Rise and Fall; Helloween

Today’s song is in the second part of the second album by Helloween, “Keeper of the Seven Keys II”. At this time, the vocalist was Michael Kinske (by the way, Helloween changed a lot of members; the only two who remained from the beginning are the guitarist Michael Weikath and the bassist Markus Grosskopf).

Weikath composed “Rise and Fall”. This song, someone told me, is the proof that the metal doesn’t need to be serious, grave and destructively bad, you can add some happiness and fun as well.

The whistling here, on the contrary of yesterday’s, is right in the end, after the guitar solo, the loud screams and some bleats and whinnies.

Trick or treat?!

Once a singer sang 'bout bullshit
Everyone could see him fall
And be sure it´s been his last hit
He´s never been seen at all

Some ditactor felt progressive
And lay down in the sun
But his people were aggressive
They killed him with a gun

Sometimes you're wrong
By some things you have done
You see fate is too strong
Nothing's won
No use for a fight
If you're not acting right
You´ll be cut down to size
Like a lie

It's the rise and fall
The prize for all
That ain´t nice at all
Luck is like a ball
You can´t recall or care at all
So better use your brain!

A little dragon could spit fire
But never so for something bad
He didn't know the knight's desire
To throw a lance into his head

Romeo loved his Juliet
Their parents told them "Stop"
Then it all turned out peculiar
He couldn't get it up

And it's all in vain
When you're living with pain
Reap not goods you have grown
By your own
Feelings you like
Disappear overnight
You sip up every grin
Free to win

It' the rise and fall
The prize for all
That ain't nice at all
Luck is like a ball
You can't recall or care at all
You nearly go insane

A spaceman flies the rocket
That takes him to the stars
Thinks his wife is in his pocket
But she's strolling 'round in bars

The king of Los Angeles
Bought himself a teddy bear
And the queen became shameless
She did it with a chair

Sometimes you're wrong
By some things you have done
You see fate is too strong
Nothing's won
No use for a fight
If you're not acting right
You´ll be cut down to size
Like a lie

It's the rise and fall
The prize for all
That ain´t nice at all
Luck is like a ball
You can´t recall or care at all

It's the rise and fall
The prize for all
That ain´t nice at all
Luck is like a ball
You can´t recall or care at all
So better use your brain!

We Burn; Helloween

Tomorrow is Halloween! Nothing better than post two songs about this German power metal band this weekend!

A friend of mine pointed me to this whistling song yesterday and it took me to connect the name of the band with the holiday. But when I finally did, it fitted like a glove.

Helloween is the mother-band of the power metal, a melodic style of heavy metal. My friend said that the vocalist doesn't sing and scream in falsetto, that's his true voice... oO

This whistling song is in the 1996 album "The Time of the Oath". It was composed by Andi Deris, the current vocalist.

The whistling here is the worstest I ever heard! It's tuneless, poorly whistled... hear it! I won't say anything, just click and suffer!!! ahahaha

Climb down my pile
And again to the beat of my heart
You're so exciting
Take all the soul
I will give you as much as you want
Control my feelings
Higher, much higher
Unbounded fire
Closer, much closer
Close to the core
We burn, we burn
I contaminate you
I like to pollute you with my G-g-generations
Look in my eyes
And we melt into on yearning mind
We climb the stages
Higher, much higher
Unbounded fire
Closer, much closer
Close to the core
We burn, we burn
Insanity, insanity
Never set me free

Verde Llano; Almendra

Néstor Kirchner, former president of our neighbor Argentina, died this week. This post is my homage to him. Descanse en paz, presidente.

- -

Almendra is an Argentine rock group formed in 1967 in Buenos Aires. Almendra is considered one of the most important rock and roll bands in its country. According to the website Rock.com.ar “Este grupo es considerado miembro de una trilogía inicial del rock argentino, junto a Los Gatos y a Manal.”

According to Almendra’s article in the Spanish Wikipedia, the band’s first album has been regarded in repeated occasions as the best album of the history of Argentine rock. Its second album, called “Almendra II”, was released one year later — it wasn’t too praised as its predecessor but it’s a rare gem too.

