Popular Post semente Posted September 13, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted September 13, 2019 I was born in Lisbon the year before the Revolution and grew up listening to protest music, some of it recorded in Paris by exiled artist who were wanted by the fascist regime, its lyrics ripe with double entendre... 5 minutes before 11pm on the 24th of April 1974, at the studios of Radio Alfabeta of the Associated Broadcasters of Lisbon, the service announcer João Paulo Dinis played the song "E depois do adeus" (And after the goodbye) by Paulo de Carvalho. It was the signal for the troops to advance. The "password", composed by the song "Grândola, Vila Morena", by José Afonso, was recorded by Leite de Vasconcelos and aired by Manuel Tomás, as part of Radio Renascença's Limite program, at twenty past midnight, preceded by the reading of the first stanza: “Grândola, vila morena Terra da fraternidade, O povo é quem mais ordena Dentro de ti, ó cidade” This second "password" from Radio Renascença, the national broadcasting corporation, served to inform all the barracks and military personnel joining the coup that everything was ready and going as planned. The synchronized and irreversible Movement of the Armed Forces had been triggered. Four hours later the radio was already the echo of freedom and the omen that all would be well. Radio Clube Português is occupied by the military and transformed into the command post of the Movement of the Armed Forces; the station became known as the "Freedom Station". sphinxsix and DuckToller 2 "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
semente Posted September 13, 2019 Author Share Posted September 13, 2019 Remembering why Sinéad O'Connor tore up the pope's picture on national TV Sinéad O'Connor performed an a cappella cover of Bob Marley's "War" on Saturday Night Live on October 3, 1992, rewriting a few of the lyrics to address child abuse, in addition to the song's initial topics of racism and the horrors of war. As she finished the song, she produced and tore to shreds a photograph of Pope John Paul II, shouting, "Fight the real enemy!" In his opening monologue the following week while hosting SNL, actor Joe Pesci insisted that had he been in charge of the show, he would have given O'Connor "such a smack." This echoed an event from the previous year when O'Connor insisted that the National Anthem not be played before her concert at a venue in New Jersey. Frank Sinatra, while performing at that same venue the next night, threatened to "kick her ass." And Jonathan King, a millionaire British television and record producer, and the executive producer of the BPI Awards, stated in an interview with Billboard that she needed to be spanked for her display of bad manners. Ten years later, King would be convicted of several counts of sexual assault on 14- and 15-year-old boys and sentenced to seven years in prison. By then O'Connor had already earned a reputation as something of a loose cannon and a crazy woman after a series of radical public acts. And in the popular cultural memory of the United States, O'Connor remains a crazy woman. Her act of speaking out against the Catholic Church with that bold action remains for many a hysterical act. What she did was intentionally incendiary. Blowback from destroying a picture of the pope on live national television is to be expected and, one would imagine, desired. But at the time, the Saturday Night Live incident was not well understood. At the time, the public was largely unaware of the sex abuse crisis hiding within the church. continues here -> https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-10-03/remembering-why-sinead-oconnor-tore-popes-picture-national-tv "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
semente Posted September 14, 2019 Author Share Posted September 14, 2019 The Politics of Bob Dylan Forty years ago, on 26 October 1963, Bob Dylan premiered ‘The Times They are A-Changin”, his generational anthem, to a sold-out house at New York’s Carnegie Hall. The song is founded on a conviction that the movement for social change is unstoppable, that history will conform to morality. In its second verse, Dylan issues a brash, enduring challenge to the punditocracy: “Come writers and critics/ Who prophesize with your pen/ And keep your eyes wide/ The chance won’t come again/ And don’t speak too soon/ For the wheel’s still in spin.” It was the unexpected achievements of the civil rights movement, a grass-roots upsurge which transformed the American political landscape, that made this challenge and the song as a whole possible and even plausible. But it was Dylan’s genius to articulate the universal spirit animating the specific historical moment. The protest songs that made Dylan famous and with which he continues to be associated were written in a brief period of some 20 months – from January 1962 to November 1963. Influenced by American radical traditions (the Wobblies, the Popular Front of the thirties and forties, the Beat anarchists of the fifties) and above all by the political ferment touched off among young people by the civil rights and ban the bomb movements, he engaged in his songs with the terror of the nuclear arms race, with poverty, racism and prison, jingoism and war. He also penned love songs that mingled delicate regret with brutal candour (“we never did much talkin’ anyway”). continues here -> https://www.redpepper.org.uk/the-politics-of-bob-dylan/ "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
