Music – Page 7 – TumbleStone

“Maralitja” (Crocodile Man)

This stone reminds me of the rough tough skin of the crocodile.

This is a song by the Australian group Yothu Yindi , most well-known for “Treaty”. Their influential lead singer Mandawuy Yunupingu sadly died in 2013. I used to play Treaty in a lecture on using research to understand other cultures than our own. “Maralitja” is a creative blend of western and aboriginal music styles. I have not yet found a translation of the lyrics, but the saltwater crocodile was the totem of Mandawuy Yunupingu. A comment on the significance of the Album from which the song comes, “Tribal Voice”, states that the song “establishes the Gumatj clan’s descent from Maralitja, the Saltwater Crocodile ancestor”.

“Maralitja”(Crocodile Man)

Nhina ngilimurru yolngu maralitja wanga lamiwuy
Gudurru mulka nawayngu bulupinydjin manggurrtji biliwili
Marrkapmirri wanga dhuwala ngilimurrunggu
Nhungu ga ngarraku
Ngilimurru nhina wangganyngurana dhiyala bayma
Maranydja Yothu Yindina

Maralitja galimindirrk
Gokarrngu lamiwuy

Ga ngunhi ngandi wulma murryun yambatthun djarimi
Ga murryun wngangupann ngatha lakarama miltjuntjun
Dhakay ngatha ngunhinydja lami warray dhiyakuwuy nglimurrunggu
Ngilimurr wangganyngurana dhiyalana bayma
miyaman manikay ga bunggul giritjirri

Maralitja galimindirrk
Gokarrngu lamiwuy
Way maralitja dhukulul dharyuna ngunbungunbu

Maralitja galimindirrk
Gokarrngu lamiwuy

“Summer Comes…”

A polished stone from Riverton beach, from my wife’s second batch, iron-stained quartzite, yellow and brown throughout:

“June Hymn” by the Decemberists

Here’s a hymn to welcome in the day
Heralding a summer’s early sway
And all the bulbs all coming in
To begin
The thrushes’ bleeding battle with the wrens
Disrupts my reverie again

Pegging clothing on the line
Training jasmine how to vine
Up the arbor to your door
And more
Standing on the landing with the war
You shouldered all the night before

Once upon it
Yellow bonnets
Garland all the lawn
You were waking
Day was breaking
A panoply of song
And summer comes to Springville Hill

A barony of ivy in the trees
Expanding out its empire by degrees
And all the branches burst abloom
In the boom
Heaven sent this cardinal maroon
To decorate our living room

Once upon it
Yellow bonnets
Garland all the lawn
You were waking
Day was breaking
A panoply of song
And summer comes to Springville Hill

And years from now when this old light
Isn’t ambling anymore
Will I bring myself to write
“I give my best to Springville Hill”

Once upon it
Yellow bonnets
Garland all the lawn
You were waking
Day was breaking
A panoply of song
And summer comes to Springville Hill

“Raining on the Rock…”

A polished stone, picked up from a Riverton beach, from my wife’s second batch of tumble polishing – the colours remind me of the Australian Outback and of Aboriginal art:

“Mount Hermannsburg” by Albert Namatjira. Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-14/albert-namatjira-painting-of-mount-hermannsburg/9050572

“Palm Valley” by Albert Namatjira. Source: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/93.1986/

“Ghost Gum” by Albert Namatjira. Source: https://www.cooeeart.com.au/marketplace/artists/profile/NamatjiraAlber/

“Raining on the Rock”
by John Williamson

Pastel red to burgundy and spinifex to gold,
We’ve just come out of the Mulga where the plains forever roll.
And Albert Namatjira has painted all the scenes,
And a shower has changed the lustre of his land.

And it’s raining on the Rock,
In a beautiful country,
And I’m proud to travel this big land
Like an Aborigine.

And it’s raining on the Rock.
What an almighty sight to see!
And I’m wishing on a postcard that you were here with me.

Everlasting daisies and the beautiful desert rose –
Where does their beauty come from heaven knows.
I could ask the wedge-tail but he’s away too high,
I wonder if he understands it’s wonderful to fly.

And it’s raining on the Rock,
In a beautiful country,
And I’m proud to travel this big land
Like an Aborigine.

And it’s raining on the Rock.
What an almighty sight to see!
And I’m wishing on a postcard that you were here with me.

It cannot be described with a picture,
The mesmerising colours of the Olgas,
Or the grandeur of the Rock –
Uluru has power!

And it’s raining on the Rock,
In a beautiful country,
And I’m proud to travel this big land
Like an Aborigine.

And it’s raining on the Rock.
What an almighty sight to see!
And I’m wishing on a postcard that you were here with me.

“Changes Come…”

Four stones from a Riverton beach, picked up and polished by my wife, in the second batch of stones she tumble polished.

“There is all this untouched beauty, The light, the dark both running through me…”

changes

Changes come, turn my world around
Changes come, turn my world around

I have my father’s hand
I have my mother’s tongue
I look for redemption in everyone

I wanna wear your ring
I have a song to sing
It ain’t over babe
In fact it’s just begun

Changes come, turn my world around
Changes come, bring the whole thing down

I wanna have our baby
Some days I think that maybe
This old world’s too fucked up
For any firstborn son

There is all this untouched beauty
The light, the dark
Both running through me
Is there still redemption for anyone?

Changes come, turn my world around
Changes come, bring the whole thing down…

“Changes Come” by Over the Rhine

A Touch of “Blue”…

One of the Riverton stones from my wife’s first batch of tumble polished stones. It has flashes of blue residing deep within…

010 — “Blue is the colour of night, When the red sun Disappears from the sky. Raven, feathers shiny and black – A touch of blue glistening down her back…”

Go find a jukebox
And see what a quarter will do
I don’t want to talk
I just want to go back to blue

Feeds me when I’m hungry
And quenches my thirst
Loves me when I’m lonely
And thinks of me first

Blue is the colour of night
When the red sun disappears from the sky
Raven, feathers shiny and black
A touch of blue glistening down her back

We don’t talk about heaven
And we don’t talk about hell
We’ve come to depend on
One another so damn well

So go to confession
Whatever gets you through
You can count your blessings
I’ll just count on blue

Blue is the colour of night
When the red sun disappears from the sky
Raven feathers shiny and black
A touch of blue glistening down her back
Blue

Gabriel’s Stone: A Musical Meditation

I picked this stone up at Riverton and then rejected it – I thought the “rust” in it was unsightly. My wife saw its promise and tumble polished it in her first ever batch. I think it is worthy of its own tune and name…

“Gabriel’s Oboe” is from the movie “The Mission”.

008

The scene featuring this tune from the movie, The Mission, with Jeremy Irons as Father Gabriel:

“The Mission” is rated among my top ten movies. It is about the clash between Jesuit missionaries and European slave traders in South America in the 18th century, about friendship and betrayal, the plight of indigenous people, greed and evil and forgiveness and redemption. It is spectacular, sumptuous, enlightening, provocative, disturbing and challenging.