“Verde Llano” (translation: “green plain”) is an instrumental song present in “Almedra II". It’s not a sad song, as someone might expect; although the whistling begins with a melancholic melody, the rest of the tune is kind of dancing, pero aún así muy tranquilo.

Well, I don’t think death should be horrible at all. If I may, to explain my point of view, I will quote another song by these porteños rock stars, “si es que sus sueños son luces en torno a ti tu te das cuenta que él ya nunca ha de morir.”

Home; Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes

After breaking up with his girlfriend, moving out of his house, and leaving a 12-step program for addiction (he left, as he has said, to live in a more honest reaction to the truth of the moment, not be bound to certain behaviors by fear-based dogma), Ebert began work on a book about a messianic figure named Edward Sharpe. According to Ebert, Sharpe “was sent down to Earth to kinda heal and save mankind...but he kept getting distracted by girls and falling in love.” Ebert later met singer Jade Castrinos in Uruguaiana. In the summer of 2009, as Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Ebert and Castrinos toured the country with a group of fellow musicians in a big white bus.

This is the way Wikipedia explains how the band was created. It also states that “their song ‘Home’ was voted number 15 on the Australian Triple J Hottest 100, 2009 countdown, the largest music poll in the world, and (...) was also used as the background accompaniment for a video called ‘Guy Walks Across America’ by Conscious Minds. The video generated huge internet success, getting millions of hits on YouTube, as well as being featured on the front page of Yahoo! News.”

In an interview with RoneBreak.com, the two leaders of the band speak about the song:

“Everywhere I go I hear the song ‘Home,’ can you describe the story behind it? What is home for you?

"Home for me is being with my family and loved ones, it’s not necessarily a physical place, more of an emotional one.”

Et c’est fini!

Alabama, Arkansas,
I do love my ma and pa,
Not the way that I do love you.

Holy, Moley, me, oh my,
You're the apple of my eye,
Girl I've never loved one like you.

Man oh man you're my best friend,
I scream it to the nothingness,
There ain't nothing that I need.

Well, hot and heavy, pumpkin pie,
Chocolate candy, Jesus Christ,
Ain't nothing please me more than you.

Ahh Home. Let me come home
Home is wherever I'm with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is wherever I'm with you.

La, la, la, la, take me home.
Mother, I'm coming home.

I'll follow you into the park,
Through the jungle through the dark,
Girl I never loved one like you.

Moats and boats and waterfalls,
Alley-ways and pay phone calls,
I've been everywhere with you.

We laugh until we think we’ll die,
Barefoot on a summer night
Nothin’ new is sweeter than with you

And in the streets you run afree,
Like it's only you and me,
Geeze, you're something to see.

Ahh Home. Let me go home.
Home is wherever I'm with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is wherever I'm with you.

La, la, la, la, take me home.
Daddy, I'm coming home.

(Talking)
Jade.
Alexander.
Do you remember that day you fell outta my window?
I sure do, you came jumping out after me.
Well, you fell on the concrete, nearly broke your ass, you were bleeding all over the place and I rushed you out to the hospital, you remember that?
Yes I do.
Well there's something I never told you about that night.
What didn't you tell me?
While you were sitting in the backseat smoking a cigarette you thought was gonna be your last, I was falling deep, deeply in love with you, and I never told you til just now.

Ahh Home. Let me go home.
Home is wherever I'm with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is where I'm alone with you.

Home. Let me come home.
Home is wherever I'm with you.

Ahh home. Yes I am ho-oh-ome.
Home is when I'm alone with you.

Alabama, Arkansas,
I do love my ma and pa...
Moats and boats and waterfalls,
Alley-ways and pay phone calls...

Ahh Home. Let me go home.
Home is wherever I'm with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is where I'm alone with you...

