In one of the more brilliant musical combinations ever produced, the Chieftains and Nickel Creek do a mind-blowing version of "Raggle Taggle Gypsy" on The Chieftain's CD Further Down the Old Plank Road. I dare you to sit still while listening to this song. And the great thing is that this song is such a great representation of Myers-Briggs Personality Types. No, really!
- The SJ's are the bass line... steady, reliably on beat, a small number of notes, rarely (but occasionally!) caught up in the emotion of the story, only changing speed or pitch when the complete music demands it.
- The SP's are the flute, the pipes... flirtatious, jumping in and out of the song, drawing the ear's attention, reliable in their unceasing movement.
- The NF's are the melody, the vocals... the human story, the emotion, the commonality amongst the other parts.
- The NT's are the mandolin... fast but (mostly) on beat, piquantly staccato, sometimes unnoticed, most notable when contrary to the rest of the music.
Of course, that still leaves the fiddle and cello... assuming there's a cello right there at the beginning... it may be a second bass. And maybe a lighter stringed instrument... a harp or a Tiompan. Not sure, there's a lot going on in this song. Every time I changed the equalizer settings, I heard something new. Not a bad life metaphor... change your bias, observe a complex new world.
I should note that in grand family tradition, I must have listened to the song over 20 times in a row while writing this post (my husband is thankful for headphones). I'm still not tired of it.
Also, iTunes has no equalizer setting for "bluegrass" or "folk". Really, iTunes? The best preset you can do is "acoustic"?
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