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BBC R4 Alien Balladeer.
| Keith A of Hertford | 25 Jan 13 - 09:02 AM | |
| John MacKenzie | 25 Jan 13 - 10:39 AM | |
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BBC R4 Alien Balladeer.
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Subject: BBC R4 Alien Balladeer. From: Keith A of Hertford Date: 25 Jan 13 - 09:02 AM I just stumbled across this, the last of the series. Very good I thought Murray Lachlan Young writes and performs a ballad about Dave who lives in a tent in the woods and tells tales of war, post-traumatic stress and his long journey to redemption on the back of a horse. A dark, intimate encounter in a rainstorm, under cover of canvas and forest, produces a remarkable account of bravery, despair and the unsupportable weight of expectation when the Alien Balladeer meets a former soldier. After being tempted into the forces by the lure of recruitment posters, Dave recounts his first harrowing introduction to the real business of soldiering and of the time when he had the power in his hands to take a life, but chose instead to save it. He talks also of how life and the company of others became almost unbearable on his departure from the army, and how his equilibrium only returned after a ten-year journey though Britain with his horse Troy. From these quietly spoken, sometimes stuttering tales, Murray creates a ballad about the archetypal Soldier. In this series, Murray Lachlan Young is the Alien Balladeer. With his outsider's eye, he goes prospecting for insight and truth from the worlds of the people he meets, bringing humour and dignity in a song to his subjects - and an occasional sharp dig in the ribs. In this programme and in the other four ballads in the series (The Pole Dancer's Lament, The Glastonbury Tatter, The God Shaped Hole and The Ballad of the Naked Rambler), myths are exploded and new ones arrive to take their place. |
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Subject: RE: BBC R4 Alien Balladeer. From: John MacKenzie Date: 25 Jan 13 - 10:39 AM Listened to the first three, and as a result, I turned off the final two. Sorry to disagree Keith, but I found these programmes which started out interesting, pretty soon deteriorated into self indulgent pap. He may be a competent poet, but he's a crap songwriter! |
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