Tighten Up; The Black Keys

"Tighten Up" is the first single from The Black Keys album, Brothers, released on May 18, 2010. Dan Auerbach told The Sun how this song came about: "That was the last song we did for the record. We had a couple of days off and so did Brian (Danger Mouse) and since we are friends and like hanging out with each other we thought it would be fun to go into the studio and see if we could come up with a tune. We always have a blast when the three of us get together." "Tighten Up" has been liscensed to appear in the video game FIFA 11, the television program Gossip Girl, and a Subaru commercial. The song has become the most successful Black Keys single in America, being only their second charting song and reaching number 2 on the Alternative Songs chart.

The original music video for the song was a low budget clip starring a puppet dinosaur named Frank who is standing beside a plant. The video shows him dancing and miming the words a little, whilst subtitles go on explaining different facts about the video, the band, and Frank; e.g. "Frank has a profile on eharmony.com..." "He is a puppet, not a real dinosaur." This goes along the same direction of using sort of "obvious" or "simple" ways to say things like the album cover does; e.g. "This is a song by the Black Keys" "It's from an album called Brothers", etc.

The official music video was released on May 18, 2010. It shows Auerbach and his fictional son walking to the park. Auerbach sits next to Carney on a bench while their fictional sons play with toy trucks. Auerbach's son look up on the playground to see a little girl, after which he starts to lip sync to the song. He climbs up on the playground and goes in to kiss her but then he opens his eyes to realize Carney's son has lured her away. After he attempts to kiss her, Auerbach's son begins to fight with Carney's son. After Auerbach and Carney attempt to break the fight up in vain, they see the mother of the girl and begin to fight like their sons. They hit each other using mostly Carney's drumset and after the woman sees them fighting, she walks away. Their sons come to them looking at them disappointedly.*

I wanted love, I needed love
Most of all, most of all
Someone said "True Love" was dead
But I'm bound to fall
Bound to fall for you
Oh what can I do?

Take my badge, but my heart remains
Loving you, baby child
Tighten up on your reigns, you're running wild
Running wild, it's true

Sick for days, so many ways
I'm aching now, I'm aching now
It's times like these, I need relief
Please show me how, oh show me how..
To get right
Yeah it's all the side

When I was young, and moving fast,
Nothing slowed me down, oh slowed me down
Now I let the others pass
I've come around, oh come around
Cause I found

Living just to keep going
Going just to be sane
All the while I know
It's such a shame
I don't need to get steady
I know just what to feel
Telling me to be ready, my dear

Winners and Losers; The Tiger Lillies

Hey Hey Hey!

Love is like a battlefield
A weapon used
How often have a pair of eyes
Destroyed and abused

All is fair in love and war
Winners and losers by the score

But just as war is never sacred
Love will always be
Those who do betray
Hell waits eternally

All is fair in love and war
Winners and losers by the score

The greatest warriors
In the flames of hell will burn
Hell has no fury
Like a lover spurned

All is fair in love and war
Winners and losers by the score

The starcrossed lovers
They bathe in bliss
The glory
Of their first kiss

All is fair in love and war
Winners and losers by the score

And Parting is
Such sorrow sweet
The white hot coals of hell
They’ll eat

All is fair in love and war
Winners and losers by the score

Card Game; The Tiger Lillies

They are here again! The Tiger Lillies! In double dose! Today and tomorrow I will post songs of their 2007 album called "Love and War". Today I will copy-and-paste what there is in their website about this album. Tomorrow — I am almost certain — I will post only the basic things about it.

"A Tribute (of sorts) to Monteverdi is a fusion of the familiar squeeze-box stomp of the Tiger Lillies and the baroque harpsichord flourishes of McGuinness. Inspired by Monteverdi's Madrigals of Love and War, the new works touch on murder, rape and mutilation. And Jacques' vocals - his voice is the missing link between classical falsetto and Berlin cabaret - range from a Tom Waits growl to an angelic operatic warble as he rages against religious and political hypocrisy in times of war. Mark Fisher - The Scotsman

"What The Tiger Lillies have come up with - Songs of Love and War - is, on the evidence of the preview CD, both aural seduction and assault in the same breath. There is edgy beauty, rage and a sense of politics. Sarah Unwin Jones - The Herald

"The Tiger Lillies (collaborating with David McGuinness of Concerto Caledonia) present their tribute to Monteverdi's Madrigals of Love and War. Harpsichord, Accordion, church organ and musical saw unite in songs of the futility of war."

