker 3: This so man came Rod.
Speaker 4: Do it all right, Bob, somebody why you're doing to
a dog?
Speaker 13: Because that's all right, I'm rolling m' not abody.
Speaker 2: Why you're going on the ball.
Speaker 14: That's all like, I'm rolling club and not a body
why you're going on the ball.
Speaker 4: That's so nice?
Speaker 5: Checking me we had to look as no Mary got
much said, it's not win no Mary about showing Mary.
Speaker 4: Mary the body?
Speaker 3: Do you marry?
Speaker 4: The Father's not America.
Speaker 13: The boter going.
Speaker 4: Days get the show.
Speaker 3: I guess.
Speaker 12: So Sam says, Wow.
Speaker 1: Totally gonna sing every nursery rhyme like that.
Speaker 6: They should teach that angry teaching in kindergarten and raised
the next generation of very angry kids.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm totally gonna sing every nursery rhom like I'm angry.
Speaker 7: They might get all their expression out like that.
Speaker 6: And it's all public domain. You don't have to pay anybody.
There you go.
Speaker 8: So.
Speaker 1: Shoots and Letters is the first of Korn's songs to
incorporate bagpipes. The song's title refers to the American game
of shoots and ladder is a metaphor for LIFs, ups
and downs. The song's lyrics mostly consist of nursery rhymes,
and the nursery rhymes heard in the song are ring
around the rosy one two buckle, my shoe, London Bridge
is falling down, Baba black sheep, this oldman and Mary
had a little lamb. The concept behind the song is
that the nursery rhymes have dark origins behind them, and
the children singing them don't know what they really mean.
For example, ring around the Rosie refers to the black plague.
Horn's commercial breakthrough followed Shoots and Ladders in nineteen ninety
six with their album Life Is Peachy, followed by the
nineteen ninety eight album Follow the Leader. Mainstream's success was
attained in nineteen ninety nine with the album called Issues.
The latter two albums debuted at number one on the
Billboard two hundred. Shoots and Ladders earn Cornogrammy nomination for
Best Metal Performance, and in conclusion of all all the
factoids I found while researching Corn, I picked out my
favorite and I want to share it with you. Corn
produced a weekly online TV show called corn TV prior
to the release of their third album, Follow the Leader,
which documented the making of the album and allowed fans
to call in and ask questions. This was one of
the first times the band use the Internet in such
a way. The show featured special guests such as Ron Jeremy, Limp, Biscuit,
and three eleven and There You have That. Follow the
Leader album featured guest vocalists such as Fred Durst of Limp,
Biscuit ice Cube and there's a hidden track on the
album featuring cheech Maren's earache my eye and that that's
why it's my favorite factoid.
Speaker 3: I love that. I'm just you know, Ron Jeremy and
a bagpipe, I just you know, oh my eyes.
Speaker 1: Well, so I wish to end by saying I happen
to love bagpipes as I tend to associate instruments with experiences.
And my childhood friend's dad was an Irish New York
City police officer and he used to practice bad pipes
in the house. Well, my friend and I were playing
in the backyard and we used to stop what we
were doing and go stand under the window and listen
to him practice, and we just love to listen.
Speaker 3: I get it.
Speaker 6: I you know. That's why I am conflicted because I
have friends who play in local pipe and drum bands,
and they like the camaraderie is wonderful. I'm all about
people hanging out and making music and doing that part
of it is fantastic. It's just the sound that comes
out of it is.
Speaker 3: Could it be like a version therapy or whatever you
want to call it, Like, you know, you were at
work and you heard it while you were working, so that.
Speaker 6: Could absolutely I'm very well, yeah, all in context.
Speaker 1: That would make sense.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm trying to figure out which song Ryan says
that they play every single time at a parade.
Speaker 3: Well, they just sound the same. I think it's a
different song. It just all sounds like.
Speaker 6: The screaming two year old under your army.
Speaker 3: No, that's an insult to a screaming two year old.
