Cloths of Heaven

I well recall making this for St. Patricks Day in 2007. A mix I wish I had never started if I'm honest. The songs all had to be based on the writings of William Butler Yeats, an arduous task in its own right but my insistence on seeking out poetry readings and recordings from the man himself from old library recordings became an absolute nightmare and took roughly 4 months to wrap up.

That said, I'm glad it exists

-Original comments 14/3/2007-

William Butler Yeats 1865-1939 Well now... I decided to make this mix almost two years ago and it was meant to be finished for last years St Patricks day but I got sidetracked and found source material hard to come by. I chanced upon some archived recordings at my local library of the man himself reciting his poetry and began to weave it through the songs I had collected. The songs themselves are all either direct attempts at putting his words to music or simply trying to convey the images within a tune or an air. Only the Sinead O'Connor is tenuous as it is very loosely based on his poem No Second Troy. My English Literature teacher is to blame really as he introduced me to Yeats when I was a mere boy and during my adolescent years I developed a bit of an obsession with all things W.B I even managed to persuade an aunt to take me to what was by now to me the mythical Innisfree. Anyway enough romanticizing, in terms of listening, should you be so inclined, the sequence might be hard to follow here as sometimes the spoken pieces are played over the music. Incidentally the uncredited poetry readings were taken from BBC broadcasts over this past few years. Happy St Patricks day oh and tread softly... Runtime 58:17

1 Uncredited Reading - Sailing to Byzantium
2 Lisa Gerrard - Sailing to Byzantium
3 Shane MacGowan & Cafe Orchestra - An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
4 Arty McGlynn - The Sally Garden
5 Carla Bruni- Before The World Was Made
6 William Butler Yeats - The Lake isle of Inisfree
7 Donovan - The Lake isle of Inisfree
8 Davy Spillane - The Host of the Air
9 Uncredited Reading - The Second Coming
10 John Tavener (w/ Heidi Grant Murphy) - To a Child Dancing in the Wind
11 Chris Thompson - The Song Of Wandering Aengus
12 Uncredited Reading - Aedh Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven
13 The North Sea Radio Orchestra - He Wishes for The Cloths of Heaven
14 Jolie Holland - Wandering Angus
15 Sinead O'Connor - Troy
16 Loreena McKennitt - The Stolen Child
17 The Big Huge - Wrapped in the Cloths of Heaven
18 W.H Auden - In Memory of W.B Yeats (Poem)
19 Bill Douglas - The Lake Isle of Innisfree
20 William Butler Yeats - The Song of the Old Mother