Daily Tune On - The Cocteau Twins, Two For One
Somehow I missed the Cocteau Twins when they were around and playing. I guess I was into other music then. It wasn’t until 2001 that I listened to the Cocteau Twins for the first time and at the time I didn’t realize that they had already been disbanded for years. But I fell in love with the vocals and sound of the band even when I could barely understand a word that was being sung. It still conveyed emotion and at times possibly even more.
I was first introduced to the band with their CD “Blue Bell Knoll.” So I decided to introduce the Cocteau Twins to this blog with the song “Blue Bell Knoll” from the disc of the same name.
The band was comprised of Scottish singer, Elizabeth Fraser, who was the vocalist and lyricist for the band, Scottish guitarist, keyboard, drum and bass player Robin Guthrie, and English bass, guitar, and piano player Simon Raymonde. By this time Will Heggie had left the group and Simon Raymonde had taken his place. All three contributed to the songwriting and feel of the group and also to this particular cut.
If you want to talk about the sound of the Cocteau Twins, the words that come to my mind are ethereal, haunting, and other worldly. When Elizabeth Fraser sings, she could be singing anything; you don’t focus on the lyrics of a song, you just feel the music. And the musical montage that creates the setting on which her vocals fall, rounds out the cloud on which they land. I guess that’s what I like best about their sound. It can take me anywhere I want to be at the time I’m listening to it, and I don’t have to think.
Below I’ve connected you to two links. The first is a YouTube video that someone put together using the Cocteau Twin’s cut from the CD “Blue Bell Knoll.” I want you to be able to hear the entire song. And the second I just couldn’t resist, having always been a major Tim Buckley fan, it’s a video I found on YouTube of Elizabeth Frazer singing live, Tim Buckley’s “Song To The Siren.” She does an absolutely amazing arrangement of the song! Maybe it’s because they are the Cocteau “Twins,” I gave you two this time?
Cocteau Twins “Blue Bell Knoll”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oespMmWnDo&feature=related
Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP2vw189q4U&feature=related
August 15th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
i used to play the blue bell knoll album constantly, singing along at the top of my lungs, flipping from side one to side two. VERY LOUD. it just had to be loud. i knew every word…
August 15th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I’m glad you liked the choice. You can find it regularly cranked in my apartment as well.
But I wonder, how could you sing it? That’s a tough task even for a singer.