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Arguably any of Wim Wenders' films will inevitably feature a great selection of tracks.

"The Land of Plenty" was part of the soundtrack of a powerful 2004 film with the same name.

 

 

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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Since I've mentioned Wenders' soundtracks, I'll use another of his films, the "End Of Violence", to briefly mention Vic Chestnutt before introducing R.E.M.

Stipe teamed up with his friend and countryman the singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt to record the song "Injured Bird".

 

A car crash at age 18 left Chestnutt paralyzed from his waist down and he performed in a wheelchair. Vic spent much of his career heavily in debt because of medical bills, and was critical of the American health care system.

 

Friends pay tribute to Vic Chesnutt

Tue 29 Dec 2009

 

A memorial service has been held for the American musician Vic Chesnutt, who has died aged 45. Chesnutt, described by REM's Michael Stipe as "one of our greatest songwriters", reportedly took an overdose of muscle relaxants.

 

A long-time resident of Athens, Georgia, Chesnutt was an anchor of the city's music scene. He collaborated with artists such as Lambchop, A Silver Mt. Zion and Jonathan Richman and every stripe of musician from folk-singers to psychedelic rockers. Chesnutt was partially paralysed after a car crash in 1983 and his 16 albums often touched on themes of death and loss – but also on life's cracked, crooked joys. "[He] was able to bring levity to very dark emotions and feelings," Michael Stipe told Spinner, "he had a humour that was really quite unusual."

 

Chesnutt struggled with depression, but also with the cold hard fact of his medical bills. In 1996, Madonna, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage and many more recorded a Chesnutt tribute album, to benefit a fund for musicians' health costs. More than a decade later, the singer-songwriter was allegedly being pursued for $30,000 (£18,799) in hospital fees. "There's nowhere else in the world that I'd be facing the situation I'm in right now," he said in an interview earlier this year. "[Outside of the USA,] they cannot understand what kind of society would inflict that on their population."

 

On 23 December, Chesnutt reportedly attempted suicide, taking an overdose of muscle relaxants. He fell into a coma. At 2:59pm on Christmas Day, he died "surrounded by family and friends", according to his record label. A memorial service took place in Athens yesterday, with the family requesting donations to the Shepherd Center or Nuci's Space. His friend, the songwriter Kristin Hersh, has also opened a webpage soliciting donations toward Chesnutt's medical debts.

 

 

 

The Throwing Muses' Kristin Hersh wrote a book about Vic:

 

 

 

Stipe produced a documentary titled " Vic Chesnutt - It Is What It Is":

 

 

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

R.E.M.'s alternative rock sound was strongly influenced by Punk rock and seasoned with a generous pinch of folklore.

As the band grew up, it became more interventive, politically, socially and environmentally.

 

In their '86 album Lifes Rich Pageant Stipe sings about acid rain:

 

There's a problem, feathers, iron
Bargain buildings, weights and pulleys
Feathers hit the ground
Before the weight can leave the air
 
Buy the sky and sell the sky
And tell the sky, and tell the sky
Don't fall on me (what is it up in the air for)
Fall on me (if it's there for long)
Fall on me (it's over, it's over me)
 
The track "Cuyahoga" from the same album raises awareness of pollution - the Cuyahoga river was so full of industrial red-coloured waste that it caught fire:
 
This land is the land of ours
This river runs red over it
We knee-skinned it you and me
We knee-skinned that river red
 
And draws attention to the history of the region - to the native tribes which were evicted from the region:
 
This is where they walked, swam
Hunted, danced and sang
Take a picture here
Take a souvenir
Cuyahoga
Cuyahoga, gone

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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The following album Document moves the focus on to politics, by "Exhuming McCarthy" in the Regan era:

 

You're beautiful more beautiful than me
You're honorable more honorable than me
Loyal to the Bank of America

It's a sign of the times(...)

 

(...) Vested interest united ties landed gentry rationalize
Look who bought the myth by jingo buy America

It's a sign of the times (...)

