This Is the Sea
Encyclopedia
This Is the Sea is the third and last of The Waterboys
' "Big Music" albums. Considered by critics to be the finest album of their early rock
-oriented sound, described as "epic" and "a defining moment", it was the first Waterboys album to enter the United Kingdom
charts, peaking at number thirty-seven. Steve Wickham makes his Waterboys recording debut playing violin on 'The Pan Within' and subsequently joined the band, appearing on the video of "The Whole Of The Moon". This Is the Sea is the last album with contributions from Karl Wallinger
, who left the group to form his own band, World Party
.
Mike Scott
, the album's principal songwriter and leader of The Waterboys, describes This Is the Sea as "the record on which I achieved all my youthful musical ambitions", "the final, fully realised expression of the early Waterboys sound", influenced by The Velvet Underground
, Van Morrison
's Astral Weeks
, and Steve Reich
. The album was recorded between March and July 1985, and released that October (see 1985 in music
). A remastered and expanded version was released in 2004. This Is the Sea contains the best-selling Waterboys single, the song "The Whole of the Moon
". The album cover is a photograph taken by Lynn Goldsmith
.
The first recording session for This Is the Sea began in March 1985 at Park Gates Studio in Hastings
, England with engineer and producer John Brand. Band members Scott, Anthony Thistlethwaite
, Karl Wallinger
, Kevin Wilkinson
, and Roddy Lorimer
performed the new material. Wallinger's home studio heard demo recordings for a number of the album's songs. Some of the recordings, like the ones of the last two albums, are relatively untouched by studio engineering. On other recordings, however, Scott added a drum machine
and layered the sound, using a studio technique similar to that of the famous record producer Phil Spector
, with help from Wallinger. "Having Karl [Wallinger] in the studio", writes Scott, "was like having a one-man orchestra around. There might have been a This Is the Sea without him, but it wouldn't have been the same -- or as good". (Nonetheless, it was Wallinger's second and last appearance on a Waterboys' album.)
The recording sessions continued through June. By July, Wickham, after an invitation from Scott, entered the studio with the band to add his fiddle to "The Pan Within". Produced from the original sessions at Park Gates Studio, along with recordings from Livingston Studios in London, Amazon in Liverpool
, Seaview, and The Townhouse Studio, among others, the album was released in October. Peter Anderson, writing in Record Collector, describes Scott as "completely at home in the studio" and writes that Scott "spared nothing on" This Is the Sea.
A remastered version was released in 2004, with a second CD of material from the album's singles, and unreleased tracks from the This Is the Sea recording sessions.
The album was followed by tours in the United Kingdom, and in North America as the headliners. Sinéad O'Connor
made her United Kingdom live debut as a backup singer on "The Big Music" at a concert at the London
Town and Country Club. In December, The Waterboys joined the band Simple Minds
for a European tour. During the three major tours, the band's lineup began to change, and the album received more exposure than its two predecessors. Mike Scott, however, in a decision that expressed the values he had written about when authoring punk rock
fanzine
s, refused to promote the album and the single for "The Whole of the Moon" on Top of the Pops
because he would not lip sync
, a requirement on the show.
("Spirit", "The Pan Within"), romantic love
("Trumpets"), and English politics
("Old England"). Michael Tucker, in an article entitled "The Body Electric: The Shamanic Spirit in Twentieth Century Music", lists This Is the Sea as an example of shamanistic
themes in twentieth-century Western music. Irish musician Bono
includes the album on his "top ten" list, noting "In rock, the word 'poet' gets thrown around a lot. Not here..."
"Don't Bang the Drum", the lyrics of which encourage environmentalism
, was released as a single in Germany
, with a song titled "Ways of Men" as the b-side. The first draft of the song's music was written by Wallinger. Scott reworked the arrangement, changing its rhythm and "feel", but Wallinger's melody and chords were preserved.
