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.