If Middle-earth had a soundtrack album...

[Morthoron]

Yes, yes, I am aware Howard Shore already did the soundtrack for the movie, and it is quite good (I won a 3 CD compilation of the FotR soundtrack from a LotR poetry contest, and enjoy it immensely); however, if there were a pre-existing album from a band/singer that best exemplifies the feeling or mood of Middle-earth, which album would it be? I am sure tucked away somewhere in the BD vaults there is a duplicate thread already discussing this topic, so please forgive my indolence in advance. Besides, I always enjoy a thread discussing music.

Certainly there are specific songs ('Battle of Evermore' and 'Ramble On' by Led Zep have Tolkienesque allusions), and even entire albums devoted to Middle-earth (Enya and Yngwie Malmsteen come to mind), but are there other albums you feel are evocative of Tolkien? I have a few suggestions and would like to hear yours...

Songs from the Wood by Jethro Tull: I always felt that Ian Anderson could have composed a marvelous soundtrack for a LotR movie. Perhaps because much of his music is so fundamentally grounded in English folk, yet classically inclined, that I considered him a natural for the assignment ('A Classic Case' an orchestral rendition of Tull songs that feature the band and ex-Tull mate David Palmer as conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra ranks with The Moody Blues 'Days of Future Passed' as my favorites for use of orchestra within a rock context). In regards to 'Songs from the Wood', that feeling of English minstrelsy is displayed with such virtuousity that one can nearly smell the scots pine and the scent of wild roses that waft in the summer evening breeze of the song 'Velvet Green'.

In the song 'Jack-in-the-Green' (an ode in honor of the woodland spirit exemplified in English May Day celebrations) one can almost sense a hint of Tom Bombadil (or more correctly, the 'Green Man' of English legend):

"The rowan, the oak and the holly tree
are the charges left for you to groom.
Each blade of grass whispers Jack-In-The-Green.
Oh Jack, please help me through my winter's night.
And we are the berries on the holly tree.
Oh, the mistlethrush is coming.
Jack, put out the light."

Likewise, lines evocative of Middle-earth, but plainly descriptive of the land Ian Anderson (and Tolkien) love so well in the song 'The Whistler':

"Deep red are the sun-sets in mystical places.
Black are the nights on summer-day sands.
We'll find the speck of truth in each riddle.
Hold the first grain of love in our hands."

And again in 'Fires at Midnight' (which has a Shire-like quality):

"I believe in fires at midnight ---
when the dogs have all been fed.
A golden toddy on the mantle ---
a broken gun beneath the bed.
Silken mist outside the window.
Frogs and newts slip in the dark ---
too much hurry ruins the body
I'll sit easy ... fan the spark."

Liege and Lief by Fairport Convention: This phenomenal album presents traditional English folk music in a rock context, and it is not so much the song's lyrics that are to me represenative of Middle-earth, it is rather the somber and sad tone of the album that harkens to the first time I read The Silmarillion. At times plaintive and at others powerful, the lead singer Sandy Denny (who, by the way, shared vocals with Robert Plant on the Tolkien-inspired Led Zep song 'Battle of Evermore') conjures an enchanting glimpse of the Elder Days, and the album itself is timeless, straddling the ancient and the modern without dwelling in the past or present.

The eerie 'Reynardine' -- rendered with the ominous yet restrained vocals of Denny -- could well be an accompanying piece to Eöl's seduction of Aredhel:

'Sun and dark, she followed him
his teeth did brightly shine
and he led her up the mountains
Did that sly old Reynardine.'

and the song 'Farewell, Farewell' is evocative of Frodo's feeling of loss and disjointedness:

'Farewell, farewell to you who would hear
You lonely travellers all
the cold north wind will blow again
the winding road does call.

And will you never return to see
Your bruised and beaten sons ?
"Oh, I would, I would, if welcome I were
for they love me, every one".'

But anyway, it seems I ramble on. Please, add your albums for consideration.

[Lindale]

A rather obvous choice, Elvenpath by Nightwish. Oh well. I heard it after the movies, though I'm sure it was released first. The song has a good deal of Finnish stuff and Beauty and the Beast mythos and other "fantasy" stuff, but there are real Tolkien-y parts. And Bilbo gets mentioned.

I'm not a real metal fan, but I like the song anyway. And I think NW has done a good deal of Tolkien-y songs.