Speaker 6: Could very well be.
Speaker 8: I mean they play Scotland the Brave a lot. Maybe
that's it.
Speaker 6: Well, let's find out. Why don't we take a break
because I know I need one already and we'll be
back with more. So stick around, Hudson River Radio dot Com.
Your dad likes us.
Speaker 9: This concludes the first part of this cassette. Please turn
the cassette over and begin again on side to.
Speaker 3: Scotland.
Speaker 2: Twelve years and I've only let in one song, Hudson.
Speaker 6: River Radio dot Com and welcome back. I was trying
not to laugh that is there you Go. That's the
one song I know, and that seems to be the
only song I have ever heard until I made it
to Scotland, where they played something else.
Speaker 3: There you Go.
Speaker 6: So I'm really a victim here.
Speaker 3: You gotta be brave to listen to that. I mean, yeah, yeah, hey,
and I'm I'm I'm part Scottish, so you know that
that's the song of my people and they can have it.
Speaker 9: Well as the big.
Speaker 1: Tricky I am. They of course played Amazing Grace when
Spock died at the end of Star Trek.
Speaker 6: Yes, yeah, but I've heard Amazing Grace a million times
on other instruments and it's.
Speaker 8: Just not the same guitars, organs.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, all right.
Speaker 7: For a funeral, it's gotta be bagpipes. Is that what
you're saying?
Speaker 8: Police officer or Irish or maybe a firefighter, I don't.
Speaker 1: A Vulcan science officer.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It does have like a mournful sound to it,
there is.
Speaker 6: It does make me cry.
Speaker 8: Yes, well yeah, but you know there are pieces for
bagpipes called laments.
Speaker 3: Properly named, aren't they all?
Speaker 6: But yeah, all right, let's get this torture over with, Gail,
go for it.
Speaker 8: Oh okay. I picked a song that I had never
heard before, by a band that I love and wish
I would get to see someday. The band is Echo
and the Bunny Men. They're an English rock band and
they were formed in Liverpool in nineteen seventy eight. The
original lineup was vocalist In McCall, guitarist Will Sargent and
bassist Lee Pattinson. In nineteen eighty, Pete de Freitas joined
as the band's drummer, and he replaced the former use
of the drum machine.
Speaker 6: So usually you don't hear that. It's usually the other
way around. So yeah, I'd lad to hear that.
Speaker 8: Their nineteen eighty debut album, Crocodiles, went into the top
twenty of the UK album's charts. After they released their
second album, Heaven up Here in nineteen eighty one, The
band's cult status was followed by mainstream success in the
UK in nineteen eighty three, when they scored a UK
Top ten hit with the Cutter, and the album which
the song came from, Porcupine hit number two in the
UK on Sire Records, Ooh Nice, Let's See Where did
I Leave Off? After they released a self titled album
in nineteen eighty seven, the lead singer McCulloch left the
band and was replaced by singer Noel Burke. In nineteen
eighty nine, the drummer was killed in a motorcycle accident
and the Bunnymen later disbanded in nineteen ninety three after
working together as a artist called Electrofic. Mccullocha and Sergeant
regrouped with Pattinson in nineteen ninety seven and returned as
Echo and the Bundymen before Mattinson's departure in nineteen ninety eight.
Bands seem to have people that come and go different incarnations,
I guess les Pattinson quit to take care of his mother.
McCulloch and Sargent have continued to tour and record as
Echo and the Bunnyman, touring repeatedly and releasing more albums.
The band have toured and released several albums since the
late nineteen nineties, to varying degrees of success. In more
recent years, the band have headlined the Rockaway Beach Festival twice.
That Sounds Like Fun. The song The Cutter was rated
at number fourteen among the tracks of the Year for
nineteen eighty three by NME. In a retrospective review of
The Cutter, All music journalist Tom McGinnis wrote, Echo and
the Bunnyman successfully wed the Eastern influenced psychedelic sounds made
famous by the Beatles. The eastern strings re enter at
strategic points, filling in space between verses and Ian McCullough's
esoteric Please to spare us the cutter. The track never
loses steam, cruising through each section with power and grace.
