Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

You cannot shame the shameless.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

I really should read my own blog.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2018 / I Took All of His Money and I Brought it Home to Jenny

I Took All of His Money and I Brought it Home to Jenny

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My aim is to create thoughtful, interesting, high minded and unique music criticism here. And so, in that spirit, here’s my top four songs with guitars that sound like bagpipes!

1. In a Big Country – Big Country (1983)
2. Whiskey in the Jar – Thin Lizzy (1973)
3. Under the Milky Way – The Church (1988)
4. Run Runaway -Slade (1983)

 We can see that there is quite a spike in guitars that sound like bagpipes in 1983. “In a Big Country” is the best of the bunch, imo. Great pop song but I note that it owes a debt to its Hibernian cousin recorded ten years before. It seems we just accepted what was put before us in music videos in the early days. Were we just not picky about plot and continuity? I can’t for the life of me puzzle out what’s going on here.

Ach, the skirling! My real name is comically Scottish and I actually took bagpipe lessons around the time I took up the guitar. There are a loads of crazy grace notes you have to learn in order to play traditional Highland pipes. I remember one of the graces was called the “Bubbly D.” And that’s about all I remember. Had things turned out a little differently…I’m pretty sure I still would have stuck with the guitar.

I’m quite busy this afternoon cleaning the house from top to bottom because we are hosting a phone banking party. For whom, I am unsure. There’s a lot of campaigns swirling around our little group right now. Do you want to help a campaign? Well, you’ve come to the right thermometer because this here one is for the fund that’s split between all eventual Democratic nominees in House districts currently held by Republicans.

Goal Thermometer

Reader Interactions

53Comments

  1. 1.

    MJS

    Hey! I know the lyric reference! Not quite a first for me, but pretty close. Although I immediately thought of the Metallica version.

  2. 2.

    No Drought No More

    A guy parks his car on a street, leaving his accordion in the back seat. Returning to the car later, he sees that a rear window has been shattered and broken wide open. He rushes to see what has been stolen, but to his surprise sees only a second accordion laying next to his own…

  4. 4.

    Fair Economist

    Boy that was a flashback! I thought it was pretty neat to make the guitars sound like bagpipes. My guess for how it works is that the bagpipes are tuned to a different scale than 12-tone equal so it’s probably a matter of pitchbending to that scale.

    edit: that video plot was fairly off even by the standards of the time. IIRC there were mostly fairly obvious plots or visual montages that obviously weren’t really supposed to have a plot. This wasn’t the only one that tried to have a plot and failed, though.

  6. 6.

    kmeyer the lurker

    I believe the tone produced in “In a Big Country” was achieved using an Ebow. I honestly thought it was bagpipes for years.

  8. 8.

    Jewish Steel

    @Fair Economist: If I remember this correctly, the bagpipe chanter is tuned to one diatonic scale (do re mi etc). So if you want to change keys you must play modally. That means one of your scale degrees will be flat or sharp. That works out just fine since so much folk music is modal.

  9. 9.

    PaulWartenberg

    True story: the piper on the Normandy beaches, Bill Millin – was able to talk to German prisoners to find out why nobody shot him when he was walking around on a battlefield in full view of everyone. The Germans all said they didn’t want to shoot him because they’d thought he’d gone mad.

  11. 11.

    Jewish Steel

    @No Drought No More: I recruited an accordion player into my last band. He was great! I didn’t get him up to Pogues speed, but if he hadn’t moved to Minneapolis to join an anarchist collective we might have gotten there. These things happen.

  14. 14.

    Mike J

    @Jewish Steel: The great thing about punk scenes is willingness to experiment. You can go to any town in the US and somebody is going to remember there being a band who had a friend who played clarinet in the high school marching band and they threw it in for at least one song. Or maybe it was grandma’s lap harp. That band usually didn’t become the biggest draw in their town, but everybody knew them and thought they were fun to hang with,

  15. 15.

    Jewish Steel

    @Mike J: For sure. Back when we fancied ourselves a punk band we did “The Grey Funnel Line” with a Moog, a bowed guitar and two classical singers. People definitely remembered that show.

  16. 16.

    xjmuellerlurks

    Isn’t the bagpipe sound in Copperhead Road by Steve Earle a distorted guitar? I couldn’t verify it, but saw an interesting video on how to do it.

  17. 17.

    Fair Economist

    @Jewish Steel: The article I linked claims that the “bagpipe scale” is an idiosyncratic one with ratios like 9:5, plus it uses a perfect 7th harmonic, which isn’t in the diatonic scale, either equal or just. So it’s unique, which is why it’s distinctive. It also says there’s not just one scale and there are variations in how it’s tuned, which sounds right to me.

  18. 18.

    Jewish Steel

    @Fair Economist: Very interesting! I remember Richard Thompson saying that the seventh scale degree, sharp or flat, is a matter of personal taste in Celtic music. This must have been what he was talking about.

  22. 22.

    Suzanne

    I don’t have much to add here, except I think “Under the Milky Way” is the best song you listed up there by far.

  24. 24.

    Jewish Steel

    @Cap’n Phealy: Fields of Fire is great too.

    @Suzanne: The “bagpipe” solo is the best of the lot. On that I could agree. I wanted to hear more great songs from The Church. I bought this album. I remember being disappointed.

  28. 28.

    BluegirlFromWyo

    My spousal unit plays this over and over at his 14-hour long St. Patrick’s Day gig. March is coming quick!

  31. 31.