As I return to my room
And as sleep takes me by my hand
Madrigals from the woods
Carry me to neverland
In this spellbound night
The world's an elvish sight

That bit has an almost Smith of Wooton Major feel.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Lindale

A rather obvous choice, Elvenpath by Nightwish. Oh well. I heard it after the movies, though I'm sure it was released first. The song has a good deal of Finnish stuff and Beauty and the Beast mythos and other "fantasy" stuff, but there are real Tolkien-y parts. And Bilbo gets mentioned.

I'm not a real metal fan, but I like the song anyway. And I think NW has done a good deal of Tolkien-y songs.

Interesting, having never heard of them previously, I checked them out on YouTube. They're rather like a more operatic (in both theme and aural tone) version of Evanescence.

But though they write about aspects of Middle-earth, do you think they actually invoke a feel of Tolkien's world? I mentioned Led Zeppelin and their allusions to Tolkien, and I do feel that The Battle of Evermore certainly has a 'Tolkien-y' effect, but a song like Ramble On (that invokes the names of Gollum and Mordor) does not have that same feel. In fact, the specific stanza...

"Mine's a tale that can't be told, my freedom I hold dear.
How years ago in days of old, when magic filled the air.
T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair.
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her, her, her....yeah."

makes little sense from a Middle-earth standpoint; although Robert Plant was never one for depth of lyrics (as a reading of Stairway to Heaven makes abundantly clear).

Perhaps rather than pointing out entire albums that have such flair, maybe a Middle-earth soundtrack would have songs from different bands that best exemplify specific events in Middle-earth history.

[Bêthberry]

Great reviews of Jethro Tull and Fairport Convention, Morthoron. Both very fitting, I'd say.

Nightwish covered a song by Gary Moore that is steeped in British military tradition, with versions going back over several centuries. Moore's and Nightwish's lyrics aren't exactly Tolkienish, based as they are on adultery and deceit (a sort of British 'Long Black Veil', without the capital punishment), but the haunting melody and drums evoke for me a sense of Middle-earth. Nightwish brings in Viking elements while Moore brings in Celtic.

Here's some YouTube versions and then a link to the traditional versions of the song.

Gary Moore's Over the hills and far away

Nightwish's Over the hills and far away

Over the hills and far away--traditional versions

[ninja91]

The Robin Hood themesong gets my fantasy fires burning. Its very adventurous, especially the version played by the Warner/Tamerlane version. It makes me think of the adventure and thrills that is present in The Lord of the Rings and so many other fantasy stories.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Great reviews of Jethro Tull and Fairport Convention, Morthoron. Both very fitting, I'd say.

Thank you very much. Tull and Fairport are two of my favorites. I've always appreciated musicians who go decidedly against the grain. Would that there were more bands with such independent spirit.

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Nightwish covered a song by Gary Moore that is steeped in British military tradition, with versions going back over several centuries. Moore's and Nightwish's lyrics aren't exactly Tolkienish, based as they are on adultery and deceipt (a sort of British 'Long Black Veil', without the capital punishment), but the haunting melody and drums evoke for me a sense of Middle-earth. Nightwish brings in Viking elements while Moore brings in Celtic.

Here's some YouTube version and then a link to the traditional versions of the song.

Thanks for the links. I've played 'Long Black Veil' in the different bands I've pub crawled with for years (the version by The Band is my favorite), as well as 'Matty Groves', a Fairport tune that is another of the cautionary tales regarding adultery that seemed to proliferate in 15th/16th century England. I could not find a Sandy Denny recording of 'Matty' on YouTube, but here is a reunion version of the song with various Fairport members old and new (Sandy Denny died several years ago, and I do not know this singer's name, but the great Richard Thompson is playing guitar). The quality of the video is iffy, but you'll get the general idea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6PMJ...elated&search=

Here is a Sandy Denny/Fairport version of Tam Lin, a 16th century tale of Faery abduction and enchantment which definitely captures the more fey aspects of Middle-earth...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJrLg...elated&search=

As far as Tull, here's something a Hobbit might be singing on a long journey...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rioYOoFqyAo

And a lusty air from 'Songs from the Woods' (Velvet Green)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NyvT...elated&search=

[MatthewM]

Mostly Autumn, a British band that captures a great Middle-earth spirit. They have a female singer and a ripping lead guitarist. They actually did an album dedicated to The Lord of the Rings. GREAT stuff.