Bushcraft Anthems

[FeralSheryl]

This is weird. Pretty much everytime someone posts another suggestion I discover it's one I really like too. Black - totally brilliant, Over the Hill and Far Away, hard to shake that out of ya head - very nice, I do like a bit of Folk. Shame my no1 favourite album "Violator" by Depeche Mode doesn't fit the bill.

Maybe we should organise a compilation Album? What do you reckon - "The Bushcraft Top 100" or "The Best of Bushcraft"

You know what, I'd buy it. I might not admit it to anyone else mind

 

[Marts]

I too like the tin whistle. Good bushcraft instrument - especially the two piece Clare whistle.

If anyone is interested, you can buy a good quality tin whistle in any music shop or on the net for £3 or £4 pounds (you want one in the key of 'D') and there is loads of tutorial material and sound files available free on the net. You will be pleasantly surprised as to how quickly you learn tunes.

What other instrument can you learn for just £3?

Took your advice Doc and mine was delivered yesterday. I spent all evening practising with it. This morning when I got up it was gone. My wife says it must have been leprachuans!

 

[Doc]

This is uncanny. Sometimes after a long and arduous practice session, my whistle also vanishes and my wife too disclaims all knowledge.


Must be the Tin Whistle Fairy.

 

[Womble]

As Mike Oldfield's been mentioned a coupe of times for differing reasons; I think the best Bushcrafty contender - in spirit - from him is "The Horse Song" from the end of Ommadawn.

I like beer, and I like cheese
I like the smell of a westerly breeze,
But I like more than all of these to be on horseback

Hey! And away we go
Through the grass, across the snow.
Big brown beastie, big brown face
I'd rather be with you than flying through space

I like thunder, and I like rain
And open fires, and roaring flames.
But if the thunder's in my brain,
I'd like to be on horseback
Some like the city, some the noise
Some make cars and others, toys
But if I was to have the choice,
I'd rather be on horseback.

Hey! And away...

Some find it strange to be here,
On this small planet, and who knows where.
But when it's strange and full of fear,
It's nice to be on horseback.
Some are short, and others tall,
Some hit their heads against the wall.
But it doesn't really matter at all,
When you happen to be on horseback.

Hey! And away...

So if you you feel a little glum,
To Hergest Ridge you should come.
In summer, winter, rain or sun,
It's good to be on horseback.

Hey! And away we go
Through the grass, across the snow.
Big brown beastie, big brown face
I'd rather be with you than flying through space!

 

[Womble]

Or this, from the end of the track Orabidido on Five Miles Out:

Oh island of the soul
Valleys hushed and white with snow
Ireland's eye - you linger with me 'til the day I die
Oh how it hurts to go

The waters ebb and flow
The changing seasons come and go
Ireland's eye - forever reaching up into the sky
Oh how I'll miss you so
The sunlight dancing on your rocky shores
The moonlight playing upon the water
Your memory will stay with me forever-more
Wherever I may roam
Stay with my dreams I will see you
Safe in my heart I will keep you

 

[Greywolf]

How about for that 'just reached the summit' moment

Nimrod - Elgar

such a stirring piece of music, the way it swells and fills the space around it WOW!

but for general times I do like a bit of Tull, or Wicked Tinkers, Saor Patrol, Schelmish and many many others, I just like music

Making your own music is brilliant too

Greywolf

 

[FeralSheryl]

Yay! Got me a Tin Whistle too!

Making sounds like an old stove kettle at the moment , but the man in the shop made some lovely noises on it, so it proves it can be done, I s'pose.

Bowdie is off on a camping trip in Wales with some friends from the Big Chill and that leaves me to practice all weekend!

Hopefully without any trouble from Leprecauns!

 

[Doc]

Nice one Sheryl.

I had Twinkle twinkle little star cracked quickly, moved on to Frere Jaques and Amazing Grace, and am currently struggling with a decent tune (Hector the Hero - a cracking tune with a lot of history behind it.)

But when you hear Andrea Corr playing 'Toss the Feathers' on the Tin Whistle, you realise just how good a three quid whistle can sound.

It's a remarkable instrument.

 

[FeralSheryl]

I had Twinkle twinkle little star cracked quickly, moved on to Frere Jaques and Amazing Grace...

Twinkle twinkle little star, eh? Ang on...

...kettle, kettle... little twinkle... twinkle, twinkle little star!
Woohoo, I can actually twinkle!

Thanks Doc, that's a great one to start off with and so much better than my kettle.

... am currently struggling with a decent tune (Hector the Hero - a cracking tune with a lot of history behind it.)

Is it this one? Hector the Hero - Tune and lyrics. (make sure your speakers are on). Looks tricky. Need more practice. But it's a good one.

But when you hear Andrea Corr playing 'Toss the Feathers' on the Tin Whistle, you realise just how good a three quid whistle can sound.

It's a remarkable instrument.

Ah, the beautiful, beautiful Corrs.
What? No one else whatched SMTV Live with Ant, Dec and Cat then?

All jesting aside, I'm quietly very impressed and I'm off to practice.

 

[Rebel]

I'd have thought bushcrafters would have listened to music that was more "outdoorsy" than Led Zeppelin, Mike Oldfield (EST music) and Jethro Tull. Not exactly camp fire material.

