Yellow Morning Mystery

As I was leaving my apartment for work early one day last week, I found my screen door dripping in a clear yellow liquid, as though someone had peed all over it. had a homeless vagabond randomly decided to relieve himself at my door? I tried to think if I might have unintentionally offended someone recently... or maybe I have a secret admirer! of course I turned the garden hose on it, but I must admit it was kinda pretty—those cheerful yellow droplets hanging there, brightly glistening in the rays of the morning sun.

side one:
01. Adagio For Organ, Choir and Strings - Francis Lai
02. Tu As Peur De Bruit - Les Roche Martin
03. Schottis På Smögen - Walter Eriksson and Andrew Walter's Orchestra
04. Hello, Dolly - Emil Gorovets
05. Turkish Taffy - Terry Snyder & His All Stars
06. Skip Ghetto - Pop Levi
07. He Doesn't Know Why - Fleet Foxes
08. Too Many Looks In Your Eyes - Andy Gibb
09. That Naughty Waltz - Wayne King & His Orchestra
10. Eastern Twins - Jun Miyaki
11. A Moody Person's Life - Yoon Il-Loh
12. With You Went the World - Karel Gott
13. Doïna and Hora - Ferenc Sánta & His Gypsy Band
14. Almost Over You - Sheena Easton
15. The Great God Pan Is Dead - Jóhann Jóhannsson
[ listen ]

side two:
01. The Ramona Pageant - The Audience
02. Chant of the Jungle - George Cates
03. The Legend of the Rain - Ed Kenney w/ Luther Henderson & His Orchestra
04. Andvari - Sigur Rós
05. A Lazy Kiss - The Mulcays
06. Du, Du, Du [You, You, You] - Ralf Bendix
07. Dream Lover - Enoch Light & His Orchestra
08. Inside Outside - Classix Nouveaux
09. Dörrslusk - Magnus Uggla
10. Why Hawaii? - Slowblow
11. Yesterday - Tammy Wynette
12. Bashtiki-Boom - Ron Goodwin & His Orchestra
13. Irti Tangosta - Duo Milla Viljamaa & Johanna Juhola
[ listen ]

Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band w/ The Rootettes

Artist: Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band w/ The Rootettes

LP: Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band w/ The Rootettes
Song: "I'm Not Too Old For You"
[ listen ]

And here's something to represent the third and final (though it was actually the first I visited) of the three basement record shops I scrounged around in during my trip to Washington, DC last week. The clerk at this one [Crooked Beat Records] told me that Root Boy Slim had been a local musical sensation in the DC area in the late '70s, after graduating from Yale and forming a band. You can read all about Root Boy Slim [here] and then you can read even more interesting and scandalous details [here].

Beto Guedes

Artist: Beto Guedes

LP: A Página Do Relâmpago Elétrico
Song: "A Página Do Relâmpago Elétrico"
[ listen ]

On the news this morning, I heard that a 34-year-old Long Island Walmart employee was trampled to death by a mob of 2,000 crazed bargain-hunters who swarmed into the store when the doors opened at 5am. how sad. what is wrong with people! I wonder if the trampled employee will be hailed as a martyr who gave his life to save the U.S. ecomony. Anyway, here's some lovely thing from Brazil that I found in yet another small basement record store in Washington, DC last weekend.

Love and Kisses

Artist: Love and Kisses

LP: How Much, How Much I Love You
Song: "Beauty and the Beast"
[ listen ]

Of course I found tons of old LPs when I was in Washington, DC earlier this week. The weight of my suitcase went from 0 to 60 in under three seconds. Here's a bit of disco absurdity I picked up in a little basement shop in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood after enjoying a delicious meal at my new favorite eating place: The Diner. [try the blu cheese & bacon omelette!] Equal parts exhilarating and retarded, this incredible track is from a 1978 album produced by Alec R. Costandinos, with vocals attributed to Sue, Sunny, Stephanie, Joanne & Alec. Happy Thanksgiving!