semente Posted September 14, 2019 Author Share Posted September 14, 2019 Loose talk around tablesAbandon all reasonAvoid all eye contactDo not reactShoot the messengers This is a low flying panic attackSing the song of sixpence that goes Burn the witchBurn the witch Radiohead’s ‘Burn The Witch’ Video – 5 Sinister References You May Have Missed Since Radiohead’s ‘Burn The Witch’ video hit YouTube yesterday (May 3) much of the discussion around it has focussed on the inspirations behind its story and animation style – here are five comparison points to watch out for. 1. The Trumptonshire trilogy (1966-1969) In the late sixties, three connected animated series – Camberwick Green, Trumpton, and Chigley – aired on the BBC, showing the way of life in idyllic little communities, and teaching children about community values. Those conventional lessons are something the video pillories by making its own values hideously screwed up. Some have even suggested the nod to Trumpton is, via its name, a reference to Donald Trump and his attitude towards anything outside America. Whether or not you think the reference can be taken that far, you’ll easily see the similarity between Camberwick Green and the ‘model village’ of the video. 2. The Wicker Man (1973) The 1973 version of The Wicker Man – the better one, with Christopher Lee, not the 2006 one with Nicholas Cage – told the story of a devout Christian detective going to an island to investigate a disappearance. There, he finds a mad community of pagans indoctrinated by Lee’s laird, whose fruit farm’s success depends on pagan rituals, or so they believe. Among rituals like those you can see below, they also have a sacrificial effigy that houses a sacrifice – here and in the film, that’s the inspector. This video is less explicit than the film, with the inspector climbing into the cage of his own accord, not being dragged into it, and at the end of the sequence he escapes, visible at the bottom left corner of the wide shot. In the film, he’s burnt to a crisp in front of the setting sun. 3. Medieval Practices The menacing tone gets more bleakly anti-intellectual via medieval details such as the red crosses painted on doors – plague crosses that date back to 1665’s Great Plague of London – and what looks like a Beef Wellington made from an entire cow. 4. Jobe’s… Throughout the video are crates of tomatoes, a reference to the empty crates of Summerisle Fruit in The Wicker Man. Here, those crates are full to bursting and are plastered with “Jobe’s”. One of these is also used to light the effigy at the end of the clip. One Redditor has pointed out a possible connection to a company that makes organic fertiliser for tomatoes. That might explain why the fruit has grown in this version of the Wicker Man tale… but it’s a bit of a stretch. Another reaction has been the comparison to Job, the pious man punished by god as a test in various Abrahamic religions – but as may be obvious, that isn’t spelt Jobe. 5. ‘Dawn Chorus’ A key part of the video is the bird singing cheerily at its open and close, ignorant of the lyrics’ nightmarish vision of mob-like communities. Radiohead have recently formed a company called ‘Dawn Chorus LLP’, and another called ‘Dawnnchoruss Ltd’, a tactic they have employed before prior to an album release to minimise the effect its success or failure has on any of their other albums. Their social media shutdown took place on the first Sunday in May – International Dawn Chorus Day – and they have a song called ‘Dawn Chorus’, which in March 2009 Thom Yorke said he was “trying to finish” and was “really great.” If the video’s bird is a hint, hopefully we’ll be hearing ‘Dawn Chorus’ soon. https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/radioheads-burn-the-with-video-deciphered-8645 Decoding the Politics in Radiohead’s “Burn the Witch” Video (...) Arriving at the current chaotic moment in global politics, though, and set in the quaint visual context of "Trumpton," the "Burn the Witch" video plays as a pointed critique of nativism-embracing leaders across the UK and Europe, perhaps even the show's near-namesake stateside (Donald Trump, anyone?). (...) full text here -> https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1133-decoding-the-politics-in-radioheads-burn-the-witch-video/ "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
