No jokes this time about the couple’s inspiration for their band name – let’s just note that this key figure of the Lord of The Rings not only got left out of the BBC adaptation of the 1980’s, but was also completely left out of even the extended version of the more recent films. The whole Old Forest, Tom’s House and the Fog on the Barrow Downs brutally cut from the narrative. Argh – but at least Sarah Frank and Luke Fraser have honoured the character by adopting his name for their folk-bluegrass music.
‘Bicycle‘ is taken from the couple’s fourth album ‘Dear Friend‘ and joins a plethora of semi-whimsical songs by the likes of Syd Barrett and Robert Calvert (we draw a veil over Queen’s contribution to the form) that are dedicated to this most wondrous of transports. The lyric video features, Sarah Frank explains, “our four-year-old daughter Felicity and her two closest friends. While we will guide them as best as we can, at the end of the day we will have to hold our breath and watch them learn some things the hard way just as our parents have watched us (and probably still do)!”
If we at Americana UK were ever to be accused of pedantry it would be because we insist on pointing out that the two wheeled devices in the video have no chains. They are, therefore, examples of the Hobby-Horse – or, if you prefer (and you just know that we do) Laufmaschine – and so are not really bicycles in the true sense. How annoying are we? That’s rhetorical, no need to elaborate in the comments….
