What are you listening to?

Dead can Dance are incredible. I haven't the foggiest what she's singing about, but it doesn't matter, they are incredible.


I agree, I've delved into their work time and time again over the years and realized that I haven't rightly given their 2012 album Anastasis a respectful listen. Since the weekend (where I properly absorbed the album for the first time) I've had an itch for this particular track:

 

Polish song based on polish poet from early 20th century: Julian Tuwim - Wikipedia. Generally the text is still quite "alive" at current times..

English text:
When with a fresh glue on the wall again
new notices will be posted
when black print will raise alarm
among the people and the soldiers
and any scoundrel, any jerk
will believe their eternal lie
that we must go and fire cannons,
murder, plunder, poison and burn

when on the thousandth prayer they'll begin
to tear the homeland with declination
and delude with a colored emblem
and incite with the historical right
about an inch of soil, glory and borderlands
about fathers, grandfathers and banners
about heroes and victims

When a bishop,a pastor, a rabbi will come out
to bless your rifle,
because God himself whispered to him from heaven,
that one must fight for the homeland
When with riots will explode
the scream of letters from the front pages of newspapers
and a herd of wild women
will shower soldiers with flowers

Oh, my uneducated friend
my brethren from this or other land
know that alarm bells are sounded
by kings and pot-bellied lords
Know that this is nonsense, ordinary swindle,
when they cry "to arms"
that somewhere oil gushed from the ground
and showered them with dollars
that something in banks is not adding up
that they've smelled somewhere full cashboxes
or the fat rogues have spotted
somewhat fatter tariff on cotton

Smash the gun against the street pavement
It is your blood is, theirs is the oil
And from a capital to capital
Shout, defending what you've worked hard for
"We won't be fooled, gentlemen of the gentry!"
 
Last week was the 46th anniversary of the passing of Jim Croce, an American folk and rock singer-songwriter. He died aged 30 with five others in a plane crash on September 20, 1973, at the height of his popularity.

This song, 'time in a bottle', was one of his hits. I really like the simple melody and meaningful lyrics.


If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
'Til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

 
This was just released today.
Sturgill Simpson - Make Art Not Friends
Face in the mirror, all skin and bones
Bloodshot eyes and a heart of stone
Never again, rather be alone
Think I'm gonna just stay home
And make art, not friends

[Bridge]
Oh, it's getting hard to find a good friend
So close the door behind you
Before anymore come in
Nobody writes, nobody calls
Nobody bother 'cause I'm over it all

 
A song in Spanish I listened to a lot when younger and which I've always found motivational:


Lyrics:

Honrar La Vida
¡No! Permanecer y transcurrir
no es perdurar, no es existir
¡Ni honrar la vida!
Hay tantas maneras de no ser,
tanta conciencia sin saber
adormecida...
Merecer la vida no es callar y consentir,
tantas injusticias repetidas...
¡Es una virtud, es dignidad!
Y es la actitud de identidad ¡más definida!
Eso de durar y transcurrir
no nos da derecho a presumir.
Porque no es lo mismo que vivir...
¡Honrar la vida!

¡No! Permanecer y transcurrir
no siempre quiere sugerir
¡Honrar la vida!
Hay tanta pequeña vanidad,
en nuestra tonta humanidad
enceguecida.
Merecer la vida es erguirse vertical,
más allá del mal, de las caídas...
Es igual que darle a la verdad,
y a nuestra propia libertad
¡La bienvenida!...
Eso de durar y transcurrir
no nos da derecho a presumir.
Porque no es lo mismo que vivir...
¡Honrar la vida!

English (rough translation)

Honoring Life
No! To remain and to slide through life
is not enduring, is not existing
And it's not honoring life!
There are so many ways not to be,
so much conscience without knowledge
sleeping...
To deserve life is not to be silent and to consent,
to so many repeated injustices...
It is a virtue, it is dignity!
And it is the most defined attitude of identity!
Lasting and passing on
doesn't give us the right to boast.
Because honoring life is not the same as living...

No! To remain and to slide through life
doesn't always suggests
honoring life!
There is so much petty vanity,
in our foolish and blinded humanity
To deserve life is to stand upright,
beyond evil, beyond falls...
It is the same as welcoming truth,
and our own freedom
That business of lasting and sliding through life
doesn't give us the right to brag.
Because it is not the same as living...
Because honoring life is not the same as living...

The author and singer was a real rebel. She struggled during one of the Argentinian dictatorships:
 
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