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