Ruth Radelet, der var sanger i de nu opløste The Chromatics, fortolker “Twilight”, der som bekendt er en sang af Elliott Smith fra hans sidste, posthumt udgivne album From A Basement On A Hill. Det er en smuk sang, og denne udgave er også smuk. (Det burde næsten være Jens, der skrev dette opslag.)
Kategoriarkiv: Sørgelige sange
Hvad lyttede Pastoren til?
Havet, der stiger
Lige nu, mens musikken spiller og vi lever i vores hverdag, er der COP26 i Glasgow. På lørdag er der klimamarch rundt om i Danmark. Uden for er der noget galt; det har der været længe.
Nede i Australien er Midnight Oil sammen igen og har et nyt nummer klar. Læs teksten herunder og se musikvideoen ovre på YouTube.
Every child put down your toys And come inside to sleep We have to look you in the eye and say we sold you cheap Let's confess we did not act With serious urgency So open up the floodgates To the rising seas Temperature rising Climate denying Fever is gripping Nobody's listening Lustre is fading Because nobody's trading Wall Street is jumping Still the music keeps pumping If you can't decide Between wrong and right If you can't see through All that you hold true Queen of the firmament Lord of all beneath Masters of the universe We're all refugees And in many countries they adore celebrities Open up the floodgates To the rising seas Dinosaur stories Reliving past glories Lusting for gold Fishing for souls They said it was coming We knew it was a-coming If you lift your game Put your toys away Well it looks like rain On that western plain Queen of the firmament Lord of all beneath Masters of the universe We're all refugees And in many countries they adore celebrities Open up the floodgates To the rising seas To the rising seas To the rising seas
Mercy Mercy Me
Jeg fortsætter markeringen af 50-året for What’s Going On lidt endnu.
Dette er nok den sørgeligste sang, jeg kender – ikke mindst fordi også denne tekst af Marvin Gaye kunne være skrevet i 2021.
Mercy, mercy me
Things ain’t what they used to be
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and eastMercy, mercy me
Things ain’t what they used to be
Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas
Fish full of mercuryMercy, mercy me
Things ain’t what they used to be
Radiation under ground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dyingMercy, mercy me
Things ain’t what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land
How much more abuse from man can she stand?
Det andet Amerika
En ny sang fra Jesse Malin, udsendt her op til næste uges præsidentvalg, udtrykker netop dét, man ofte ikke har lyst til at blive mindet om: At USAs rigdom er skabt af andres smerte.
Den rigtige Townes
Conor Oberst’s gendannede Bright Eyes udsendte i fredags bandets første plade i ni år. Og hvilket fint comeback-album Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was er, ikke helt lidt Arcade Fire/The Suburbs-agtigt i sin rigt melodiske instrumentering og tilbageskuende melankoli. På Pitchfork fortalte Conor Oberst i weekenden om, hvordan han først hørte Townes Van Zandt, verdens ensommeste tragedie…
– There was this record store called the Antiquarium that was the epicenter for all things left of the dial in Omaha. It was quintessential, straight out of High Fidelity, but even worse. It was in the basement of a bookstore, run by the most pretentious people—this guy Dave Sink would sit behind the counter and chain-smoke cigarettes all day. It was mostly used things and vinyl. Dave would make fun of me for buying CDs. I was like, “But I don’t have a record player!” I guess he ended up being right.
– Dave passed away, and the store is gone now. But he was very generous in the sense that he would let kids hang out there all day and talk shit about music. I became really good friends with him and [songwriter] Simon Joyner, who would work there on occasion. At that point, I had started writing more in the zone of folk-type stuff. I was getting a little more evolved in my interests. One day, they were like, “You ever heard of Townes Van Zandt? I think you’re gonna like it.” For better or worse, it totally changed my life.
– I think everybody is a combination of their influences, but Townes is the deep, dark part that I carry around. It’s like there’s no anesthetic. It’s just straight to your heart, some of the most beautiful but painful feelings a person can have. His best friend Guy Clark said something to the effect of, “Everyone wants to write and sing like Townes, but no one should want to be like Townes.” And that’s coming from his best friend! I got really into Elliott Smith around that same period. When you’re young, it’s easy to romanticize the tortured artist kinda thing. I absolutely fell for it.