 

In their card game you’re a chip
You’re a whore in which they’ll slip
In their chess game you’re a pawn
Falsely honoured truly scorned

In their dice game you they’ll roll
Lie to Heaven goes your soul
Playing poker fuelled by lust
They’ll drink champagne you’ll be dust

In their card game what they win
Each wager is a sin
In their chess game you’ll be raped
For formation a strong shape

In their dice game your snakes eyes
Cannot see their greed and lies
Playing poker their desire
They don’t care if you expire

NOTE: What worth.

Andrew Bird’s songs and others that may appear someday compelled me to state that will only worth whistling songs recorded originally in studio and released as single, in an EP or in an studio album.

That's because can happen that one song being released without whistlings and then the singer/band realize that it’d be better with whistlings. For me, what will always count is the original recordings.

Perhaps when all the songs have ended up I start an epilogue with these songs. Not now.

Souverian; Andrew Bird

In an album with 12 songs, 5 have whistlings and this one is the last (but not the least). I discovered that “Souverian” is a word in old French for “sovereign” that means “exceptional in quality”; someone wrote in Songmeanings.net that “a google search turned up a farmer named Souverian P. Frigon who was born in 1850 in Canada and immigrated to Iriquois County, Illinois (Andrew Bird’s home state). Might just be a coincidence, but this Souverian being a farmer fits in with the pastoral images of parsnips, thistles, thrushes, and grasses. Perhaps Andrew Bird is spinning a story around a real but mostly unknown figure?”

You must being thinking why I am speculating that much. Because not even Andrew Bird himself knows why he composed it:

This one remains mysterious to me. So let’s just leave it there.

^^
--

I’ like to know more about music, so I could speak about Bird’s influences, evolution of sound... these things. Because I don’t, all I can give are informations about the songs. Well, this blog never meant to be about musical trends; it’s more like an encyclopedia... We’re fine this way, don’t we?

Though bells will ring
Church steeples were catchin fire
If you promise spring
Then I’ll know you are a liar

Cause in the spring
Tender grasses won’t burn easily
Tough thrushes sing
Still my lover won’t return to me
Wild parsnips they still scald my lungs
While thistles will burn my feet

And if you join our chorus
You will never fear anymore
So here it comes the chorus
We will meet on a fatal shore

Souverian Souverian the elder
Souverian Souverian was free
Souverian Souverian we feld her
So very young so very young were we

Birds will sing
Still my lover won’t return to me
You promise spring
Still my lover won’t return to me
Wild parsnips scald my lungs
And thistles are burning my feet

So here it comes the chorus
You’ll never fear anymore
If you join a chorus
We will meet on a fatal shore

Under the elders
The older get younger
The younger get over
Over their elders
Under the elders
Pretend that you’re older now

Under the elders
The older get younger
The younger get over
Over the elders
Under the elders
Bending your branches down

We who are so very young
Still my lover won’t return to me
Thrushes sing
Still my lover won’t return to me
Wild parsnips they still scald my lungs
While thistles still burn my feet

Not a Robot, But a Ghost; Andrew Bird

“Effigy” has not whistling in it, nor “Nomenclature”, so the next whistling song is “Not a Robot, But a Ghost”. Again, Drowned in Sound explains this beautiful song:

“This is the last song I wrote for this record. It was a Dosh instrumental track that I really loved called ‘First Impossible’. I wrote these lyrics and wrestled with over a hundred tracks we painted on then peeled away with a heat gun. You could read this as a protest song, a break up song or some vague geopolitical quagmire instantly resolved by a brilliant algorithm.”

