It takes a positive touch!
I was recently introduced to a band that featured the use of the bagpipes in the lead guitar role. The person who played me multiple tracks from this record, although dear to me, neglected to let me know that the band also showcased the didgeridoo.
This band struck me as WRONG on so many levels. For the sake of research for The Hall, I looked for this band on YouTube and unfortunately found several videos. They showcased a kilt-wearing, tush-shaking player of bagpipes. The didgeridoo player (who also wore a kilt) doubled as the keyboardist. There were black puffy sneakers and an obliquely designed band logo. There was a rendition of “Amazing Grace.” Lord help me if any of the videos depicted a World Music Iwo Jima.
I’m a bit concerned that I’m becoming overly closed-minded in my advancing age. Bagpipes: they can sound festive, they can sound plaintive, they can sound weird. But in general, when part of guitar/bass/drums combo, they sound (to me) very, very out of place.
This band got me to thinking: Are there rock songs when a bagpipe or didgeridoo is used to positive effect?
Paul McCartney used bagpipes to useful effect once, but “Mull of Kintyre” isn’t exactly a rock song.
Remember the ’80s band Big Country and their signature song “In a Big Country”? Their gimmick was guitars that sounded like bagpipes.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1032u_big-country-in-a-big-country_music
The Church’s “Under the milky way” has a bagpipe which i think works pretty well. My mother has played the bagpipes since i was in high school in the late 80’s and so I’ve heard a lot of piping in my time. It’s a fairly limited instrument in that it has no dynamic range, just “really, really loud” and it can pretty much only play in one key, which with highland pipes I think is somewhere between B and B-flat.
So where I can see using digeridoo (my dad has two of these as well, I come from a weird and noisy house) or bagpipe in a song or two, especially if you had maybe a chamber pipe or uileann pipes, I think unless you’re playing traditional music, the gimmick is going to get old pretty fast.
However, having said this, I bet my parents would like this band, who are they?
Big Country did come to mind with the oft-mentioned “guitars that sound like bagpipes”. I don’t really hear it. Their guitar tone was unusual, and they got good unique mileage from using the e-bow and octave pitch doublers, but I never got the feeling of bagpipes. Their first album is really good beyond their one-hit-wonderness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnVcItVybI0
I was thinking that there was a tasteful and not at all annoying use of digeridoo somewhere in a Midnight Oil song, but when I flipped thru my iTunes library to find what I was hearing in my head, it’s the song “Bullroarer” (from the mighty Diesel and Dust) which I just now discovered uses a bullroarer, which is an aboriginal instrument/communication device that makes a whirring sound by slinging a wooden aerofoil around in a circle at the end of a rope! It creates a sort of rhythmic helicopter blade sound that kicks off the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX1UGCIw0qI
The band is called “Brother.” They play the highland games circuits. I really wanted to call this post, “Oh Brother.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1iR2Wi3u5o AC/DC. ‘Nuff said.
I can’t believe I’m the first person to mention “It’s a Long Way to the Top if You Wanna Rock and Roll” by AC/DC. Yes, that really was Bon Scott playing the bagpipes. And it works!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy0I9WKWp44
See #4.
Well done, bostonhistorian and hrrundivbakshi.
Mr. Royale also suggested “Biko” by Peter Gabriel. Votes on that?
I keep thinking someone like Celibate Rifles used one of these instruments, but I can’t find evidence.
With rock’s ability to incorporate drones it’s surprising that few have made great use of these instruments, the way people have used the sitar. Maybe after the harp has its day in the rock ‘n roll sun one of these instruments will play an intergral role in a newer band’s music.
I don’t like much Peter Gabriel, but that’s a good song and a good entry in this discussion.
Bagpipes or didg as a textural feature of a song is one thing. The bagpipes as a lead instrument? I would have to take that on a case by case basis. In other words it would be wrong in every case.
What do you think about the intro of Led Zeppelin’s “In the Light”? We were debating about whether that is a synth or a bagpipe.
We had also thought that bagpipes would be used as a drone but can’t find evidence.
The intro to “In the Light” is a hurdy gurdy. I always heard it with a beer-bottle slide, but I just can’t imagine Page or Jones dressing as a leprechaun.
The Australian band Outback is a listenable world/AOR-type didg band from the 80s/90s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg3B57pm85Y
The hippies and ravers got ahold of the didg about 20 years ago, cementing the rock-didg non-legacy.
As much as I’ve half-heartedly wanted to learn the instrument, I’ve pretty much left bagpipes with jazz-weirdo Rufus Harley.
It’s a combination of a synth and a bowed acoustic guitar, according to Wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Light
Funny, I got my corroboration from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recordings_featuring_the_hurdy_gurdy
The Upper Crust’s “We’re Finished With Finishing School” starts with a fine bagpipe intro — replicated here on guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YIRgeUuAhA