Here is this week’s playlist of songs on a theme of knives – results picked by a reader from comments on last week’s blog. Thanks for all of your suggestions. See below for more details of the weekly format of Readers Recommend.
We begin with Bringing My Knife by Captain Slackship’s Mezzanine Allstars, a Glasgow act untergunther describes in the comments as “sharp reggae dub, with female vocals slicing the beat”, cut through “modern murder ballads” (from the Decemberists) and much more, including some sharp “murderous electroclash” (Golden Boy and Miss Kittin), all the while keeping – just about! – on topic:
Songs about knives playlist blog
Knives out: let’s begin with the tale of Galvarino – sometimes known as the “warrior with knives for hands”. Legend has it he was a Mapuche fighter during the Arauco war against the colonial Spanish in Araucanía (now a region of Chile). He was taken prisoner in the Battle of Lagunillas and had both hands cut off as punishment before release, with other mutilated prisoners, to intimidate the rest of the Mapuche and stop the insurrection.
This plan backfired, and Galvarino inspired his war council to continue the uprising. With knives attached to his wrists he continued to fight, reportedly killing governor García Hurtado de Mendoza’s second-in-command before being recaptured and hanged in 1557. Think Quentin Tarantino would be interested in the film rights?
Speaking of films, if you thought The Revenant was tough, take this, DiCaprio:
According to National Geographic explorer Wade Davis, in his 2003 TED talk, an old Canadian Inuit man who was abandoned in the wilderness is often spoken about: he apparently made a knife out of his frozen faeces, killed a dog with it, fashioned a sled out of the carcass, attached it to another dog, and went after his family.
And this:
Wade Hampton III (1818–1902) was a Confederate cavalry major general in the American civil war, and a South Carolina senator. In his youth, he liked to hunt black bears armed only with a knife. While figures vary wildly, even Theodore Roosevelt – in his book The Wilderness Hunter – described a man who alone killed up to 80 bears on his hunting trips. We all need hobbies.
Senior referees for professional sumo in Japan wear a dagger (tantō) as part of their uniform. The tantō represents the importance of making correct decisions: if the referee makes a bad call, the understanding is he should prepare for ritual suicide (seppuku). In practice, however, if a decision is overturned he is expected to offer his resignation instead (less messy). Football referees – and playlist compilers – still think this is a terrible idea ...
New theme
This week’s new theme has been chosen by Shoegazer: we will post that at 8pm (UK time, for all you international readers) and you will have until 11pm on Monday 29 February to get your nominations in.
Next week’s playlist will be curated by our new guru, SkippyisaCult. If you would like to volunteer to compile a playlist from readers’ suggestions, please email matthew.holmes@theguardian.com or make yourself known in the comments.
Here’s a reminder of the guidelines for RR:
• Tell us why it’s a worthy contender.
• Quote lyrics if helpful, but for copyright reasons no more than a third of a song’s words.
• Provide a link to the song. We prefer Muzu or YouTube, but Spotify or SoundCloud are fine.
• Listen to others people’s suggestions and add yours to a collaborative Spotify playlist.
• If you have a good theme, or if you’d like to volunteer to compile a playlist from readers’ suggestions, please email matthew.holmes@theguardian.com
• There’s a wealth of data on RR, including the songs that are “zedded”, at the Marconium. It also tells you the meaning of “zedded”, “donds” and other strange words used by RR regulars.
• Many RR regulars also congregate at the ’Spill blog.
If we can, in fact, have songs about "any blade for cutting" the this one mentions razor blades one helluva lot. Grotesque imagery throughout. I've been told it's about drugs but I can't really see that - anyway I know nothing of such things.
Psychedelic Furs - Flowers