"The Whole of the Moon", one of The Waterboys' best-known songs and their most commercially successful, was first released as a twelve-inch single, and reached number twenty-eight on the United Kingdom singles chart. The single also contained a live recording of "The Girl in the Swing", from The Waterboys
, the band's first album, an extended mix of "Spirit", and a song titled "Medicine Jack". The latter two appear on the second disc of the album's re-release. When the single was reissued in 1990, it reached number 3, and was awarded the Ivor Novello Award in 1991. Including the 2004 remastered album, the song has been officially released four times.
The song began as a "scribble on the back of an envelope on a wintry New York street", after Scott's girlfriend asked him if it was difficult to write a song, and was unfinished at the beginning of the recording sessions, eventually being completed in May 1985. The song, like The Waterboys' first single "A Girl Called Johnny" is a tribute to an inspirational figure. In each line, the singer describes his own perspective and immediately contrasts it with that of the song's subject, summarizing the difference with the line "I saw the crescent / You saw the whole of the moon". "You saw Brigadoon", one of these contrasts, refers to a fictional village that exists only one day every century (from the musical of the same name).
The subject of the song has inspired some speculation. Musician Nikki Sudden
, with whom Scott had collaborated before forming The Waterboys, said that Scott told Max Edie, the backup singer for "The Whole of the Moon", that the song was written about Sudden. Allmusic instead suggests that its subject is actually a number of people who inspired Scott, including Christian
writer C. S. Lewis
and the musician Prince. Scott himself says that he "couldn't have written" the song without having read Mark Helprin
's novel Winter's Tale
, but goes on to state that the song is not about Helprin. The official Waterboys website's Frequently Asked Questions clarifies that Scott has said that the song's subject is "a composite of many people", including C. S. Lewis, but explicitly states that it is not about Prince.
A feature of "The Whole of the Moon" is the trumpet work on the recording, courtesy of the classically-trained Lorimer. Lorimer spent three days with Scott working on the song's arrangement. According to Lorimer, he "went home with a tape of the song and thought about a more classical approach. After a while sitting at the piano I came up with the idea of antiphonal trumpets. A piccolo trumpet on the left answered a piccolo on the right and then the same again, growing by adding a Bb trumpet below each side of the stereo picture. Mike [Scott] loved it, except the slightly jazzy chords I had used on the run down at the very end, which he simplified. I used the same classical approach later in the song, mixing two classical-type trumpets behind a later verse." Lorimer also contributes falsetto
background vocals to the song, while Thistlethwaite, another brass section member, performs a saxophone solo near the end.
"The Whole of the Moon" was covered by Jennifer Warnes
on her 1992 album The Hunter
, by Mandy Moore
on her 2003 album Coverage
, by the band Human Drama
on the compilation album New Wave Goes to Hell and by folk singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey
on his 1995 release Rapture. It has also appeared on numerous other compilations.
"Spirit", a song praising the resilience of the human spirit, originally appeared on a short, one-and-a-half minute version. A full four-minute version of the song was released on the 2004 remastered disc.
The lyrics of "The Pan Within" are partly derived from meditation
techniques ("Close your eyes / Breathe slow / And we'll begin"). It was the first of two Waterboys songs about the Ancient Greek
god Pan
, which have been played as a medley at Waterboys concerts. Scott describes the song's guitar solo as "[consisting] of a series of phrases or lines/melodies that generally build in an order (which may change), though which includes a lot of improvisation which is different each night. The lines have never been 'tabbed' or written down... The song is in Aminor (the chords under the solo are F - Em - Am - Am repeated)". The second Pan song, "The Return of Pan", appears on the album Dream Harder
. "The Pan Within" is the first Waterboys song to feature Wickham's fiddle playing. It was selected as one of DWXB-FM
's Hits of 1986.
An alternative version of "Medicine Bow" was released as a single in Germany, with an instrumental version of "Don't Bang the Drum" for the seven-inch. The twelve-inch contained another mix of "Medicine Bow" and "Ways of Men". Scott writes that he invented the name, and was unaware of Medicine Bow, Wyoming
. The album's re-release contains a "full length" version of the song that contains an instrumental "piano storm - from first sonic droplets of rain to final crashing thunder and lightning" performed by Adrian Johnston.
