Friday, January 29, 2021

Ptake A Ptrip With Ptarmigan And Ptapestry!

Canadia! O mighty land of snow and fir! Famed Quebec is your capital! Lumber your proud heritage! And psychedelic prog folk rock your music!

Across the snowy steppes of Canadia, from the smelt farms of the Yukon to the fjords of Winnipeg, ruddy-cheeked families huddle in their log cabins to listen to this type music on Radio Canadia, the national radio of Canadia!

Ptarmigan played at the opening ceremony of the Canadian World Ice Hockey Olympics in 1973, whilst Tapestry were the first Canadian act to tour the Galapagos Islands, where they are revered to this day.

The Ptarmigan album is from '74, Tapestry the year earlier, which is ... '73? You do the research, as they say. My work here is done. We got comics tomorrow!

23 comments:

  1. Oboy! Is this stuff rare or what?! It's so rare it is literally unobtainable anywhere except th' internet! And even then it's tough to find! But here it is, free of charge, just a dollar to cover postage and handling, with the proviso that ONLY ONE LOADDOWN is provided, to ensure and maintain rarity value! Be sure to grab this exclusive offer later, when I've finished caulking my coracle seams! Oboy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Coracle? No pirogue (yes, I had to google it)?!?

    ReplyDelete
  3. A coracle, in addition to being a comically unmanageable boat-substitute, doubles as swell headgear in intemperate conditions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's a chapel further down the river from hereabouts that's been flooded so many times they keep the hymn books in a coracle.

      Delete
    2. That would be whereabouts - th' Emerald Isle©?

      Delete
    3. The Welsh midwest, thanks for asking.

      Delete
    4. I have very fond memories of the Machynthlleth area (sp?), if that's where you are.

      Delete
    5. I'm about 40 miles south of Machynlleth, in the county of Ceredigion. Lovely part of the world. Moved here from The Big Smoke when my health packed in, back in 2003. Bloody cold today, though. Wind's from the east and there's a forecast of more snow - we were snowed in for three days last weekend. Drop in for a herbal tea, next time you're passing by.

      Delete
    6. Would you care to buy a vowel?

      Delete
  4. not sure Don Farq has much call for a pirogue in the Isle. But the radio....does the Isle have Route 128 and powerlines? No cold, I assume...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Th' Blessed Isle© benefits from a newly-laid tin-can-and-string communications infrastructure. New gramophone recordings are broadcast by playing the gramophone at top volume.

      Delete
    2. the gramophone--underrated and underappreciated...or is that Gram Parsons? Nah, he's overrated and overappreciated (albeit legit).

      As for "newly-laid" on the Isle well, the jokes write themselves, no?

      Delete
  5. The shirt. The mustache. The maple leaf. I'm in. (Even though I've yet to hear anything described as psych-folk which holds a candle to the late lamented Tom Rapp and Pearls before Swine.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wait until you see the insert photo with the duo standing in front of the home produce stall!

      Delete
    2. The mustache is Jack Winters, who would go on to find success as a jingle writer.
      There's good money in jingles.

      Delete
    3. I'm digging the Pepsodent "Dear Miriam" jingle.

      Delete
  6. Replies
    1. Dang me and thank thee Farq for the folk.

      p.s. I had an exterior tin-can-and-string communications system running the length of a 70ft narrowboat and it worked a treat, allowing the captain piloting the vessel from the rear to alert lazy front-deck hands to their commanding officer's need for another cup of tea.

      Delete
    2. Them scurvy deck-hands!

      You'll find that the Tapestry album is exactly what it says - visually - on the tin. Straightforward Neil Young-influenced check shirt soft rock, worth a play or two, hampered by lyrics copied from other songs that copied each other anyway, too many la-la's, and the uneasy feeling you're listening to somebody's vanity project. Ptarmigan is pretty interesting, though.

      Delete
    3. On first listen your summary is spot on. Ptarmigan has psychedelic depths of folky progness lacking from Tapestry’s album. But that leaf was irresistible!

      p.s. I claim my Foam Bonus Points for Obscure Lyric Recognition by knowing that your rhyming link occurs in a Roger Miller song (Dang Me) … “Roses are red and violets are purple, Sugar is sweet and so is maple syrple” Roger and out, far out.

      Delete
    4. There's a slew of Roger Miller here on th' IoF©, Maybe the search function works, I dunno. Wotta guy! Out of his head most the time, off his rocker the rest.

      Delete
    5. The last word in lonesome is me.
      Genius!

      Delete