--

I run the numbers through the floor
Here’s how it goes
I crack the codes I crack the codes
That end the war

The Hour

I pushed a note under your door
Here’s how it goes
Things come to blows
But we don’t want this anymore
No, we don’t want this anymore
I crack the codes you end the war

I hear the clockwork in your core
Time strips the gears till you
Forget what they were for
I push the numbers through your pores
I crack the codes I crack the codes
To end the war

How’s my living
You can call
Encrypted numbers
On bathroom stalls

There’s something burning
It casts a pall
It’s melting numbers right
Off the walls

Tenuousness; Andrew Bird

I skipped “Effigy” because I don’t know where is the album here in my archive, so I couldn’t upload the song. In fact, I also don’t know if it’s a whistling song as well. So I’ll let you with “Tenuousness” today and tomorrow I come back with “Effigy”.

“This is an odd one. Definitely not a story song, but one that tries to create a sense of tenuousness with syntax. The word ‘tenuousness’ itself is clearly onomatopoeic, like a frayed rope bridge. Traveling the world for most of a year tends to make me amazed that things hang together as well as they do considering how divisive and chaotic even the smallest countries can get. And knowing that everything is connected and propped up by imaginary things like, oh, credit for instance. Is there order in the universe? What’s to keep this planet from spinning off its axis to be lost?”

Tenuous at best was all he had to say
when pressed about the rest of it, the world that is
from proto-Sanskrit Minoans to Porto-centric Lisboans
Greek Cypriots and and harbor-sorts who hang around in quotes a lot

Here’s where things start getting weird
while chinless men will scratch their beards
and to their minds a sharpened axe
is brushed upon the Uralic syntaxes

Love of hate acts as an axis
Love of hate acts as an axis
First it wanes and then it waxes
So procreate and pay your taxes

Tenuousness
Less seven comes to three
Them, you, us plus eleven thank the heavens for their elasticity
And as for those who live and die for astronomy

Know when to stand or when to sit
Can’t stand to stand can’t stand to sit
Now who would want to know this

Click
Click
Click

Who wants to look upon this
Who wants to look upon this
Pray tell

Who wants to look upon this
Who wants to look upon this
Pray tell
Pray tell

Tenuousness
Less seven comes to three
Them, you, us plus eleven comes just shy of infinity
and as for those who live and die from numerology

Fitz and the Dizzyspells; Andrew Bird

That is the third song of the album Noble Beast. I'm still searching for infos about it, so I'll let you with only lyrics, song and video for now. So, enjoy A.Bird for one more time!

EDIT: I found on Drowned in Sound a track-by-track interview with Bird, guided by Songfacts.com. Now I'll post all of his song on the album “Noble Beast”. ^^

“The operative word here is 'flail'. Put away the china and just go berserk. It helps with blood flow and confusing predators. The song goes from catastrophic forces of nature: violent storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions to internal turmoil. Night terrors brought on by ingestion of hallucinogenic aubergines. Talks about language and how we must sew our own coats and not depend on old definitions: a theme readdressed in the song 'Nomenclature'.”

Comes and goes
Like in fits and dizzy spells
Like the weather

And it blows
Like it knows what's going wrong
Like it's clever

Has a name but the name goes unspoken
Weather vanes
Were all twisted and broken
So soldier on, soldier on

Flailing to the whir of a snack machine
And muted screams of an old regime
And then oh
Something gets in it
The nightshade gets in it
We were all fast asleep
Were all so fast asleep
But you woke us
You woke us from the strangest dream that an aubergine could ever know
Would ever know

Lava flows over crooks and craggy cliffs to the ocean
And explodes in a steam heat fevered cyclical motion
Has a name
But the name goes unspoken
It's in vain
Cause the language is broken
So cast your own, cast your own
Soldier on

Masterswarm; Andrew Bird

Bird told Drowned in Sound that in this song he continues the idea in “Oh No” “of another consciousness beneath our skin.” He explained: “I wrote this after I got food poisoning in the Rocky Mountains. I was impressed by the body’s override function. It knows what must be done. This then connects to groups or swarms of birds, fish or insects that seem to move as one with their own surface tension. Nature’s brain.”

