I missed the national poetry day and consequently this addition is very late and apologies for that. It's a Tuesday lunchtime collection of songs based on poems in their own right. surprisingly, there are lots of candidates but these 3 are hand-picked by me because I have them in my own music collection and more importantly, they are excellent re-workings of already beautiful poems.
I toyed with the likes of Staggerlee but I recall I have that already on my blog somewhere and I wanted a more traditional poem as the starting point.
First up is Christine Tobin's 'The Wild Swans at Coole' from her 'Sailing to Byzantium' album - a concept album based around the poems of W.B. Yeats. I confess I hadn't read the poem prior to hearing this track but she's done an excellent job of interpreting a stunning poem. I did originally want to have her take on 'The White Birds' but sadly I can't find it on the web to stream.
I can't have music based on poetry without mentioning Jah Wobble, a man who has not been afraid to go back to the classics as a source of inspiration. If you have never heard Jah Wobble wax lyrical about Blake's poetry then you are in for a treat. It's sublime.
The final song will put a smile on your face for sure. I've always loved this Muppets interpretation of A.A. Milne's 'Halfway Down The Stair' since I first heard it as the b-side to my brother's 7 inch copy of 'Ma Na Ma Na'. Don't let the puppets fool you into thinking it's just nonsense, I love how subversive the Muppets were in their musical interpretations. Ground-breaking for sure.
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