Eavesdroppings

Overheard when: 1:54am on Saturday, November 22, 2008
Overheard where: at the bar just inside the Irish pub Murphy's of D.C. at 2609 24th Street NW in Washington, DC [map]
Overheard who: a robust 41-year-old-looking fellow with thick brown hair and a little moustache who was chatting with others near the bar as my friends and I were heading toward the exit.
Overheard what: "That's the great thing about Alzheimer's; you get to meet interesting new people every single day!"

Nives

Artist: Nives

LP: Nives
Song: "Marinaio (Sailor)"
[ listen ]

Here's one of my favorite tracks from the 1968 U.S. debut LP from Italian singer Nives. My quick web search this morning didn't turn up much info on the singer, but on the back of the album there are two sets of effusive and enigmatic notes, written by swarthy young Italian men with unbuttoned shirts, scruffy beards, necklaces made of wooden beads and thick dark curls of wayward hair that intermittently fell forward over their faces as they wrote, only to be brushed roughly back behind the ears again so that these notes could be completed. that's how I picture it, anyway.

Nives is not a singer, she is a provocation. You cannot close your
eyes when listening to her voice. You are compelled to open
them and awaken, startled, into reality; not that kind of reality
more evidnet and anonymous—the neon lights, the advertising
signs—but the most alive and personal one made up of our small
and big disillusions, of our individual and collective hopes, of the
words that printed papers hammer inside us, of the love for life and
the horror of violence that daily and always more senselessly
covers the earth with blood.

It is a voice speaking about Presidents, flowers, soldiers (her
first songs) but also about feelings which, differing from the
old traditional schemes, face the wider emotions and considerations
of finding oneself among the others and meeting the others in
ourselves. A lovesong (a word that has been misguided with years
of creative poorness) in Nives regains dignity and human value.

Love is not meant to rhyme with heart. In the Italian language,
love is amore and heart is cuore but it's a kind of love which is
inside us and that comes out through Nives' voice to reach
many, all of us. --Tato Queirolo

* * * * * * *

To make music is a way to live and to stick to life. This I always
thought, at least confusedly. But I must say that knowing Nives
has made me completely convinced.

What struck me in her is not so much the timbre of voice as her
absolute participation in the act of "singing." I believe that
this involvement of hers is just what makes working with her
interesting and difficult at the same time.

Nives forces you to take part in her musical world without giving
you the possibility of accepting compromises on what she,
by instinct, feels she must accomplish immediately.

This way, working with her is like trying to channel a lava flow,
or limiting something enormous in a small space.

In short, one cannot record her voice only. Instead, one has
to lift her up bodily, the same way she resolves herself into
her astonishing voice, and thrust her into the record by force.
This is, briefly, what we have tried to do. --Mario De Sanctis

Starcastle

Artist: Starcastle

LP: Real to Reel
Song: "We Did It"
[ listen ]

Here's a track I always play whenever I feel beaten down, like I just can't go on. It's about the glorious power of song and how you can triumph over any obstacle if you just listen to the right music.

Francis Lai

Artist: Francis Lai

LP: French Themes
Song: "Smic, Smac, Smoc"
[ listen ]

Here's Francis Lai's variation on the theme from Claude Lelouch's 1971 [film] of the same name. If you take a closer look at the album cover, you'll see a mirror that's reflecting an intimate "moment de l'amour." The flame of the kerosine lamp burns dimly beside the bed, the flowers have been set carefully in place upon the milky-white linens and a man with at least one handsome leg lies nakedly amongst the supple and vine-like limbs of an alabaster female beauty.

[before]

But then you flip the record over and there's another picture that was taken at the exact same location just moments later. the woman now lies heartbroken—naked, unsatisfied, alone—still surrounded by the flowers, which are now all messed up and torn to shreds. the gentleman's handsome, hairy leg has no doubt already carried him swiftly and smugly away down the darkening cobblestone boulevard.

