Monday, April 30, 2007

MacBeth






















"MacBeth the real person was a very benevolent and kind king. During his reign (1040-1057) Scotland didn't have any expansionist ideas. He was concerned with what happened within the country. It's interesting how a very clever playwright can come along and destroy your reputation entirely for possibly propagandist reasons. At the time the play was written it was important for the English to believe that Scots kings were bad people -- heathens and primitives.

It was a good way of darkening the soul of a powerful character from Scottish history."I looked into it and I got really pissed off that that had happened. I like the darkness of the name MacBeth but, knowing the historical truth, I thought that I'd like to use the name for both purposes. It has a power, but also in the context of dissemination of information -- if I can sort of lighten the name of the true MacBeth then I'd be quite chuffed about that."

Snippet from soon-to-be-published Cindytalk interview for French Magazine "Trinity":

"MacBeth was in many ways destined to become a one-off project.In truth,the track "Help Me Lift You Up" was intended to be a Cindytalk track (for the CD compilation Volume 5) but I never felt happy with it.The line-up on the track was all wrong.Robin Guthrie and myself managed to cancel each other out,leaving only Nadia Lanman's cello as a bright spot.I decided not to use the name Cindytalk as the whole process lacked the energy or creative spark that was always present in our recordings.It just felt wrong.In doing so,I had a brief flirtation with the idea of more songs of that nature but time just moved on so quickly and left that idea in it's wake.It's always possible that I will return to the idea of recording some acoustic based songs in the future but I doubt if I will resurrect the name MacBeth".



MacBeth was a Cindytalk side-project established to explore covers of songs or traditional Scottish songs."Help me lift you up" is a Mary Margaret O'Hara cover that appeared in 1992 for the CD+book magazine Volume,number 5.


Volume 5 MacBeth photo by Simon Bower
Pinky Cindy photo by Nicole Huber

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

My English teacher, a Hungarian chap, only taught me the widely perceived view of MacBeth. I will go with the historian Sharp's view on the matter because he's very thorough in his research. The only (possibly) relevant parallel I can bring to mind is this. My friend described Gordon Sharp as "a thrashing garage punk". No I protested, he is a sweet and gentle soul, and to prove my point I played him "Help Me Lift You Up". He became confused and had to lie down in a darkened room for 2 months.

Anonymous said...

Is the Simon Bower photo looks very bloody...

Anonymous said...

the image doesn't show up on my computer at all.
just get question marks!!? but if it's that horrible
red jacket photo i'm blessed i can't see it.

Anonymous said...

the original mary margaret o'hara version's got a wicked bassline...

Spaewaif said...

Sorry about the photos.
Although both gif and jpeg are allowed,gif tends to "misbehave".
I have changed the format and uploaded them again for cinder's delight...
;-)

Spaewaif said...

The infamous red jacket!
Obviously,the photographer had an agenda:
hell-hound,hell-kite,tortured soul,despair,anger,
witches,juggling fiends,power and ambition,curses and tyrants,fate,prophecy,betrayal,foul and fair,BLOODshed,murder.
Of course,it all melts into an incomparable literary masterpiece but Shakespeare had his political leanings and was supported by the monarchy which fed him.
The real MacBeth is this one:
Mac Bethad.
I won't go even into one of Shakespeare's most challenging and rich characters ever,Lady MacBeth...
Pure verse genius.

Anonymous said...

more on macbeth mac findlaech...

Anonymous said...

photographers, agenda or not, should try a bit harder to not make yr hair look so crap.

Anonymous said...

oh, i can see the other photo now.much better. seductive inchya?

Anonymous said...

hilarious,let's see what your hair looks ya muppet!!!

Anonymous said...

You and your coiffed hair!
;-)

Anonymous said...

As someone who is half Scottish/half English, I weas fascinated to hear about the origins of the Macbeth legend. I had no idea! I can see I'll have to investigate my Scottish roots with greater attention! Thank you!

Spaewaif said...

Good to see you around Shiffi!
Did you EVER tell me you were half Scottish??!

Shiffi Le Soy said...

I am indeed 50/50, spaewaif! my beard grows red and I suddenly feel like the school janitor on The Simpsons. Strrraaange..!

Shiffi Le Soy said...

Hi.
About that header:

Ok.
From Layout you've gone to Template. Good.
Now Look at the header box, right there under the Navbar. Click Edit.
You should see a Configure Header box.
There's an Image/From your computer box.
Make sure that's checked and browse your hard drive to find the photo you want.
Save changes and the image should appear in your header.

If you are getting this far and having a problem, could ze problem be connected with your image size?

Anonymous said...

I neer knew until recently that to say Macbeth on the set of a dramtic event is considered bad luck.