Tårernes dal
En af de store og gode overraskelser for mig er udgivelsen af Boots No. 2 The Lost Songs, vol. 1 med Gillian Welch (og David Rawlings). Her kan man høre hendes udgave af sangen “Valley of Tears”, som også er blevet indspillet af selveste Solomon Burke, sanger og vækkelsesprædikant. Burke var 70, da han indspillede sin udgave, og det giver sangen en særlig vægt at høre den fra ham. Den bliver i hans fortolkning til en refleksion over et langt liv – ikke helt ulig Johnny Cash’s udgave af “Hurt”.
(De af jer, der kan kroatisk, kan læse oversættelsen af teksten.)
Hvad sker der?
Højt oppe på listen over de albums, jeg holder mest af og altid vender tilbage til, er What’s Going On af og med Marvin Gaye. Det er på én og samme tid et vidnesbyrd om det tidløse i Marvin Gayes musik og om hvor dybtliggende problemerne er i USA (og andre steder), at dette albums sange også nu, i sommeren 2020, næsten fem årtier efter udgivelsen, står frem som om de kunne være skrevet i dag.
Songs of Love and Hate
I en artikel hos webmagasinet Aeon skriver forskerne Alberto Acerbi og Charlotte Brand om deres analyse af sangtekster i engelsksproget popmusik fra hitlisterne fra 1960’erne og frem. Acerbi og Brand klassificerede ord alt efter om de gav udtryk for negative eller positive følelser. Deres analyse (sædvanlig lineær regression) viser at der i vore dages hits er flere negative ord end for 50 år siden.
Og ordet “love” blev stort set halveret i løbet af 50 år fra omkring 400 til 200 forekomster, hvorimod ordet “hate” som indtil 1990’erne stort set ikke forekom i sange i top 100, nu dukker op mellem med mellem 20 og 30 forekomster om året i sange, der ligger i top 100.
Men hvorfor er det blevet sådan? Forskerne har flere forklaringsmodeller, som de nu vil undersøge. De skriver
The rise of negative lyrics in popular English-language songs is a fascinating phenomenon, and we showed that this can be due to a widespread preference for negative content plus some other, yet to be discovered, causes. Given this preference, what we need to explain is why pop-song lyrics before the 1980s were more positive than today. It could be that a more centralised record industry had more control on the songs that were produced and sold. A similar effect could have been brought about by the diffusion of more personalised distribution channels (from blank cassette tapes to Spotify’s ‘Made For You’ algorithmic tailoring). And other, broader, societal changes could have contributed to make it more acceptable, or even rewarded, to explicitly express negative feelings.
Fra Why are pop songs getting sadder than they used to be? (https://aeon.co/ideas/why-are-pop-songs-getting-sadder-than-they-used-to-be)
Trist igen?
Hvis du er, så kunne det måske være fordi, det er nationalsanger Kim Larsens fødselsdag i dag? Den lyd af opvækst, ungdom, ja, en hel tidsalders fælles soundtrack, hvis så genkendelige, udtryksfulde stemme gik bort for lidt over et år siden. Så syng for os, Kim, en for gamle dages skyld…
Nico i drømme
Fandt og købte i en brugtpladebutik i dag den berlinske sangskriver Lutz Ulbrich’s soloalbum Lüül fra 1981. Albummet er en tidstypisk rodet vestberlineraffære med sange om junk og ubahns og disco-tingeltangel, men midst i det hele dukker en drøm af en sang kaldet ‘Reich Der Träume’ op, sunget hjem af ingen andre end Ulbrich’s daværende veninde Nico…
Ric ocasek er død
Jeg stod op her mandag morgen til den triste nyhed om at Ric Ocasek er fundet død i sin lejlighed i New York. Han blev enten 70 eller 75 år – det er der faktisk usikkerhed om.
Ud over årene i The Cars og med solokarriere husker mange af os Ocasek som producer for navne som Bad Brains, Bad Religion, Suicide, Weezer og Nada Surf.
På en dag som denne er The Cars’ største hit, “Drive”, et passende valg.
Live fra memphis
Alex Chilton er her som bekendt ikke mere, men den store stjerne skinner stadig.
Vestbredden
Jens nævnte Mashrou Leila for lidt siden. Scenerne i denne musikvideo til sangen “Cavalry” er skræmmende, men er samtidig hverdagskost for palæstinenserne på Vestbredden, ved jeg fra bekendte, der har besøgt området.
Days of brutalism
Endnu en sang fra I Am Easy To Find, endnu et vellykket album med The National. Denne gang er det præget af duetter med kvindelige vokalister – her er det selveste Gail Ann Dorsey.