Come what may
Lay your eggs where it’s warm
We come here to swarm
Come by sea
Swarm like smoke in the dawn
We were the young
We were the swarm

Radiolarians
Midges and moths
Out from a cloth
We were the young
We were the swarm

Flailing fetal fleas
Feeding from the arms of the master
Burrow into me
And this is sure to misspell disaster
Oh and the young in the larval stage
Orchestrating plays
In vestments of translucent alabaster

So they took me to the hospital
They put my body through a scan
What they saw there would impress them all
For inside me grows a man
Who speaks with perfect diction
As he orders my eviction
As he acts with more conviction
Than I

Oh, burrow into me
This is sure to misspell disaster
Oh, burrow into me
You're feeding from the arms of the master

We were the young
We were the swarm
We were the young
Radiolarians

We were the young
We were the swarm
We were the young
Radiolarians

We were the young
We were the swarm
We were the young
Radiolarians

Come what may
Come what may
Come

Oh No; Andrew Bird

Hello! I’m gonna post some Andrew Bird’s songs again and I’m starting with “Oh No”, one of his most famous song, that was released in the 2009 album called “Noble Beast”. Bird didn’t released any song as a single, neither this one. The album reached #12 on US Billboard 200, according Wikipedia.

According Songfacts.com, “Bird told Drowned in Sound that this song was ‘inspired by the sweet, mournful cry of a four-year-old boy sitting behind me on an airplane. His dread was so utterly complete. I found myself envying his emotional abandon and tracing the musical cadence of his wail as he cried ‘Oh no.’ I suppose we’re talking about repression here. We can’t all behave like four-year-olds but must we be emotionally frozen? So let us lock arms as the harmless sort of sociopath and all sing in together’.

“In a blog written for the New York Times, Bird wrote that the thing that’s unprecedented about this song for him, ‘is that the chorus actually happens three times. He explained: “I’ve always had a block against repeating myself. Repetition is one of the basic tenets of Pop music and I’ve gone from deploring it to seeing it as a great virtue. There’s this tension between the restless, early-jazz-obsessed 22-year-old I once was and my present self, who finds writing a simple and direct song infinitely challenging. I think that’s why I respond to Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. They were improvising not in a linear, searching way but with the goal of finding a new melody and then, god forbid, repeating themselves.’

“Bird chronicled the history of this song from idea to completion in a series of blogs for the New York Times. After he recorded it, Bird wrote: ‘We tracked it live with two acoustic guitars and some improvised whistling and got it on the second take. I’m pretty happy with it. The whistling sounds are especially otherworldly.’

“Bird admitted to Q magazine March 2009 that he is afraid of dry lips when attempting to whistle on this and other songs onstage. He explained: ‘Whistling is something that you do without thinking, not in front of a microphone to order.’ Bird added that this song is “carried by a whistling melody, so there’s a terrible fear of choking. I try to drink water and eat lots of succulent fruits with crisp skins, such as grapes.”

Oh, he is the best!

In the salsify mains
of what was thoughtful and sad
all the calcified arhythmatists
were doing the math.

And it would take a calculated
blow to the head to
blind the eyes of all the harmless
sociopaths. Oh

Arm in Arm we are the harmless
sociopaths. Oh
arm in arm with all the harmless
sociopaths

Calcium mines you buried
deep in your chest. Oh the
calcium mines you buried
deep in your chest.

Hoo-oo-oo
you’re deep in a mine,
hoo-oo-oo
a calcium mine
o-o-oh.

Let’s get out of here
past the atmosphere,
squint your eyes and no one
dies or goes to jail,
past the silver bridge
oh the silver bridge
wearing nothing but a
one-sie and a veil.

Hoo-oo-oo
you’re deep in a mine,
hoo-oo-oo
a calcium mine
o-o-oh.

Arm in arm we are the harmless
sociopaths. Oh
arm in arm with all the harmless
sociopaths

In the calcium mines buried
deep in your chest. Oh the
calcium mines buried
deep in your chest.

