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Re: Fields of Gold

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2016 2:30 pm
by Mike Joyce
Hi robduloc,
Happy belated birthday. 57 is no age these days robduloc. You still have a long road to travel yet, to get to Canterbury. Canterbury Tales is a book I haven't read, but I know it's a classic. You did well to read it in four days. What are your thoughts on it.
Recently I read Stephen Kings, 11.22.63 after watching the mini series. First book I have read by him. I was very impressed. Nearly 800 pages long, but worth the time it took.

Re: Fields of Gold

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2016 8:05 pm
by robduloc
Wow, Mike!

Thank you, I am getting a little teary eyed, right now, you did that.

Fields of Gold mentions barley and so I looked it up, barley is much more hearty of a grass than wheat and is harvested in Spring, versus Winter, and so, Fields of Gold has a much more warmer feel, yes? And your version is very powerful, when you sing and play I feel that I am in good hands, like when I was a child and my father would pick me up scoop me into his arms, you are indeed one of the great patriarchs, joyous and deliberate~

You and Dee owe a special credit, when I looked up the title of Sting's fourth solo album where Fields Of Gold makes its' first appearance, I went to our local second hand store and bought and read in full the last four days a 1949 abridged translated version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a nice gift to me, turning 57, I am most certain, primed for all the subjects that it addresses, thank you for the source of inspiration, Mr. Joyce and Dee.

Re: Fields of Gold

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2016 7:51 am
by Mike Joyce
Hi robduloc,
I have just read your posts. As you may have realized I have been away for a while so I am just catching up at the moment on all the various topics that have been discussed.
I just wanted to thank you for you wonderful words of encouragement. I think you hit the nail on the head in several of your points about life and wheat fields being a reflection of that.
I am glad you enjoyed listening to the song. I hadn't listened to it myself for a long time, but just playing it now brought back a lot of good memories.I have always loved music for being able to do that. A song means so much more than just it's lyrics and melody. It is a part of our lives and it enhances those parts of our lives that we share with those songs. Have you ever heard an intro to a song and instantly be transported to a sunny day of your childhood.
Music is such a powerful tool for the soul and having been inspired by Glen, I took up the guitar, gave up,and then took it up again. Sadly I will never be the player Glen was but I can get by and I love learning a favorite tune to perform. There is no greater satisfaction.

I must also remember Jimmy Webb's influence as well. He is the one who inspired me to try writing songs and I have made some good progress with that also. Yet again, as with the guitar I have to work within my own ability levels but I still get a lot of joy from composing something which I can perform and for someone to be moved enough to come up to me afterward and show their appreciation. Music is something that never stops giving.
Anyway robduloc, thank you again for your kind words. It makes it all worthwhile.
Can I just say, I am totally impressed with all the work you have put into compiling Glen's discography. Your attention to detail is phenomenal. It's fans like you that will help prolong Glen's legacy for decades to come. Well done Sir.

Re: Fields of Gold

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2016 12:03 pm
by robduloc
My second post here was a message to Dee that I cut and pasted, there is one part that may be a little vague, when I first signed on over a year ago I was discussing what it was like to to be a kid growing up in the 60's, and save up all the extra dimes, nickels and quarters left over from my weekly allowances, dress up, comb my hair, and study all the faces of the coins while my parents drove the 2 to 3 miles down our street and buy the latest Glen Campbell album or 45 Single.

Mike replied that he used to have to get on a bus to do the same thing, it is a wonderful picture, a young man sitting on a bus with a shiny new record slick in his lap. studying the countryside, I'm so there!

We talked about what it would be like to bundle up all our Glen Campbell records and take a snapshot.

I was very lucky to hear Dee wanted to hear Glen Campbell cover Fields Of Gold and Mike responded with a version of his own.

Sorry if some of my entries repeat themselves or are a little too sugar coated, I genuinely care and get excited about music easily.

I live my dreams, through you~

Re: Fields of Gold

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2016 9:27 pm
by robduloc
Or, that is to say... Thank you, Mr. Joyce~

Re: Fields of Gold

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2016 8:22 pm
by robduloc
Do you have a song that resonates with your heart.

Is it the song or perhaps the time or context that you first heard it.

Emotionally, a scrapbook of memories come to mind, perhaps.

This is the role or function of the new troubadour, to express in words and music what we would like to say.

Radio, TV and the internet make music more readily available than any other time in history.

The jump in light years from the early 80's when MTV was the centerpiece of the house, to hoarding music on earbuds and private files has been quite a leap.

