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The Smoker Smokes Through Smoke

from Falling Through Time: Music from the 1300s by Joe Gore

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Composer: Solage (late 14th century)
Original title: Fumeux fume par fumée

Musicology professors use this bizarre composition to freak out their students. It’s so dark … so low-pitched … so frickin’ chromatic! The lyric is as strange as the music: “The smoker smokes through smoke, a smoky speculation.” The Smokers (Les Fumeurs) were a mysterious literary clique. And what were they smoking? Tobacco wouldn’t arrive from the New World for another century. When I was young, scholars speculated that the Smokers indulged in the hash and opium that returned to Western Europe with the Crusaders. Sadly, the current thinking is that “smoke” is merely a metaphor for a confused state of mind. But I’ll always picture Solage (about whom we know zilch) with a quill in one hand and a bong in the other.

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from Falling Through Time: Music from the 1300s, released January 5, 2022
Arranged, performed, and recorded by Joe Gore
Mixed and mastered by Count

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Joe Gore San Francisco, California

Joe Gore has recorded and performed with Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Tracy Chapman, John Cale, DJ Shadow, Marianne Faithfull, and many other artists. He also works as a music journalist and developer of hardware and software musical instruments. This is his first solo album. ... more

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