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Topic: Wild Goose Flaps It's Wings, Why?< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
qjamesfloyd Offline




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Posted: Sep. 26 2003, 14:12

I have just been listening to this great track,but i could'nt help but wonder where the title comes from,it does'nt seem connected to the track at all,or am i missing something?
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Ugo Offline




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Posted: Sep. 26 2003, 17:46

I think that "Wild Goose" is a synonym for Ireland. IIRC in the late 1700s (or whenever the Wexford rebellion happened, I'm not good at all at history), young Irish rebels were called in various ways - two of them were 'croppies' and 'wild geese'. I think that the title's only link to the song is its 'heroic' mood. :) Maybe Richard 'know-it-all' Carter knows more than me about this. :)

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Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian
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Holger Offline




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Posted: Sep. 26 2003, 19:29

AFAIK, it's a Tai Chi practice... still, Richard 'know-it-all' Carter might give us the details :p
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Tati The Sentinel Offline




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Posted: Sep. 26 2003, 21:07

And Mike once said that this song was inspired by Tai Chi(and he practices a lot,since Voyager days...)

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SCprogfan
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Posted: Sep. 29 2003, 10:17

You may find some other interesting "wild geese" information from the music of Celtic/Christian band Iona:

"Flight of the Wild Goose
This was actually the first Iona composition written. Dave Bainbridge started writing this soon after he and David Fitzgerald had first begun to think about the Iona project in the spring of 1989. The piece was completed during the weeks before Iona's (then consisting of just the two Dave's) first gig. It was originally recorded on the two Dave's first demo tape at Neil Costello's studio in Derbyshire. The title wasn't decided on until a few months later, in the run up to the recording of the first album. The 'Wild Goose' is the Celtic symbol for the Holy Spirit."

from their website
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Antoneey Offline




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Posted: July 02 2005, 22:35

Although most of this information given is correct..

can't you just shut your eyes and imagine a wild goose flapping its wings when the track is playing...


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''If at first you don't succeed, try and try again''
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Locutus Offline




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Posted: July 03 2005, 04:26

Quote (Antoneey @ July 02 2005, 22:35)
can't you just shut your eyes and imagine a wild goose flapping its wings when the track is playing...

only when its chasing me, and hissing
( i grew up in the country) :D
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Alan D Offline




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Posted: July 03 2005, 06:53

Quote (Antoneey @ July 03 2005, 03:35)
Although most of this information given is correct..

can't you just shut your eyes and imagine a wild goose flapping its wings when the track is playing...

That's how I want to respond too. I have an image of a great archetypal bird stirring somewhere, wings slow arching; a feeling of great events about to unfold.
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: July 03 2005, 13:13

Quote (Antoneey @ July 02 2005, 22:35)
can't you just shut your eyes and imagine a wild goose flapping its wings when the track is playing...

I just wondered... If the track were called "Cuddly Cat Wiggles Its Tail", would I like it more because of that image?


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Chicular Offline




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Posted: July 06 2005, 10:17

It's a great track with a great name! For me it epitomizes Mike's Guitar skills.  

It's my favourite track on Voyager
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Inkanta Offline




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Posted: July 11 2005, 10:06

It's a really great piece, indeed. Regarding geese, around here (by the banks of the Mississippi River) the wild ones are Canada geese. Most pass through in spring and autumn, but a few stay year-round. Eagles winter (sometimes close to 100 in this stretch--"Song of the Sun" will always remind me of a cold winter morning that I drove into the park with that piece playing, and watched the eagles swoop and dive into the misty river against a red-orange, rising sun), herons summer, pelicans pass through. Of all of them, the geese are the loudest and sometimes scariest. Herons are like gliders--you can be running very close, and then all the sudden from the hidden bank, this huge bird is airborne. It's spectacular. How was it that Longfellow couldn't tell his goose from a heron  from a diver from a pelican! Ha!!