"Old England" is a criticism of Thatcherism
, blaming Margaret Thatcher
's economic policies for what Scott perceived to be an increase in desperation amongst the young and poor in the England
of that time, and a rise in drug addiction, specifically to heroin. The refrain, "Old England is dying" is a quote from James Joyce
, and the lines "You're asking what makes me sigh now / What it is makes me shudder so" are from W.B. Yeats' poem, "Mad as the Mist and Snow". The Clash
, one of the bands that had inspired Scott during his punk music phase, released "This Is England", a song with a similar theme, as a single the same year. Scott and The Waterboys would move to Ireland the following year.
"Trumpets", a love song
, was the first song written for the album, in the spring of 1984, and the first song from the album to be performed live. It quotes from "I'm Only Sleeping", a recording by The Beatles
.
The title track, the last song on the original release, has a slower tempo than most of the other arrangements. Scott notes that he wrote over twenty verses for the song, some of which wound up included on the "alter ego" of "This Is the Sea", "That Was the River", which was released in 1994 on The Secret Life of the Waterboys. The song "This Is the Sea" was first performed in Worcester
on December 2, 1984, and a longer version than would eventually appear on the album, was played at a benefit concert
for miner
s in February 1985. The subject of the lyrics is conflicted about their present ("You've got a war in your head / And it's tearing you up inside"), and nostalgic for a past clarity ("And you know you once held the key"). The speaker instead argues that the past is irrelevant ("But that was the river / This is the sea)".
Those additional tracks on the re-release that are not alternative versions of songs originally appearing on the album were recorded in the same recording sessions.
All songs written by Mike Scott
except where noted.
With:
Production credits:
The Waterboys
The Waterboys are a band formed in 1983 by Mike Scott. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Scotland, Ireland and England. Edinburgh, London, Dublin, Spiddal, New York, and Findhorn have all served as homes for the group. The band has played in a...
' "Big Music" albums. Considered by critics to be the finest album of their early rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
-oriented sound, described as "epic" and "a defining moment", it was the first Waterboys album to enter the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
charts, peaking at number thirty-seven. Steve Wickham makes his Waterboys recording debut playing violin on 'The Pan Within' and subsequently joined the band, appearing on the video of "The Whole Of The Moon". This Is the Sea is the last album with contributions from Karl Wallinger
Karl Wallinger
Karl Edmond De Vere Wallinger is a Welsh musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for leading the band World Party and for his mid-1980s stint in The Waterboys...
, who left the group to form his own band, World Party
World Party
World Party is a British pop/alternative rock band, which is essentially the solo project of its sole member, Karl Wallinger. He started the band in 1986 in London after leaving The Waterboys.-Career:...
.
Mike Scott
Mike Scott (musician)
Michael 'Mike' Scott is the founding member, lead singer and chief songwriter of rock band The Waterboys. He has also produced two solo albums, Bring 'em All In and Still Burning...
, the album's principal songwriter and leader of The Waterboys, describes This Is the Sea as "the record on which I achieved all my youthful musical ambitions", "the final, fully realised expression of the early Waterboys sound", influenced by The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...
, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
's Astral Weeks
Astral Weeks
Astral Weeks is the second solo album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in November 1968 on Warner Bros. Records. It was Morrison's first album after Warner Bros. had been able to free him from his contract with Bang Records...
, and Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
. The album was recorded between March and July 1985, and released that October (see 1985 in music
1985 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1985.-January–March:*January 1 - The newest music video channel, VH-1, debuts on American cable. It is aimed at an older demographic than its sister station, MTV...
). A remastered and expanded version was released in 2004. This Is the Sea contains the best-selling Waterboys single, the song "The Whole of the Moon
The Whole of the Moon (song)
"The Whole of the Moon" is a 1985 single taken from The Waterboys' album This Is the Sea. It is a classic of the band's repertoire and has been consistently played at live shows ever since its release. Written and produced by Mike Scott, the subject of the song has inspired some speculation...
