Tag Archives: Emmy lou Harris

Strawberry Fields Forever

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Many times as you stroll amongst bears you will hear them singing or humming various melodies under their breath. This is especially true in Yellowstone National Park, a place where you can interact with bears on many different levels. At first you may not pick up on the fact that they are actually producing musical renditions of current musical selections as they go about their usual bear business, whether that business is eating road kill, or gently plucking flowers out the surrounding shrubbery, or simply rending a newborn elk calf down into its lowest common denominator. They are singing.

As with human people, bears like various types of music. Grizzlies for instance, are most fond of Gregorian chants and when they gather around a freshly killed buffalo you will almost certainly hear certain choral works such as Bach’s ‘Mass in B Minor’ or even Brahms’s ‘A German Requiem’. They can often be identified by the music they choose to sing when you can not see them, like you identify birds by their unique songs. For instance if you should perhaps be hiking near Mt. Mary’s trail and hear the refrains from Beethoven’s ‘Missa Solemnis’ or even Mozart’s ‘Mass in C minor K. 427 “The Great”, coming from somewhere in the nearby bush, stop immediately and ring the bejezus out of your bear deterrent bells very loudly, as loudly as you can, that is a Grizzly. As beautiful as the music is it might be prudent now to turn around and quickly leave the area as this music stirs great passion in these bears and it’s best to not speak to them even if you liked the music.

Then of course, you have the black bears. A bear of many colors ranging from jet black to red, brown, even a golden color, tho that is pretty rare. Black bears have different musical tastes entirely. These bears are fun bears, with a great sense of rhythm and style and a most pleasing tone when they sing. You can actually spend a little time with them as they appreciate an audience and will choose a piece of music that they know the listener will get into. Such as anything by Joe Cocker, Arron Neville or John Prine. Bonnie Raitt and Emmy Lou Harris are favorites for the lady bears. And of course Etta. Just don’t sing along with them. They don’t like that.

There is one truth about black bears and that is as a group down to the last hairy one, they love the Beatles. Perhaps that is too conservative a phrase. They absolutely without a doubt are obsessed with them. So much so that when you see newborn cubs recently out of the den they will be playing and gamboling while singing The Yellow Submarine at the top of their tiny little bear lungs. How is this possible? Genetics, that’s how.

Our friend in the image above just stumbled across some shrubbery that reminded him of one of his favorite songs, Strawberry Fields Forever. Let’s stop and listen for awhile, shall we?

Moonlight On The Pines

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Madison River Valley Yellowstone          click to enlarge

Driving back from a day’s shoot I always looked forward to entering the east end of the Madison river valley for the final 14 miles back to West Yellowstone where hopefully one of the towns restaurants would still be open so I could get dinner before I got to my room and the nights work of transferring images to safe storage and prepping for the next days shoot.

There is something about the Madison that is addictive. It’s the first place I head for when I arrive in the park and the last I travel through on my way back home when the trip has ended. There is always something happening along the banks of this slow flowing river. The buffalo and elk herds gather here to have their calves in the spring. Canada geese hatch their young and take refuge on it when a wandering coyote nears, hoping to catch a gosling or two. Wolves patrol the far bank en route from one wolfish activity to another. In the fall bull elk do battle along the river and sometimes in it for the right to collect cows for their harem and sometimes I think just for the sheer enjoyment of it. Otters will travel down the river, swimming, playing, occasionally catching trout nearly as long as they are. All of these things and more happen in other parts of the park too but somehow they’re more special when they’re observed here.

Besides the wildlife there is just the sheer overwhelming beauty of the place. Driving into the valley at first light when the fog drifts across the road and shadowy elk and buffalo slowly take form as you pass by. The suns rays slicing through the mist that blankets the river and lighting up the boulders above 7 mile bridge. Watching the elk herds stir to life as the day begins, the new calves frolicking in the wet grass, you think that the very best time to be here is the break of day.

But then you are headed home after a long day working all the other incredible places in the park and you’re tired and hungry and want to get back and take your shoes off and drink a nice hot cup of tea. You need to decompress from everything you’ve seen and done and one of the best ways to do that is to slowly make the drive back along the Madison and watch as the skies slowly darken and the colors change from bright blue to indigo, and the sunset displays in every color of the spectrum until night falls. And you think this is the very best time to be here.

The image above, a study of blues, always reminds me of Emmy Lou Harris’s song “Easy From Now On” which had the phrase “A Quarter Moon in A Ten Cent Town” from her album of the same name, not so much because of the words but more the sound of it. The way the haunting melody shapes the music of her words adds their richness to the vision and totally completes this image. Then I’m sure this is the best time to be here.