Anyway....with the geese, there are always several and they are honking. When I have to run through them, I worry that they are going to attack me, but unlike some domestic geese and ducks that will chase you, they scatter. Mike's piece definitely reminds me of the wild geese  because like the geese, hmm...how to explain...you know it's there! If you've been lulled into near sleep by the preceding pieces, this one will wake you up!  :D

Just had a really weird thought. Remember Le Petit Prince/the Little Prince? and the picture of an elephant that had been swallowed by a boa? Everyone told the narrator that the picture looked like a hat, except a child who knew that it was a boa who had swallowed an elephant. Bizarre scene: Mike wanders around for years incognito playing "Wild Goose..." and asks people what it sounds like. Finally, after years of getting very puzzled looks, he runs into an aging organic farmer who played a lot of progressive rock in the 70's and New Age in the 80's & 90's but somehow never came across Mike's music. He does, however, know his geese. He has also been struggling through a T'ai Chi class at the local co-op. "Gee," says the farmer, "That sounds like a wild goose flapping its wings."    

I am running away before I get pelted with bird seed.  :O


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barabadam Offline




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Posted: June 03 2006, 01:18

...because he'd already used 'a wild goose crying' in 'no dream?'
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jonnyw Offline




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Posted: June 05 2006, 15:03

hehehe Being irish myself, ive a bit of an interest in irish literature, and for a second i came really close to answering this, but before i even got to googles main page to check, i realised i was thinking of "the wild swans of coole" by WB Yeats.

Damn!

:(


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Sweetpea Offline




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Posted: Aug. 07 2007, 01:56

There are other more immediately accessible pieces on Voyager, so "Wild Goose Flaps Its Wings" snuck up on me to become one of my favorites.


(PS: Why isn't 'snuck' recognized as a word by spellchecker?)


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"I'm no physicist, but technically couldn't Mike both be with the horse and be flying through space at the same time? (On account of the earth's orbit around the Sun and all that). So it seems he never had to make the choice after all. I bet he's kicking himself now." - clotty
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Holger Offline




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Posted: Aug. 07 2007, 02:06

"Wild Goose" is easily my favourite track from Voyager now; strangely enough, it took me a few years until I realized this. I had always thought of Mont St. Michel as the standout track, and of the rest of the album as forgettable new-celt-age; but at some point, on one of the rare occasions where I played the album and even got that far, I suddenly listened up, and I realized that this is indeed a great tune. I feel it's very Mike Oldfield, if you know what I mean, more so than the rest of the album, even including Mont St. Michel.
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ImAFoolAndImLaughing Offline




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Posted: Aug. 07 2007, 03:27

Quote (Sweatpea @ Aug. 07 2007, 01:56)
(PS: Why isn't 'snuck' recognized as a word by spellchecker?)

I think it's spelt "snook" - doesn't look right, though does it??

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Sweetpea Offline




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Posted: Aug. 28 2007, 06:44

Quote (ImAFoolAndImLaughing @ Aug. 07 2007, 03:27)
I think it's spelt "snook" - doesn't look right, though does it??

Hehe. No, it doesn't. Unless we're making up naughty euphemisms.


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"I'm no physicist, but technically couldn't Mike both be with the horse and be flying through space at the same time? (On account of the earth's orbit around the Sun and all that). So it seems he never had to make the choice after all. I bet he's kicking himself now." - clotty
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Thea Cochrane Offline




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Posted: Aug. 29 2007, 18:51

Frustratingly I can't find it just now but I'm sure I remember an interview where Mike said something about working with Leslie Penning around the time Hergest Ridge was recorded. He said they had been jamming in a pub playing, amongst other things, "Wild Goose Flaps It's Wings" which made me think it was either traditional or had been kicking about for a while.

I know the sleeve notes credit Mike with writing "Wild Goose..." but it also says that "Dark Island" is traditional, which it isn't.
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Jesse Offline




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Posted: Aug. 30 2007, 01:39

dark island is a 100% MO track?
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Thea Cochrane Offline




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Posted: Aug. 30 2007, 07:16

Quote (Jesse @ Aug. 30 2007, 06:39)
dark island is a 100% MO track?

The tune was by Iain MacLaughlan in the early 1960s and was originally called "Dr Mackay's Farewell to Creagorry."

David Silver was asked to write a song for for a 1960s BBC project called "The Dark Island" and used that tune as the basis. The BBC thing was filmed on South Uist but the words of the song are about Benbecula. later Stewart Ross wrote another set of words.
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