Music Monday: I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends

Blogging, lessons learned, music, travel 3 Minutes

For those of you who were excited to read this post because you thought it was about a classic Beatles song, I am sorry to disappoint you.

For those of you who were wondering: “what friends could I possibly have”, I’d be wondering the same thing.

And for the remaining 98% of you who are reading this because you have nothing better to do, then this post will make you realize how wrong you were. Virtually anything would have been better.

But I digress.

The title for this post comes from the fact that last week’s post and today’s post were inspired by fellow bloggers. Since I often have trouble coming up with an idea for my blog posts, I am always grateful when someone suggests a possible topic.

Last week I wrote about a band from Indonesia, Voice of Baceprot, thanks to a suggestion from Jeff Cann.

And tonight’s Music Monday was motivated by a comment from Clive, at Take It Easy.

Clive mentioned a heavy metal band, The Hu, a band I had never heard of. His description of the band was quite intriguing, mentioning that they were Mongolian, and used something known as throat singing. That was all I needed to follow through and do some searching.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the band:

The Hu (stylized as The HU) is a Mongolian folk metal band formed in 2016. With traditional Mongolian instrumentation, including the Morin khuur (a horsehead fiddle), the Tovshuur (Mongolian guitar), and Mongolian throat singing, the band calls their style of music “hunnu rock”, hu inspired by the Hunnu, an ancient Mongol/Turkic empire, known as Hünnü in Mongolia. Some of the band’s lyrics include old Mongolian war cries and poetry.

According to an article from Open Culture, the band’s themes focus on past national triumphs, the legendary rule of Genghis Khan, and the glorification of the nomadic warrior’s life.

“The graphic visuals used in the video certainly evoke pride in our nomadic culture,” writes Batshandas Altansukh, “but the lyric is quite the contrary. It’s very political and highly critical of today’s Mongolian society” and what the band sees as their country’s propensity for “emptily boasting about the past” rather than actually learning about and respecting it (with motorcycle gangs riding across the plains).

In other words, not your typical heavy metal band.

Some additional fun facts about The Hu from Wikipedia:

  • The band released two videos on YouTube in late 2018, “Yuve Yuve Yu” (28 September) and “Wolf Totem” (16 November), which had together garnered over 161 million views by March 2022. On 11 April 2019, “Wolf Totem” reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hard Rock Digital Song Sales, making The Hu the first Mongolian musical act to top a Billboard chart.
  • On 27 November 2019, The Hu were awarded the highest state award for Mongolia, the Order of Genghis Khan, for promoting Mongolian culture around the world.
  • On 12 May 2022, The Hu released the single “This Is Mongol”. On 8 July, the band released the single “Black Thunder” and announced their second album, Rumble of Thunder, which was released on 2 September.

So, enough background info, let’s listen to some of their music.

From what I read, it seems as if I had three songs I could pick from to highlight The Hu: Yuve Yuve Yu, Wolf Totem, or Black Thunder. After listening to/watching each one, I have decided to go with Wolf Totem. Each video takes a minute or more to actually get into the song, but the videos are all well done, and the scenery in Yuve Yuve Vu in particular is quite stunning. But something about Wolf Totem reminded me of an Irish rebel song, and so I had to share it. Fortunately, the lyrics are translated into English.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

And thank you to my friends…

*image from The Guardian

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

Published

76 thoughts on “Music Monday: I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends”

  4. I enjoyed this group. They look like Hell’s Angels or Native Americans on Harleys. I caught the reference to Garuda, a divine bird creature that appears in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain religious texts. The sound is great and the lyrics are fitting for a Golden Horde.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. It’s almost as if we synchronised this isn’t it – guess which song is one of today’s Tuesday Tunes? Though not The Beatles version. These guys are amazing, and I love watching their videos. They have a new one out: I’ve sent you the link in a recent comment. Thanks for the mention, too.

    I think these guys have solved your problem on getting friends: get a Harley and light a bonfire 👍

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. This is very cool. Around 1:40, the music becomes identifiably metal. This would make great background music for generally hanging around the house. I don’t think I’ve ever said that about a metal band before.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. The music is erie , like suspense music for the beginning of one of my stories. LOL!
    Can’t say this group is a winner for me, but each to his own. 🙂 If we all liked the same music it would be boring.
    I am just waiting for the day that you share songs from Mama Mia, I do remember trying to give you that helpful advice. 😄 I could probably make a bet of $100 and you wouldn’t share it. Too bad that Napoleon guy doesn’t have any music, eh? 😂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. The closing song? Hmm…I must have missed it, my brain had alaready been overloaded. LOL!

        Oooh offer $100 and look what happens. 🙂 My favorite . “Adante, Adante” , and “I have a dream”, but tthey are all great of course!

        Liked by 1 person

  14. OH MY!!!! Clive seems to be everywhere! He has inspired a significant number of my music posts, too! It must be … CLIVEMANIA!!!! And now … about this song … I was fully prepared to hate it enough to hit STOP within the first minute, but … first off that voice captivated me, then the song started to grow on me, and then I found I was smiling … nay, LAUGHING! And so, I watched to the very end and am still smiling! I have to ask, though, what is that 2-stringed instrument??? Thanks Jim & Clive … this was FUN!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. yes, Clive has influenced many people’s musical habits with his wonderful posts.

      I’m glad you enjoyed the music, I did as well.

      I’m not sure what that instrument was, either the Morin khuur (a horsehead fiddle) or the Tovshuur (Mongolian guitar)…

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  15. Goosebumps! I’ve been feeling down after searching for my cat the whole night until now. He hadn’t come home, but for some reason the video and the music and the singers’ voices cheered me up. Here’s to hoping he would overcome whatever hardship and come home 😢

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  20. Seeing that my evening was much filled with too much calm and quiet, what better place to jazz up my night with a dose of blather. My Hollywood film image of Mongolia was shattered by this heavy metal music video. Takes me back to America’s 1960s with the biker gangs and counter culture.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment