Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Boat On The River - Aamulla yksin - Joki


This is one of those songs that are timeless. It still pleases the musical ear and will be doing so in the decades to come. Taiska recorded "Aamulla yksin" (Alone in the morning) in 1980 for her album "Villi vapauden kaipuu". The lyrics were provided by Raul Reiman. It did not cause much commotion at the time, being only an album track. But when Riki Sorsa (see earlier entry) recorded the same song under new title "Joki" (The river) and with different lyrics in 1993, the song became an istant hit - and a pop classic. The original song was called "Boat On The River", and it was performed by American rock group Styx. This Chicago band was known for melding their progressive rock with hard rock guitar, strong ballads, and the flair of a Broadway musical. This folkish "Boat" song was one of the hit singles culled from their best selling 1979 album "Cornerstone". It was written by band's guitarist Tom Shaw.

Here's the pair:

2 comments:

Arrowman said...

This I must comment... By the time I liked "Aamulla varhain and was trying to find the original... Didn't know the performer and Styx wasn't my favourites and still isn't.
Later... in 1984 I bought Tommy's album "Girls with guns" and remembered the name of composer in "Boat on the river, so I was looking after his records with the song... without results... In 1998 I bought my first PC and Google became familiar to me, there I noticed, that he was a member of Styx, found on which album appears "boat-song" and at last 14 years later I bought the record I've desperately searched without results... And this is not the only one... And I wasn't intend to get CD player nor PC, but after they ended vinyl production... I saw it necesary 'cos after all... I love music and in CD format was released more and more my favourites from the past and at the time...

Arrowman said...

This I must comment... By the time I liked "Aamulla varhain and was trying to find the original... Didn't know the performer and Styx wasn't my favourites and still isn't.
Later... in 1984 I bought Tommy's album "Girls with guns" and remembered the name of composer in "Boat on the river, so I was looking after his records with the song... without results... In 1998 I bought my first PC and Google became familiar to me, there I noticed, that he was a member of Styx, found on which album appears "boat-song" and at last 14 years later I bought the record I've desperately searched without results... And this is not the only one... And I wasn't intend to get CD player nor PC, but after they ended vinyl production... I saw it necesary 'cos after all... I love music and in CD format was released more and more my favourites from the past and at the time...