". The album cover is a photograph taken by Lynn Goldsmith
Lynn Goldsmith
Lynn Goldsmith is an American recording artist, a film director and a celebrity portrait photographer. Her work has appeared on the covers and in publications in many countries for the past 35 years. She has done over 100 album covers...
.
Production history
Scott began writing songs for This Is the Sea in the spring of 1984, beginning with the song "Trumpets". Scott recalls that in December 1984 "during The Waterboys' first American tour, [he] bought two huge hard-bound books... in which to assemble [his] new songs" For the following two months Scott worked on the songs in his apartment, writing the lyrics, and working on guitar and piano arrangements. Scott wrote between thirty-five and forty songs, but felt that the nine songs that made it onto the album "were the ones that were intended to be there". The first song from the album to be played live was "Trumpets", on April 10, 1984.The first recording session for This Is the Sea began in March 1985 at Park Gates Studio in Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
, England with engineer and producer John Brand. Band members Scott, Anthony Thistlethwaite
Anthony Thistlethwaite
Anthony "Anto" Thistlethwaite is a British multi-instrumentalist best known as a founder member of the folk-rock group The Waterboys and later as a long-standing member of Irish rock band The Saw Doctors.After a year busking in Paris, playing tenor saxophone around the streets of the Latin...
, Karl Wallinger
Karl Wallinger
Karl Edmond De Vere Wallinger is a Welsh musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for leading the band World Party and for his mid-1980s stint in The Waterboys...
, Kevin Wilkinson
Kevin Wilkinson
Kevin Wilkinson was a musician based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England.- Career :Born Kevin Michael Wilkinson in Stoke-on-Trent, he is credited as a former official member of several successful British pop groups, including The League of Gentlemen , The Waterboys , China Crisis and Squeeze...
, and Roddy Lorimer
Roddy Lorimer
Roddy Lorimer is a Scottish musician who has performed with a number of bands, including Blur, Gene, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Eric Clapton, Suede and The Waterboys. He is currently a member of the horn section Kick Horns....
performed the new material. Wallinger's home studio heard demo recordings for a number of the album's songs. Some of the recordings, like the ones of the last two albums, are relatively untouched by studio engineering. On other recordings, however, Scott added a drum machine
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
and layered the sound, using a studio technique similar to that of the famous record producer Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
, with help from Wallinger. "Having Karl [Wallinger] in the studio", writes Scott, "was like having a one-man orchestra around. There might have been a This Is the Sea without him, but it wouldn't have been the same -- or as good". (Nonetheless, it was Wallinger's second and last appearance on a Waterboys' album.)
The recording sessions continued through June. By July, Wickham, after an invitation from Scott, entered the studio with the band to add his fiddle to "The Pan Within". Produced from the original sessions at Park Gates Studio, along with recordings from Livingston Studios in London, Amazon in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, Seaview, and The Townhouse Studio, among others, the album was released in October. Peter Anderson, writing in Record Collector, describes Scott as "completely at home in the studio" and writes that Scott "spared nothing on" This Is the Sea.
A remastered version was released in 2004, with a second CD of material from the album's singles, and unreleased tracks from the This Is the Sea recording sessions.
Album promotion
This Is the Sea was promoted heavily and made it to number thirty-seven on the Top Forty album chart in the UK. Neither of the two preceding albums had charted in the Top Forty.The album was followed by tours in the United Kingdom, and in North America as the headliners. Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....
made her United Kingdom live debut as a backup singer on "The Big Music" at a concert at the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
Town and Country Club. In December, The Waterboys joined the band Simple Minds
Simple Minds
Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band who achieved worldwide popularity from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. The band produced a handful of critically acclaimed albums in the early 1980s and best known for their #1 US, Canada and Netherlands hit single "Don't You ", from the soundtrack of the...
for a European tour. During the three major tours, the band's lineup began to change, and the album received more exposure than its two predecessors. Mike Scott, however, in a decision that expressed the values he had written about when authoring punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
s, refused to promote the album and the single for "The Whole of the Moon" on Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
because he would not lip sync
Lip sync
Lip sync, lip-sync, lip-synch is a technical term for matching lip movements with sung or spoken vocals...
