| Track of the Day - 7/11/2007 |
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The Handsome Family - Amelia Earhart vs. the Dancing Bear
Listen to Amelia Earhart vs. the Dancing Bear on Rhapsody
I've been good. If I had my way, I would dedicate one horror track a week to The Handsome Family. While not a band that is probably used to being slapped with the label of "horror" so readily, their dark and brooding lyrics certainly evokes that very emotion. And while the horror is often quite subtle, it is nonetheless present in most of their material. I've been good though. So far, I've only evoked their name twice before with Arlene and My Sister's Tiny Hands.
So what is stopping me? Well, aside from trying to represent horror in music in all of its incarnations and cover the wide spectrum of artists out there, I am also limited to what is available on Rhapsody. As of today, the only album available on Rhapsody by The Handsome Family is their excellent Live at Shuba's Tavern, along with a few appearances on a variety of compilations. Hopefully that will change or I will end up covering every song on that album before all is said and done. And there is a lot of priceless material by the band that didn't appear on that album. I'll take what I can get though.
Amelia Earhart vs. the Dancing Bear is a quirky title for a quirky song and is one of my favorites by the band. I'm even at work on learning the song on guitar (the studio version, not the live one which is a bit more complex). The title might not invoke the imagery of "horror." Even a quick listen to the song might fail to evoke the emotion. I'm not sure how many times I had listened to the song before I finally caught what was going on. You could call it one possible scenario in the great mystery of what happened to renowned aviator Amelia Earhart, who disappeared in 1937 while attempting to fly around the world.
Amelia, Amelia Earhart,
After her plane was torn apart and bursting through the trees
She remembered picking lemons with William Randolph Hearst
And how a spinning plane propeller turned liquid in the sun
And as the cockpit burned, her hair filled with sparks,
But when the glass exploded in, everything went dark.
Yes, Amelia Earhart vs. the Dancing Bear is about the aviator recalling moments from her life (complete with a dancing bear) as she slowly burns to death. A definitely macabre tune, yet somehow completely beautiful both lyrically and musically; pretty much a standard trademark of Handsome Family music. As most of country music is in the process of morphing into almost a subgenre of pop or rock, The Handsome Family firmly embraces its dark, sordid roots. Their music recalls the ghosts and haunts of the old Appalachian ballads that were the source and influence of what country music was at one time. As long as they keep releasing material, I will keep coming back to them. Well, until I've exhausted Rhapsody's offerings of them at least.
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July 11, 2007, 2:01 pm |
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