    EveryDayIHaveTheBlues

    @Jewish Steel:
    Cool sound! I’ve never heard that before. I have an 89 Stratocaster and am saving up to get a Les Paul. Ahh it haunts my dreams…

    Can one make a (sharp, twangy single-pickup) Strat sound like a (warm, humbucking) Les Paul? If so, how?

    Sorry, I’m not familiar with any of these songs. Still stuck on the blues and classic rock of the good ole days…

  32. 32.

    khead

    My friends and I really beat “Under The Milky Way” to death on road trip that spring/summer. First year of college. Copperhead Road the next year in our first apartment. Good times.

  36. 36.

    John Revolta

    @Jewish Steel: Yeah, that’s meself. Don’t tell efgoldman- he hates the pipes!

    I took a couple years off to attend to family stuff and I’m rebuilding the band as we speak (or, type). In fact I’m glad this came up because I just rebuilt the website and I’ve been wanting the jackals here to give it a once-over and offer suggestions.

  37. 37.

    ThresherK

    I have a pile of Big Country albums and miss Stuart dearly. Right behind The Crossing I’d put The Seer, e-bow bagpipe sound or not.

    Now I’ll have to listen to the other items listed. If anyone wants to know where BC came from, check out The Skids.

  41. 41.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Jewish Steel: I get all of this, but only because I’m a diatonic harmonica player – nothing serious just purely recreational. Thankfully they are cheap so buying 12 so you can play in any key is till not a lot of cash, and frankly you don’t need every key anyway – only 4-5 get most of the use. My dad bought a nice recorder – (the wind instrument, not a recording device, and also a diatonic instrument) – which was not cheap – and was disappointed after the fact that he couldn’t play to any song that wasn’t in the key he bought it in.

  43. 43.

    JimV

    In my old Folk Singers songbook, the song is called “Gilgarra Mountain” and it starts

    As I was goin’
    over Gilgarra Mountain,
    I spied Colonel Farrel
    and his money he was countin’.
    First I drew me pistol.
    then I drew me rapier,
    Sayin’, stand and deliver
    for I am your bold deceiver!
    Musha a ringa duram daw,
    Wac fo the dairy-oo,
    Wac fo the dairy-oo, there’s whiskey in the jar.

    Well, he counted out his money,
    and it made a pretty penny.
    I put it in me pocket,
    to take home to darlin’ Jenny.
    Who sighed and swore she loved me,
    and never would deceive me.
    but the devil take the women
    for they always lie so easy.
    …
    That’s circa 1960 or so. It sounds like more recent covers have changed the wording. I like the original better, but what do I know?

  44. 44.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Jewish Steel: “reptile” was great (less so when covered by my college band), but Starfish was not their best album.

    “Just for you” and “into my hands” are great earlier songs (again, less so when covered by my college band).

  46. 46.

    xjmuellerlurks

    @Jewish Steel:
    Nothing I’ve been able to find about the tune references uilleane pipes. The bagpipe sound is apparently a synth. It does sound sorta keyboardy. I checked liner notes and there were no citations for any kind of wind instrument other than a tin whistle.

  47. 47.

    MoxieM

    @PaulWartenberg: Dropkick Murphys? Mighty Mighty Bosstones? Kenne Highland (Jonny & the Jumper Cables anong others) Helloooo?? Not many Bosstown rockers around these parts. Bagpipe is to a certain strain of Bosstown rock as green puke is to St Patrick’s Day.

  48. 48.

    JustRuss

    I always thought it was obvious the Big Country pipes were guitars, but never realized that was true for Under the Milky Way.

  49. 49.

    M. Bouffant

    @Raven: Saw them at the Eagle’s Auditorium in Seattle in, I guess, ’69. Opened for Chicago Transit Authority (later Chicago). And you’re right, that was the lineup, per the Wiki.

  50. 50.

    Miss Bianca

    @MJS: Which Metallica’s version is so close to Thin Lizzy’s that it sounds like karaoke to me. Love ’em both, but Thin Lizzy’s was the original.

    @Jewish Steel: Uh…that would be very weird indeed.

  51. 51.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Fair Economist: Diatonic harmonicas are tuned to the 8 note Diatonic scale rather than the full 12 note chromatic scale. Basically they only have whole notes, no sharps or flats, and they only have two and change octaves. Certain notes can be “bent” which allows the player to lower the pitch a half note to get some sharps and flats. Bent notes are used frequently in blues and rock.

    Each harmonica is in a key, each key plays the Diatonic scale in that key. Basically that means the doe rae me scale. C is technically the only doe rae me scale with no sharps or flats. So on a C harmonica if you start on A and play each note sequentially the half notes (B to C and E to F are half notes) fall in the wrong places on the scale. This is called Aeolian mode. D to D is Dorian. They’re known as minor keys and have a plaintive quality. E.g. Greensleeves/What child is this is either Aeolian or Dorian, I can’t remember which.

  52. 52.

    Ramalama

    @ThresherK: I do, too. I loved Big Country with Stuart as head man. They opened for Roger Daltry in Boston way long ago. I bought a scalped ticket, rocked out to Big Country. Was amused that they called “Chance” a love song. Left when Daltry came on stage. Part of it was the guy sitting next to me, bragging about his exterminator business (a subtle come on). But I just didn’t want Roger Daltry to mess with my Big Country buzz.

    Also, I listened to an interview with the producer for the Big Country album, The Crossing – Steve Lillywhite. He was being interviewed by Jay Mohr, and Mohr was trying to get Lillywhite to talk about his more popular/famous bands that he worked with. And Lillywhite said the album that he worked on that he’s most proud of was… The Crossing. I was high fiving my ipod. Mohr sounded as if he were let down. Big Country, really?

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