Hoo-oo-oo
you’re deep in a mine,
Oh-no
a calcium mine
Oh-no.

So let’s get out of here
past the atmosphere,
squint your eyes and no one
dies or goes to jail,
past the silver bridge
oh the silver bridge
wearing nothing but a
one-sie and a veil

Oh no...
Oh no...
Oh no...
Oh no...

De Camino a la Vereda; Buena Vista Social Club

Wow! Only one album and two songs with whistling! What a example!

Wow!² Look what I found in Buena Vista's website:

The singer Ibrahim Ferrer was born at a social club dance in Santiago in 1927. He was the only one of his family to become a professional musician although he says “they all like to dance”. He wrote ‘De Camino a la Vereda’ in the early 1950s around the time he was touring the east of the island aboard a carnival float, as the specialist improvising singer with Pacho Alonso’s group. After years of singing with Benny Moré, the Chepín-Chovén Orchestra and Los Bocucos amongst others, his pure soft voice had grown less fashionable in recent times. Called in to the studio from his daily walk through the streets of Havana on the day of recording, this was his first session for a number of years.

Ibrahim lives in old Havana in a run down apartment building. He is a shy and unassuming man with a strong faith. His tiny living room is dominated by an alter to Saint Lazarus (Babalé-Ayé in the Santería religion) and this song has religious overtones not to stray from the path.

Perfect!

!Óígame compay! No deje el camino por coger la vereda.

Usted por enamorado
Tan viejo y con poco brillo
Usted por enamorado
Tan viejo y con poco brillo
El pollo que tiene al lado
Le ha hecho perder el trillo

!Óígame compay! No deje el camino por coger la vereda.

Ay, pero yo como soy tan sencillo
Pongo en claro esta trovada
Yo como soy tan sencillo
Pongo en claro esta trovada
Compay, yo no dejo el trillo
Para meterme en ca~nada

!Óígame compay! No deje el camino por coger la vereda.

Ay, pero estabamo´ comentando
Por qué ha abandonado a Andrea
Estabamo´ comentando
Por qué ha abandonado a Andrea
Compadre uste´ ´ta cambiando
De camino por vereda.

!Óígame compay! No deje el camino por coger la vereda.

Pero mire compadrito, uste´ ha ´dejao´ a la
pobre Geraldina para meterse Dorotea.
No hables de tu marido mujer.
Mujer de malos sentimientos,
Todo se te ha vuelto un cuento
Porque no ha llegado la hora fatal.

!Óígame compay! No deje el camino por coger la vereda.

Ay ay ay ay, canta y no llore´ Eliade´
Porque cantando se alegran, cielito mío
Los corazones.

No hables de tu marido mujer.
Mujer de malos sentimientos,
Todo se te ha vuelto un cuento
Porque no ha llegado la hora fatal.

Ay, húyanle, húyanle, húyanle al mayoral.

Pero ese senor está en el paso
Y no me deja pasar.

A la man... a la man... a la mancunchévere,
Camina como chévere ha matao su
madre, mamá

El Carretero; Buena Vista Social Club

David Hutcheon is journalist who writes about music. He works for Sunday Times, Mojo and Time Out, all British magazines. In 2005, Hutcheon was invited to write articles for the book “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”. The band of today was listed by him in the book. In the next paragraphs there is the history of this amazing Cuban band, which released only this eponymous album, in 1997:

“You could not make it up: a six-million-selling Cuban album that topped the German charts and bust sanctions so the musicians could play Carnegie Hall — although you cannot buy it in Havana, where its pre-revolutionary son style in seen as old hat. Not only that, it was an accident: the plan had been to take some Malian musicians to Cuba to collaborate, but red tape meant no Africans, and studio time had already been booked. Ry Cooder asked Juan de Marcos González, credited as ‘A&R consultant,’ if he knew any musicians who might be available.

“González searched Havana for survivors from Cuba’s golden age, finding the singers Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo, the pianist Rubén González, the guitarist Compay Segundo, and the bass player Cachaito López. He also put together a big band, the Afro Cuban All Stars, who recorded their own album in a burst of unhindered creativity. González was asked to suggest tunes he would like to record. He turned up the next day with them all written on a till roll. With three albums in the can, the team went their separate ways.

