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The Music From Bagpuss

by Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner

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I am Fflwcs
I am Fflwcs thumbnail
I am Fflwcs I am instantly 6 years old again. Favorite track: The Bony King of Nowhere.
Andrew Neilson
Andrew Neilson thumbnail
Andrew Neilson Please stop reading this comment and download this album now. Favorite track: Opening.
spacemann/JeffersonSound
spacemann/JeffersonSound thumbnail
spacemann/JeffersonSound My childhood now being enjoyed by my children. I cannot tell you how amazing this is! My parents were folk singers too and apparently I was at all their gigs, mostly sleeping in a moses basket. This reminds me of seventies sofas, massive TVs and home. Warm and welcoming and a worthy purchase. Favorite track: Row Your Boat.
lindrrr
lindrrr thumbnail
lindrrr Hearing Bagpuss words and music makes me cry with the sweetest nostalgia; lovely times spent staring, entranced, at the telly waiting for my brother to come home and push me into the carpet "sharks"! Good times!
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

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  • Limited Edition Pink LP
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  • Limited Edition 'Shop Window' Sleeve LP + Lithograph Prints
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  • Limited Edition Bookback CD
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    Includes unlimited streaming of The Music From Bagpuss via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
Opening 00:52
2.
3.
I Saw A Ship 01:58
4.
5.
6.
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8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Here's a Pin 00:38
14.
15.
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17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
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24.
25.
Brian O'Lynn 02:03
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
Uncle Feedle 01:59
32.
Closing 00:16
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
Mermaid Song 00:34
39.
40.
41.
Birdsong 01:16
42.
43.
44.
45.
Bagpipes 01:00
46.
47.
48.
49.

about

12th of February, 1974, and for an audience of small children at 1:45pm, a life irrevocably coloured by the wayward wonderings of one saggy cloth cat. Some 44 years later and Earth Recordings opens the door to Bagpuss & Co. once again, revealing for the first time the original music in all its newly-mastered splendour.

The 32 tracks that make up the main body of the compositions are – like all good folk music – a patchwork of traditional pieces, half-remembered tunes and pure improvisation. It's testament to Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner's musicianship that the recordings work so well, not only within the context of the television episodes, but as an album in its own right. Of the recording, Oliver Postgate (in his exquisite autobiography 'Seeing Things') says: "Between them Sandra and John could play every sort of instrument from a mountain dulcimer to an Irish fiddle. They knew and could sing every tune in the world and didn't bother with written music, except as a last resort. They were exactly suited to Gabriel the Toad and Madeleine the Rag Doll and in those roles were happy to play whatever music and sing whatever songs would be needed."

Those songs manifested themselves as reworkings of familiar tunes ('I Saw A Ship'; 'Row Your Boat'; 'Bucket's Burning'), takes on traditional ballads ('Brian O'Lynn'; 'The Frog Princess'; 'Weaving Song'; 'The Old Woman Tossed Up in a Basket') and delicious flights of fancy ('The Bony King of Nowhere'; 'Turtle Calypso'; 'Uncle Feedle'). The counterpart to Madeleine and Gabriel's more polished ditties are the interludes from the mice; a raggle-taggle chorus that accompanies the creatures' efforts of help (with the mice once famously going on strike when they were not permitted sang as they worked). Again, Postgate muses: "Once I had worked out a few episodes I would make a very rough list of the bits where I though music would be appropriate. I would send it to [Sandra and John] to think about. Then we would borrow a fairly silent room in a remote house and, taking the various articles that we intended to celebrate with us, would spend a happy day with a tape recorder, thinking up and recording whatever songs and tunes came to mind."

The outtakes provide an intimate – and often very humourous – insight into the trio's work ethic, if it can be called such a thing. (By all accounts they sound as though they're having a very jolly time indeed.) Highlights include alternative opening words and end music, as well as Postgate sound-checking in character as Bagpuss. This never-before heard audio provides a real treat for fans (and indeed those new to the Smallfilms stable) – affirmation again to the enduring quality of these special recordings, and the beloved programme that inspired them.

"An accidental classic of the folk-roots underground that we never dared hope we’d hear with such clarity."

-Stewart Lee

Released on limited edition 'Shop Window' sleeve LP, complete with 5 interchangeable lithograph prints, as well as 24 page Bookback CD. Illustration by Hannah Alice (www.hannahalice.co.uk). Both editions come with a download of all tracks. Contains new liner notes by Stewart Lee, Daniel Postgate, Frances McKee (The Vaselines), Andy Votel and Sarah Martin (Belle & Sebastian).

And so their work was done.

credits

released November 16, 2018

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Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner Whitstable, UK

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