I have some more stuff to tell you afterwards.
Speaker 2: Let's have what's wait and the fame and give.
Speaker 4: Spares the cutter. Try to cut the.
Speaker 13: Master, conquer it my sell motil, I say, mother of
frot it say we can say wewhere else Naptiste rubbing
the r s contant gray ball.
Speaker 4: Would sell it.
Speaker 13: Take my note some of the six feet tall.
Speaker 4: We will spain more lies.
Speaker 13: Spares the cutter. Spares the cutter, try to cut the
my mamster, conerate my cell until I set say say
just another dropping.
Speaker 3: Aroun the hotey loss.
Speaker 12: Really still recall.
Speaker 2: When the skill is lost, altar falls.
Speaker 12: Swell like still this side.
Speaker 2: When the judges are.
Speaker 4: My cell until I see.
Speaker 13: Said the week saying we will man from made or sis.
Speaker 4: It's nus comes.
Speaker 13: Talk co.
Speaker 4: My happy squirrel scam.
Speaker 13: Man skins lows amount of moneys were scamy.
Speaker 11: So we.
Speaker 8: Well, this must be a different version than what I heard,
because I didn't hear bagpipes in this sounds.
Speaker 6: Like synthesized bagpipes. I thought that's what you were going for.
Speaker 8: Well, actually I don't know. The version I heard was
a lot more bagpipe. But as it turns out, what
in wherever the bagpipe part was in the bridge of
the cutter is actually a heavily processed and modulated electric violin.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's okay, I found out. I heard that that's
what they were going for, so it's there.
Speaker 8: Yeah, the band's brought in Indian virtuos virtuoso El Shankar
to play a sweeping, exotic violin part, which gives the
track its distinctive Eastern psychedelic character and soaring pipe like vibrato.
Speaker 3: I think I saw that guy L Shankar play with
Frank Zappa one time. Really Yeah, No, no, not Robie Shankar, No, no, no,
El Shankar. Yeah, he played the violin. No, I know
the difference. I know my Shankar is Brian Duly know it.
Speaker 6: I'll be quiet.
Speaker 3: But it was hard to tell because he was dressed
in a chicken suit. So what.
Speaker 9: Yeah, as one does, of course, if.
Speaker 3: You're in Frank Zappa's band, yeah you do.
Speaker 8: He should go to tractor supply they would love him.
So anyway, they used the violin to create a grandiose
and dramatic texture that matched the intensity of Ian McCullough's vocals.
Because Shanker modulated his instruments so heavily, it's very common
for listeners to mistake the wailing sound for bagpipes or
and Brian, I don't know what this is, but you
might an e bowde guitar.
Speaker 6: Sounds like just an electric guitar that's played with a bow,
you know, like Jimmy Page did kind of thing. Yeah,
that's been around a while.
Speaker 8: Okay, so in nineteen eighty three, according to my research,
it didn't chart here, which I don't know. That's kind
of weird. But in Australia it charted at sixty seven.
Irish Singles charted at number ten, New Zealand charted at
number ti thirty and the UK Singles Chart they charted
at number eight. Now it's interesting because it says the
enigmatic title comes from an English slang term for money
from the nineteen seventy one film A Clockwork Orange, which
I've never seen.
Speaker 1: You don't want to, okay, not your type of film.
Speaker 8: Gil definitely not okay, And well, I can handle anything
that happens to people in movies, but animals, know did
they Is there animal stuff in there?
Speaker 3: I don't remember the animal parts, but they acted like animals.
Speaker 9: I don't remember animals at all.
Speaker 1: It's like really really graphic.
Speaker 8: Wow. Anyway, the lead singer has just described the song
as exploring the three different aspects of a man, one
of which is a nod to himself. He stated that
the song looks at different facets of the cutter because
he himself is six feet tall. He pointed out that
one of the aspects is meant to represent himself in
his own autobiographical struggles with depression and pressure during that era.
