Tuesday Tunes

I can’t remember when I had my first Pavlova. Surely it was at Christmas, but I can’ t be sure. As a kiwi I’ve been surrounded by the Dessert all my life, so it’s completely unclear when it actually entered my lexicon, awareness, or mouth. But for as long as i’ve known about Pavlova, I’ve also known about the ‘friendly’ rivalry between Australia and New Zealand about which country invented it (here the countries are listed alphabetically, but this should not suggest significance or opinion). Even the Wikipedia page details the dispute, and researchers have not been able to reach a conclusion as satisfying as the cream-covered construction. The same sort of dispute abound with this week’s song.

On a side note, the new place is relatively set up so that I can continue to blog, so thanks for sticking through this brief hiatus.

The Song(s)
Song: Misirlou
Artist: Yiannis Kotsiras
Album: I Smirni Tou Erota - 2012 - Minos EMI
Method of discovery: Trawling through several different versions of the song, though, originally ‘Pulp Fiction’

Research: Most people, in my experience, know this song from it’s inclusion in Pulp Fiction. It was the instrumental surf-rock version by Dick Dale and his Del-Tones that is featured in the movie. Many covers on Spotify if you search for Misirlou (or Miserlou) say ‘ - From Pulp Fiction’ afterward. But just like Pavlova, it has its first records in the early 20th Century, and many claim it as their own. It is traditionally a folk song touting admiration for an Egyptian woman of beauty, and it’s modern name has linguistic roots in Greek, Turkish, and Arabic. The version I’ve chosen was far down the list, but has connection to Ancient Greek. Yiannis Kotsiras is a greek musician, so I can’t help but feel this is closer to a traditional rendition. During the 2004 Greece Olympics (which Yiannis released a song for called ‘Pass the Flame’), the song was declared one of the most influenceial Greek songs of all time.

Theory: Misirlou utilises the double harmonic major scale, which probably doesn’t mean much to most people. If you want to have a good starting point, ‘Do Re Mi’ from The Sound of Music utilises the major scale (and solfege; Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do). Now imagine you de-tune the ‘Re’, that lowers the note of the scale and creates a jump between the lowered ‘Re’ (‘Ra’) and the ‘Mi’. Repeat this for the sixth note (‘La’ into ‘Le’) and you now have the Double Harmonic Major. Its got two big jumps in it that give the scale, and the song it’s middle-eastern sound.

Personal thoughts: I love the movie, but I do prefer versions of Misirlou with words. Maybe it’s just my own affinity for language that gets in the way, but I really feel that the guitar heavy versions saturate the search results to a point where the original is almost lost. When the melody is slowed down and given more than a persitent drum beat to play off, it feels more expressive, and less like a challenge to be played as fast as possible.

Give it a go: If you only know it as ‘that one song from Pulp Fiction that the Black Eyed Peas sampled’

Give it a miss: If you prefer Jan August’s Piano version of the song anyway.

[links]
Spotify: Tuesday Tunes, Misirlou by Yiannis Kotsiras, Dick Dale and his Del-Tones
Wikipedia: Misirlou, Pavlova, Solfege
Other: Yiannis Kotsiras Website