What are you listening to?

If you wish to learn more about the Russian soul or spirit listen to Tchaikovsky. I didn't even know he was Russian :-[, but I have always loved his music, as long as I can remember.
I can't get enough of this 'The best of Tchaikovsky' YouTube (about 90 minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdhsVgdpSa0&list=RDtdhsVgdpSa0#t=11

I watched this video about Russia and the Americans used Tchaikovsky to make their point. :D This was in 1943, mind you:

http://www.sott.net/article/294932-Historical-anomaly-US-WWII-propaganda-film-ACCURATELY-portrays-Russia-and-most-epic-battle-in-history
 
And on a totally different note ... a bit of punk anyone?

How about the new Poison Idea LP , Confuse & Conquer.

I always found myself associating with the raw energy of music like this - i was always a misfit in this world, so the music of misfits fitted me like a glove.

Each to his own eh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzY5rf00U-0
 
zin said:
Spoon - Inside Out
Amazing pick zin. I heard this song on the radio a few times and it's got an amazing harmony and interesting lyrics!

Now another Spoon song which makes me think of a message to the STS/psychopaths:


"The Underdog"

Picture yourself in the living room
Your pipe and slippers set out for you
I know you think that it ain't too far

But I hear the call of a lifetime ring
Felt the need to get up for it
Oh you cut out the middleman
Get free from the middleman

You got no time for the messenger,
Got no regard for the thing that you don't understand,
You got no fear of the underdog,
That's why you will not survive!

I want to forget how conviction fits
But can I get out from under it?
Can I gut it out of me?
It can't all be wedding cake
It can't all be boiled away
I try but I can't let go of it
Can't let go of it,

Cause you don't talk to the water boy
And there's so much you could learn but you don't want to know,
You will not back up an inch ever,
That's why you will not survive,

The thing that I tell you now
It may not go over well
And it may not be photo-op
In the way that I spell it out

But you won't hear from the messenger,
Don't wanna know bout something that you don't understand,
You got no fear of the underdog,
That's why you will not survive! (Hey!)
 
I find I am always drawn back to the female voice and in particular two astonishing singers – both channelers of the deepest wells – Sinead O’Conner and Lisa Gerrard.

Sinead is a much maligned and misunderstood figure. Her turbulent personal life and abuse by both the establishment and the medical authorities In Ireland (and her undoubted mishandling of her gifts) have left her marginalised and often a figure of ridicule. But no one has come close to the heart breaking sensitivity of her voice as she does what few can do – takes total possession of a song, particularly great Irish traditional laments.

Here are two that never seek to amaze. The first is a harsh critique of the American Dream which she sings today with real anger and a deep sense of the betrayal (when sung live she often changes the last word of the line ‘For in truth I've had enough of their hard fightin' to ‘shitein’!). The line ‘To America I'll have yous not be coming, There is nothing here but war’ has never wrung truer, though the song is 100 years old.

Paddy's Lament

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gU8ba0fjiRo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Well, it's by the hush me boys and that's to mind your noise
And listen to poor Paddy's sad narration
I was by hunger stressed and in poverty distressed
So I took a thought I'd leave the Irish nation.

Well, I sold me horse and cow, my little pigs and sow
My father's farm of land, I then departed
And me sweetheart Bid McGee, I'm afraid, I'll never see
For I left her there that morning broken-hearted.

Hear me, boys, now take my advice
To America I'll have yous not be coming
There is nothing here but war
Where the murderin' cannons roar
And I wish, I was at home in dear old Dublin.

Well, myself and a hundred more, to America sailed over
Our fortunes to be making we were thinkin'
When we got to Yankee land, they put guns into our hands
Saying, "Paddy, you must go and fight for Lincoln".

Hear me, boys, now take my advice
To America I'll have yous not be coming
There is nothing here but war
Where the murderin' cannons roar
And I wish, I was at home in dear old Dublin.

General Meagher to us he said, "If you get shot or lose your Head
Every mother's son of yous will get a pension"
Well, in the war I lost me leg and all I've now's a wooden peg
By my soul it is the truth to you I mention.

