Category: Index

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.

Dougie MacLean. http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/primary/tunein/song/person.shtml?person=dougie

Tina Turner. http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/490607/tina-turner-10-simply-the-best-songs-and-the-stories-behind-them

Still Corners. https://allthingslive.it/artist/still-corners

Royel Otis. https://bigtakeover.com/interviews/interview-royel-otis

King Stingray. http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/like-a-version/king-stingray-cover-coldplay-yellow-for-like-a-version/13953260

Album cover, “Caledonia”. http://www.amazon.com.au/Caledonia-Alan-Maclean-Dougie-Roberts/dp/B07X4C2DZN

Tina Turner. http://www.hanover.ca/events/simply-best-night-tina-turner

https://soundcloud.com/user-391986413/still-corners-the-trip-1-hour-version-original-song

“Murder on the Dancefloor”, Royel Otis. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37Ym8iHP2E0

“Yellow”, King Stingray. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr3iI8gg2fo

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.

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, and Numbers 36 to 40. What follows are the next five, posted between April 2022 and April 2023.

Lee Anne Womack. http://www.telegram.com/story/entertainment/local/2015/11/23/lee-ann-womack-brings-emotional/32965122007/

Dougie MacLean. http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/primary/tunein/song/person.shtml?person=dougie

The Waterboys. https://coffee-for-two.com/2018/11/30/one-for-friday-the-waterboys-and-a-bang-on-the-ear/

Gregory Alan Isakov. http://www.deervalleyamphitheater.com/events/gregory-alan-isakov-29-august-2024/

Arcade Fire. http://www.thesoundcafe.com/post/arcade-fire-release-new-album-we-and-announce-world-tour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV-Z1YwaOiw

Album Cover of “Riof”.

https://originalmotionpicturesoundtrack.tumblr.com/post/72092374013/about-time-soundtrack-how-long-will-i-love-you

“San Luis” video. http://www.cpr.org/2018/10/17/watch-colorados-great-sand-dunes-get-a-star-turn-in-gregory-alan-isakovs-san-luis/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVlSK88-bQs

41) Remembering Helen, 14 April 1960 – 17 September 2021 (14 April 2022) – My sister Helen died from cancer on 17 September 2021, aged 61. She often went stone hunting with me, and was with me when I found my most treasured stone, a rare fossil coral stone, on Gemstone Beach in June 2020. I tumble polished many of her finds. At her funeral, a large bowl of those polished stones was at the entrance to the church. People were able to take one as a keepsake. At Helen’s burial, people could also take a stone to place on her coffin. I ended this Post with a piece of music: “Attending Helen’s funeral made me think about my own, about what I would want to be in it, and how I would want people to feel about it. I decided that I would like people to walk out of my funeral thinking about the rest of their own lives with hope and renewed enthusiasm, something along the lines of Lee Ann Womack’s song, ‘I Hope You Dance’. I suspect Helen might have wanted something similar.” Lee Ann Womack was born in Texas in 1966 and emerged as a contemporary country music artist in 1997. “I Hope You Dance” (released in 2000) is known as her crossover signature song, using pop music elements instead of traditional country.

42) “Well that was hard!” 36 Milestones for a Completed Thesis – Part One: Stones 1 to 10 (Timaru & Kakanui) (17 August 2022) – In my former role of formal or informal supervisor of research students at the University of Waikato, I sometimes gave polished stones to students as “milestones” to mark progress during their academic journey. As I put it in this Post, “Milestones lie ahead of you on your journey somewhere, marking the passing distance, providing feedback that your end goal is getting closer. When reaching a milestone, finishing a phase of research or a draft of a chapter, then a sense of achievement and a feeling of satisfaction are gained. All milestones are also ‘stepping stones’, places to stand from which to launch forward. The final milestone on a journey is also the first stepping stone of the next journey.” This Post is first in a Series of three featuring 36 milestones marking Lynley’s completion of her PhD. It describes three stones from Timaru and seven from Kakanui, the second Post deals with 12 stones from Gemstone Beach, and the third Post refers to 14 from Slope Point. The description of each stone often includes some connection to an aspect of undertaking doctoral research or writing a thesis. I had taught Lynley since she was a second year student and I had supervised her Master’s thesis. I acted as an informal advisor for her doctoral thesis for a number of years. In keeping with the theme of the Post, I included Dougie MacLean’s  song, “Stepping Stones”, where he states “We do not stand alone”, even when we are “out in the deep unknown”. A Dougie MacLean song has featured earlier in the Blog – see #29. MacLean is a Scottish singer-songwriter who has performed since the mid-1970s. One of his most well-known songs is “Caledonia”, often dubbed Scotland’s “unofficial national anthem” (I later used this song in another Post in 2022). MacLean also composed “The Gael” which became the main theme to the movie “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992). A 40-minute documentary on MacLean’s life and music, “The Land: The Songs of Dougie MacLean”, was aired by the BBC in 1993. “Stepping Stones” appeared on the album “Riof”, released in 1997 by Dunkeld Records, MacLean’s own label. In 2011 Dougie MacLean received the OBE for services to music and charity in Scotland. His official personal website is here, and his Wikipedia entry is here.