, a requirement on the show.
Music video
Meiert Avis directed the video for "the Whole of the Moon", using visionary lighting elements based on Helprin's "Winter's Tale" and his memories of a 1962 theatrical production of Charles Kingsley's '"The Water Babies". Avis addressed Scott's aversion to lip syncing, by shooting the visuals for "The Whole of the Moon" while capturing a unique live audio performance of the single. Avis later used this technique on several videos with Bruce Springsteen, who shares Scott's aversion.Song details
Themes of the album include spiritualitySpirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
("Spirit", "The Pan Within"), romantic love
Romantic love
Romance is the pleasurable feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.In the context of romantic love relationships, romance usually implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person....
("Trumpets"), and English politics
Politics of England
The Politics of England forms the major part of the wider politics of the United Kingdom, with England being more populus than all the other countries of the United Kingdom put together. As England is also the largest in terms of area and GDP, its relationship to the UK is somewhat different from...
("Old England"). Michael Tucker, in an article entitled "The Body Electric: The Shamanic Spirit in Twentieth Century Music", lists This Is the Sea as an example of shamanistic
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
themes in twentieth-century Western music. Irish musician Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
includes the album on his "top ten" list, noting "In rock, the word 'poet' gets thrown around a lot. Not here..."
"Don't Bang the Drum", the lyrics of which encourage environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
, was released as a single in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, with a song titled "Ways of Men" as the b-side. The first draft of the song's music was written by Wallinger. Scott reworked the arrangement, changing its rhythm and "feel", but Wallinger's melody and chords were preserved.
"The Whole of the Moon", one of The Waterboys' best-known songs and their most commercially successful, was first released as a twelve-inch single, and reached number twenty-eight on the United Kingdom singles chart. The single also contained a live recording of "The Girl in the Swing", from The Waterboys
The Waterboys (album)
This eponymously named debut album from The Waterboys was recorded in several studio sessions between December 1981 and November 1982. Allmusic describes the sound of the album as "part Van Morrison, part U2"....
, the band's first album, an extended mix of "Spirit", and a song titled "Medicine Jack". The latter two appear on the second disc of the album's re-release. When the single was reissued in 1990, it reached number 3, and was awarded the Ivor Novello Award in 1991. Including the 2004 remastered album, the song has been officially released four times.
The song began as a "scribble on the back of an envelope on a wintry New York street", after Scott's girlfriend asked him if it was difficult to write a song, and was unfinished at the beginning of the recording sessions, eventually being completed in May 1985. The song, like The Waterboys' first single "A Girl Called Johnny" is a tribute to an inspirational figure. In each line, the singer describes his own perspective and immediately contrasts it with that of the song's subject, summarizing the difference with the line "I saw the crescent / You saw the whole of the moon". "You saw Brigadoon", one of these contrasts, refers to a fictional village that exists only one day every century (from the musical of the same name).
The subject of the song has inspired some speculation. Musician Nikki Sudden
Nikki Sudden
Nikki Sudden was a prolific English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He co-founded the post-punk band Swell Maps with his brother Epic Soundtracks while attending Solihull School in Solihull.-Career:...
, with whom Scott had collaborated before forming The Waterboys, said that Scott told Max Edie, the backup singer for "The Whole of the Moon", that the song was written about Sudden. Allmusic instead suggests that its subject is actually a number of people who inspired Scott, including Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
writer C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
and the musician Prince. Scott himself says that he "couldn't have written" the song without having read Mark Helprin
Mark Helprin
Mark Helprin is an American novelist, journalist, and conservative commentator.-Background:Helprin was raised on the Hudson River and in the British West Indies, and holds degrees from Harvard College and Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His postgraduate work was done at Princeton...
's novel Winter's Tale
Winter's Tale (Helprin)
Winter's Tale is a 1983 novel by Mark Helprin. It takes place in a mythic New York City, markedly different than our own. It takes place mainly near the turn of the 20th century.-Peter Lake:...