semente Posted September 14, 2019 Author Share Posted September 14, 2019 Broken bottles under children's feet Bodies strewn across the dead end street But I won't heed the battle call It puts my back up Puts my back up against the wall Sunday, Bloody Sunday Bono Remembers the Real “Bloody Sunday” In his latest New York Times op-ed piece, Bono relives his own experiences of “Bloody Sunday,” one of the deadliest days of “The Troubles” conflict between Northern Ireland and England, and celebrates the new British Prime Minister’s decision to take blame for the massacre. “Bloody Sunday,” the tragic event that inspired U2’s hit “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” took place January 30th, 1972, when members of the British Army opened fire on a group of unarmed civil rights protesters in the Northern Irish town of Derry, killing 14, including seven teenagers. “It was a day that caused the conflict between the two communities in Northern Ireland — Catholic nationalist and Protestant unionist — to spiral into another dimension: every Irish person conscious on that day has a mental picture of Edward Daly, later the bishop of Derry, holding a blood-stained handkerchief aloft as he valiantly tended to the wounded and the dying,” Bono writes. Last week, new British Prime Minister David Cameron admitted that the British Army acted unlawfully on that day 38 years ago, opening the door for possible criminal charges. Bono called Cameron’s revelation “a bright day on our small rock in the North Atlantic.” “Clouds that had hung overhead for 38 years were oddly missing … the sharp daylight of justice seemed to chase away the shadows and the stereotypes of the past. No one behaved as expected. The world broke rhyme,” Bono writes. “A brand-new British prime minister, still in his wrapping paper, said things no one had imagined he would … could … utter ….’On behalf of our country, I am deeply sorry.’ continues here - > https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bono-remembers-the-real-bloody-sunday-243754/ "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
semente Posted September 14, 2019 Author Share Posted September 14, 2019 Mother do you think they'll drop the bomb Mother do you think they'll like the song Mother do you think they'll try to break my balls Ooooh aah, Mother should I build a wall Mother should I run for president Mother should I trust the government Mother will they put me in the firing line Ooooh aah, is it just a waste of time I think that Trump must have a listened to this one a lot when he was as a child... And he obviously never grew up. The Wall Though it in no way endangers the meisterwerk musical status of Dark Side of the Moon (still on the charts nearly seven years after its release), Pink Floyd’s twelfth album, The Wall, is the most startling rhetorical achievement in the group’s singular, thirteen-year career. Stretching his talents over four sides, Floyd bassist Roger Waters, who wrote all the words and a majority of the music here, projects a dark, multilayered vision of post-World War II Western (and especially British) society so unremittingly dismal and acidulous that it makes contemporary gloom-mongers such as Randy Newman or, say, Nico seem like Peter Pan and Tinker Bell. The Wall is a stunning synthesis of Waters’ by now familiar thematic obsessions: the brutal misanthropy of Pink Floyd’s last LP, Animals; Dark Side of the Moon‘s sour, middle-aged tristesse; the surprisingly shrewd perception that the music business is a microcosm of institutional oppression (Wish You Were Here); and the dread of impending psychoses that runs through all these records — plus a strongly felt antiwar animus that dates way back to 1968’s A Saucerful of Secrets. But where Animals, for instance, suffered from self-centered smugness, the even more abject The Wall leaps to life with a relentless lyrical rage that’s clearly genuine and, in its painstaking particularity, ultimately horrifying. continues here -> https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/the-wall-188348/ Soothsayerman 1 "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
Popular Post semente Posted September 14, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 14, 2019 It was a packed house that night at the intimate Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon when this shy young singer walked on stage with her guitar. This was 1989 and I was in my mid teens. The singer-songwriter got down to business straight away, but in spite of her lack of ability to connect with the audience the atmosphere was electrifying. People say it doesn't exist Cause no one would like to admit That there is a city underground Where people live everyday Off the waste and decay Off the discards of their fellow man Here in subcity life is hard We can't receive any government relief Won't you please, please give the President my honest regards For disregarding me Tracy Chapman’s Black and White World A powerful new voice sings out about racism and poverty “The world’s a mess,” says Tracy Chapman flashing a winning smile and then breaking into laughter. The 24-year-old singer-songwriter is well aware of her reputation for seriousness, and she has just stopped herself, nearly breathless, after railing against a catalog of social ills. Chapman, whose powerful debut album, Tracy Chapman, addresses such issues as racism and violence against women, is perfectly capable of laughing at herself. What she is not interested in doing is lightening up her music. “I didn’t know that you had to have a percentage of humor on every album you put out,” she says, joking that perhaps her next record should be a “comedy album.” “I don’t know that you can necessarily be humorous about some of the issues that I deal with in my songs,” she continues. “I don’t know