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Saturday 12 January 2013

Asturias > Eight Miles High - Roger McGuinn

A wonderful solo acoustic performance of Eight Miles High by Roger McGuinn at the Pacifico Yokohama Hall, Japan, in November 2007.

Roger brilliantly incorporates "Asturias (Leyenda)" (1892) by Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909) in the intro and later on in the solo. This piece of music was also used by the Doors on "Spanish Caravan" on their 1968 Waiting For The Sun album.

The name Asturias (Leyenda) was given posthumously for the 1911 "complete version" of Albéniz 's Suite española. Despite the name, the music is not particularly Asturian as it is more reminiscent of the flamenco tradition of Andalucia. Asturias is a region of Northern Spain and its folk music borrows more from the Celtic tradition and features the droning Gaita (bagpipe).

Eight Miles High on bagpipes... now that would be something.

Roger's solo here is impressive indeed and the arabesque flamenco motifs go well with Eight Miles High's original eastern flavour - inspired, as the song was, by John Coltrane's India.







1 comment:

  1. Far out man.
    Lot of groups of the west coast in the sixties were influenced by Spanish music. I suppouse they will found it inspiring.

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