43) “The Sea Is Bound To Wash Upon The Sand” – A Song From My Fossicking Holiday (8 April 2023) – This Post was written during my three months Southern Sojourn in 2023. I had been spending time listening to “How Long Will I Love You?”, enjoying it, and the link to the beach in a small section of lyrics is obvious. As I write in the Post, “It appeals to the romantic in me, musically and lyrically. The reference to the sea washing upon the sand gives me an excuse to link it to fossicking on the beach for stones. The movement of the stones in the sand and waves produces the smooth colourful pebbles I seek. And those highly treasured finds from the beach – how long will I love you? Always!” No stones appear in this Post. “How Long Will I Love You?” was written by Mike Scott, a member of The Waterboys who recorded it in 1990. The Waterboys is a British group that formed in 1983. I had previously only known their 1985 release, “The Whole of the Moon”, the song that is their most successful commercially. The group’s Wikipedia entry has this interesting observation: “The early Waterboys sound became known as ‘The Big Music’ after a song on their second album, ‘A Pagan Place’. This style was described by Mike Scott as ‘a metaphor for seeing God’s signature in the world.’ Waterboys’ chronicler Ian Abrahams elaborated on this by defining ‘The Big Music’ as ‘…a mystical celebration of paganism. It’s extolling the basic and primitive divinity that exists in everything (‘the oceans and the sand’), religious and spiritual all encompassing. Here is something that can’t be owned or built upon, something that has its existence in the concept of Mother Earth and has an ancestral approach to religion. And it takes in and embraces the feminine side of divinity, pluralistic in its acceptance of the wider pantheon of paganism.” Finally, to return to “How Long Will I Love You?” – Ellie Goulding did a very popular cover in 2013 which became much more successful commercially that the original Waterboys version.

44) “Somewhere In-Between” – Another Song From My Fossicking Holiday (8 April 2023) – This Post was published the same day as the previous one, reflecting the music I had been spending time with during my Southern Sojourn. The song is “San Luis” by Gregory Alan Isakov, from the album “Evening Machines” (2018). No stones feature in the Post, but it’s very relevant to my time down south. As I note: “The scenes in the song’s ‘official video’ present a man immersed in an overwhelming natural environment. That’s familiar to me – fossicking on a beach between the powerful waves and the high cliffs, with the intermittent concussion of the booming breakers roaring across banks of stones, the fossicker encountering the rawness of the sun and wind and rain, with the thin sharp cries of seabirds somewhere in the distance. The beautiful and the vast. Somewhere in-between the horizon and the beach beneath my feet.” Gregory Alan Isakov (born 1979) is a South African-born American singer and songwriter. His family immigrated to the United States in 1986 and he was raised in Philadelphia. Isakov’s music combines indie and folk, featuring instruments such as the guitar and banjo. He has released seven albums to date. Wikipedia notes that, “Acclaimed for his lyrics, his music often explores themes such as nature, introspection, and personal experiences.”