that it serves them very well to dilute things in that way.” No need to worry – the 11 songs on Tracy Chapman are as undiluted as they could be. The production is subtle and streamlined, focused unyieldingly on Chapman’s acoustic guitar, her bluesy voice and her carefully wrought tales of characters in contemporary America who seek meaning in the face of society’s fragmentation. Chapman is equally direct about her political beliefs: “Poor people gonna rise up/And get their share/Poor people gonna rise up/And take what’s theirs,” she insists on the album’s opening track, “Talkin’ bout a Revolution.” Sentiments like these have led critics to view Chapman as a bridge between the Eighties folk revival and the more socially conscious folk movement of the Sixties. continues here -> https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/tracy-chapmans-black-and-white-world-75878/ clipper and orresearch 2 "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
semente Posted September 14, 2019 Author Share Posted September 14, 2019 Why do we build the wall?My children, my childrenWhy do we build the wall? Why do we build the wall?We build the wall to keep us freeThat's why we build the wallWe build the wall to keep us free How does the wall keep us free?My children, my childrenHow does the wall keep us free? How does the wall keep us free?The wall keeps out the enemyAnd we build the wall to keep us freeThat's why we build the wallWe build the wall to keep us free Who do we call the enemy?My children, my childrenWho do we call the enemy? Who do we call the enemy?The enemy is povertyAnd the wall keeps out the enemyAnd we build the wall to keep us freeThat's why we build the wallWe build the wall to keep us free Because we have and they have not!My children, my childrenBecause they want what we have got! Because we have and they have not!Because they want what we have got!The enemy is povertyAnd the wall keeps out the enemyAnd we build the wall to keep us freeThat's why we build the wallWe build the wall to keep us free What do we have that they should want?My children, my childrenWhat do we have that they should want? What do we have that they should want?We have a wall to work upon!We have work and they have noneAnd our work is never doneMy children, my childrenAnd the war is never wonThe enemy is povertyAnd the wall keeps out the enemyAnd we build the wall to keep us freeThat's why we build the wallWe build the wall to keep us freeWe build the wall to keep us free "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
Popular Post Norton Posted September 14, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted September 14, 2019 I remember a friend telling me me how he was in tears at this performance: “On August 21, 1968, in a cruelly ironic piece of programming, Rostropovich was scheduled to play the Czech composer Dvorák's Cello Concerto at the Proms. Earlier that day, Soviet tanks had rolled into Prague to crush Alexander Dubcek's liberal reforms. To compound the irony, Rostropovich's accompanists were a Soviet orchestra (the USSR State Symphony) under a Soviet conductor (Evgeny Svetlanov). Despite vociferous objections, the concert went ahead. I have it on tape. During the concerto's hushed opening, the Royal Albert Hall resounds to strident yells of protest. It must have been a nightmare for the cellist, yet Rostropovich proceeds to give a performance of such seething intensity that no one could have left the hall with any doubt about his feelings towards the invasion” From Julian Lloyd Webber’s piece here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3592296/First-person-singular-the-night-Rostropovichs-cello-talked-politics.html semente and sphinxsix 1 1 Link to comment
semente Posted September 14, 2019 Author Share Posted September 14, 2019 58 minutes ago, Norton said: I remember a friend telling me me how he was in tears at this performance: “On August 21, 1968, in a cruelly ironic piece of programming, Rostropovich was scheduled to play the Czech composer Dvorák's Cello Concerto at the Proms. Earlier that day, Soviet tanks had rolled into Prague to crush Alexander Dubcek's liberal reforms. To compound the irony, Rostropovich's accompanists were a Soviet orchestra (the USSR State Symphony) under a Soviet conductor (Evgeny Svetlanov). Despite vociferous objections, the concert went ahead. I have it on tape. During the concerto's hushed opening, the Royal Albert Hall resounds to strident yells of protest. It must have been a nightmare for the cellist, yet Rostropovich proceeds to give a performance of such seething intensity that no one could have left the hall with any doubt about his feelings towards the invasion” From Julian Lloyd Webber’s piece here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3592296/First-person-singular-the-night-Rostropovichs-cello-talked-politics.html I have that recording! I wish I had the booklet with me... There's a nice little radio piece about it on the BBC website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/1ec50bd1-515f-421c-b69a-7611335c4e3b "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
rando Posted September 14, 2019 Share Posted September 14, 2019 Whatever thoughts I might have on the protest song. This topic wouldn't be quite complete without this little ditty. Link to comment
