On the list of ridiculous things humans have come up with, shoes made of wood have to be close to the top.
I mean, I know that shoemaking is a careful balance between comfort and durability, but surely our ancestors must have been able to find a material in nature a bit more forgiving on the feet than…trees.
And yet, Clogs appear across the globe in various forms stretching back centuries, from the Netherlands to Turkey to Indonesia to Japan. It wasn’t until after the Second World War that wood was uniformly replaced by leather and synthetic materials as a material for making shoes. Side note: how many world wars have we had in the years since? That’s right…zero. Maybe the two world wars were partially a result of grumpiness caused by aching feet.
Like the wooden footwear for which they’re named, the American-Australian collaborative ensemble Clogs evokes the antique. For proof of this, look no further than the fact that their 2006 album Lantern opens with a cover of the baroque song featured on this blog back in week 445.
There’s also something decorative about their music though; if it was a pair of shoes, it wouldn’t be something utilitarian. It would be the kind of clogs made for royalty and the well-to-do. Crafted with care and skill.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The instrument that opens the song is a mandola. It’s the lesser-known, lower-registered version of the mandolin, and the level of lament it’s able to convey is off the charts. Played here by Bryce Dessner, better known as a member of The National.
2. When the other mandola comes in at 0:55, panned just slightly more to the right, it opens the song up wonderfully.
3. As things continue, more instruments enter, notably the bassoon at 1:45 (more lament) and then some kind of ominous hissing at 3:37 that I think might either be a bowed cymbal…or maybe the ghost of the last person known to wear clogs in public.
Recommended listening activity:
Walking barefoot around your house and paying attention to what all the different surfaces feel like under your feet.
Buy it here.
The post Week 667: “Tides of Washington Bridge” by Clogs appeared first on Beautiful Song Of The Week.