 

Enemy sighted, enemy met, I'm addressing the realpolitik
Look who bought the myth, by jingo, buy America

"Let us not assassinate this man further, Senator
You've done enough
Have you no sense of decency, sir?
At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

 

(...) Enemy sighted, enemy met, I'm addressing the realpolitik
You've seen start and you've seen quit
(I'm addressing the table of content)
I always thought of you as quick
Exhuming McCarthy
(Meet me at the book burning)

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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In my view, the most accomplished piece from that album is "Disturbance at the Heron House"

 

They're going wild, the call came in
At early morning predawn then
The followers of chaos, out of control

They're numbering the monkeys
The monkeys and the monkeys
The followers of chaos, out of control

The call came in to party central
A meeting of the green and simple
Trying to tell us something we don't know

They're meeting at the monument
The call came in, the monument
To liberty and honor under the honor roll

They've gathered up the cages
The cages and courageous
The followers of chaos, out of control

The call came in to party central
A meeting of the green and simple
Trying to tell us something we don't know

Disturbance at the Heron House
A stampede at the monument
To liberty and honor under the honor roll

Just a gathering of the grunts and greens
The cogs and grunts and hirelings
A meeting of a mean idea to hold

When feeding time has come and gone
They'll lose their heart and head for home
Try to tell us something we don't know
We don't know

 

 

‘Disturbance at the Heron House’ Finds R.E.M. Tackling George Orwell and Ronald Reagan: The Story Behind Every ‘Document’ Song

 

When Stipe eventually revealed his meaning for “Disturbance at the Heron House,” the London fans turned out to be the closest to being correct – at least geographically. In the ’00s, the R.E.M. singer spoke about his inspiration being a famous story by English author George Orwell that took place in the outer reaches of London.

“‘Disturbance at the Heron House’ was my take on Animal Farm – this revolution that grinds to a halt under a hard-line regime,” Stipe told Rolling Stone in 2007, among other publications and on multiple stages in the years prior.

The idea instantly became clearer. The authoritative Herrenhaus became the “Heron House,” locking up the revolutionary monkeys in cages in this animalized political story. As Orwell used an animal allegory to describe European unrest surrounding the Russian Revolution, Stipe borrowed the author’s idea to present his feelings of hopelessness during President Ronald Reagan’s administration in the '80s.


read more at https://diffuser.fm/rem-disturbance-at-the-heron-house/

 

 

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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In 1988 R.E.M. left the small alternative label I.R.S. and signed with the mammoth Warner Records, a moved that was partly aiming at widening the target audience.

Taking full advantage of this new platform yet, avoiding the pop-easier melodic lines and lyric-subject of later years (the first song is ironically titled "Pop Song '89"), R.E.M. release Green, probably their most interventionist album.

 

"Orange Crush" gets it's title from Agent Orange, a chemical used in the Vietnam war which led to mass births of babies with genetic mutations and defects:


(Follow me, don't follow me) I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush

(Collar me, don't collar me) I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush

(We are agents of the free) I've had my fun and now it's time

To serve your conscience overseas

(Over me, not over me) Coming in fast, over me

 
In "Turn You Inside Out" Stipe shouts over a megaphone:
 
Divide your cultured pearls and paste
I’m looking for to lay waste
Of all the things I cannot taste
And this is not the racy race
They spoke loud

I believe in what you do
I believe in watching you
It’s what you do
I believe in what you do
I believe in watching you

I could turn you inside out
What I choose not to do
I could turn you inside out
What I choose not to do

Given the choice
Giving my heart
Given the truth (tool)
Given the word
Given the tears
 
"You Are the Everything" expresses fears for the future of the planet:
 
Sometimes I feel like I can't even sing
(Say, say, the light) I'm very scared for this world, I'm very scared for me
 
 
 
But my preference goes to "World Leader Pretend" which I dedicate to The Donald...
 
I sit at my table and wage war on myself
It seems like it's all, it's all for nothing
I know the barricades
And I know the mortar in the wall breaks
I recognize the weapons, I used them well

This is my mistake
Let me make it good
I raised the wall and I will be the one to knock it down

I've a rich understanding of my finest defenses
I proclaim that claims are left unstated
I demand a rematch
I decree a stalemate
I divine my deeper motives
I recognize the weapons
I've practiced them well, I fitted them myself

It's amazing what devices you can sympathize (empathize)
This is my mistake
Let me make it good
I raised the wall and I will be the one to knock it down

Reach out for me and hold me tight
Hold that memory
Let my machine talk to me, let my machine talk to me

This is my world and I am world leader pretend
This is my life
And this is my time
I have been given the freedom
To do as I see fit
It's high time I've razed the walls that I've constructed

It's amazing what devices you can sympathize (empathize)
This is my mistake
Let me make it good
I raised the wall and I will be the one to knock it down

You fill in the mortar
You fill in the harmony
You fill in the mortar
I raised the wall
And I'm the only one
I will be the one to knock it down
 

Green: R.E.M.'s Greatest Album

Twenty-five years after the record's release, the world needs its dynamic optimism more than ever.

