The Evangelical Universalist Forum

The Song of A Baker

Studies Poetry
#1

That 80’s music thread; hmmmm it cramps style by being limited to a low dishonest decade :smiley:

Here’s gentle and artless mystical lyric by a sweet and sensitive little guy named Ronnie Lane – he is both baker and bread for the oven of the Messianic Feast here (it’s full of the tropes of mystical paradox)

There’s wheat in the field
And water in the stream
And salt in the mine
And an aching in me

I can no longer stand and wonder
'Cos I’m driven by this hunger
So I’ll jug some water
Bake some flour
Store some salt and wait the hour

While I’m thinking of love
Love is thinking for me
And the baker will come
And the baker I’ll be

I am depending on my labour
The texture and the flavour
So I’ll jug some water
Bake some flour
Store some salt and wait the hour

You can watch it being performed as a song here (if you so wish).

youtube.com/watch?v=8jYgctXpajs

The music isn’t completely gentle. Ronnie Lane was in the Small Faces – the king pin Mod band. In this video they are mid way between mod and hippy – what was called being ‘velvet mods’ – a slippery slope boys :laughing: .

The video with its very 60s cut glass English presenter is quite charming – and even people who speak posh in the UK (like me) no longer speak like this -. If you have some patience, give it a watch from beginning to end as a sort of museum piece.
(And through I am old – I’m too young to have remembered this show – it was on way past my bed time :_D)
Dick the Dinosaur

#2

Hey! I’ve got a song! :smiley: It can be the family bakery’s official anthem.:smiley:

Or maybe I’ll just sing it while I bake bread, because I always talk aloud or sing while I bake (if no one’s home :wink: :laughing: !)

#3

YEs of course Kate - why didn’t; I think of you. The Small Faces weren’t well known in the USA. They couldn’t be bothered to tour outside the UK. But little Ronnie and little Steve are remembered fondly here (they are both dead - not through drugs I might add and both dies tragically young). Don’t know about you but I think Steve’ idea of having decade based music threads is great! I hope that when and if dear Johnny returns he could tell us all about Dylan and the Beatles in context on a 60’s music thread for example - and then he save his theological brilliance for his theological brilliance which has been such an inspiration to many here.

Anyway back to the Small Faces - but I realise there will be limited interest here with so many hippies :laughing: Here’s their other mystical song from their last album - that for some reason some people get all thrilled at hearing (while others prefer Stairway to Heaven which is not my cuppa - not least because it seems didactic but actually doesn’t mean anything - but there’s no accounting for taste). It’s about the human soul and God the lover and the beloved and is called Afterglow. Funnily enough the video comes with a slightly daft and vaguely idolatrous statement from Paul Weller the mod revivalist - och well I like Paul but he’s misinterpreted the song.

youtube.com/watch?v=aueUFhC3Ktg

#4

Those are awesome lyrics, Dick! :smiley:

Kate and I were just discussing bakeries and that, plus the addition of music made me think of this song by Van Morrison with the line “the smell of the bakery from across the street–got in my nose.” Anyway, I really love this song and there’s some obvious symbolism from Morrison, sometimes known as a “Christian mystic.” I think the philosophy in this song is a good way to live. :wink: Here are the lyrics:

and here’s the song…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYyVxQgnhDo

#5

That’s’ a lovely song and great lyrics - and you know something - I really like van Morrison when he is true to his roots. He was great as the alder singer in Them. :smiley:

#6

Yes, it*** is*** about his roots which gives it a lot of charm and depth, I think. I had to look up what “Paris buns” are, though… Do they eat those in London, too?

By the way, I really loved the Small Faces song. As I mentioned those lyrics with that music is brilliant! :smiley:

#7

youtu.be/MS5-YJacjaI

There’s a wonder of sunset and evening
The wonder of sunrise I see
But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
Is the wonder that God loves me

#8

That’s sweet Cole - what a dear old boy. He looks a bit like Stan ‘the man’ Unwin at the close of the ‘Song of a Baker Video -’ Are you all sitting comftybold two square on your botties?’ - tat master of goobledygook as the posh man calls him :laughing:

#9

Hey Dick!

I’m glad you like it buddy. It’s one of my faves.

