Paul Muldoon in conversation with PJ Harvey

The launch event for Lancaster Words, a three-day celebration of all things literary.
PJ Harvey joined Paul Muldoon on stage at the Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster on 6 July 2017 to read from their poetry and explore, through conversation, its relationship to song lyrics.
Original source: vimeo.com/234850739

[@gozorak]

Mrs Harvey has forged one of the most fascinating, challenging, and exquisite musical/artistic arcs in the past 25 years or so. Perhaps The most exquisite. It is all quite marvelous and wondrous and a gift to us all. Many if not most rock artists and bands who are still performing 25 plus years after "making it" are still performing their hits on the nostalgia circuit. There is nothing wrong with that by the way. Mrs Harvey however has continued to grow as an artist. Always and ever moving forward into new directions. And she is still as beautiful, lovely, and sexy as ever. More so than ever in fact

[@andysmith5997]

Well put,Slade doing Here it is Merry Christmas Everybody she ain’t

[@ElricX]

I'd love to just sit and have a conversation with her. She's so uniquely amazing!

[@valvara123]

Beautiful creature, that PJ.

[@royalblood9437]

Hard to disagree

[@diogopinto9462]

Why are you objectifying her ?

[@FrancisBattaglia2022]

aye!

[@PCSExponent]

@@diogopinto9462 Could you and those who think like please disappear from this world. Thanks in advance.

[@jeffreyquinonez8964]

Shes amazing in so many ways her beauty her aura and energy her voice even the way she moves on stage 😳

[@seanohalloran384]

PJ's really an impressive and singular talent. Both as a musician and an artist. Her music's incredible. Lovable personality too.

[@axlyosef4960]

InstaBlaster...

[@doh4828]

So much energy and talent condensed into that sweet, little beautiful lady who when she roars, she ROARS.

[@mehimself3936]

God this interview is one of my favorite interviews for any artists

[@jeanfrancoisvigier5856]

I truly believe that great songwriters are the new poets, so I don't get her arguments. For me "Let England Shake" is an incredible poem. And the way she reads it gives me chills.

[@WednesdayJon]

I have arrived at PJ Harvey quite late in life. There is no doubt she is an immense talent who has made her indelible mark in the music business. But what is even more, she is such a beautiful, gentle, engaging soul. I could listen to her talk & giggle for hours. Despite all of her success, she just seems to remain so grounded and without pretence. Just lovely.

[@079123466]

PJ...a wonderfully spirited Woman!

[@jamieforbes2389]

I was there in the second row, the 1st row were for VIP'S. Well worth trip from Glasgow.

[@noozround]

Thank you for uploading this. Really looking forward to watching it!

[@MrUndersolo]

This is truly a moment I am glad to see captured on film...! And did anyone else notice that they began to read their work in a similar manner as the video continued? ;)

[@petergardner3447]

Fantastic! PJHarvey you are sooooooo wonderful!! ty ty ty

[@MrSirDrew]

Two mighty, interesting artists. Bravo.

[@TokkaFan41]

This is great, thanks for posting. :)

[@JB-ew3wc]

Great interview. Thank you!

[@TheTestingGrounds]

Let England Shake is still the best album of this decade, as of 2019. I love you and your art, PJ.

[@bonnellie2008]

get some taste

[@Noneatall246]

Maybe not get some taste. Harvey is wonderful but maybe some perspective? There’s sooo much stuff out there that is way way better when you consider a decade of music

[@davidkozinski349]

Reading Paul Muldoon is a bit like experiencing music in the sense that there is counterpoint - several voices, several meanings at once. It's wonderful, complex fun. This is an interesting meeting of rather different sensibilities. She's lovely and some of her lyrics are quite haunting.

[@dennmcambley3813]

loved.

[@samyandkitty8399]

Her Exeter accent is still there ! Adorable.♥️💯

[@davidoof1826]

Dorset

[@AnneAndersonFoxiepaws]

This is great! The Autobiography poem did get more chilling as it went om in much the same manner as 'The Excitable Boy' sorry I did English at Uni buz it's a long time ago and I was mostly concerned with what writing things down did to the Oral Tradition. So, as yoi would expect I'm.a bit of a philistine with poets names (The War poetry is what I remember most and Robert Burns because ypu really are a Philistine if you don't know that in Scotland...and how many times the daisy has been stolen from the statue's hand lol). I really like running into stuff like this because it always starts me reading poetry again. I think PJ Harvey's lyrics stand up pretty well too!

[@Ginanity]

Love the reference to the 60s and questioning the role of music in politics. The main difference between the 60s and now is that we, as Bowie suggested, live in a far more pluralistic society where ideas are less black-white but rather an enormous grey ambient. The 60s music was a liberation out of "the guise of a single and created society" (Bowie).

[@Cherryplanter]

Bowie at SNL (late 70's) : "It's all over now isn't it".

[@baeticus1]

My God! She's so beautiful, sensitive and inteligent!

