Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Pipes

I like all kinds of music... all kinds, even, as Elenka calls it, the wretched stuff that sometimes emanates from the pipes like these. I can get goosebumps when a stirring rendition of some well known tune is played. I have even been known to get them listening to punk-rocking renditions of  Dropkick Murphy tunes like "The Worker". I'm sure, 'my better half' will chime in soon and share her utter disdain for the music. As a matter of fact, she'll call into question, I'm sure, whether blowing into these bags and the sound that issues forth is music at all. I try to convince her that it's a beautiful sound when played expertly. I also mention to her that my Irish roots probably has something to do with my love of the sound. 
She ain't buying it though, as you'll hear soon.
Great knees, a killer tartan kilt, a sporran to die for and a pipe band playing in a parade or celebrating in a pub... there might not be a finer thing.
Don't try to convince me otherwise.
It'll be a losing battle.
I say, just 'walk away Renee'.
Come to think of it---
That might be a killer song to hear on the pipes

20 comments:

  1. I love the sound of these pipes! ;)
    Léia

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  2. These sounds transport you to the mountains!

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  3. I'm not biting.....

    FYI.... I'd rather listen to nails on a chalkboard.

    :-)

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  4. That's a nice shot.
    I guess one either loves or hates the sound.
    I mostly associated bagpipes with "Amazing Grace" at funerals. But here the Christian Arab Scouts march through the Old City of Jerusalem playing bagpipes on holidays, like just now on Palm Sunday.

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  5. Saw Dropkick Murphy at House Of Blues, Boston, couple years ago over St. Paddy's Day .... had as part of the show a fabulous bagpipe section, not my usual cup of tea in music. Nonetheless, a great show and time had.

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  6. i have no irish roots and i love the sound of pipes played well. sorry, e, i'm with the bird on this one.

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  7. To each his own. The only good pipes so far as I'm concerned are those you can smoke! :)

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  8. i marvel at the skill to play the bag. and i like their sound a lot!

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  9. I have to admit, they can be quite captivating.

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  10. I love the Bag Pipes! It's very difficult to play - and impressive too, when you watch their neck muscles working so hard. "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" was our wedding song - we had a quartet group sing it a cappella. The Tenor transposed and arranged the song specially for us :) Sigh. Now I have to go listen to that song. I'm not Irish but...go Irish!!

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  11. Bag pipes are a tradition that makes many folks proud. -- barbara

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  12. My cousin took up the pipes a few years ago and she loves the whole culture surrounding them - she now marches in parades and goes to festivals. It must be the irish in her too!

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  13. You're in a feisty mood today, mm?

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  14. I'm with you, B-man. I love love love the pipes. Hartford has a festival called Pipes in the Valley and I love it. The top band performing in the festival is Red Hot Chili Pipers, very cool. (And my daughter played in a high school garage band with one of the guys who now performs with Dropkick Murphy.)

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  15. I respect the bagpipes. I love another maligned instrument: the accordion.

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  16. This is one instrument I can do without.

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  17. I wouldn't try Just Walk Away Renee for starters. I don't think bagpipes can play the whole chromatic scale. Maybe We Are The Champions.

    Like your wife, I find bagpipes mostly painful but there are exceptions. If you've ever heard The Lone Piper play Auld Lang Syne from the highest parapet of Edinburgh Castle...

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  18. You don't have to convince me Birdman, I love a man in a kilt AND the bagpipes, but I am a Scot by birth so that may have something to do with it :)

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