Bardcore: AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ done medieval style

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/09/24/bardcore-ac-dcs-thunderstruck-done-medieval-style.html

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Anything with accordion is automatically awesome, and you can’t change the rules so don’t try.

Loved this. I keep my eye out for weird covers of old rock tunes, and this is getting close to right up there with the Heimatdamisch’s covers. But check out this Thunderstruck cover by Finnish band Steve’n Seagulls.

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Erp…the accordion makes it medieval? The 19th century was not the middle ages. Not even close.
Now if Steeleye Span were ever to do a cover that’d be worth a listen.

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Steeleye Span

long_time_star_wars

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Hurdy gurdy for time period accuracy…

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It’s disappointing how so much of the “bardcore” I see is just replacing guitars and other modern instruments with older ones, with no changes to the arrangement otherwise. (Although in this case, they didn’t even do that. I’m not sure how this remotely qualifies as “bardcore” even under that wobbly definition.) Often the songs are done incredibly lazily by just taking a midi file and swapping instruments. It’s too bad, as actually reworking the piece to have mediaeval sensibilities is far, far more interesting. One of the few “bardcore” performers who makes an effort to even remotely live up to the name is Hildegard von Blingin’, but even she doesn’t quite make it with a few. (Is it possible to have a “genre” that no one actually fits into?)

Feels like someone just wanted to do an accordion version but flailed around to grasp at some existing “hook” with which to market the thing online.

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Why ever would I want to.

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Meh, it was funny. Which is what I think we need.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for eccentric covers of pop classics - the more eccentric, the better. I just don’t know why it had to be mis-categorized.

Hey, suggest it to them. https://parkrecords.com/artists/steeleye-span/


This is the band that covered “Rave On” and “To Know Him is to Love Him” (the latter with David Bowie guesting on alto sax).


But, the accordion is no way medieval. Now, the Portative Organ as played by the late Dolly Collins

Oh man, I’d hate to be the one to break the news to Friar Al.

image

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Anything with an unmuted anvil as an instrument gets my vote.

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Sneaks up on you like Black Jack Davey, doesn’t it?

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Yeah, so conflicted…love the energy, but OTOH the pedantic sonofabitch in me can’t deal with this being called “Medieval.” OTOOH, as a multiply-convicted practitioner of God’s Bellows myself: squeezebeest and oddball covers, I love you. Without you, what would a poor boy do?

Yeah, there’s a lot of anachronism and that’s frustrating (Corvus Corax is a great place to start looking if you’re looking for things that are less anachronistic and more genuinely medieval), but I will give this credit for sending me down a related rabbithole, because the Youtube algorithm taught me that Morricore is now a genre.

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Note that the person actually arranging and recording the instrumentals Hildegard Von Blingin uses is Cornelius Link. According to this he actually built the instruments he plays, so there’s no swapping of MIDI instruments there.

Edit: it also says that she does do her own arrangements these days

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Bravo. That is feckin ace. Spag Western is an underrated genre to reprise rock classics. I just love that dessert wind. Keep thinking Lee Van Cleef is fixin to ride a man down.

@Drishmung

Hey, suggest it to them.

Nah. Steeleye Span is more about putting a rock bent on otherwise Medieval songs - not the other way around.

Well, then there’s this.

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