And here I thought Big Country was an archtypical one hit wonder. Ignorance fought!
If you like that one, check out One Great Thing. That song kicks ass. (Even more so with the morris dancers!)
Great song - great video. It really brought a smile to my face.
Nothing to add but a joke
Why do bagpipe players march when they play?
To get away from the noise
That was going to be mine, too.
I’m wondering if the bagpipe sound we hear on that and the other guitar-originating “bagpipes” mentioned above is because the music has that Celtic “reel” rhythm to it and we associate that with pipes?
The aforementioned Dropkick Murphys have quite a few songs with pipes. Check out the albums “The Meanest of Times” and “The Warrior’s Code.”
Rod Stewart, “Rhythm of My Heart.” Not my favorite song, but a good use o’ the pipes.
A sidenote: My sister graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Andrew Carnegie’s bequest to the school was on the condition that it always offer a bagpipe-performance major; sometimes no one majors in it, sometimes only one or two people, but it’s always offered (the WSJ had an article on it a few years back). Also, a bagpiper always leads the academic procession at commencement at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio.
OP checking in. I can’t access the youtube links from work, but will check them out tonight.
I love Big Country! It always sounded like pipes to me.
Hey, what about Nazareth? Didn’t they have some pipey-sounding songs?
Wombat’s law: Every time people who enjoy bagpipe music start a thread, some thread-shitter will show up and start the bagpipe jokes.
sigh
Eh. Pipers probably originated most of the bagpipe jokes.
“Out Like A Lamb” by Happy Rhodes (from her album Equipoise) has bagpipes in it. It’s about her father, who was a huge fan of bagpipes. From her bio:
“Jump Around” -House of Pain, an Irish-style hip-hop group in the early '90s. (Does that count, even though it’s not quite “rock”?)
Not sure if this counts as ‘rock’, but FWIW Sting uses Northumbrian smallpipes several times. For example, “Island of Souls” (from The Soul Cages) opens with a moving pipes solo by Kathryn Tickell. She’s also credited on Ten Summoner’s Tales and Mercury Falling, but offhand I can’t recall which tracks she played the pipes on.
If you’re interested in expanding your horizons to jazz, you should know about Rufus Harley.
Years and years ago, a friend of mine came across an LP in a cutout bin with picture of a black guy with dreadlocks wearing a kilt and playing the bagpipes. IIRC, on one side of the album Rufus plays sax, and on the other bagpipes. He plays mostly jazz standards, backed by a small ensemble.
On hearing a jazz rendition of “Chim Chim Cheree” played on bagpipes, most people go through several distinct phases: shock, amazement, laughter, growing discomfort, and distress. Prolonged exposure can lead to insanity. (This was clearly the effect it had on Rufus, as indicated by the bizarre rants documented in the video tribute to him released earlier this year.)
Nevertheless, he recorded with artists such as Laurie Anderson, Herbie Mann, and Sonny Rollins, and toured all over the world for decades, often giving fans miniature Liberty Bells, the symbol of his native Philadelphia. His early Atlantic albums are available in a boxed set.
He died in 2006, at the age of 70.
Look for McQuaig, a Canadian rock band who I used to see in Yellowknife and Western Canada quite a bit - Johnny McQuaig plays pipes like a wildman.
Here’s that song in Irish (Gaelic) by American comedian, Des Bishop,
Mine, too!
Come Talk To Me by Peter Gabriel starts with bagpipes.
“Sleep the Clock Around” by Belle & Sebastian.
And how does posting a tired, lame and insulting joke help to answer the OP’s interesting question?
If you’ve got nothing of any value to contribute, why don’t you just stay out of the thread?
Me, I was going to mention Mull of Kintyre, and would also second Invisible Wombat’s mention of Enter the Haggis - they’re a great rock - piping band.