The Judge
RAVES!
Date: 10/06/20
Waiting To Cross
One of the many pleasures of being a member of - and, in my case, a moderator for - the very splendid and worthwhile 45cat is that you can stumble across the occasional absolute gem which you had never even heard about before, let alone just heard.
It was a comment from member Algenonprice a few days ago which alerted me to this one, augmented by long-time member Catagna45, whose comment included an embedded YouTube video. My interest was also piqued by a subsequent comment from member mikec2137 which said in part, "...this is a fabby record. It's basically a reworking of the Skye Boat Song, but made completely different.".
Given that all that I knew about Parliament was that it was one of the ensembles put together by George Clinton, and that all that I knew about Clinton was his other band Funkadelic and it's wild music, I was sufficiently intrigued to click on the video clip....
...and found myself absolutely astonished. This wasn't wild, it wasn't funky. It combines the slow soul sound of the era (1970) with a gospel-style vocal and...bagpipes? The whole effect - plus the lyrics - is very moving, and keys in to the somewhat odd mood I find myself in at present, with having only seven working days to go before I officially end what I have always laughingly called my 'career' in the civil service (one definition of the word 'career' being 'to veer wildly in all directions'), facing the permanent severing of ninety per cent of my social relationships of the last thirty years, and having marked (the word 'celebrate' being substantially to over-egg the occasion) my 58th birthday yesterday. A bit pensive I am at the moment.
But this track - from Parliament's 1970 LP Osmium - is simply, almost comfortingly, beautiful, so I wanted to share it with you.
Have you got your pennies ready?
