The Medusa Fora

Low D wrote:Well, i've just got my copy of Trouble Pilgrim in the mail, with the free Summer Season ep. And i have just two questions, both regarding the song Hinterland:

"before he meets a friend / who's sweeter than huckleberry gin"

1. Aren't huckelberries rather tart? Is this a sarcastic comment, or are huckleberries different on your side of the pond?
2. More importantly, where, pray tell, would i find some huckleberry gin? Or must i expand my homebrew from wine and all grain beer to now include a still as well?

I like the ep, tho it was surprisingly mellow overall. Didn't get a good listen to the album yet, as the kids' violin/guitar teacher arrived, and i had to turn it down.

Well, now i guess i'll order The Television Screen 2004 EP next paycheque (i'm rationed on the music). Wait, two paycheques, i've gotta pick up Skatalites tix next cheque (poor me...)

I just picked this one up now for the first time, sorry.

I've never tasted a huckleberry in my life, and I suppose if it distilled down successfully to Gin, someone would have made some already.

This is what we call in the trade "Poetic License". That is to say, I used the word HUCKLEBERRY to do two jobs. Firstly, to evoke an American South in which the ghosts of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer still roam and secondly, to pay homage to the romantic idealism of the best song ever written, "Moon River", which contains the extraordinary image

"We're after the same rainbow's end
Waiting round the bend
My huckleberry friend
Moon river and me".

There is something about the way that unexpected "huckleberry" in the lyric instantly positions the mood, location and lonesomeness of the song. I see lightning did not strike twice, but never mind, I'm still just an apprentice.

By the way, the recording of "Hinterland" on the album is hugely superior to the earlier recording on the EP.

well, i just visited my new best friend, wikipedia. who told me:

Huckleberry is a name used in North America for several plants in two closely related genera in the family Ericaceae: Gaylussacia and Vaccinium.
While some Vaccinium species, such as the Red Huckleberry, are always called huckleberries, other species may be called blueberries or huckleberries depending upon local custom. Similar Vaccinium species in Europe are called bilberries.
Note that there is much confusion in naming of berries in American English. The 'garden huckleberry' (Solanum melanocerasum) is not considered to be a true huckleberry but a member of the nightshade family.
The fruit of the various species of plant called huckleberry are generally edible. The berries are small and round, usually less than 5 mm in diameter, and contain 10 relatively large seeds. Berries range in color according to species from bright red, through dark purple, and into the blues. In taste the berries range from tart to sweet, with a flavor similar to that of a blueberry, especially in blue/purple colored varieties. Huckleberries are a favorite of many animals such as bears.

so sweet it can ideed be, so your poeteic guess isn't far off. i've made blueberry wine, which was in fact sweet, so why not sweet huckleberry gin? a google search turned up some recipies for a drink called the "huckleberry gin fizz". my appologies for doubting your accuracy, even if it was a totally whimsical guess on your part!

it was red ones i was thinking of, which are what i generally encounter. but i do remember a trip to an old-growth forest valley just after i moved here where i encountered & consumed no small amount of blue ones (not the more common, low-to-the-ground "blueberries"), and they did tend towards the sweet. as i had consumed no small amount of magic mushrooms before the hike,the experience had slipped my mind.

i once paddled the moon river in a canoe, near perry sound, ontario. i suspect it is not the inspiration for the song, but is a nice trip. takes you to (or from) spider lake, good for a Pogues joke or two.

cheers, & thanks for your attention to the most trivial of questions! bet you were actually expecting commentary on the bloody music, rather than horticultural questioning...

Hey hey hey!! Whoa!!!

I never, ever make whimsical guesses in song lyrics. Whether or not huckleberry gin was possible was never actually an issue. I write songs, not cocktail recipes. Words sometimes convey a deeper truth than themselves. When I said lightning had not struck twice, I merely meant my use of the word "huckleberry", while it certainly gave you pause, had not, apparently, added to your appreciation or cognitive grasp of the song in which it is contained, as Johnny Mercer's lyrics had done mine. But the words are deliberate whether or not they had the (secondarily) desired effect.

They don't teach this stuff at rock school, more's the pity.

appolgies, point taken.

anyway, i wouldn't lose any sleep over it. while it didn't have the intended effect on me, one can hope that most other Radiators fans aren't nerdy, berry-obsessed homebrewers, and won't be distracted by the possibilty of huckleberry gin actually existing or not, but would rather just get into the damn song, something i may have ruined for both of us with this exchange.

that said, i've finally been able to have a few good listens to it. and while it put my 3-year old to sleep this afternoon (thanks, by the way), it kept me awake. i don't know what the third album after a 25ish year break is supposed to sound like, but i thought it sounded a bit like it came between the other two, if that makes any sense. at any rate, i think i'm loving it.

cheers!

Low D wrote:..... most other Radiators fans aren't nerdy, berry-obsessed homebrewers, and won't be distracted by the possibilty of huckleberry gin actually existing or not, ....

Low D -- This sounds a bit like me, too. But I stopped at ales. I will have to buy this cd.