The first of the Posts providing an Annotated Index to music on TumbleStone Blog dealt with the First Five. At the end of this present Post is a list of the other Annotated Index music Posts. What follows are the five Blog Posts with music in them published between May 2023 and February 2024.
46) Southern Sojourn 2023(60): In Retrospect (24 May 2023) – This Post looked back on an extended time (78 days) based in Riverton Aparima, visiting South Island beaches to collect stones. At the end of the Post, I reflected on the concept of “home”. “In some ways, home to me is actually Southland – the farm near Gore on which I grew up, the small town and school of Waikaka, and the regular summer holidays I spent as a child at Riverton Aparima. So going down to Riverton Aparima feels like going home. But then my home these days is in Whanganui, with my wife and all our animals, my books, and my stone shed and tumblers.” Then I referred to Dougie MacLean’s “Caledonia”, a song that expresses well the meaning of a childhood home and the homesickness felt for it. Dougie MacLean is a Scottish singer-songwriter whose music has previously appeared twice in TumbleStone Blog – “Feel So Near” (#29, in this Post) and “Stepping Stone” (#42, in this Post ). “Caledonia” is the Latin term for Scotland. MacLean wrote the song in 1977 in less than 10 minutes on a beach in France, feeling homesick for Scotland (Wikipedia). “Caledonia” was first recorded and released in a 1979 joint album, with Alan Roberts, that was also entitled “Caledonia”. The song reappears on MacLean’s 1983 album “Craigie Dhu”, where I first heard it. “Caledonia” has become an integral part of Scotland’s popular culture, some calling it the country’s “unofficial national anthem”. Dougie MacLean received the OBE in 2011 for services to music and charity in Scotland (BBC). His official personal website is here.
47) “’Simply the Best’ – Third Stone Added to TumbleStoneTwo’s Hall of Fame” (25 May 2023) – This is the day that I found out that Tina Turner had passed away, aged 83. I was prompted to write a Post in memory and respect. And I also took the opportunity to use her song “The Best” to mark the addition of a third stone, a Timaru hematite jasper, to TumbleStoneTwo’s Hall of Fame. “The Best” is perhaps Tina Turner’s most well-known song in New Zealand and Australia as it was famously used to promote the Australian National Rugby League competition in 1990. Originally the song was written by Mike Chapman and Holly Knight, and was first recorded in 1988 by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler. Tina Turner covered it in 1989 on her album “Foreign Affair”. As Wikipedia notes, it became a worldwide hit for her. Among its many claims to fame, it is used by Scottish Football Club Rangers before home games when the players walk out onto the field. As I write in the Post, Tina Turner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice, in 1991 with her then-husband Ike Turner and again in 2021 as a solo performer.
48) “Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 1, ‘So Many Miles…’ Ward Beach, Timaru and Kakanui, Tuesday 13 February and Wednesday 14 February” (15 February 2024) – I often listen to music while driving between home and the south coast of the South Island, or when driving to and from a beach. Some songs have an energy I associate with driving, and this is one of them – “The Trip” by Still Corners off their 2013 album “Strange Pleasures”. So I used it in a Post at the start of a stone collecting trip in February 2024. Still Corners are a two-person band formed in 2007 consisting of songwriter/producer Greg Hughes from the United States and vocalist/keyboardist Tessa Murray from England. The first met by chance at a train stop in London when the train was diverted to an alternate station (Still Corners website).
49) “Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 14, Music, Beaches, Stones, Thursday 29 February” (29 February 2024) – As this Post puts it, “On my fossicking trips, I look for stones, I take photos of stones, I write Posts about stones, and I listen to music.” And sometimes I put music in my Posts, so I can revisit it. This Post has two songs in it, both recent discoveries of mine. They come from a Series called “Like a Version”, a long-running weekly segment on Australian youth radio station Triple J. It started in 2004 and involves musicians playing two songs live in the studio, one of their own and then a cover version of someone else’s song that they like. As Wikipedia notes, all “Like a Version” performances are filmed by Triple J and are made available on their YouTube channel. The first piece of music in this Post is a cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor” by Australian pop duo Royel Otis. The Sydney-based duo consists of guitarist Royel Maddell and vocalist Otis Pavlovic, and was formed in 2019. Due to intense stage anxiety Maddell decided not to show his face on stage or in photos, retreating behind a curtain of pink hair. In October 2024, Royel Otis made their US television debut performing “Sofa King” on Jimmy Kimmel Live. They were then signed by Capitol Records in November of that year. Their cover in January 2024 of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s 2001 disco pop hit is fast-paced and high energy, with high quality vocals. Its presence on YouTube raised their profile significantly (NME) and their cover reached #1 on the US Alternative Radio Chart in June 2024.
50) “Early 2024 Fossicking Trip – Part 14, Music, Beaches, Stones, Thursday 29 February” (29 February 2024) – The second piece of music in this Post, from the “Like a Version” Series (see previous entry), is King Stingray’s cover of Coldplay’s “Yellow”. King Stingray was formed in 2020 and was Australia’s Breakthrough Artist of the Year in 2023. It is a rock band with both aboriginal (from Northeast Arnhem Land) and non-aboriginal members (Wikipedia). The songs it performs usually have lyrics in both English and Yolŋu Matha, and their cover version of “Yellow” includes a section written by one of their members in that language. It has a distinctly aboriginal sound, making it very different from Coldplay’s original.
Previous Posts providing an Annotated Index to music on TumbleStone Blog dealt with the First Five, the Next Five, Numbers 11 to 20, Numbers 21 to 25, Numbers 26 to 35, Numbers 36 to 40, and Numbers 41 to 45. The next five musical pieces used in TumbleStone Posts, Numbers 51 to 55, can be found here.
2 thoughts on “Musical Pieces on TumbleStone, Numbers 46 to 50”