Earworms 29 April 2024

Antonio appears in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and other plays, although I can find no reference to the ice cream cart.

Good evening, and welcome to your dramatic choice of music referencing the sonnets and characters from Shakespeare. “If music be the food of love, play on!” (Twelfth Night).

If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an .mp3, .m4a or a link to adempster73@gmail.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be bridges – viaducts, aqueducts, flyovers, links, spans, musical bridges, reparations. Even the one over troubled water, if you can’t think of anything else. Worms should reach me by close of play on Sunday 5 May.

Many thanks to all contributors – “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none”. (All’s Well That Ends Well).

Hossam Ramzy – Cleopatra – glassarfemptee: The late Egyptian musician Hossam Ramzy was the original “Sultan of Swing”, wiki tells me. Here he is rocking the casbah.

Vanessa Williams – Sister Moon – severin: Vanessa sings Sting who briefly (mis) quotes Sonnet no 130 “My Mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun”. But Shakespeare’s sonnet is not the romantic item that this song turns out to be. You wouldn’t thank a lover who sung or recited the original words to you.

The Duke Ellington Orchestra – Such Sweet Thunder – Fintan28: The Duke and Billy Strayhorn channelled their mutual fondness for the Bard into a whole album in 1957. This is the title track and references Hippolyta in A Midsummer’s Night Dream. “I never heard / So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.” Yeah. William could swing.

Lou Reed – Romeo Had Juliette – shoegazer: A west-side story.

Milk’n Blues featuring Zé Rodrigo – Mercy – DebbyM: Brazilian cover band discovered on YouTube. From The Merchant of Venice: ‘The quality of mercy is not strained…’

Loudon Wainwright III – Prince Hal’s Dirge (Live) – severin: Like my previous LW3 contribution this is the live version from a live album recorded for radio broadcast. I used to have much better renditions of both songs on a cassette tape recorded from a John Peel session but can’t find it now and couldn’t send it in anyway. Prince Hal appears in Henry IV parts one and two.

Grateful Dead – Althea – Chris7572: This literary mash-up from Robert Hunter references Ophelia directly and quotes phrases from the play but the protagonist definitely has the tortured, lost soul of Hamlet.

Dire Straits – Romeo And Juliet – Fintan28: I love everything about this song. The guitar is exquisite, The timing impeccable. And its sense of the theatrical sublime. But mostly I love Juliet calling out “Hey, la, my boyfriend’s back”. Lovely.

Michael and the Messengers – Romeo and Juliet – glassarfemptee: Sixties band Michael and the Messengers sing “Our love’s gonna be written down in history, just like Romeo and Juliet”.

Cream – Tales of Brave Ulysses – DebbyM: Ulysses is part of the Grecian camp in Troilus & Cressida (I looked it up!) Disraeli Gears is one of my favourite albums ever and I don’t know why I haven’t listened to it lately.

Original Broadway Cast of Hair – What A Piece Of Work Is Man – Fintan28: Employing Hamlet in the Anti Vietnam War movement was an easy stretch.

Nico – Julius Caesar (Memento Hodie) – severin: “Kind and calm, Julius lies, for Octavian to prevail”. I’m sure he didn’t choose to lay down his life out of kindness to the next guy in line, but I suppose the bit about being calm was accurate at that point.

Cécile McLorin Salvant – Ghost Song – DebbyM: I’ll take any excuse to listen to this singer. There are plenty of ghosts in Shakespeare (Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cymbeline, Richard III, shall I stop there?), so here we go. I was lucky enough to attend a recent Cécile McLorin Salvant concert, where she was performing a sort of jazz opera called Ogresse and it was hauntingly beautiful (see what I did there?)

Bella Hardy – Sleeping Beauty – Suzi: The reference comes right at the end of the song, quoting a famous line spoken by Lady Macbeth.

Natalie Merchant – Ophelia – DebbyM: Any excuse to shoehorn Natalie Merchant in!

Barclay James Harvest – Lady Macbeth – glassarfemptee: “Something wicked this way comes”, sing Barclay James Harvest on this track from ‘Welcome To The Show’ (1990).

Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon – Sigh No More – DebbyM: From the original soundtrack of Much Ado About Nothing, Joss Whedon’s keeping things in the family (this is his brother and sister-in-law).

The Sonnets & Cara Dillon – Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day? – tincanman: In about 2012 Northern Ireland folkie Cara Dillon gathered some friends to put Shakespeare’s Sonnets to music, with a twist. The arrangements are modern but are played solely on period instruments borrowed from museums and private collections.

Main playlist, blurbs above:

YouTube playlist, blurbs below:

Babes In Toyland – Fair Is Foul & Foul Is Fair – MaggieB: By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.🧙🧙🧙🧹

Queen – Fat Bottomed Girls – LongTallSilly: I couldn’t ignore Bottom, a great comic character who stumbles about the Dream.

Van Morrison – For Mr Thomas – LongTallSilly: And Sir John Falstaff makes an appearance here. No doubt the worse for drink!

Elbow – The Bones of You – LongTallSilly: Great track by Elbow, who of course appears in Measure for Measure!

Pink Floyd – Astronomy Domine – LongTallSilly: Obviously what brought the subject to mind. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of my favourite plays.

Lindisfarne – Lady Eleanor – AliM: Eleanor, the Duchess of Gloucester in Henry VI part 2, ends up being banished for consulting a witch about the future. Seems a bit harsh in the days of crystals and Mystic Meg.

Roy Harper – Francesca – AliM: Francisca is a nun in Measure for Measure – well, it’s close enough for me.

Katzenjammer – Lady Grey – AliM: In Henry VI part 3, Lady Grey marries Edward after the death of her husband, and later becomes Queen. But of course it’s not that straightforward. (Pinched from severin).

Joni Mitchell – Michael from Mountains – AliM: Sir Michael is a rebel in Henry IV part 1.

Jethro Tull – Moths – AliM: Moth is a fairy of Titania’s court, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Dave Evans – Lady Portia – AliM: Portia is a powerful heiress in The Merchant of Venice. She also dresses up as a (male) lawyer and wins her case against Shylock which is where “The quality of mercy is not strained…” comes in, as mentioned by DebbyM. Lady Portia is also the name of Dave Evans’ cat.

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