“Although many have since decided that World Circuit knew exactly what it was doing all along, nobody could have predicted what would happen. The musicians played a handful of shows, but things snowballed without their participation. People fell for the story — retired musicians make a comeback to save music on the brink of extinction — and flocked to the stores. Was it true? Who cares?”

Por el camino del sitio mio
Un carretero alegre paso
Con su canciones que es muy sentida
Y muy guajira alegre cantó

Me voy al transbordador
A descargar la carreta (bis)
Para cumplir con la meta
De mi pequeña labor

A caballo vamos pa’l monte
A caballo vamos pa’l monte(bis)

Yo trabajo sin reposo
Para poderme casar (bis)
Y si lo llego a lograr
Seré un guajiro dichoso

A caballo...

Soy guajiro y carretero
Y en el campo vivo bien (bis)
Porque el campo es el eden
Más lindo del mundo entero

A caballo...

Chapea el monte, cultiva el llano
Recoge el fruto de tu sudor (bis)

Pigeon Suicide Squad; Nelo Johann

I was talking about movies with a friend and he was telling me that he was totally excited with the soundtrack of the last one he had seen: “Os Famosos e os Duendes da Morte” (“The Famous And The Dead” in English). This conversation reminded me that I saw this movie too — in a film festival, btw — and there is played a whistling song along it! This friend found the song for me, in part because he loves “rock gaúcho”, like Wander Wildner, Júpiter Maçã, Cascavelletes, etc. and is actually in love with Nelo Johann. ahahaha

Nelo Johann composed all the songs by “Os Famosos...”, except one, which is “Mr. Tambourine Man”, song that codenames the teenager protagonist. He, the teenager, lives in a rural small town in Southern Brazil — that has huge rates of suicides — and sustains a blog and a virtual love with a girl. When he is online, he felt at home; but he’s dissatisfied with real life. There is one scene that touched me so deep inside that I’ll never forget: the expression of sadness and resilience of the boy’s mother in the end.

“Os Famosos e os Duendes da Morte” is beautiful and sensitive, an audacity, when it’s the first feature film by the 27 years old director Esmir Filho.

If you want to know more about this film, here and here there are good reviews and here the trailer. If you want to know the others Johann’s songs, go to his MySpace or 4shared account.

Too bad I can’t find the lyrics! :(

edit (10/23): got it!

Ow that, winged rats
They prowl above our dizzy heads
Spreading good diseases with paranoia eyes
Let people shoot'em, let people shoot'em

Pigeon suicide squad
We hope you'll end successfully dead
Never really liked birds or feather or flights
We wish you success, we wish you success

Pigeon suicide squad
Three cheers for pigeon suicide squad
Me and my friends
Want to see you all dead
Three cheers for pigeon suicide squad

Zazie dans le Métro; Fiorenzo Carpi and André Pontin

Looking for others whistling songs made by films, I found this article written by Terry Bigham on TopTenz.net containing, of course, ten songs that were created specially by their films or TV series. “Zazie dans le Métro” song is Bigham’s #3. He said: “I adore the carefree Gallic charm of that whistled theme, with its soupcon of sorrow at the brevity of childhood.”

This Franco-Italian film is a comedy directed by Louis Malle released in 1960, based on the novel by Raymond Queneau. In IMDb there is a concise review written by Claudio Carvalho which I’m posting here:

“When the mother of Zazie (Catherine Demongeot) comes to Paris to meet her lover, she leaves her daughter with her uncle Gabriel (Philippe Noiret). However the reckless and uncontrollable nephew leaves Gabriel’s apartment and decides to visit Paris by subway. However the employees are on strike and the runaway girl gets Gabriel into trouble in a chaotic Paris.”

I couldn’t find who is the whistler, so I am assigning the authorship of this song to the music producers Fiorenzo Carpi and André Pontin.