semente Posted September 14, 2019 Author Share Posted September 14, 2019 Clearly I remember Pickin' on the boy Seemed a harmless little fuck But we unleashed the lion Gnashed his teeth and bit the recessed lady's breast How could I forget And he hit me with a surprise left My jaw left hurting Dropped wide open Just like the day Oh like the day I heard Daddy didn't give affection And the boy was something that mommy wouldn't wear King Jeremy the wicked Ruled his world Jeremy spoke in class today Mother of the Teen Who Inspired Pearl Jam's 'Jeremy' Speaks Out For the first time since her son Jeremy's death in 1991, Wanda Crane is speaking about her loss. Until now, the public has known him only as the protagonist of the Pearl Jam song that bears his name. Frontman Eddie Vedder had picked up the story from a newspaper article that detailed how the nearly 16-year-old Jeremy Delle who committed suicide by gunshot in front of his English class in Richardson, Texas. It became inspiration for the song, the third single off the band's debut album, Ten. "Jeremy" reached No. 5 on both the Mainstream and Modern Rock Billboard charts. continues here -> https://ultimateclassicrock.com/pearl-jam-jeremy-mother/ "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
rando Posted September 14, 2019 Share Posted September 14, 2019 Thank you clearly defining my hesitations. To write a song about the young man without, and I won't use his words in that article, direct context or research for purely commercialized reasons is not so reflective of protesting the larger subject either. I wonder if you were aware I posted the single of this song in Album of the Evening recently? Original photo used as cover art. Link to comment
jcbenten Posted September 14, 2019 Share Posted September 14, 2019 The Irish Troubles dominated the news while I was growing up. U2, with mulitple songs, and The Cranberries (Zombie) dominated the dialogue. I am old enough to go back to Viet Nam as my father served multiple tours as a Navigator and Back Seat airman...which gives The End (The Doors), Gimmie Shelter (The Stones), and What About Me (Quicksilver Messenger Service). Thank you for this thread...I am not a very good written/spoken person but the music I enjoy/think and react to is emotional and this thread typifies those emotions. semente 1 QNAP TS453Pro w/QLMS->Netgear Switch->Netgear RAX43 Router->Ethernet (50 ft)->Netgear switch->SBTouch ->SABAJ A10d->Linn Majik-IL (preamp)->Linn 2250->Linn Keilidh; Control Points: iPeng (iPad Air & iPhone); Also: Rega P3-24 w/ DV 10x5; OPPO 103; PC Playback: Foobar2000 & JRiver; Portable: iPhone 12 ProMax & Radio Paradise or NAS streaming; Sony NWZ ZX2 w/ PHA-3; SMSL IQ, Fiio Q5, iFi Nano iDSD BL; Garage: Edifier S1000DB Active Speakers Link to comment
Popular Post sphinxsix Posted September 14, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted September 14, 2019 For me the last (I still hope not) important rock protest album. And one of the most important protest ..instrumentals. 5 hours ago, rando said: Whatever thoughts I might have on the protest song. This topic wouldn't be quite complete without this little ditty. Made me think about Woody Guthrie who has written countless great protest songs (and of course was an inspiration for many including Bob Dylan). Just one of them. I apologize for the choice of the video but there is only one version of this song on Youtube - it's obviously not about Donald but about his father - Frederick Christ.. Soothsayerman, orresearch and semente 3 Link to comment
semente Posted September 14, 2019 Author Share Posted September 14, 2019 1 hour ago, rando said: To write a song about the young man without, and I won't use his words in that article, direct context or research for purely commercialized reasons is not so reflective of protesting the larger subject either. Or as a way to express how you were moved by a particular event, as artists often do. "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
rando Posted September 14, 2019 Share Posted September 14, 2019 Specious in comparison to Bob Marley being the rallying call for peace his country rallied around. Or some of your other significant examples above. Which I apologize for interrupting the ongoing progress of. Link to comment
semente Posted September 15, 2019 Author Share Posted September 15, 2019 20 hours ago, rando said: Specious in comparison to Bob Marley being the rallying call for peace his country rallied around. Or some of your other significant examples above. I agree entirely. rando 1 "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
rando Posted September 16, 2019 Share Posted September 16, 2019 The subject of (particularly US) rockstars as leaders in the political arena is one I should restrain myself from entering into. Please continue your very interesting posts without fear of interruption. semente 1 Link to comment
Popular Post wgscott Posted September 16, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted September 16, 2019 semente, Ralf11 and Solstice380 2 1 Link to comment
