James - Moving On
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Reb- Admin
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Re: James - Moving On
by Hobb Mon 4 Jul 2016 - 17:28
Really good video - ranks up there with the best Svankmajer stop-motion shorts. Reminds me of the Norse Norns of Greek Morai who spin out the thread of a human life and cut it when it ends. And the unraveling of a human works well as a visual metaphor.
I'm not sure you needed to balance out the death of one person with the birth of another because life isn't a zero-sum game (that would be a true nightmare). The fact that everyone - widower, new mother and child - all have that single strand that both connects them to life and threatens to unravel makes for a nice existential ending.
A good companion video would be David Bowies' Lazarus.
As i make my way through Led Zepplin, who I know realize were responsible for 80% of what I would consider popular Rock'n'Roll but could never place, I found a link to James' greatest song: Government Walls.
At the end of the Zepplin song 'The Battle of Evermore' the lead starts chant-singing "Bring it Back" with an echo effect for about a minute (from about 4:30 - 5:15). It struck me as similar to the "Break Down" section of 'Government Walls' (3:50 - 4:15). Something about the way both climax into clipped reverberating chants. Even if you disagree the songs are great listens.
'The Battle of Evermore' is an amazing folk-rock song with a guest female vocalist (Sandy Denny) and after hearing all these Zepplin songs about women, the actual presence of a female voice makes good on the plea of the song to 'Bring the Balance Back'. The lyrics are straight-up Tolkien and a nice reminder just how much LoTR was a pillar of the counter-culture. Though Tolkien's own view on this position was probably ambiguous, I think he would have more approved of heartfelt British folk-rock than the modern LoTR movies that are easily consumable mass products.
'Governement Walls' deserves its' own write-up. This was one of strange songs that wanders its way to you through the flotsam of mass produced products and reveals itself to be a bit of a solid chunk of political agitprop. It was my first taste of what a 'protest song' might be, that music could have meanings besides just emotional ones.
Wait - I found the previous discussion. And it's from exactly a year ago (both Reb's James post were done on July 2)
https://roadtonowhere.forumotion.org/t104-james-government-walls
I'm not sure you needed to balance out the death of one person with the birth of another because life isn't a zero-sum game (that would be a true nightmare). The fact that everyone - widower, new mother and child - all have that single strand that both connects them to life and threatens to unravel makes for a nice existential ending.
A good companion video would be David Bowies' Lazarus.
As i make my way through Led Zepplin, who I know realize were responsible for 80% of what I would consider popular Rock'n'Roll but could never place, I found a link to James' greatest song: Government Walls.
At the end of the Zepplin song 'The Battle of Evermore' the lead starts chant-singing "Bring it Back" with an echo effect for about a minute (from about 4:30 - 5:15). It struck me as similar to the "Break Down" section of 'Government Walls' (3:50 - 4:15). Something about the way both climax into clipped reverberating chants. Even if you disagree the songs are great listens.
'The Battle of Evermore' is an amazing folk-rock song with a guest female vocalist (Sandy Denny) and after hearing all these Zepplin songs about women, the actual presence of a female voice makes good on the plea of the song to 'Bring the Balance Back'. The lyrics are straight-up Tolkien and a nice reminder just how much LoTR was a pillar of the counter-culture. Though Tolkien's own view on this position was probably ambiguous, I think he would have more approved of heartfelt British folk-rock than the modern LoTR movies that are easily consumable mass products.
'Governement Walls' deserves its' own write-up. This was one of strange songs that wanders its way to you through the flotsam of mass produced products and reveals itself to be a bit of a solid chunk of political agitprop. It was my first taste of what a 'protest song' might be, that music could have meanings besides just emotional ones.
Wait - I found the previous discussion. And it's from exactly a year ago (both Reb's James post were done on July 2)
https://roadtonowhere.forumotion.org/t104-james-government-walls
Hobb- Admin
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