[@465marko]

YOU are.

[@jeffg4686]

There's a really sweet lady in there. Doesn't matter what she's doing, that sweetness shines through. I personally hope she gets out of the poetry oriented stuff and back on the guitar, where she belongs.

[@yussepig6629]

These two need to listen to Lorena McKennitt, a great artist who set music to old poetry.

[@465marko]

13:06 I shake my head, Paul. The word is "ironed". Ironed.

[@wualaguala3462]

To me that I'm not a native speaker, battery sounded more accurate than drums haha...is nice to hear some poetry reading, learn about different poets and also learn the difference on making lyrics and poems, among other things. Good video.

[@1758pk]

very enjoyable conversation with PJ. Tangerine Dream put music to The Smile by William Blake which works rather well I think.

[@reginaldside4575]

Never heard that. I think Alan Ginsberg's Songs of Innocence and Experience album was pretty dire - and backs up what Muldoon and Harvey are saying. Even though the title might suggest otherwise, the poems are best in their read, illustrated form. Of course, good things happened to And Did Those Feet In Ancient Time in the hands of Hubert Parry and the many people who subsequently covered the result. Maybe that's another exception that proves the rule though.

[@troygaspard6732]

The Sondhiem lyrics she recites are used in A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To The Fourm. It is the marching song of the centurion. I love that she used Finishing The Hat in her research.

[@matthewpietryga7854]

Richard Buckner’s The Hill is a great example of music put to someone else’s poetry that is amazing. In this case it’s Edgar Lee Masters.

[@AnneAndersonFoxiepaws]

And it's so cool to see people like Paul Muldoon admit he wrote a fan letter.. But of course whyever not? He already mentioned Leonard Cohen and there's the Great Shane McGowan writing wonderful songs/poems...actually I don't know where ballads lie in this as they have a much more 'poetic' feel. I know what they are getting at about why setting poems to music can spoil your view of them, I think it is like a book, and someone makes a film of it. ..it sometimes changes your views on the book, or the characters are not how you picture them? I'm maybe not looking at this from the same angle but that's usually how I feel about this (obviously I'm in good company lol!). I think Patti Smith, Jim Morrison, Leonard Cohen are about the only others (I'm missing out the Beat gen as William S. Burroughs had this down to a fine art) but I think it is a difficult area. Thanks for this wonderful upload xx Can't believe she finished with Burns I'm obviously not as senile as I thought!

[@beepst]

She has such an interesting and intriguing face.

[@quantumsmith2860]

She has the look of the young Elizabeth Taylor?

[@jimneysweep9810]

Quantum Smith I can see what you mean

[@christopherbrookfield4785]

I have fallen for Polly and her music quite late on. Since the White Chalk lp. I was, previously, more than a little afraid of her. She seemed to me like some sort of sex-witch. Metamorphosing into a pixie/sprite, more suitable to a goodie in Lord of the Rings than a dark goth uber evil demon destroyer. She is so natural and lacking in any kind of pretrntion or snobbishness, I think she is so talented and genuine. A profoundly great artist. Very rare and precious and valuable. ❤

[@diogopinto9462]

Nice camera view angle of the .. Mic stand, I guess ..

[@louduva9849]

Right. Odd choice.

[@peteemuirhead2404]

Highly inspired hopelessly smitten the act of creation the joy of cognition permiate from this spell binding sexy woman!

[@alexlight4178]

Nice

[@simonapop7312]

Dave Gahan from dM love her.He love her like a lover.:))))))maybe a new tattoo for him,something for Pj Harvey:))))

[@fideliumcrux]

Ils se ressemblent un peu... des personnes hors-normes

[@jhowellkc]

Great, but he could let her speak a bit more. Sheesh.

[@Lunggirl]

I agree...mansplaining a lot

[@465marko]

Be nice if there were some cats on stage. Perhaps if they were each holding cats? Just a suggestion, otherwise a very good video. Just a bit catless, that's all. No biggie. More cats next time.

[@peterfulop2849]

British talks so quietly! Nice! Am in the US at the moment ,most of the peoples are so loud !Why?

[@sisterseeth]

We're trying to be heard over the gunfire.

[@dirkturtle3354]

Muldoon is Irish.

[@louduva9849]

@@dirkturtle3354 The Irish are English.

[@dirkturtle3354]

@@louduva9849 LOL

[@Driecnk]

Interviewer lecturing.

[@reginaldside4575]

He's so obviously spent a lot of his time in universities.

[@falsejaguar]

I disagree about what this guy says about let London shake. It is much better as poetry. The music for it is ok and good, but not as good as the actual lyrics.

[@simonschreyer4559]

26:26 It could still happen now. As long as it doesn't interfere with the interests of The Economy.

[@apostate]

This interviewer is awful. That voice he uses and he is speaking all over her and trying to show off his knowledge, and she is just barely tolerating him. But P.J. is transcendent and beautiful as always.

[@108grog]

Interesting discussion. Not much of an interview.