semente Posted September 16, 2019 Author Share Posted September 16, 2019 Difficult choice, so much to choose from... Excuse me Mr.Do you have the timeOr are you so importantThat it stands still for you Excuse me Mr. won't youLend me your earOr are you not only blindBut do you not hear Excuse me Mr., butIsn't that your oil in the seaAnd the pollution in the air Mr.Whose could that be So excuse me Mr.But I'm a mister tooAnd you're givin' Mr. a bad nameMr. like you Ben Harper, Reluctant Protest Singer On his new album, Call It What It Is, the musician reflects on police brutality, ageing, and a pink balloon. Ben Harper has been handcuffed and forced to the ground, his face kissing the pavement, twice: once in the ’80s and again in the ’90s. In 1999, he was driving through Burbank, California, on his way to the studio when he spotted a helicopter. “God,” he remembers thinking, “that helicopter is really flying close to me.” He kept driving and the helicopter kept tailing him. He got off the freeway and encountered some roadblocks, which he navigated his way around, and pulled into the parking lot of Alpha Studios, where he was going to record a song called “Steal My Kisses” for Burn to Shine, his fourth album. Immediately, as Harper recalls, “I’m freakin’ surrounded by no less than 20 cops and a helicopter, like, 15 feet above my head.” The police had gotten a call about a stolen truck. Which was blue. “My truck is gold. All right? Guns drawn, helicopter above, face down, cuffed. I said, Well, all you had to do was pull me over, all you had to do was run my license plate.” J.P. Plunier, Harper’s producer (and childhood friend), was on his way to the same studio, driving in from Claremont. He turned on the radio for a traffic report and, as he hurtled closer to Burbank, heard that his exit was closed due to police activity. That’s when he saw the helicopter. When he finally got to the studio, Plunier learned, to his irritation, that his friend was late. “So I went, got a cup of coffee, came back out, Ben pulls in, and all of a sudden the whole place is surrounded by police,” he says. “Ben was on the ground and cuffed.” The studio was bordered by a wall, perhaps 12 feet high. And on the wall were sharpshooters. It was, Plunier says, a situation that could have easily taken a bloody turn. Thankfully, the police were quickly persuaded that Harper, rather than being a truck thief, was instead a victim of mistaken identify. Later that day, Harper says, “the police captain came down to apologize, literally hat in hand.” continues here -> https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/03/ben-harper-reluctant-protest-singer/475173/ "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
semente Posted September 16, 2019 Author Share Posted September 16, 2019 I've watched Ben Harper live only once, in 1997. Amazing guitarist and vocalist. "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
Popular Post semente Posted September 23, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 23, 2019 Over the years, Baez has become well known for essential take on the traditional song “We Shall Overcome” — a traditional gospel song that grew into a protest song during the Civil Rights Movement, made popular by Pete Seeger and a number of other performers. Baez became well known for her version of the classic after performing it at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In the 1960s, Baez’s interpretations of traditional protest songs would often intensify their meaning with duality of softness and sharpness, adding simultaneous humanity and sadness, weight and depth. And here, that skill is prominently on display. We shall overcome,We shall overcome,We shall overcome, some day. Oh, deep in my heart,I do believe We shall overcome, some day. We'll walk hand in hand,We'll walk hand in hand,We'll walk hand in hand, some day. Oh, deep in my heart, We shall live in peace, We shall live in peace,We shall live in peace, some day. Oh, deep in my heart, We shall all be free, We shall all be free,We shall all be free, some day. Oh, deep in my heart, We are not afraid, We are not afraid,We are not afraid, TODAY Oh, deep in my heart, We shall overcome, We shall overcome,We shall overcome, some day. Oh, deep in my heart,I do believeWe shall overcome, some day. Joan Baez: ‘Music can move people to do things’ The veteran singer on her mixed emotions about her farewell tour, the women she most admires, and forever being linked to Dylan Joan Baez has been singing her songs of protest for 60 years, her matchless soprano voice rising above trouble. She can look back on an extraordinary career that included a new interpretation of Bob Dylan songs in the 60s, and singing for Martin Luther King (with whom she became friends). The daughter of a Mexican-born physicist and a strong-minded Scottish mother, she has announced, at 78, that she is now on her last tour, performing her swansong album Whistle Down the Wind. What moved you to record the album Whistle Down the Wind after a 10-year gap? I felt it was time. I’m phasing out and wanted to choose something to bookend my first album. My original album has a song about a silver dagger; my last a song about a silver blade. The first was a traditional folk song – the girl lost out. In the last, which was written for me, she turns round and kills the guy – she could be part of the #MeToo movement. continues here -> https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/24/joan-baez-interview-whistle-down-the-wind-farewell-tour-folk-music-protest-songs orresearch and clipper 2 "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
