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Monday, September 9, 2024

Bear McCreary scored the Old Tom Bombadil song from Fellowship of the Ring and made it a masterpiece.

Some inventions emerge perfect into the world just the way they are, and they shouldn't be messed with. One such example is the button on a shirt. There is nothing wrong with the button, whether it snaps or gets pushed through an eyelet. One way in which this is getting messed with in modern times is people making clothing that has magnetic buttons. So you have these buttons on the placket of the shirt and they come together via magnetic force. Whoever thought of this is someone who doesn't wash clothes. A magnet will stick to the drum inside a washing machine and keep the shirt from getting clean. The same goes for drying them out. If you have a shirt that has magnetic buttons, it will have a more difficult time getting dry because it will stick to the inside of the dryer.

However, there are other inventions that absolutely get better when someone takes a stab at them and decides, "I can improve on this."  Take for example the old "Tom Bombadil" song that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote. Here's a few of the lyrics that appear in Lord of the Rings:

Light goes the weather-wind and the feathered starling.
Down along under Hill, shining in the sunlight,
Waiting on the doorstep for the cold starlight,
There my pretty lady is, River-woman's daughter,
Slender as the willow-wand, clearer than the water...

I hated coming across all of these songs in Tolkien's fantasy works when I was a kid. Sometimes, I would skip them completely and just go on to the next place where the story picked up. But, I'm glad that Bear McCreary did not think the same thing as me. He took this Old Tom Bombadil song and scored it, and the results are below (you should give it a listen). When I heard it for the first time, I was like...okay...this is amazing. It is a brilliant and beautiful use of Tolkien's words.

If there's a lesson to be learned here it is this: not everything can be improved upon, but sometimes it is desperately needed.

3 comments:

  1. It has a nice Hobbit sound to it.
    Why would someone put magnets on buttons?

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  2. Songs in books are pretty annoying because there's no music to them so you're missing a big piece. I have a few songs of Rufus Wainwright, including a Christmas album he did with his sister.

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  3. Songs in books are just poetry, and I skip them, too. I know, I shouldn't. Glad someone was able to put music to this.

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