Oddly enough, cable TV had a lot to do with that transition when more channels were added in the early 90's and a big selling point was innumerable channels at the end of the band reserved just for music, different formats and styles with no picture only sound, who turns on their TV just to listen like it were an FM band.

That is what is so unique about growing up with a radio always playing in the background, everyone within earshot knew all the latest popular songs regardless what style or format, a mixture of sounds and ideas addressed to the mainstream.

I do believe Sting Fields Of Gold may have been one of the last popular tunes to be playing in the background on the radio at all our houses in the neighborhood, right before the album format died.

Fields of Gold is the fourth track on Sting's fourth solo album released in 1993, Ten Summoner's Tales. 12 delicious tracks, bonus tracks on alternate editions.

In a pop culture starved world, people were drawn to The Police and took comfort the lead singer was not only British, a teacher as well.

For the front album cover, it is very soothing and easy on the eyes to see Sting perched on a makeshift seat next to an ancient castle, and stately horse meriting a knight, research on Wikipedia will show the horse is his, Icelandic descent, and the castle walls leads out to a cottage where the songs for his fourth album were recorded.

You can bet, the cottage opens up to the outlying fields teaming with wildlife, thatch and murky streams, quite a reserve to draw on.

An artist who has moved pop culture along and is at home going back and forth in time, a comfort for us all, an artist steeped in history with far reaching roots.

I can see why Dee would be drawn to the song Fields Of Gold by Sting and why she would've loved to hear Glen Campbell cover the song.

The harmonica and pipes echo a certain sentiment or wave of nostalgia, the reels, ballads, airs of the last century, all the same, Sting Fields Of Gold is an entirely original song in spite of what allure or flavour it conjures.

It's our story, the circle of life, to find yourself in a season and by sheer grace move on and embrace all the seasons of your life.

Mike Joyce sings and plays all the instruments for his version, it's a tribute to Dee, really, I personally feel Mike's instrumentation to be quite angelic. And the visuals, the perfect compliment.

But that is what a good friend are all about, Mike takes you to a beautiful place rich and steeped in history, and we have the video and song that Mike made for Dee to celebrate this rich tradition of sharing music and deep sense of belonging.

Thanks, Mike!

Re: Fields of Gold

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2016 2:40 pm
by robduloc
Mike Joyce, "Fields Of Gold".

Mike must be related to Glen Campbell. Past lives have a way of coming back to haunt a person.

Mike sings and sounds so much like Campbell. This may be in part the family crest is herald or comes from that part of the world, or it could be a seminal influence, as a child taking the bus into town to buy and pick up the latest album by him.

The years of training, and the range or key, they sound like brothers, Mike also sounds like there is a bluesman in him aching to bust out, the combination of that and Mike's childhood hero are quite a mix.

And so maybe the resemblance is only from this life, but I wouldn't rule it out, Mike and Glen may have known each other in a past life, many perhaps.

Visually, Mike nails Field Of Gold.

The returns.

To find yourself in a season of your life enjoying first love in your young bodies and move forward in time to watching your children run in the same fields you experienced in your youth, it's all in there in Mike's film.

A field of wheat or barley requires a lot of attention, but in the end you have to hand over your very best.

The arc of life is to be treasured, that is where the true gold lies.

I am so glad Mike made this song and video to share with the world.

Re: Fields of Gold

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2016 2:37 pm
by robduloc
What is a field of gold?

It is life's panorama sweeping before our eyes.

A grass unlike wheat which is harvested in the cold time of year.

Barley, a grass stronger than wheat, harvested in the warm cool Spring of our lives.

A field when harvested, yields great returns.

To be in our young bodies in the Spring of our lives and keeper of all the seasons bestowed us.

Guardians, time keepers, tillers of the earth, lovers, parents, care providers for those that can no longer care for themselves.

Fields Of Gold

Yield great returns.

Sweeping images of us young and in love finding and taking our rightful place in the world.

Replaced by images of our children running through the grass.

The field undergoes many seasons and lives on.

So do we.

A field that stretches far as we can see, rooted firmly, branches of a great tree grow ever wider to frame the picture.

The light of lights to overtake the shadows, lift our spirits upon the breeze, and blanket the earth in living color.

The blades of grass cling to one another and let go connected where no eye can go or see, planted firmly in good soil.

Fields of Gold

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2016 12:46 am
by Dee
Rob asked me for the link to Mike Joyce's cover of Sting's "Fields of Gold", and I am happy to post it here. We were talking about how Glen should have recorded this song.