 

There was a brief moment, at the end of the 1980s, when lots of people all over the world felt like peace might not be such a crazy idea. That was the early-spring thaw of the Cold War, a time of glasnost and perestroika. Presidents were signing treaties; thousands of nuclear weapons were about to be destroyed. It was during that season of global change, in November 1988, that R.E.M. came out with the album Green

 
 

Green isn’t the kind of record that shows up on best-of-all-time lists, and I’ve never understood why. When critics mention it at all, they describe it as a kind of messy musical experiment. Green was R.E.M.’s first major-label album, and the band members took the opportunity to break away from their signature Rickenbacker jangle. As drummer Bill Berry put it at the time, “We discovered a whole new songwriting technique: Grab an instrument you don't know how to play and fool around on it till it sounds right.” So the drummer played bass and the bassist played accordion. The guitarist sat behind the drum kit and picked up the mandolin.

 

continues here -> https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/11/-em-green-em-rems-greatest-album/281273/

 

 

 

Hear R.E.M.’s Ominous Live ‘World Leader Pretend’ for Anti-Trump Series

Band unveils previously unreleased rendition of ‘Green’ cut for 30 Days, 30 Songs campaign

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/hear-r-e-m-s-ominous-live-world-leader-pretend-for-anti-trump-series-110095/

 

 

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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14 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

anybody know of music coming from the Hong Kong protestors?

 

Ever heard of google? 😁

 

 

The story of Hong Kong’s newest protest anthem

Thanks to the internet, new protest song 'Glory to Hong Kong' has spread far and wide in a single month.

As China celebrates 70 years of Communist party rule with a huge military parade today, the ongoing protests in Hong Kong are intensifying even further. According to journalists on the ground, tens of thousands of people have defied bans against protesting and taken to the streets. Dressed in black, demonstrators scattered paper money – which is traditionally used in funeral rites – onto the streets. As well as reports of police using water cannons and tear gas to try and disperse protesters, the BBC has now confirmed reports that a 18-year-old has been left in a critical condition after being shot in the chest at close range.

 

Demonstrations began back in March because people in Hong Kong opposed the introduction of a new extradition bill. Widespread protests began in June, and continue to the present. The bill would’ve allowed the authorities to arrest fugitives and extradite them to other territories where they’re wanted for a crime. At the moment, Hong Kong doesn’t have any extradition agreement with mainland China or Taiwan. People were concerned that Hong Kong residents and visitors might become subject to laws in mainland China under such a bill – a move which would undermine Hong Kong’s status as an autonomous region. Hong Kong, formerly a colony of the United Kingdom, was returned to China in 1997, but retains its own economic and governmental system, under the ‘One country, two systems’ principle.


Read more at https://www.nme.com/blogs/glory-to-hong-kong-about-the-protest-anthem-2552703

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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The Nueva Canción is a musical and poetic movement that has developed in various parts of Latin America, both in Central and South America. The movement began in the 1960s and 1970s. Depending on the region, this movement was called the Nueva Trova (Cuba), Canción Folclórica (Central America), Canto Nuevo (Southern Cone), Canto Libre, Canciones de Lucha y Esperanza, etc. Although there are several different styles, within the movement there are two key elements: the renewal of folk music and the inclusion of a social message.

In the 60s and 70s there were several political polarisations and social struggles throughout the Latin American world. The New Chilean Song in particular began during the time of Eduardo Frei Montalvo's presidency between 1964 and 1970. The music incorporated the sounds of traditional Andean music with popular music. Some of the themes of the poems that served as song lyrics were the support of organized labor, agrarian reforms, and the fight against racism.

In 1970 President Frei was succeeded by Salvador Allende Gossens. Allende was only president for three years (November 3, 1970 - September 11, 1973) before being overthrown by a coup d'état backed by the United States. However, during his few years as President Salvador Allende he supported the idea that music should be a way of transmitting social messages. A famous quote from Allende is "
No hay revolución sin canciones / There is no revolution without songs."

