Gates of Thanksgiving
“O Jerusalem Jerusalem I have forsaken thy Courts
Thy Pillars of ivory & gold: thy Curtains of silk & fine
Linen: thy Pavements of precious stones: thy Walls of pearl
And gold, thy Gates of Thanksgiving thy Windows of Praise: Thy Clouds of Blessing;”
Today is Thanksgiving on our northern shores. A subdued affair this year, with family gatherings prohibited throughout most of the province now. But with everyone healthy...we can’t complain.
I’ve been digging through all kinds of archives lately—visual and musical. The song I’m including with this post is crazy old: we’re talking pre-computer old. Well, pre-computer for me anyway (1988 maybe?). It was later part of an album entitled The Hermetic Letters, recorded on a Tascam 244 Portastudio 4-Track Cassette Recorder. It’s an odd mix of songs, with the first half played “live” (as in, I played all the instruments live one after the other) and the second half entirely composed on a Roland MC-300 Micro Composer. This one is—quite clearly—a very MIDI, MC-300 song. I think the sound module was a Roland D-110...but I’m not entirely certain about that.
Anyway, the title jumped out at me and I remembered it was a line by William Blake. I was quite into Blake at the time.
Those clouds are from Saturday evening, as a cold front came in and temps plummeted. It got dark, fast.
Happy Thanksgiving folks.
