In Search of Music

In my translation days, I was always on the lookout for online dictionaries or any other sort of electronic wizardry that would ease the intolerable weight of actually translating. The problem was that, when I came to test the material with a particular word, my brain would invariably go numb and the only word that came to mind was MAISON! I knew the translation anyway. It means hovel.


I am afflicted with the same ailment where music is concerned. You can find just about anything under the sun on the Internet these days but you've still got to know what you're looking for. Here again, the only tune that springs to mind is something called The March Hare which, wouldn't you just believe it, is about the only thing I CAN'T find on YouTube. (Update: I have just found a harmonica version. Not bad, but as I recall, back in the 'fifties it was wordlessly sung by a group of men.) Here's the link if you're interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0iFXV-ucUM


Anyway, I thought I had found a way out of my quandary when I hit upon the bright idea of going through the archives of past Desert Island Disc programmes. Surely I would come across something to jog my memory?
Well, I'm sorry to report that my catch was pretty meagre. Part of the problem is that many of the guests are not the slightest bit musical: they tend to choose Yesterday or Regimental Quick March of the Band of the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards and other music which I don't like.


An exception was Ricky Gervais who chose an absolute gem by Cat Stevens called Lilywhite which I featured in my last post. It's hard to believe that this song dates back over 40 years for it has travelled down the decades as fresh and clear as though it had been composed yesterday. It comes from an album released in 1970 that includes a host of wonderful and (to me) unknown songs such as the marvellous Katmandu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IHI7NheZtA&feature=related) and Fill My Eyes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59ua92sopJc&feature=related ).
I discovered that the beautiful string arrangement is by somebody called Del Norman who also worked with the likes of Elton John and Paul Macartney and this brought me to an extraordinary guitar player called Gilbert Giltrap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyEFJgQuf2Y


So one thing leads to another on the web!