And that's all I got. It didn't sound very bagpipe
to me.
Speaker 9: But but it doesn't have to.
Speaker 1: I mean, if it's something that you looked up and
they were talking about, well, bagpipe sound in it.
Speaker 8: And like I said, the version I heard sounded very bagpipe.
Speaker 6: All right, so maybe I I got lucky.
Speaker 3: Is that the technical the technical term bagpipe?
Speaker 8: Yes, it's very disruptive.
Speaker 6: You know exactly what's going on. So yeah, yeah, all right,
thank you, Gail Neil, your turn.
Speaker 3: Okay, the bagpipe song I've chosen for today has a
bit of a twist to it. But uh, it's by
the band Big Country, and it's their nineteen eighty three
hit in a Big Country. But before I announced the
big reveal about the song, let's talk about the band.
Big Country were and Are a Scottish rock band that
formed in nineteen eighty one. Originally a five piece band,
the classic lineup trimmed down to four and they came
together about a year later, consisting of lead singer and
guitarist Stuart Adamson, guitarist Bruce Watson, bassist Tony Butler and
drummer Mark Braziki. The band's single called Harvest Home was
released in nineteen eighty two. It had some modest success,
but it failed to reach the UK Singles charts. But
their next single, called Fields of Fire, from their nineteen
eighty three album called The Crossing, reached the top ten
over in the UK. Now it was from that album
because that album became a big hit here in the US,
and it was due mostly to the song We're About
to Hear And it was their only US Top forty single,
reaching number seventeen on the Billboard Hot One hundred. It's
in a big country. So let's hear it.
Speaker 2: A singular fact. That's what I have a reason another
BRONI styling to another seas something that says, by.
Speaker 15: The took the style of way from anybody's be that's
a desment way the locus.
Speaker 2: Where's the same time in a big country?
Speaker 14: Dream stay with you like a lover's boys, My from
mount to the side.
Speaker 3: Stay up.
Speaker 13: I'm not not breathing, dumb things are really now.
Speaker 2: I'm not expecting to go hours in the desert, but
I can live a breath and see the sun entire
time in little big country.
Speaker 14: Dream Stay with you like a lover's boys. My from
my home town side, stay.
Speaker 4: In a big.
Speaker 2: Country, dreams, stay with you.
Speaker 14: Storys my from mountawnside, Stay up.
Speaker 4: So take that look out of here.
Speaker 15: It doesn't features because it's happened, doesn't mean you've been
discimoted from the head of the poor up streaming not
forever you never mind the.
Speaker 4: Pain of my name. Many nine guns the same shout
nine times.
Speaker 2: M somebody expects go bounds in desert, but I.
Speaker 3: Can live a breed and.
Speaker 4: See the side time in a big country.
Speaker 2: Dreams, stay with.
Speaker 14: You like a lover's boys by the mountainside.
Speaker 3: Stay in a big Country Dream.
Speaker 2: Stay with you like a lover's boys by the mountain outside.
Speaker 14: Stay in a big country dream, Stay with you like
the lovers. Yes, by the mountain side.
Speaker 4: Stay.
Speaker 8: Now.
Speaker 3: I have to admit I have no idea what the
song lyrically, what the song's about, whatsoever. But just listen
to those bagpipes. Oh wait, oh wait, here's the big
reveal I was talking about. Those aren't bagpipes at all.
They're guitars. They used guitars to sound like bagpipes.
Speaker 8: That's amazing to me.
Speaker 3: Now, the band claimed that the sound came from the
melodies they played, not the guitar tone ah, but the
studio recording. They used multiple overdub guitar effects to achieve
that distinctive bagpipe like sound. So it was actually a
combination of both melody and effects that really made in
a Big Country sounds so unique some of the key
effects and techniques that were used. And I'm not a
guitar player, I'm not even a musician, So I'm going
to try to explain this in layman's terms, and Brian,
you can help me out here with some of this. Well,
they used a delay pedal, which I guess that's got
a wah wah pedal, and who doesn't love the wah
wah pedal.