45) “Precious Time” – Forty-Three Fossicks Plus (29 April 2023) – Another Southern Sojourn music Post, like #43 and #44 (above). “I’ve been granted precious time away from home in Whanganui, away from what was my normal life, to spend days and days fossicking on beaches in the South Island, especially Gemstone Beach in Southland.” The term “precious time” is taken from the lyrics of “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)” by Arcade Fire, a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, founded in 2001. The song appeared on the group’s sixth album (2022) “We”. All of the band’s studio albums have received nominations for Best Alternative Music Album at the Grammys. According to Wikipedia, their first album, “Funeral”, is widely considered by music critics to be one of the greatest albums of the 2000s.

The next five musical pieces used in TumbleStone Posts can be found here.

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 and Numbers 26 to 35. What follows are the next five, posted between October 2019 and May 2021.

Martin Molin, Wintergatan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q

Animusic. http://www.musictechhelper.com/blog/blast-from-the-past-animusic

Mark Knopfler. http://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/mark-knopfler-interview-down-the-road-wherever-album/

Harry Styles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_%28Harry_Styles_song%29

Johnny Flynn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ1Fb9sVyr0

Marble Machine, YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q

Pipe Dream, YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR8Oz8Pp8hI

The Long Road, YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqHdzatTBhA

Harry Styles, “Golden”. http://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/2020/10/26/harry-styles-golden/

Detectorists. http://www.sanity.com.au/products/2307145/Detectorists—Series-2

36) “Marble Machine” and “Pipe Dreams” (15 October 2019) – These two pieces appeared in my only Post for October 2019, and in fact my next Blog Post was not published until early January 2020. This lapse in activity was due to my focus on selling up my home near Cambridge and moving to Whanganui. These two unusual and quirky musical items were found randomly on the internet but they immediately claimed my attention. They have nothing to do with stones, though there are small hard objects in them. “Marble Machine” is the genius of Martin Molin, a Swedish composer, producer, instrumentalist, inventor and constructor. In 2011 Molin, Evelina Hägglund, Marcus Sjöberg and David Zandén created the band Wintergatan. The group gained attention when, inspired by a visit to the Speelklok Museum, a Dutch museum for mechanical musical instruments, Molin built his “Marble Machine”. The Machine is a music box made of 3000 components that plays using 2000 metal balls. After working on the Machine for over 14 months, he released the music video (the one in my Post) in 2016, which as of March 2025 has had over 264 million views on YouTube. See Wikipedia for more on Molin. The next entry contains information on the second musical piece in this Post, “Pipe Dreams”.

37) “Marble Machine” and “Pipe Dreams” (15 October 2019) – The second piece in this Post is labelled “Pipe Dreams” in YouTube but its correct title, from the original video album, is “Pipe Dream”. “Pipe Dream” is a production by Animusic, a US-based animation company that specialised in the 3D visualisation of MIDI-based music, founded in 1990. “MIDI” stands for “Musical Instrument Digital Interface”, a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and audio devices for playing, editing, and recording music. “Pipe Dream” appeared on Animusic’s second video album, released in 2005. The YouTube clip in this Post is of the high definition version released in 2010. See Wikipedia for more on Animusic.

38) “The Long Road…” (8 April 2020) – Again, part of a Post that has nothing to do with stones. At the time I wrote this Post, the global Covid pandemic had hit. New Zealand’s borders were closed in mid-March and a period of lockdown started on 25 March. Most lockdown and social distancing restrictions were not lifted until early June, and some were reimposed on different regions after that. It was another two years before all restrictions ended and the borders fully re-opened. So at the time of writing this Post, it was appropriate to refer to a journey down a long road. “The Long Road” is an instrumental by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, released in 1984. It appeared on the album “Cal” (Vertigo Records), the soundtrack for a movie starring John Lynch and Helen Mirren. Knopfler had written the whole soundtrack which one reviewer called “an exceptionally lovely and haunting score” (quoted in Wikipedia). Mark Knopfler was born in 1949 in Glasgow and raised in Blyth, near Newcastle. He was lead guitarist, singer and songwriter for Dire Straits from 1977 to 1995. He has pursued a significant solo career since the band dissolved. Knopfler is a fingerstyle guitarist and was ranked 27th on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Knopfler is a fan of Newcastle United Football Club and his “Going Home (Theme of the Local Hero)” is used by the Club as an anthem at home games. I enjoy many of his Dire Straits songs (like “Romeo and Juliet” and “Brothers in Arms”), as well as a number of his later pieces, such as “Sailing to Philadelphia” and “What It Is”.