The
Nueva Canción Chilena, perhaps the most famous protest music movement in Latin America, produced artists (especially poets and musicians) known worldwide as Victor Jara, Violeta Parra, Angel Parra, Inti Illimani, Quilapaýn and Sergio Ortega, among others. It's mentioned in the song "One Tree Hill" from the Joshua Tree album by U2:

And in the world a heart of darkness, a fire zone where poets speak their heart then bleed for it.

Jara sang his song, a weapon in the hands of love, though his blood still cries from the ground.

Although the movement was banned by Pinochet's Junta Militar (Government of Chile) after the coup d'etat, artists and their successors continue to play and sing the poems today.

 

 

 

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

La Nueva Canción

The New Song Movement in South America
 
The 1970 victory of the Popular Unity government led by Salvador Allende in Chile marked the rise of the first democratically elected socialist government in Latin America. After years of social and political unrest, the election of the Allende government was seen as a beacon of hope by the Left, both in Chile and throughout the region. As the new president-elect took the stage to greet cheering citizens, a banner above his head read, "You Can't Have a Revolution Without Songs. " It was a powerful statement about the role of music in social and political change that had fueled the emerging popular musical movement in South America known as nueva canción (New Song Movement).

 

https://folkways.si.edu/la-nueva-cancion-new-song-movement-south-america/latin-world-struggle-protest/music/article/smithsonian

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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Violeta Parra's song Gracias A La Vida was immortalised by the great singer Mercedes Sosa:

 

Thanks to life

 

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.

It gave me two stars, which when I open them,

Perfectly distinguish black from white

And in the tall sky its starry backdrop,

And within the multitudes of the one I love.

 

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.

It gave me hearing that, in all of its reach

Records night and day crickets and canaries,

Hammers and turbines, bricks and storms,

And the tender voice of my beloved.

 

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.

It gave me sound and the alphabet.

With them the words I think and declare:

“Mother,” “Friend,” “Brother” and light shining down on

The road of the soul of the one I'm loving.

 

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.

It gave me the steps of my tired feet.

With them I have traversed cities and puddles

Valleys and deserts, mountains and plains.

And your house, your street and your garden.

 

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.

It gave me this heart that shakes its frame,

When I see the fruit of the human brain,

When I see good so far from evil,

When I look into the depth of your light eyes…

 

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.

It gave me laughter and it gave me tears.

With them I distinguish happiness from pain

The two elements that make up my song,

And your song, as well, which is the same song.

And everyone’s song, which is my very song.

 

 

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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Todo Cambia / Everything Changes

 

That which is superficial changes

Also that which is profound

the way of thinking changes

Everything in this world changes

 

The weather changes as the years go by

The shepherd changes his flock

and just as everything changes

the fact that I change it's not in the least strange

 

The finest diamond changes its brightness

as it travels from hand to hand

the bird changes its nest

So does a lover change the way he feels

 

The traveler changes his path

even if this proves to be harmfull

and just as everything changes

the fact that I change it's not in the least strange

 

Changes, everything changes

 

The sun changes its course

to give way to the night

The plant changes and gets dressed in green

during spring

 

The beast changes its fur

the hair of an old person changes

and just as everything changes

the fact that I change it's not in the least strange

 

But my love doesn't change

no matter how far away I find myself

neither the memory nor the pain

of my country and my people

 

What changed yesterday

will have to change tomorrow

Just as I change

in this foreign land

 

Changes, everything changes

 

But my love doesn't change

no matter how far away I find myself

neither the memory nor the pain

of my country and my people

 

Changes, everything changes

 

 

 

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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I am a complete ignorant when it comes to rap/hip-hop protest music because I don't like the genre but it would be wonderful if someone could make a few interesting suggestions.

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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Something a bit more modern.

Note how the crowd can recognise itself in the lyrics...

 

Que Parva Que Eu Sou / How silly am I

 

I’m a “generation without pay (broke?)”,
And it doesn’t bother me.
How silly am I.

 

I’m lucky to be an intern,
Because things are bad and will remain so.
How silly am I.

 

And I wonder:
What a silly world,
Where we have to study
To be a slave.

 

I’m a “still living with parents (boomerang?) generation”,
If I already have everything, why want more?
How silly am I.

 

I keep postponing children, husband,
And still have the car to pay.
How silly am I.

 

And I wonder:
What a silly world,
Where we have to study
To be a slave.

 

I'm a “complaint millennial”,
When there’s someone doing worse on TV?
How silly am I.

 

I’m a generation "I can’t take it anymore!”,
And this situation lasts too long.
And silly I am not!