Speaker 8: Well, that's my favorite thing in the world.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and a pitch transposer. Now I don't know
what that is, but they all add harmonic overtones. I
guess that helped create that bright quality of the bagpipes.
Speaker 1: I want to put that on my resume, the wah
wah part, the pitch transport.
Speaker 6: Oh okay.
Speaker 3: Oh, and well, as Gail you mentioned in the last song,
also contributing to the sound, they used something called the ebo,
which is what I've read here was a device that
can make the guitar sound more like a string section,
so that kind of makes sense. Yeah. They also used
an overdriven amplifier and used open chords. So an overdriven
amplifier that's pretty easiest, turn it up to.
Speaker 6: Eleven, yeah, exactly, there you go.
Speaker 3: And open chords. Well, that means leaving a few strings
open to create those drone notes we had talked about
earlier to mimic those of a bagpipe, just sort of
a static note that kind of annoys people. Now when
playing the song live, the technique was a lot simpler.
They just used a delay pedal and a bright amplifier tone,
so they didn't go too crazy on stage. But now
it did take a lot of effects. They were I
think they were trying to like, oh now it's our melodies.
Part of it.
Speaker 6: Sounds like they had a lot of toys that they
wanted to play with.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and a lot of these things were all
about so yeah, these things were new back then, and
you know a lot of them in the early mid eighties.
Big Country would continue to release successful albums and singles
throughout the nineteen eighties. In nineteen eighty four, they participated
in the band Aid charity record you Know do they
know It's Christmas Time? You know that one. Also, members
of Big Country played on solo albums by The Who's
Pete Soundsend and Roger Daltrey separately, of course, so they
were who were big fans of Big Big Country. Apparently,
Bassist Tony Butler played on the Pretender's hit single Back
on the Chain Gang, and drummer Braziki played with The
Cult in nineteen eighty five. Incidentally, he would also go
on to play drums in a latter day version of
Procol Harum, which I saw him play with them. But
by the nineteen nineties the band had begun to fall apart,
mainly due to singer student Stuart Adamson's mental health, and tragically,
in December of two thousand and one, Adamson was found
dead by suicide in a hotel room in Hawaii. Now
the three surviving members, they reunited in two thousand and
seven to celebrate the band's twenty fifth anniversary and have
continued with an ever changing lineup ever since. Now. Last year,
I saw an eighties package tour. Yeah, I'm I'm outing myself.
I know I'm about eighties hater, but I'll cop to this.
Speaker 6: There was a lot of stuff going on in the eighties.
Speaker 3: It's not well yeah everything, No, yeah, no, there was
a lot going on, and believe.
Speaker 8: Me, I have a lot of memories from the eighties.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Anyway, this eighties package it was called Lost Eighties
Live and among many others, the headliner was like a
flock of seagulls.
Speaker 7: Okay, so you stayed for that, right of course?
Speaker 6: You run far away?
Speaker 3: No, no, I I was there from the beginning to end.
And there was also your hair like that I wish
I had that much hair left. Anyway, they didn't do
flock of seagulls.
Speaker 6: No, oh, I'm sure he gave that up long ago.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah. Anyway, there was a band there calling myselves
Big Country. Now. I don't know if any original members
were involved or not. They didn't really say, but you
know what they sounded. Okay, and last year that was
in twenty twenty five. That's about all you can ask for.
So there it is Big Country. Thank you. Now go
see a concert. Agreed?
Speaker 6: All right, I need another break because even though they
were not quite bagpipes, they were bagpipe enough to use
galestn that. Uh yeah, I'm gonna step out for a minute.
Speaker 7: You need you need a break before mine?
Speaker 6: Oh good, good, good, Thanks for the heads up. Maybe
I won't come back after this. We'll see stick around,
let's see what happens.