, but goes on to state that the song is not about Helprin. The official Waterboys website's Frequently Asked Questions clarifies that Scott has said that the song's subject is "a composite of many people", including C. S. Lewis, but explicitly states that it is not about Prince.
A feature of "The Whole of the Moon" is the trumpet work on the recording, courtesy of the classically-trained Lorimer. Lorimer spent three days with Scott working on the song's arrangement. According to Lorimer, he "went home with a tape of the song and thought about a more classical approach. After a while sitting at the piano I came up with the idea of antiphonal trumpets. A piccolo trumpet on the left answered a piccolo on the right and then the same again, growing by adding a Bb trumpet below each side of the stereo picture. Mike [Scott] loved it, except the slightly jazzy chords I had used on the run down at the very end, which he simplified. I used the same classical approach later in the song, mixing two classical-type trumpets behind a later verse." Lorimer also contributes falsetto
Falsetto
Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
background vocals to the song, while Thistlethwaite, another brass section member, performs a saxophone solo near the end.
"The Whole of the Moon" was covered by Jennifer Warnes
Jennifer Warnes
Jennifer Jean Warnes is an American singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer. She is known for her interpretations of compositions written by herself and many others, as well as an extensive playlist as a vocalist on movie soundtracks.Between 1979 and 1987 Warnes surpassed Frank Sinatra as...
on her 1992 album The Hunter
The Hunter (Jennifer Warnes album)
The Hunter is the seventh album by Jennifer Warnes, released in 1992. It peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts.The Hunter was released five years after her breakthrough album Famous Blue Raincoat. Classified as adult contemporary, the album is jazz/R&B infused...
, by Mandy Moore
Mandy Moore
Amanda Leigh "Mandy" Moore is an American singer-songwriter, actress and fashion designer. Moore became famous as a teenager in the late 1990s, after the release of her teen pop albums So Real, I Wanna Be with You, and Mandy Moore. In 2007, she took an adult pop-folk direction with the release of...
on her 2003 album Coverage
Coverage (album)
Coverage is the fourth album released by pop singer Mandy Moore, composed exclusively of covers of songs from the 1970s and 1980s. The album was released by Epic Records.-History:...
, by the band Human Drama
Human Drama
Human Drama was a gothic rock/dark wave band led by singer/songwriter Johnny Indovina. They are primarily known for playing a mixture of sad acoustic and gothic atmospheric melodies. Although they don't count themselves as being only a gothic band, they are often named so by music critics.-Human...
on the compilation album New Wave Goes to Hell and by folk singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey
Peter Mulvey
Peter Mulvey is an American folk singer-songwriter based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since the early 1990s, he has developed a strong national following in the indie folk/rock scene through his relentless touring and critically acclaimed albums. Starting his musical career in Milwaukee while at...
on his 1995 release Rapture. It has also appeared on numerous other compilations.
"Spirit", a song praising the resilience of the human spirit, originally appeared on a short, one-and-a-half minute version. A full four-minute version of the song was released on the 2004 remastered disc.
The lyrics of "The Pan Within" are partly derived from meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
techniques ("Close your eyes / Breathe slow / And we'll begin"). It was the first of two Waterboys songs about the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
god Pan
Pan (mythology)
Pan , in Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, as well as the companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein , meaning "to pasture." He has the hindquarters, legs,...
, which have been played as a medley at Waterboys concerts. Scott describes the song's guitar solo as "[consisting] of a series of phrases or lines/melodies that generally build in an order (which may change), though which includes a lot of improvisation which is different each night. The lines have never been 'tabbed' or written down... The song is in Aminor (the chords under the solo are F - Em - Am - Am repeated)". The second Pan song, "The Return of Pan", appears on the album Dream Harder
Dream Harder
Dream Harder is an album released in 1993 credited to The Waterboys, but recorded by Mike Scott with session musicians. It was the last Waterboys album before Scott spent seven year pursuing a formal solo career, with Bring 'em All In and Still Burning...