#10

Hi Dick, :smiley:

Just listening to the song again and, it really reminded me of Neil Young. The very deep/ symbolic/intelligent lyrics with the progressive (for the time) powerful, mod/rock music. I see much of the same in Young’s music at least in the “Live Rust” era. (I posted the link to “Powderfinger” from that album awhile back.) Hmmm…poetry combined with powerful modern music, not a bad combination. :smiley:

Also, to get back to an earlier question related to the Van Morrison song, are “Paris Buns” something you’ve had, and if so, are they any good? ARE WE MISSING OUT! :confused: :laughing:

Steve

#11

Just came across this video(from a movie apparently) of The Small Faces with Kiki Dee (Famous for “Don’t go Breaking My Heart” with Elton John). I suspect Dick would like it ( and may have seen it). My impressions….Kiki Dee=“Hot” :laughing: The Small Faces… better than the Beatles at that point (1965), (less pop, more soul). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4wkgHCBXWo

#12

I like Kikki Dee - yes I do - very much so. She was around for a long time before Don’t Go Breaking my heart and did the backing vocals on lots of top sixties records with another fine singer the black girl Madeline Bell :smiley: She has a very distinctive and charming voice. Why do I know this stuff!!! :laughing: Well I guess it’s history of sorts :laughing: :laughing: Like me :laughing: :laughing:

Here’s an early one from Van the man and another one of the Small Faces in action

youtube.com/watch?v=VMmayzzw3us

youtube.com/watch?v=__7kXiAlIt0

#13

Now here’s a big UK hit from the late sixties with both Kikki Dee and Madeline Bell doing the backing vocals. Its a mod band - Love Affair – doing a cover of the American Mowtown standard ‘Everlasting Love’.

youtube.com/watch?v=WZLQr7vMqRA

Kate tells me that London voices from the sixties singing soul sound kind of nasal and tinny. Och well there’s no pleasing the young :smiley:

#14

Maybe it’s the quality of the recordings at that time…? :confused:
This isn’t from the 60’s, but it’s British (well Irish) and it’s soul…The Commitments with “Take Me to the River.” :smiley: (I love that movie!) youtube.com/watch?v=svdmgux-y2E

And here’s Kiki Dee and Elton John doing a cheesy lip sync to “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” I really love her overall thing she’s wearing and her haircut. So 70’s! http://vimeo.com/55344078

#15

Another controversial opinion of mine is that I’m not a great Elton John fan – but I really like this song - because he’s singing with Kiki Dee (and it brings back some happy memories for me) and she does look so sweet in her pink dungarees !!!

The Commitments rendering is pretty good and sounds slightly van Morrison. But credit where credit is due :wink: Here’s the majestic original from Souls Train USA (dig those Afros!!!)

youtube.com/watch?v=ngrXi5Dwk2I

Yours nasally

Trendy old Dick :smiley:

#16

Well, I guess that makes two of us. :wink: I like this song as well—not the least of which being that I would sing along with it in the car (in a cracked falsetto for the high-parts) making my kids laugh (and cringe.) :laughing:

That’s the best version, Dick! :smiley: I can’t believe how many bands have covered that song, but there’s nothing like the original. We’ll have to get around to James Brown, “the Godfather of Soul” before long… :wink:

#17

Hey - Soul brother!!! :smiley: :laughing:

#18

Oh, come on Dick, Elton John Rocks man! I love Elton John!

#19

Now, don’t judge me here, but I just realized a few weeks ago that Elton John is British! :laughing: :open_mouth:

Seriously, I live under a rock. :laughing:

The “tinny” voices of 60’s UK singers remind me alot of Sonny Bono, especially when he sings “I Got You Babe” with Cher. I think the accent might not quite so much be a “British thing” as a “sixties thing.”

Anyway, that little duet with Sonny and Cher is one of my all-time favorites, because I can remember the countless times belting to it in the car with my mom.:slight_smile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BERd61bDY7k

Edited: Steve helped me embedded the video, so problem solved! :smiley: Thanks, Steve! :smiley:

#20

OK, Dick, here’s the “Godfather of Soul” aka the “Hardest Working Man in Showbusiness!” in 1968. :wink: ( I love his dancing BTW!) First, here’s a link to a very young Eddie Murphy doing a skit called “James Brown’s Celebrity Hot Tub Party” from Saturday Night Live. :laughing: dailymotion.com/video/xf6m_james-brown-celebrity-hottub_music