Folk and country singers have thousands of songs about the great outdoors and you can actually sing along to them too . They even use instruments that don't need a thousand watts of power to sound good .

I'll admit that John Denver was a bit schmaltzy and he's not my cup of tea but he did sing a lot about the outdoors and brought it to the attention of a large audience.

 

[innocent bystander]

Fairport Convention.

A great band with a good strong link to ......



Jethro Tull

Oh, Nick Drake's rather pleasing to listen to too....

 

[Marts]

Nice one Sheryl.

and am currently struggling with a decent tune (Hector the Hero - a cracking tune with a lot of history behind it.)

That's a beautiful tune Doc - Not when I play it I hasten to add . That BAF part early on is haunting. What is its history?

 

[Womble]

I'd have thought bushcrafters would have listened to music that was more "outdoorsy" than Led Zeppelin, Mike Oldfield (EST music) and Jethro Tull. Not exactly camp fire material.

Folk and country singers have thousands of songs about the great outdoors and you can actually sing along to them too . They even use instruments that don't need a thousand watts of power to sound good .

I'll admit that John Denver was a bit schmaltzy and he's not my cup of tea but he did sing a lot about the outdoors and brought it to the attention of a large audience.

perhaps a chorus of Kumbaya might be in order here? We're real people, as well as being bushcrafters you know...

 

[moduser]

Kumbaya! You obviously spend far too much time hanging around scouts

I hated that song as a cub and it never, ever got any better.

For me I rather have either some nice ambient electronic music in the background or failing that the sound of the wind in the trees, the creak of a branch, the song of the birds etc.

One reason I rarly go to a crowded beach is because I prefer to hear the surf than a thousand stereo's playing mindless pop.

 

[Doc]

Re the haunting tune Hector the Hero. Sorry it's a bit off topic.

It's about Major General Hector MacDonald (1853-1903) - better known to his men as 'Fighting Mac'. My great grandfather served under his command.

A crofter's son,he joined the army as a private soldier but when a colour sergeant was commissioned (a rare event in those days)and rose rapidly through the ranks, saving the British Army from total disaster at the Battle of Omdurman. His bravery was legendary.

His success provoked some jealousy and his enemies circulated rumours that he was homosexual. At breakfast in a Paris hotel, 'Fighting Mac' found these allegations on the front page of his newspaper, went up to his room, drew his revolver and shot himself.

His friend James Skinner wrote the tune. It is documented that he was crying as he wrote it.

The poet Robert Service (the bushcrafter's poet, for sure) also wrote a piece about him.

A subsequent inquiry found MacDonald posthumously innocent of the allegations.

There are rumours that he faked his death and served in foreign armies, but I don't believe them.

See http://pw1.netcom.com/~reincke/homepage.html

 

[Keith_Beef]

Killing in the name of - Rage against the machine
My boomerang won't come back - Rolf Harris

Ah good old Rolf.

Raining on the Rock
Sun Arise

Keith.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I reckon: "On The Road Again" by Canned Heat or pretty much anything from Lynard Skinard.

Going up country

I'm going up the country, babe don't you wanna go
I'm going up the country, babe don't you wanna go
I'm going to some place where I've never been before
I'm going, I'm going where the water tastes like wine
Well I'm going where the water tastes like wine
We can jump in the water, stay drunk all the time
I'm gonna leave this city, got to get away
I'm gonna leave this city, got to get away
All this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure can't stay
Now baby, pack your leaving trunk, you know we've got to leave today
Just exactly where we're going I cannot say, but We might even leave
the USA 'Cause there's a brand new game that I want to play
No use of you running, or screaming and crying
'Cause you've got a home as long as I've got mine


Keith.

 

[Keith_Beef]

There are some great songs on The Compleat Bagpus DVD.

There's a song about ploughing the land, sewing the seed, cutting the corn and making bread.

And a very interesting version of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".

Fairport Convention gets a lot of praise in this thread. Great band.

Les Barker's "Quasi B. Goode" is excellent. I've not heard his version of "She Moves Through the Fair", but I loved the All About Eve version.

June Tabor's "Ballad of Tamlin" was one of my favourite songs when I was a teenager. I'm sure it was the version with these lyrics that I taped off the radio:
http://www.tam-lin.org/versions/fraarm.html

I don't know how many times I've sung "The Battle of Sowerby Bridge" round a campfire...
Words similar to these:
http://www.mudcat.org/detail.cfm?messages__Message_ID=148500


Keith.

 

[innocent bystander]

Traffic - John Barleycorn. Or any other version there of.

Oh, and Capercaillie are good to listen to..

 

[country boy]

Well, Innocent Bystander's avatar and occasional.sig from Stormwatch are a bit of a giveaway ...


...
But I thought you looked a bit clean-cut for a S&D&R&R type, and does Mike Oldfield count? (why don't we have the "million laughing heads" smiley no more?)

Anyway, Runrig for me, please. "May morning" on the stereo as I type. And a dull work-related task keeping me in (from which I'm skiving)

Metallica for "Urban Bushcraft" perhaps:

Of (Pagan)wolf and man
Wherever I may roam
...etc...
Like this game

Jim.

with you on Runrig Big Sky and Travellers to both good songs and top off with a bit of the Saw Doctors ?