. "The Pan Within" is the first Waterboys song to feature Wickham's fiddle playing. It was selected as one of DWXB-FM
DWXB-FM
WXB102 is a former Metro Manila FM radio station and current Internet radio station that plays New Wave, punk rock, dancepunk, synthpop and classic alternative from the UK, Philippines, and the rest of the world, available through Live365, Hayag.com and USTREAM.tv...
's Hits of 1986.
An alternative version of "Medicine Bow" was released as a single in Germany, with an instrumental version of "Don't Bang the Drum" for the seven-inch. The twelve-inch contained another mix of "Medicine Bow" and "Ways of Men". Scott writes that he invented the name, and was unaware of Medicine Bow, Wyoming
Medicine Bow, Wyoming
Medicine Bow is a town in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 304 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Medicine Bow is located at ....
. The album's re-release contains a "full length" version of the song that contains an instrumental "piano storm - from first sonic droplets of rain to final crashing thunder and lightning" performed by Adrian Johnston.
"Old England" is a criticism of Thatcherism
Thatcherism
Thatcherism describes the conviction politics, economic and social policy, and political style of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...
, blaming Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
's economic policies for what Scott perceived to be an increase in desperation amongst the young and poor in the England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
of that time, and a rise in drug addiction, specifically to heroin. The refrain, "Old England is dying" is a quote from James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, and the lines "You're asking what makes me sigh now / What it is makes me shudder so" are from W.B. Yeats' poem, "Mad as the Mist and Snow". The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
, one of the bands that had inspired Scott during his punk music phase, released "This Is England", a song with a similar theme, as a single the same year. Scott and The Waterboys would move to Ireland the following year.
"Trumpets", a love song
Love song
A love song is about falling in love and the feelings it brings. Anthologies of love songs often contain a mixture of both of these types of song. A bawdy song is both humorous and saucy, emphasizing the physical pleasure of love rather than the emotional joy...
, was the first song written for the album, in the spring of 1984, and the first song from the album to be performed live. It quotes from "I'm Only Sleeping", a recording by The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
.
The title track, the last song on the original release, has a slower tempo than most of the other arrangements. Scott notes that he wrote over twenty verses for the song, some of which wound up included on the "alter ego" of "This Is the Sea", "That Was the River", which was released in 1994 on The Secret Life of the Waterboys. The song "This Is the Sea" was first performed in Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
on December 2, 1984, and a longer version than would eventually appear on the album, was played at a benefit concert
Benefit concert
A benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Such events raise both funds and public awareness to address the cause at...
for miner
Miner
A miner is a person whose work or business is to extract ore or minerals from the earth. Mining is one of the most dangerous trades in the world. In some countries miners lack social guarantees and in case of injury may be left to cope without assistance....
s in February 1985. The subject of the lyrics is conflicted about their present ("You've got a war in your head / And it's tearing you up inside"), and nostalgic for a past clarity ("And you know you once held the key"). The speaker instead argues that the past is irrelevant ("But that was the river / This is the sea)".
Those additional tracks on the re-release that are not alternative versions of songs originally appearing on the album were recorded in the same recording sessions.
Track listing
Mike Scott (musician)
Michael 'Mike' Scott is the founding member, lead singer and chief songwriter of rock band The Waterboys. He has also produced two solo albums, Bring 'em All In and Still Burning...
except where noted.
- "Don't Bang the Drum" (Scott, Karl WallingerKarl WallingerKarl Edmond De Vere Wallinger is a Welsh musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for leading the band World Party and for his mid-1980s stint in The Waterboys...
) – 6:46 - "The Whole of the Moon" – 4:58
- "Spirit" – 1:50
- "The Pan Within" – 6:13
- "Medicine Bow" (Scott, Anthony ThistlethwaiteAnthony ThistlethwaiteAnthony "Anto" Thistlethwaite is a British multi-instrumentalist best known as a founder member of the folk-rock group The Waterboys and later as a long-standing member of Irish rock band The Saw Doctors.After a year busking in Paris, playing tenor saxophone around the streets of the Latin...
