We Need More Bagpipes

Hats Off to You, Winter Warriors Face It

We Need More Bagpipes

St. Patrick’s is one of my favorite musical holidays, because it’s the only day of the year that you have a great than 50% chance of hearing bagpipes on rock music. Forget cowbell; we need more bagpipes.

My grandparents came from Yorkshire and brought with them to America a deep appreciation for Scottish and Irish bagpipe music, and this love was handed down through their children to their grandchildren. My cousin Jordan made a career of bagpiping, for a while. He was the official piper on Malcom Forbes’ yacht and played for the luminaries as they boarded the boat, like Princess Di back when she and Prince Charles were still a thing. My brother and his friend Michael played drums in the Rochester Scottish Pipes and Drums band; even I can play a decent version of the drum line for “Scotland the Brave” using my hands and the edge of a desk.

During the summer months, my brother, Michael, and Michael’s older brother Geoff, who played pipes in the band, would climb into the family station wagon wearing their kilts, and head off in search of whatever small town parade in Western New York the band was marching in. There was not one iota of a sense of direction between the three boys, and GPS didn’t exist yet. So usually, a half hour before they were scheduled to march, my dad would take a phone call on the banana yellow kitchen phone, trying to help the bandmates navigate. “You’re in Livonia? What the hell are you doing in Livonia? That’s the opposite direction of where you’re going!” I imagine a lot of extremely amused motorists in the ‘80s spotting three teenage boys in kilts and spats, as they used payphones up and down the New York State Thruway.

I’m drawn to bagpipe music. If I hear it coming in a parade I’m rooted to the spot, waiting to see the pomp and precision of grown men kicking their kilt pleats as they walk, and the sound of a sharp melody that coasts along top and contrasts to the drone underneath. When it peeks out of a new song, even if it’s just a guitar masquerading as a bagpipe like “When You Were Young” by the Killers, I approve on principle. Why, when the ukulele has made such inroads into modern music, has the bagpipe been left behind?

Scottish Highland pipes, Irish uilleann pipes, whatever your fancy: as St. Paddy’s day approaches, settle in and enjoy a few of my favorite bagpipe and bagpipe-esque songs – and add your own tunes in the comments. If we do this right, we can build a playlist long enough to get even my brother and his bandmates to wherever they were headed.

Extra points to a lead singer who can also squeeze the bag – AC/DC with “Long Way to the Top”

Big Country, “In a Big Country.” I could have SWORN those were bagpipes.

Pretty much anything by the Dropkick Murphys includes punk bagpipes. Here’s “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.”This song makes my mother cry -see, the pipe love is a family thing. “Fields of Gold” by Sting.I think Ed Sheeran used a time machine to travel back and appear in the bagpipe band on this one.This one goes out to my brother, who has always loved the name of this band. Enter the Haggis with “One Last Drink”And finally, one extremely badass piper:***Something new over at NickMom this week: The 7 Types of Annoying People You’ll Meet at Concerts. Burrito girl was definitely somewhere close during the Pixies last month.