 

And I wonder:
What a silly world,
Where we have to study
To be a slave.

 

What a silly world,
Where we have to study
To be a slave.

 

 

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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In the '80s protest music went global, first with Live Aid and later with the first of two Anti-Apartheid events, the first of which was held in protest for the prolonged arrest of ANC leader Nelson Mandela in June 1988 at Wembley Stadium and broadcast to 67 countries. According to the Wikipedia "In the United States, the Fox television network heavily censored the political aspects of the concert."

 

snbR3Pj.jpg

Nelson Mandela and music: 10 essential anti-apartheid songs

By  Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic
Dec. 5, 2013
 

Nelson Mandela was, quite famously, a fan of European classical music. His two favorite composers were George Frideric Handel and Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, but he grew up exposed to the country’s rich tradition of vocal groups forging a unique form of sacred rhythm music.

 

That changed while the former South African president and longtime democratic activist was imprisoned by the pro-apartheid government from 1962 to 1990. He wasn’t allowed access to music.

Artists, however, used Mandela’s jailing to fuel global protest songs, and during his years in captivity, Mandela’s messages were delivered on the wings of rhythm and melody.

 

The response to Mandela’s cause, in fact, helped bridge cultural divides that continue to hold. One of the best known songs, Artists United Against Apartheid’s “I Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City,” for the first time brought together on record superstars of rock and R&B with the kings of a rising young genre called hip-hop.

 

On the African continent, anti-apartheid couriers such as Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Youssou N’Dour and the Malopoets expressed outrage through song. As the anti-apartheid movement grew in the 1970s and ‘80s, marquee names such as U2, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt and Stevie Wonder spoke or sung out on behalf of Nelson Mandela’s cause.

 

What follows are 10 essential works that celebrate the late Nelson Mandela and his efforts. His spirit, perseverance and dignity fueled not only the cause of liberty and equality, but drove music to great heights.

 

continues here -> https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-nelson-mandela-dies-music-ten-essential-antiapartheid-songs-20130627-story.html

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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I was in my mid teens at the time at the time of the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert. The song that has lingered in my mind and which still sends shivers down my spine is Peter Gabriel's Biko.

 

Biko

 

September '77
Port Elizabeth weather fine
It was business as usual
In police room 619
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
-The man is dead

When I try to sleep at night
I can only dream in red
The outside world is black and white
With only one colour dead
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
-The man is dead

You can blow out a candle
But you can't blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
-The man is dead

And the eyes of the world are
watching now

watching now

 

 

Steve Biko: Five facts you didn’t know about the anti-apartheid activist

Biko was known for his slogan 'black is beautiful', which he described as meaning 'you are okay as you are, begin to look upon yourself as a human being'

 

Steve Biko, who died fighting apartheid in South Africa, would have turned 70 today.

An illustration commemorating Biko’s life and legacy has been published as a Google Doodle in South Africa, the UK, North America, Portugal and other countries.

Here are five things you may not know about the student leader and activist.

 

continues here -> https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/steve-biko-google-doodle-who-five-things-anti-apartheid-south-africa-activist-birthday-a7482486.html

 

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

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Semente, that is such a great list you've put together, the songs you've picked are iconic, thanks for the effort! Interesting reading.

 

These pale in comparison but here is one I think from the 1980's New Wave era.  The song is about the spread of nationalism/fascism in the USA vis a vis President Ronald Reagan.  This period witnessed the weakening of labor unions both in the US and in the UK which caused some civil unrest.

 

History will repeat itself
Crisis point we're near the hour
Counterforce will do no good
Hot you ass I feel your power
Hitler proves that funky stuff
Is not for you and me girl
Europe's an unhappy land
They've had their fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters, we don't need this fascist groove thang
Democrats are out of power
Across that great wide ocean
Reagan's president elect
Fascist god in motion
Generals tell him what to do
Stop your good time dancing
Train their guns on me and you
Fascist thang advancing
 

 

 

"Let's pick a tune and get out of this mess"  - Earl Scruggs

"There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind ... " - Duke Ellington

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Manu Chao

 

Clandestino Illegal Alien

 

I only take my grief
alone goes my sentence
Running is my destiny

to circumvent the law

Lost in the heart
of the great babylon
They call me the clandestine
for not carrying papers

 

To city of the north
I went to work
I abandoned my life
between Ceuta and Gibraltar

I'm a streak in the sea
ghost in the city
my life is forbidden
says the authority
dice la autoridad