) – 2:45 - "Old England" – 5:32
- "Be My Enemy" – 4:16
- "Trumpets" – 3:37
- "This Is the Sea" – 6:29
Bonus disc track listing
- "Beverly Penn" – 5:38
- "Sleek White Schooner" – 3:44
- "Medicine Bow" (Full Length) – 5:44
- "Medicine Jack" – 4:11
- "High Far Soon" – 2:05
- "Even the Trees Are Dancing" – 4:27
- "Towers Open Fire" – 4:34
- "This Is the Sea" (Live) – 5:53
- "Then You Hold Me" – 4:56
- "Spirit" (Full Length) – 4:11
- "Miracle" – 1:14
- "I Am Not Here" – 0:22
- "Sweet ThingSweet Thing (Van Morrison song)"Sweet Thing" is one of the songs included on Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison's 1968 acclaimed second album Astral Weeks. It was on the first side of the album, that was under the heading: In the Beginning...
" (Van MorrisonVan MorrisonVan Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
) – 7:11 - "The Waves" – 6:38
Personnel
- Mike ScottMike Scott (musician)Michael 'Mike' Scott is the founding member, lead singer and chief songwriter of rock band The Waterboys. He has also produced two solo albums, Bring 'em All In and Still Burning...
- vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, lead guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, rhythm guitar, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, percussion, synthesiser, drum machine programming, bells and effects - Anthony ThistlethwaiteAnthony ThistlethwaiteAnthony "Anto" Thistlethwaite is a British multi-instrumentalist best known as a founder member of the folk-rock group The Waterboys and later as a long-standing member of Irish rock band The Saw Doctors.After a year busking in Paris, playing tenor saxophone around the streets of the Latin...
- saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, double bassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, mandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single... - Karl WallingerKarl WallingerKarl Edmond De Vere Wallinger is a Welsh musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for leading the band World Party and for his mid-1980s stint in The Waterboys...
- bass synth, piano, organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, keyboard programming, synthesiser, celeste, percussion and backing vocals
With:
- Steve WickhamSteve WickhamSteve Wickham is an Irish musician described by Mike Scott as "the world's greatest rock fiddle player" and by New Musical Express as a "fiddling legend." Originally from Marino, Dublin, but calling Sligo home, Wickham has appeared on recordings by Elvis Costello, the Hothouse Flowers, Sinéad...
- violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello.... - Marek Lipski - violin
- Roddy LorimerRoddy LorimerRoddy Lorimer is a Scottish musician who has performed with a number of bands, including Blur, Gene, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Eric Clapton, Suede and The Waterboys. He is currently a member of the horn section Kick Horns....
- trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
, background vocals - Kevin WilkinsonKevin WilkinsonKevin Wilkinson was a musician based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England.- Career :Born Kevin Michael Wilkinson in Stoke-on-Trent, he is credited as a former official member of several successful British pop groups, including The League of Gentlemen , The Waterboys , China Crisis and Squeeze...
- bass guitar, drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Martin Swain - bass guitar
- Chris Whitten - drums, cymbalCymbalCymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s - Pete ThomasPete ThomasPete Thomas is best known as the longtime drummer for Elvis Costello. Tom Waits has referred to him as "one of the best rock drummers alive".-Career:...
- snare drumSnare drumThe snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom... - Martin Ditcham - percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
- Max Edie - background vocals
- Lu Edmonds - Bass
- Matthew SeligmanMatthew SeligmanMatthew Seligman is an English bassist who took part of the new wave scene in the 1970s and the 1980s, best known as a member of the Soft Boys.-Biography:...
- Bass - Adrian Johnston - piano (re-release only)
Production credits:
- Mike Scott (tracks 1, 2 & 8)
- Mike Scott & Mick Glossop (tracks 5, 6, 7 & 9)
- Mike Scott, John Brand & Mick Glossop (track 4)
- Mike, Scott, Mick Glossop & Karl Wallinger (track 3)
External links
- Lyrics at mikescottwaterboys.com
- Official forum Chord requests are often fulfilled at "Musician's Corner"