39) “Golden” – A Wedding, Some Stones, and Harry Styles (22 November 2020) – The origin of this Post is explained as follows: “Martina and Jules asked me if I might be able to provide about 70 polished stones for their Wedding Reception. They would be used to hold down the pieces of card with people’s names on them that indicated their place at a table. A key colour for the wedding was gold so I went through my polished stones, looking for yellow, cream and light coloured ones of the appropriate size. I didn’t have enough so I included stones of other colours as well, sending about 90 in all, so that Martina and Jules could choose the ones they liked best.” I was listening to some of Harry Styles’ music around this time and made the link between the wedding, the stones and his song “Golden”. “I don’t wanna be alone… Loving you’s the antidote” seems fitting for a wedding. The Post incudes photos of a number of the stones I provided plus seven others I gave Martina and Jules as a wedding present. Harry Styles is an English singer, songwriter and actor. His musical career began in 2010 as part of One Direction, a boy band formed on the British music competition series “The X Factor” after each member of the band had been eliminated from the solo contest. His first solo album was released in 2017. As Wikipedia notes, Harry has received many accolades, including six Brit Awards, three Grammy Awards, two Ivor Novello Awards, three American Music Awards, and four MTV Video Music Awards. His film roles include “Dunkirk” (2017). Wearing a blue Gucci dress, he became the first man to appear solo on the cover of “Vogue”. He contributes to various charities, and advocates for gender, racial and LGBTQ equality. Among other songs of his that I like are “Two Ghosts”, “Adore You” and “Sign of the Times”. I have also discovered Cannons’ cover of “Golden”, which I think is a great interpretation.

40) “You are always staring at the ground!” “What you got?” Detectorists and Rockhounds – Lyrical Musings (23 May 2021) – The musical piece in this Post is the theme song for “Detectorists”. I have long been a fan of the British Channel Four archeological series “Time Team” which ran from 1994 to 2014, revived in 2022. And then the kind-of-archeologically-related “Detectorists” cropped up, a fictional comedy series in the best British tradition, produced by BBC4. The show had three series from 2014 to 2017, with Christmas specials airing in 2015 and 2022. As I write in the Post, “’Detectorists’ is remarkable for its quiet insights into the life of ordinary English people who happen to share an obsession, metal detecting. The detectorists spend hours in the open in all kinds of weather, looking for something that excites them immensely but which they rarely find, while the rest of life passes them by, largely unnoticed.” One day, I started to think about the parallels between detectorists and rockhounds hinted at in this quote, and my Blog Post was born. In it, among other things, I tried to write rockhound lyrics to the “Detectorists” theme song. The song was composed and performed by Johnny Flynn, the lead singer and songwriter of Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit. He has released six studio albums, as well as soundtracks and live albums. Flynn is primarily an actor and he has a long list of roles. One of them was as David Bowie in the 2020 film “Stardust”. The TV Series “Detectorists” was written and directed by the brilliant Mackenzie Crook, who also played a leading role in it alongside Toby Jones. Crook gained widespread recognition for portraying Gareth Keenan in the British sitcom “The Office” (2001–2003) and for his role as Ragetti in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film series (2003–2007). He has a long and varied acting career. Toby Jones has also compiled a very impressive acting career, appearing in more than 60 films since his first acting role in 1992. He portrayed Truman Capote in “Infamous” (2006) and has acted in such movies as “Amazing Grace” (2006), “Frost/Nixon” (2008), “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” (2011), “My Week with Marilyn” (2011), “Dad’s Army” (2016), “Journey’s End” (2017), and “Empire of Light” (2022). He had the voice role of Dobby in the Harry Potter films. He recently played the lead role in the BBC’s “Mr Bates vs The Post Office”, a four-part Series broadcast in 2024. Such was the impact of this drama that the Post Office Horizon scandal became a major news story, and I spent a lot of time in the second half of 2024 reading about it and monitoring the Public Inquiry.

The next five musical pieces used in TumbleStone Posts can be found here.