I only go with my grief
alone goes my sentence
running is my destiny
for not having paper
por no carrying papers

Lost in the heart
of the great babylon
they tell me the clandestine
I am the lawbreaker

 

Argeline

Clandestine

 

Nigerian

Clandestine

 

Bolivian

Clandestine

 

Black hand

Illegal

 

 

At 20, Manu Chao’s ‘Clandestino’ Remains a Radical and Compassionate Work of Art

José-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao Ortega is perhaps France’s most successful rock musician of all time, not to mention an inimitable icon of rock en español. Yet he probably feels more comfortable being labeled a busker: a musician in the street playing his heart out, observing his surroundings, and making songs about it. He’s known to pop up on the sidewalk next to any given bar of any given city he happens to be in at the moment and start playing. Busking is what taught Manu Chao about the universality of music, and it informs Clandestino, his debut solo album. The project turns 20 this year, and remains perhaps his boldest statement yet.

 

There’s nothing conventional about Clandestino, yet its radicalism relies on humanist values. Although his former band Mano Negra was at one point one of the most popular musical groups in France, Manu renounced the country as his own, disappearing on the road and appearing throughout Mexico, South America, Europe or Africa, something that allowed him to reach audiences beyond traditional borders. The label “world music” – a genre coined by Western record companies as an umbrella term to market folkloric and popular music from across the globe, lumping them together without much context – became widely used around that time, but few artists embodied that kind of post-globalist utopia. Clandestino also rekindled “protest pop” in a way seldom heard before, contributing to a discourse of sociopolitical unrest and selling more than 5 million copies along the way without a supporting tour or official singles released to radio.

 

continues here -> https://remezcla.com/features/music/manu-chao-clandestino-album-20th-anniversary/

 

 

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256)

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Young, gifted and black
Oh what a lovely precious dream
To be young, gifted and black
Open your heart to what I mean

In the whole world you know
There's a million boys and girls
Who are young, gifted and black
And that's a fact

You are young, gifted and black
We must begin to tell our young
There's a world waiting for you
Yours is a quest that's just begun

When you're feeling really low
Yeah, there's a great truth that you should know
When you're young, gifted and black
Your soul's intact

How to be young, gifted and black
Oh how I long to know the truth
There are times when I look back
And I am haunted by my youth

Oh but my joy of today
Is that we can all be proud to say
To be young, gifted and black
Is where it's at
Is where it's at
Is where it's at

 

Nina Simone's 'Lovely, Precious Dream' For Black Children

By Noel King and Walter Ray Watson

 

 

By the early 1960s, Nina Simone was well-known to the world as a singer, songwriter and classically trained pianist. But around 1963, as race relations in America hit a boiling point, she made a sharp turn in her music — toward activism.

 

First, there was the murder of Medgar Evers that summer. The civil rights leader was killed by a Klansman, shot in the back in his own driveway in Mississippi. Three months later, in Birmingham, Ala., four black girls were killed in a church bombing. In response to the grief and outrage, Simone wrote a powerful song with unsparing lyrics and a provocative title: "Mississippi Goddam."

 

Then, in 1968, she identified a different side of the struggle. The Black Power movement was rising. Pride in being black and beautiful was expressed in big afros and raised fists. She aimed to capture that moment of joy in black identity — and though the song she wrote was addressed to children, it became an anthem for adults, too.

 

"To Be Young, Gifted and Black" was a dedication to Nina Simone's friend, the playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry was the first black woman to have a play performed on Broadway; she and Simone bonded over civil rights and radical politics.

 

And then, in January 1965, Hansberry died of cancer at the age of 34. A few months before, she had told a group of student essay winners, "I wanted to be able to come here and speak with you on this occasion because you are young, gifted and black."

 

Those words stuck in Nina Simone's head. In an interview recorded at historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta, she said, "I remember getting a feeling in my body, and I said, 'That's it: to be young, gifted and black. That's all.' And sat down at the piano and made up a tune. It just flowed out of me."

 

Simone wrote the music, while the words came from her bandleader, Weldon Irvine. He reportedly sat writing the lyrics in his car, tying up a busy New York City intersection for 15 minutes as he scribbled on napkins and a matchbook cover. Simone had told him to keep it simple — write something that "will make black children all over the world feel good about themselves, forever."

 

continues here -> https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=683021559

 

 

"Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes

 

HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256)

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