Yesterday I wrote my first
complete rap song (after many partial efforts).
It is called “I Carry the Load”
and it is a pretty fine freshman effort, if I do say so myself. Now I just need a DJ to give me some fresh
beats to rap over. Maybe I’ll call up
Eric B. and see what he is doing, or see what Terminator X is up to. Or maybe I’ll just keep my day job. Probably the latter.
This next review is as far from
rap music as you can get, but it is variety that makes the music world turn, my
friends.
Disc 552 is…. The Book of Secrets
Artist: Loreena
McKennitt
Year of Release: 1997
What’s up with the Cover? Loreena herself, looking resplendent despite facing
sinister (if you know your heraldry, that will make sense). The yellowish sepia tone makes it look very
old, like the cover of a book of secrets maybe.
How I Came To Know It: I was a fan of Loreena McKennitt since I first heard
her album “The Visit” back in 1991. I
bought “Book of Secrets” when it came out.
How It Stacks Up: We have six Loreena McKennitt albums. “Book of Secrets” is good, but not
great. I’d put if fifth out of the six.
Rating: 3 stars
Sometimes as an artist becomes more and more
successful, they can fall deeper and deeper into their own sound. This can be both good and bad. Part of Loreena McKennitt’s sound is that she
is one of the great masters of establishing a mood in music.
Establishing a mood can take a while, and on “Book
of Secrets” there are only eight songs, but a full 53 minutes of music. I found myself alternating between soaking in
the journey and wishing she’d just get on with it.
In the liner notes, McKennitt is keenly aware of her
own inclinations, offering up a Lao Tzu quote that goes, “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” Good stuff, although I personally prefer
Canadian Earle Birney’s expression of the same sentiment: “do you want to climb this mountain, or just get to the top?” Whatever your preferred quote, this is a good
way to approach this record if you want to enjoy it
All of the usual excellence in McKennitt’s earlier
records is evident on “Book of Secrets” as well. McKennitt’s operatic voice soars over a rogue’s
gallery of instruments from around the world, including the bodhran, the hurdy
gurdy, the shawm and mandocello (seriously, I’m not making these things up – go
ahead and google them). Many of the
instruments are ancient medieval and renaissance affairs, and they give the
recording a timeless quality.
Her subject matter is similar to previous records,
as she explores the roots of the ever-travelling Celts across Eurasia. “Skellig”
is a nice track in this vein, telling the tale of a monastery located on the
Skellig Islands near Ireland. You can practically feel the dark and dank stone
walls, and the lone candle burning in a tower as some ancient dark ages monk
scribbled away, writing scripture and history for future generations to
discover. Of course, it is slightly less
spellbinding when you think about some of the classical texts and history monks
in this era scraped off their pages so they’d have something to write on. But I digress…
The true classic on this record is “The Highwayman.” Like she did with Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” on an earlier
record, McKennitt has taken the epic Alfred Noyes poem, “The Highwayman” and brilliantly set it to music.
My degree is in English Literature, and I’ll always
have a soft spot for a great poem. For
me, McKennitt’s treatment of “The
Highwayman” is a five star affair that never fails to make the hairs stand
up on the back of my neck.
“The
Highwayman” tells the tale of a robber who has taken a shine to an
innkeeper’s daughter, and visits here between heists. The English redcoats set a trap for him
there, but not before drinking the innkeeper’s ale without paying and tying up
the daughter in the window so she can watch her lover die. They tie a musket under her chin and (spoiler
alert) she twists her hands in her bonds until she is able to get her finger on
the musket’s trigger, and tragically warn him of the trap by killing herself.
When the Highwayman hears, he flees the trap, only
to learn later what has happened and decide to return back into the trap to
avenge her death:
“Back, he spurred like a madman shrieking
his curse to the sky
With the white road smoking
behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were the spurs i’the
golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat
When they shot him down on the
highway
Down like a dog on the highway
And he lay in his blood on the
highway, with a bunch of lace at his throat.”
So, no, he didn’t quite avenge his lover, but full
points for bravery. Also, the story shows
that long before “Breaking Bad” gave us Walter White good writing was already making
us root for what are essentially bad people.
Noyes’ writing flows naturally anyway, and with both
McKennitt’s voice and the music perfectly punctuating the ebb and flow of the poem’s
emotion, it makes it better than any simple reading could ever accomplish. The
final stanza tells of how the Highwayman’s ghost still haunts the inn looking
for vengeance, even as the music shifts to a disquieting whisper of percussion and
almost whispered words:
“Still of a winter’s night, they
say, when the wind is in the trees
When the moon is a ghostly
galleon, tossed upon the cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of
moonlight over the purple moor
The highwayman comes riding
Riding, riding
A highwayman comes riding, up to
the old inn-door.
There are other good songs on “Book of Secrets”, including
the complex rhythms on “Night Right
Across the Caucusus” and the piano-driven devotional “Dante’s Prayer.” “Night Ride…” uses a multitude of
instruments to create the feeling of a journey, while “Dante’s Prayer” is sparse, using mostly the aforementioned piano, accentuated
with timely violin bits and some Gregorian Chants. I was again reminded what a fine production
ear McKennitt has (she not only wrote, but produced the record).
“Book of Secrets album does drag a bit in places (“Marco Polo” made me feel like I was
listening to background music from the Civilization videogame), but overall the
album is a solid effort.
Best tracks: The Highwayman, Night Ride Across the Caucusus,
Dante’s Prayer
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