The Crane Wife
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Crane Wife | ||
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| Studio album by The Decemberists | ||
| Released | October 3, 2006 (US) | |
| Recorded | March – June 2006 | |
| Genre | Indie rock | |
| Length | 60:15 | |
| Label | Capitol | |
| Producer(s) | Tucker Martine and Christopher Walla | |
| Professional reviews | ||
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| The Decemberists chronology | ||
| Picaresque (2005) |
The Crane Wife (2006) |
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The Crane Wife is an album by The Decemberists, released in 2006. It was produced by Tucker Martine and Chris Walla, and is the band's first album on the Capitol Records label. The album was inspired by a Japanese folk tale, and centers on two song cycles, The Crane Wife and The Island.
[edit] The Story of the Crane Wife
The Crane Wife is an old Japanese tale. While there are many variations of the tale, a common version is that a poor man finds an injured crane on his doorstep (or outside with an arrow in it), takes it in and nurses it back to health. After releasing the crane, a woman appears at his doorstep with whom he falls in love and marries. Because they need money, his wife offers to weave wondrous clothes out of silk that they can sell at the market, but only if he agrees never to watch her making them. They begin to sell them and live a comfortable life, but he soon makes her weave them more and more. Oblivious to his wife's diminishing health, his greed increases. He eventually peeks in to see what she is doing to make the silk she weaves so desirable. He is shocked to discover that at the loom is a crane plucking feathers from her body and weaving them into the loom. The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns.
Band leader Colin Meloy found a version of this story and decided to write music based on it.
[edit] Track listing
- "The Crane Wife 3" – 4:18
- "The Island": – 12:26
- Come and See
- The Landlord's Daughter
- You'll Not Feel the Drowning
- "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)" – 4:18
- Duet with Laura Veirs
- "O Valencia!" – 3:47
- "The Perfect Crime #2" – 5:33
- "When the War Came" – 5:06
- "Shankill Butchers" – 4:39
- "Summersong" – 3:31
- "The Crane Wife 1 & 2" – 11:19
- "Sons and Daughters" – 5:13
- "After the Bombs" - 5:04 (iTunes Bonus Track)
- "Culling of the Fold" - 4:24 (Tower records Bonus Track)
