Today is Bloomsday, an annual celebration of the work of James Joyce. June 16th is the date on which the action of his most famous novel takes place. Like many Irish people and lovers of literature, I’ve never actually read Ulysses. However, I’m a big fan of Joyce’s collection of short stories named after the his native city and also A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Perhaps one day I’ll find some time to tackle it. In the meantime, here are half a dozen songs with a connection to Joyce and Ulysses. Kate Bush has been in the news recently as she has finally received permission from the Joyce estate to quote part of Molly Bloom’s closing soliloquy from Ulysses in one of her songs. In 1989, Bush wanted to use Joyce’s words on the title track and lead single from The Sensual World. She was refused back then, but was successful this time with a reworking of the song now called Flower of the Mountain. The Sensual World is one of selection of songs from The Sensual World and its 1993 successor, The Red Shoes, that she has re-recorded for a project called Director’s Cut. I wonder if the decision by Joyce’s estate to allow Bush to use the original text had anything to do with the fact that the copyright is about to run out on Joyce’s work. Personally, I don’t hear much difference between the two versions, so I’ve included both Flower of the Mountain and a cover of The Sensual World by Susan Voelz