semente Posted September 23, 2019 Author Share Posted September 23, 2019 An interesting podcast about the song "We Shall Overcome" aired on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington: https://www.npr.org/2013/08/28/216482943/the-inspiring-force-of-we-shall-overcome The Inspiring Force Of 'We Shall Overcome' As the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, All Things Considered concludes its series about the moments that defined the historic summer of 1963. Back in 1999, Noah Adams explored the history and legacy of the song "We Shall Overcome" for the NPR 100. The audio link contains a condensed version of that piece. It is not a marching song. It is not necessarily defiant. It is a promise: "We shall overcome someday. Deep in my heart, I do believe." It has been a civil rights song for 50 years now, heard not just in the U.S. but in North Korea, in Beirut, in Tiananmen Square, in South Africa's Soweto Township. But "We Shall Overcome" began as a folk song, a work song. Slaves in the fields would sing, 'I'll be all right someday.' It became known in the churches. A Methodist minister, Charles Albert Tindley, published a version in 1901: "I'll Overcome Someday." The first political use came in 1945 in Charleston, S.C. There was a strike against the American Tobacco Co. The workers wanted a raise; they were making 45 cents an hour. They marched and sang together on the picket line, "We will overcome, and we will win our rights someday." In 1947, two of the union members from South Carolina traveled to the town of Monteagle, Tenn., for a workshop at the Highlander Folk Center. Blacks and whites had been meeting together about labor issues at the Highlander for many years. It was believed at Highlander that the people who have the problems are the ones who have the answers. It was important to talk together, and especially to sing. The tobacco workers brought their song to Tennessee, and Zilphia Horton, Highlander's music director, started using it in workshops in Tennessee and beyond. On a tape from the late 1940s, Horton can be heard speaking with a group of farm workers in Montana. "This is the song of 'We Will Overcome' — it's a spiritual," she says. "I sang it with many different nationality groups. And it's so simple, and the idea's so sincere, that it doesn't matter that it comes from the tobacco workers. When I sing it to people, it becomes their song." continues here -> https://www.npr.org/2013/08/28/216482943/the-inspiring-force-of-we-shall-overcome "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
semente Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 Cohen wrote few but powerful songs. I was torn between “First We Take Manhattan” and "The Land of Plenty" but ultimately went for the latter: Don’t really know who sent me To raise my voice and say: May the lights in The Land of Plenty Shine on the truth some day. I don’t know why I come here, Knowing as I do, What you really think of me, What I really think of you. For the millions in a prison, That wealth has set apart – For the Christ who has not risen, From the caverns of the heart – For the innermost decision, That we cannot but obey - For what’s left of our religion, I lift my voice and pray: May the lights in The Land of Plenty Shine on the truth some day. I know I said I’d meet you, I’d meet you at the store, But I can’t buy it, baby. I can’t buy it anymore. And I don’t really know who sent me, To raise my voice and say: May the lights in The Land of Plenty Shine on the truth some day. I don’t know why I come here, knowing as I do, what you really think of me, what I really think of you. For the innermost decision That we cannot but obey For what’s left of our religion I lift my voice and pray: May the lights in The Land of Plenty Shine on the truth some day. The Political Songs Of Leonard Cohen It was rare for poet and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen to venture into the realm of politics, however, quite a few of his songs, including some of his love songs, were infused with a bleakness that confronted morality and the darkness of humanity. He also wrote a song of hope and possibility about the experiment of democracy in the United States that, perhaps, takes on a new kind of resonance in the wake of the election of Donald Trump. Cohen was asked in 2014 if songs can offer solutions to political problems. He replied, “I think the song itself is a kind of solution.” And so, to pay tribute to a troubadour who died at 82 and whose artistic work only seemed to get better as he aged and his voice grew deeper, here is a retrospective on some of the more philosophical and sociopolitical songs he composed. continues here -> https://shadowproof.com/2016/11/11/political-songs-of-leonard-cohen/ sphinxsix 1 "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
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