Speaker 3: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: You want my bond, I get bring up the come
one day, lady, No hug a follow.
Speaker 3: We have a pipeer.
Speaker 2: Don I don't repeat A piper is done, Hudson River
Radio dot Com.
Speaker 6: All right, I came back. I felt guilty.
Speaker 3: Did some did somebody step on a duck.
Speaker 6: That is very descriptive.
Speaker 1: I have to write that that just ruined my memories
of the nineteen seventy nine Rod Stewart concert.
Speaker 3: I went to.
Speaker 6: H Yeah, that was a clip from So I Married
an Ex Murderer. For anybody who's wondering, Mike Myers A
love that great movie. That was a funny one. All right, Mercedes,
I am ready to face your threat. Bring it on.
Speaker 7: I'm sorry, Brian, this was a hard one. I usually
think in google around and land on one song for
a topic. That is, of course, but everything was a contenter,
but not the song. There was a lot of songs
I would have liked to use, but when I googled
specifically if they used bagged bagpipes, nine out of ten
times there was no bagpipes. They were as we were discussing, Yes,
it's exactly right.
Speaker 6: It's part of the reason, you know, just a review
for the beginning. Number one, they don't use the tempered
scale that we're used to hearing, so they will always
sound a little bit out of tune compared to like
a rock band or an orchestra, unless the orchestra tunes
to the bagpipe, which they do sometimes. And number two
they're so hard to play, so find someone to play
it right and play it in tune and play it
in that style. And so I get it, and I
should probably be grateful it doesn't happen more often.
Speaker 7: I mean, ACDC, I think that's the Yeah, But.
Speaker 6: They wound up playing with a recording after that because
they tried.
Speaker 7: But because the bagpipes got stolen off the stage.
Speaker 6: Oh they got shredded. People want souvenirs shredded. Yeah, gone.
Now everybody's got bagpipe hands because all the fungus that
strayed everywhere.
Speaker 11: So.
Speaker 7: As I said they were, it really had a hard
time fighting one with real bagpipes, no disrespect, but mine
has real bagpipes.
Speaker 9: Just say that means it's worse more on eBay.
Speaker 7: So they configured the guitar somehow or some other instrument
made it to sound like it. I am a big
fan of Black forty seven, which is an Irish band,
and I look there, but they use Ilien pipes, which
may or may not be the same. But the songs
that were pipe heavy were mostly two morose. Although Maria's
wedding is a favorite of mine, but I think I've
used it on the show before, so I look through
a lot of songs and then I remembered this band
and there it was. Now, this is not the original.
Speaker 9: As you will hear, but it is a cover and
I think you will like it, but don't.
Speaker 4: Expecting int nice.
Speaker 9: Yes, it is really odd.
Speaker 6: I didn't hate that. Yes, I don't think I could
sit through a whole concert of stuff like that.
Speaker 9: No, I know, same, Yeah, all right.
Speaker 7: So the song obviously is Everybody Dance Now, which was
originally by C and C Music Factory and their song
was going to make you sweat Everybody Dance Now. This
version is by the Red Hot Chili Pipers.
Speaker 8: Okay them, I've actually heard of them.
Speaker 7: Yes, they're Red Hot Chili Pipers are a Celtic rock
band from Scotland, formed in two thousand and two. Many
of the band members past and present have competed that
at the highest levels of bag piping and drumming for
many years. Founder and former musical director Stuart Cassel's received
the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award in two
thousand and five and became the first person to attain
a degree in bagpipes from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland,
formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. The
Pipers have combined guitars, keyboards, drums and their bagpipes to
create the bag rock sound.
Speaker 3: I love.
Speaker 7: The band's lineup features three Highland bagpipers and traditional marching
snare backed by a five to seven piece band. The
band's live show features vocal performances and Highland dancing, which
if you look up this video and watch it you
will see the dancers on the front. It's really worth seeing.
