Rock and Roll

Here’s another collection of songs you are probably familiar with that you wouldn’t expect to see covered on bagpipes and certainly wouldn’t expect to see on a blog about Scottish wedding pipers!

The Flintstones theme song

Do they still show the Flintstones on TV? I have vivid memories of watching it as a kid along with about fifty other Hanna-Barbera shows that used to cheaply fill up kids television.

I’m also old enough to have begged my dad to take me to see the 1994 movie complete with Agent Dale Cooper as the villian and the terrible B-52s cover of the theme. It doesn’t take much but the video below is certainly a more enjoyable cover than that one ever was:

(And for comparisons sake here’s the B-52s version. I’m very sorry.)

If I can make some requests I’d like to hear some more kids TV show themes covered, in particular Thundercats, The Pink Panther and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. MAKE IT HAPPEN INTERNET!

Game of Thrones theme

I’d like to do some research and see if any Scottish pipers actually show up in the show. Living in Glasgow I’ve seen half the cast out drinking over the years, I’ve seen the actor that plays Sandor Clegane on a few occasions, he’s intimidating looking man!

Game of Thrones is a good show to do a bagpipe video for, the theme fits and the success of the show means that you can rack up the youtube hit count. This is a pretty cool video in my opinion so be sure to check it out!

Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah

We’ll finish with one I never thought I would see, a cover of a song that depending on your vintage you may know from Leonard Cohen (the writer of the song,) Jeff Buckley or Alexandra Burke. Or from 5 years of terrible X-Factor auditions.

Hopefully Leonard got a nice retirement check out of it all.

Personally I’m a big fan of the original Cohen version without all the historic of the X-Factor cover but your mileage may vary. I think the band covering it are from Russia but I’m not 100% sure but, well, it’s something different right?

Have you seen any cool cover versions done on bagpipes? Let me know in the comments below! Also check out the Elite Bands pipe major here: http://elitebands.co.uk/scottish-piper

Rock music and bagpipes aren’t necessarily something you’d naturally associate with one another but heres a coupleof examples where the two distinctly different musical genres made great music together.

AC/DC – ‘It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock N Roll)’

AC/DC always have a strong connection to Scotland, key members the Young brothers Angus and Malcolm were born in Glasgow before moving to Australia at a young age, so it shouldn’t be too surprising to see bagpipes sneaking into one of their biggest hits. ‘It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock N Roll)’ featured original singer, the legendary Bon Scott on Bagpipes, producer George Young having heard that Scott had previously been in a pipe band asked him to add some to the track. The story goes that whilst it was true Scott had been in a pipe band in the past he had actually been a side drummer and never played bagpipes before! Check out the classic song and its video here:

Dropkick Murphys – ‘I’m Shipping Up To Boston’

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Pretty much anything by the Dropkick Murphys will have a least a hint of bagpipes in it but for us this is the benchmark. The lyrics about a sailor that lost his leg and is heading to Boston to find a wooden leg were actually written years beforehand by country music legend Woody Guthrie and adapted into this classic. Probably their best known track thanks to its inclusion in the Martin Scorsese directed, Jack Nicholson staring classic ‘The Departed,’ ‘I’m Shipping Up To Boston’ kicks ass! It will probably live forever thanks to its ubiquity at sports games and St Patricks day celebrations. Listen to it here:

These are just two examples so what have we missed? You tell us in the comments section below.

Wedding Piper Scotland

A blog about Scottish Wedding Piper s and everything else Piper related

More famous songs covered on bagpipes.

Bagpipes in Rock Music