Hear me, boys, now take my advice
To America I'll have yous not be coming
There is nothing here but war
Where the murderin' cannons roar
And I wish, I was at home in dear old Dublin.

Well, I think meself in luck, if I get fed on Indianbuck
And old Ireland is the country I delight in
To the Devil, I would say, God curse Americay
For in truth I've had enough of their hard fightin'.

Hear me, boys, now take my advice
To America I'll have yous not be coming
There is nothing here but war
Where the murderin' cannons roar,
And I wish I was at home in dear old Dublin,
I wish, I was at home, I wish, I was at home
I wish, I was at home in dear old Dublin

The second is a deeply moving lament of lost love and broken dreams (with a much loved air here used to devastating effect) that is delivered with imperious feeling and immaculate production (listen to the musicianship underscoring her – breathtaking!). The most haunting and beautifully delivered piece I think I have ever heard.

The Moorlough Shore

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gCS51JULZ7I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

You're hills and dales and flowery veils
that lie near the Moorlough shore.
Your vines that blow by Borden's grove.
Will I ever see you more?

Where the primrose blows
and the violet grows
Where the trout and salmon play,
With my line and hook daylight I took
to spend my youthful days.

Last night I wept to see my love
and to hear what she might say.
To see if she'd take pity on me
lest I might go away.
She said, "I love that Irish lad
and he was my only joy
and ever since I saw his face
I've loved that soldier boy."

Perhaps your soldier lad is lost
sailing over the Sea of Maine.
Or perhaps he is gone with some other one
you may never see him again.
Well if my Irish lad is lost,
he's the one I do adore,
and seven years I will wait for him
by the banks of the Moorlough shore.

Farwell to Sinclair’s castle grand,
Farwell to the foggy hills.
Where the linen mils lie bleaching silk
and the bulging stream runs still.
Near there I spent my youthful days
but alas, they are no more,
for cruelty has banished me
far away from the Moorlough shore.


Lisa Gerrard also has Irish roots, although officially Australian. Like Sinead she creates astonishing sound out of the tiniest of frames. Her music is very distinctive with complex esoteric roots and is mostly drawn from ancient and indigenous sources. She first came to note as the singer/composer of cult band Dead Can Dance but she has since carved her own way as a solo singer and also often delivering spine chilling movie themes (Gladiator comes to mind).

I could chose a dozen or more great tracks to share but again here’s two that have particular personal resonance.

Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke – Sacrifice

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jtbyFxfaBbE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Don’t ask me how she makes that sound! It can only be the voice of the Great Mother singing to us through her. If only we would listen!

Finally an astonishing piece of singing – from a collaboration album with Klaus Schulze called Farscape, the track is the first on the album called Liquid Coincidence 1. She came to the recording studio, took one listen to the instrumental track laid down by Schulze and then in one take improvised – yes improvised! - this amazing vocal line over the top. What can you say! The combination of her voice and his synthesised dreamscape is mesmerising.

Klaus Schulze - 2008 Farscape

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7PE-gMMiP24" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


I hope you enjoy these links. Thanks to everyone else for their gifts. What a resource.
 
Pink Floyd - "Learning to Fly"


Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction is holding me fast,
How can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I

Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings, I thought, I thought of everything
No navigator to find my way home
Unladened, empty and turned to stone
A soul in tension -- that's learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try


Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air,
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night

There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, a state of bliss

Can't keep my mind from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

--

(I always think of this song as the soul's longing to go back home. It is conditioned but determined to try and learn to "fly" ;D)
 
Yas said:
Pink Floyd - "Learning to Fly"


Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction is holding me fast,
How can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I

Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings, I thought, I thought of everything
No navigator to find my way home
Unladened, empty and turned to stone
A soul in tension -- that's learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try


Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air,
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night

There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, a state of bliss

Can't keep my mind from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

--

(I always think of this song as the soul's longing to go back home. It is conditioned but determined to try and learn to "fly" ;D)

It's already 50 years as PF were founded. I'm not sure, but 04/12/1965 was probably exactly date, not in the least, so I've heard. But I can't confirm that. I only found that it was "spring 1965." Never mind.

Great piece of music, one of my favourite, thanks!
 
Back
Top Bottom