Just back from Dick Gaughan concert
Sep. 27th, 2009 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcSomehow, I've never actually heard Dick Gaughan before[1]. I'd heard of him, of course, and got an impression of him as the ultimate Scottish Folkie, traditionalist when it came to music; radical when it came to politics.
(Because of this, I'd somehow managed to get the idea that he was of the Hamish Henderson/Ewan MacColl generation. He's not; he's the same age as my Mum, which makes me about thirty years out. Whoops.)
Apart from the age thing, that impression was more or less accurate. Except ... his music isn't that traditional. His songs are, what he does to them isn't. Since I'm not a muso, I don't know how to describe it, but forget the "three chords and the truth" thing; he makes his guitar do stuff I thought only fiddles could do. And since they're mostly protest songs, he sings them in a rather strident way (even when they aren't protest songs), and with a unique cadance (so even his versions of other people's songs, including Burns, comes across as distinctly Dick Gaughan). It's pretty awesome.
And the songs themselves are really good. Unlike, say, Dougie Maclean (who, while he clearly feels strongly about injustice, writes songs that are about it in a rather abstract way) Dick Gaughan is angry, he knows exactly why he's angry, and he's going to tell you why you should be angry too. "Whatever Happened?" is a great example, about the people from his generation who stopped being angry. "Shipwreck" was another good one, about a rich man who finds himself on a desert island, where his money and power are no good. He said it wasn't actually about Donald Trump in particular, but that it could be. He added that Trump should get some sort of Scottish History award. "Here's a man who's heard about the Clearances, and thought 'What a good idea'."
But I think my favourite was "No Gods (And Precious Few Heroes)" (which I've previously heard Ian McGillevary do), which gets angry about how Scotland's romantic past is used to manipulate us, and we let it happen. I've always been a bit suspicious of Scottish romanticism, but never been able to put into words why (except that I think Bonnie Prince Charlie was a bit of a pillock).
He also did a few instrumentals; two hornpipes and a lament for the Irish Rebellion. The lament was an instrumental, he explained, because the Irish words are beautiful, but he can't speak the language well enough to do them justice, and he won't sing the English worlds because they're sentimentalist nonsense. "Guess which set of words became popular?"
There was only one "and everyone join in the chorus" song, which he finished with (except, of course, he didn't, he responded to cries for an encore with "The Fair Flower of Northumberland"). As Mum pointed out afterwards, a side-effect of the abovementioned cadance is that it's usually quite hard to join in the chorus. This one wasn't quite as tricky as the others; it was Michael Martin Murphy's "Geronimo's Cadillac", and the chorus was "Oh boys, take me back / I want to ride in Geronimo's cadillac"[2].
The concert was in Eden Court's One Touch Theatre[3], which is a smaller venue than the main Playhouse Theatre, and IMO, just right for standup and folk music, with its wooden stage and metal balcony. (If the bar was at the back of the auditorium, instead of down a corridor, it could easily be an Edinburgh Fringe venue.) Gaughin joked that he'd probably known half the audience for years, and certainly, whenever he mentioned a previous visit to Inverness, someone was ready to shout out where it had been[4].
Another good night.
[1]Mum's actually got one of his albums, but I'd not listened to it. I need to start listening to Mum's old folk albums more.
[2]The origin, which he explained, is that when Geronimo surrendered, and was sent to the reservation, he was given a Caddy. There's apparently a photograph of Geronimo and his family in the Cadillac; what it doesn't show you is that it didn't have any wheels, because where was he going to go?
Gaughan also mentioned another picture, which he was sent as a T-shirt, showing Geronimo and two other Native American warriors. The T-shirt has the caption "DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Protecting against terrorism since 1492".
[3]Named after the One Touch dyalisis machine invented by Inverness Medical, who contributed to the refurbishment. No, really.
[4]The favourite story seemed to be one concert when a fight broke out while he was singing "Both Sides The Tweed". "There I am, singing about peace and harmony, and there they are, in the front row, kicking hell out of each other!"
(Because of this, I'd somehow managed to get the idea that he was of the Hamish Henderson/Ewan MacColl generation. He's not; he's the same age as my Mum, which makes me about thirty years out. Whoops.)
Apart from the age thing, that impression was more or less accurate. Except ... his music isn't that traditional. His songs are, what he does to them isn't. Since I'm not a muso, I don't know how to describe it, but forget the "three chords and the truth" thing; he makes his guitar do stuff I thought only fiddles could do. And since they're mostly protest songs, he sings them in a rather strident way (even when they aren't protest songs), and with a unique cadance (so even his versions of other people's songs, including Burns, comes across as distinctly Dick Gaughan). It's pretty awesome.
And the songs themselves are really good. Unlike, say, Dougie Maclean (who, while he clearly feels strongly about injustice, writes songs that are about it in a rather abstract way) Dick Gaughan is angry, he knows exactly why he's angry, and he's going to tell you why you should be angry too. "Whatever Happened?" is a great example, about the people from his generation who stopped being angry. "Shipwreck" was another good one, about a rich man who finds himself on a desert island, where his money and power are no good. He said it wasn't actually about Donald Trump in particular, but that it could be. He added that Trump should get some sort of Scottish History award. "Here's a man who's heard about the Clearances, and thought 'What a good idea'."
But I think my favourite was "No Gods (And Precious Few Heroes)" (which I've previously heard Ian McGillevary do), which gets angry about how Scotland's romantic past is used to manipulate us, and we let it happen. I've always been a bit suspicious of Scottish romanticism, but never been able to put into words why (except that I think Bonnie Prince Charlie was a bit of a pillock).
He also did a few instrumentals; two hornpipes and a lament for the Irish Rebellion. The lament was an instrumental, he explained, because the Irish words are beautiful, but he can't speak the language well enough to do them justice, and he won't sing the English worlds because they're sentimentalist nonsense. "Guess which set of words became popular?"
There was only one "and everyone join in the chorus" song, which he finished with (except, of course, he didn't, he responded to cries for an encore with "The Fair Flower of Northumberland"). As Mum pointed out afterwards, a side-effect of the abovementioned cadance is that it's usually quite hard to join in the chorus. This one wasn't quite as tricky as the others; it was Michael Martin Murphy's "Geronimo's Cadillac", and the chorus was "Oh boys, take me back / I want to ride in Geronimo's cadillac"[2].
The concert was in Eden Court's One Touch Theatre[3], which is a smaller venue than the main Playhouse Theatre, and IMO, just right for standup and folk music, with its wooden stage and metal balcony. (If the bar was at the back of the auditorium, instead of down a corridor, it could easily be an Edinburgh Fringe venue.) Gaughin joked that he'd probably known half the audience for years, and certainly, whenever he mentioned a previous visit to Inverness, someone was ready to shout out where it had been[4].
Another good night.
[1]Mum's actually got one of his albums, but I'd not listened to it. I need to start listening to Mum's old folk albums more.
[2]The origin, which he explained, is that when Geronimo surrendered, and was sent to the reservation, he was given a Caddy. There's apparently a photograph of Geronimo and his family in the Cadillac; what it doesn't show you is that it didn't have any wheels, because where was he going to go?
Gaughan also mentioned another picture, which he was sent as a T-shirt, showing Geronimo and two other Native American warriors. The T-shirt has the caption "DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Protecting against terrorism since 1492".
[3]Named after the One Touch dyalisis machine invented by Inverness Medical, who contributed to the refurbishment. No, really.
[4]The favourite story seemed to be one concert when a fight broke out while he was singing "Both Sides The Tweed". "There I am, singing about peace and harmony, and there they are, in the front row, kicking hell out of each other!"