In two thousand and four they got a massive boost
in their career when they were asked to appear with
the band The Darkness. But their career really launched when
in two thousand and seven, The Red Hot Chili Pipers
I have to keep making sure that I say Pipers
appeared on the BBC show When Will I Be Famous?
They won the competition against seven other contestants. They have
released ten albums Can You Imagine The band's first studio release.
First studio released, The Red Hot Chili Pipers two thousand
and five was their least successful. Their two thousand and
seven album bag Rock to the Masses went platinum, platinum
in Scotland and silver in the rest of the UK.
Their third album and first live album, blast Live, went
triple platinum in Scotland. Their fourth release, Music for the
Kilted Generation, the Red Hot Chili Piper's most successful international
record to date, reached number two on the US Amazon chart,
which I didn't know. Of course it exists, I did,
I didn't know about it anyway. Since then, they have
become a global touring phenomenon, performing everywhere from mainstream Celtic
rock events to major metal festivals like Whacken Open Air
in Germany. That's a thing, right, That's like a big thing,
isn't it.
Speaker 9: I've heard of it?
Speaker 6: Okay.
Speaker 7: So many of the comments that I read under videos
and different places said that they found this band by
spelling Peppers incorrectly, but that they were so happy that
they had. They originally got their name when a girlfriend
of a founding member mistakenly filed the traditional Bagpipe CD
next to Red Hot Chili Peppers album. So have I
changed your mind, Brian?
Speaker 3: Nope?
Speaker 6: Nope, But it honestly explains a lot that they have
put that much effort into learning how to play that well. Yeah,
And there was a difference.
Speaker 3: There was an.
Speaker 6: Absolute difference night and day compared to my earlier experiences
of the bagpipes. Ye, so yeah, yeah, I still couldn't
sit through a whole concert of that.
Speaker 8: But.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean they do a lot of They do
a lot of covers, which I appreciate, Like I could
sit through that song and maybe a handful of other covers,
you know what I mean. If they go off on
their yeah all regular I don't know for a little bit.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, I mean, if they're playing at that level,
maybe it might be as good as the military tattoo.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 6: I don't have that. It's just I don't obviously seek
out those experiences. No, I don't want to be the
guy that's like, nope, I'm done, get up and walk
out in the middle of it. You know, you can't
do that.
Speaker 7: It's funny because I really also wanted to use the
song Roase Tattoo, which there's a couple of different versions of,
not by them, by get who did the original one.
But and that wasn't even real bagpipes.
Speaker 9: So it's crazy, you know.
Speaker 3: I thought I was being you know, novel and being
like clever to you know, like fake bagpipes, you know.
So it turns out there were more fake bagpipe songs.
The bag pipes? Yeah, who knew.
Speaker 7: I'm telling you, I worked really hard to find I
was determined to find real bagpipes.
Speaker 6: All right, So we're done, right, I'm done being tortured.
We're good.
Speaker 7: We made it to the end, Brian, no more bagpipes.
Speaker 6: All right, we are done.
Speaker 3: And are you feeling okay though?
Speaker 6: I am. I made it to the end and I'm
going to pull the plug now before if somebody changes
their mind, okay before the Oh, by the way, you
know we're not having it all right? Well, thank you
cram Bones. This was a kind of an easy night
for me because I didn't have to pick one. I
appreciate the hard work. I appreciate being tortured every once
in a while. You gotta to get what you give
kind of thing. So I'm good with that, and thank
you all for joining us here for the Rock and
Roll History Show. Don't forget to subscribe in your favorite
podcast app and check out all the other shows at
Hudson River Radio because there is something bagpipe free for everybody.
We'll see you next week with another brand new episode.
Until then, have a great weekend and peace out everybody.
Speaker 8: A rock top.
Speaker 4: Bottom it rum.
Speaker 2: Okay, bye bye
Speaker 6: Udsonriverradio dot Com, a subsidiary of Glacier Entertainment LLC, potentially successful,
the multi hundred dollars corporation