Showing posts with label jay ungar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jay ungar. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

One Song


Everybody has one song.

I'm not saying they only have one song, but there's one that seers their heart. They probably don't even know what song it is until they hear it on the radio.

It's the rare artist who has many songs that live up to the lofty promise of a weighty career. For me, I can only name a few -- the Beatles, George Strait, Dwight Yoakam, Roy Orbison -- these are the artists who trip off my tongue.

An age-old question is, "If you were stranded on a desert island and could only possess one album (and apparently something to play it on), what would it be?" I always think, well, I'd get tired of it really fast. But if I had to choose only one album to take with me to that castaway experience, I'd most likely pick an artist whose voice soothed me (because being stranded, with no hope, on an isolated mound of terra firma could, I imagine, rapidly plunge me into a deep depression). I'd rather take a mix-tape of songs I like best, although that's not a panacea, either. Hearing the same songs ten thousand times will quickly devolve into utter hatred.

I was thinking about artists who had just one good song. If an artist has one good song, that's quite enough. That's more than the other quadrillion artists out there have ever accomplished. It's not that they were necessarily one-hit wonders -- they most likely had other songs -- but maybe they just had that one good one.

I can't possibly list all my favorite one good songs, but here are a few:


















These are some of my "ones". Kind of a lot, as I peruse them, but that's how music goes. I could write a completely separate post with my "ones". I like ones, though. I like songs -- good songs. 

I need a long-playing tape for my desert island playlist.



Friday, July 15, 2011

Ashokan Farewell


I didn't know what the name of the song was. But as I watched each installment of Ken Burns' "Civil War", that song kept playing over and over. It got so that I couldn't get the song to leave my head, especially when I lay down to try to sleep.

I'd recorded the series, and watched it in segments of time, whenever I was able. Maybe that's why. This went on for several weeks, so the song became ingrained in me. I began to look forward to hearing it, every time I'd hit the play button on my DVR. The series, I'd decided, at least for me, couldn't go forward without first playing that song.

Combined with the haunting images of the war, it made an indelible impression.

So, what's all the fuss?

I LOVE this song!

Therefore, of course, I had to search it out. Could I download it? I didn't even know the name of the song. So, I went to Amazon and searched for Civil War songs. That did NOT narrow it down. So, I then searched for "Civil War songs - Ken Burns". Better! That brought up some more likely choices. Then, all I had to do was click the preview button to find the right one.

Once I knew the actual name of the song, I wanted to know more about it. I'd thought it was an actual Civil War era song. It's not. You can read about it here.

The song was written by Jay Ungar, as a kind of Scottish lament. It's beautiful.

I downloaded it, so now I can hear it anytime I want; not just in my head.

I don't remember the last time I heard a song and thought, I love this song. It's been years. Sadly.

It may not ring a bell with you, but if you watched the series, and click on the video below, you will remember.