[after]

Pop Levi

Artist: Pop Levi

LP: Pop Levi Sings the Return to Form Black Magick Party
Song: "Dollar Bill Rock"
[ listen ]

I guess it might seem like I'm unaware that music continued to be recorded after 1988. Well, here's something from 2007 that I've been sinking my ears into lately.

Eavesdroppings

Overheard when: 10:33pm on Saturday, November 15, 2008
Overheard where: waiting in line outside the filled-to-capacity Madison Pub at 1315 East Madison Street in Seattle, WA [map]
Overheard who: a flamy 30-something-year-old white homosexual male with frosted tips and stereotypical gay voice, talking to his two friends who waited with him in line.
Overheard what: "...So he logged onto my MySpace account and read all my emails. And he didn't just read the recent ones either; he went through three years worth of emails! And it wasn't like it was okay because he didn't find anything, because he did. So I was totally tired after working a nine-hour shift, and I come home to him saying, 'Who is this? And who is this? And who's this!?' and I was like, 'Fuck. You. ...times ten!' and I was like, 'No! I am not doing this!' So our relationship is already on the rocks, after we just moved in together."

Menage

Artist: Mengae

LP: 12" single
Song: "Memory (Recuerdo)"
[ listen ]

I've had disco Andrew Lloyd Webber stuck in my head for the past 24 hours, so I figured I might as well get this one out of the way too; made in Mexico, released in 1983. I counted 39 dramatic key changes. Is that what you get?

Festival

Artist: Festival

LP: Evita
Song: "Don't Cry For Me Argentina"
[ listen ]

I'm pretty sure this one falls a few yards short of the "so-bad-it's-good" category. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice must have been rolling over in their... beds. but I have to admit, I couldn't keep myself from dancing when I was playing this in the privacy of my own home.

The Merrymen

Artist: The Merrymen

LP: Beautiful Bermuda
Song: "One, Two, Three"
[ listen ]

I'm already at work, but haven't yet changed out of my bike-riding getup and I haven't had any coffee. It's kind of funny, things you think at times like these. Like, "I haven't seen Bermuda so I must get out of this." Anyway, here are some liner notes from a guy named Eddy De Mello, who also did the album artwork.

Beautiful Bermuda is velvet sunshine, secluded coves, fragrant flowers
and THE MERRYMEN, who have become an integral part of the Bermuda
scene—and if in doubt, ask a Bermudian.

On a personal basis, as many Bermudians now know them, they are
not only entertainers—entertainers' entertainers—but
four warm and friendly young men.

The Merrymen stand high and alone when one mentions Caribbean per-
formers, with a reputation that is reaching the crest of Internationalism.

One rarely feels the excitement of a performance on a record, but once
again The Merrymen have broken the sound barrier. Their in-person
performances are almost concertos between themselves and their
audience and this atmosphere has been captured, but not caged,
on this recording.

Let me be your host as you place the recording on your turntable—find
the proper balance and volume, now relax, but not for long—because
EMILE, ROBIN, STEPHEN and CHRIS will soon have you in that
happy, beautiful Bermuda Mood. --Eddy De Mello

Chor und Orchester James Last

Artist: Chor und Orchester James Last

LP: Ännchen von Tharau Bittet zum Tanz
Songs: "Wem Gott Will Rechte Gunst Erweisen"
"Üb' Immer Treu und Redlichkeit"
"Ein Männlein Steht Im Walde"
[ listen ]

I've selected something bright and cheerful for a cold and gloomy Seattle morning. the entire Ännchen von Tharau Bittet zum Tanz album is filled with medlies, so each track has a list of several song titles that are included. On the record itself, the band/choir leader is credited as "Hans Last," but I guess Americans couldn't pronounce "Hans," so his name was changed to "James." You can read all about James Last's exciting career and see a 2006 photo of the man on Wikipedia [here]. If you want even more, try this; even "Xanadu" gets thrown into the soup!:

James Last on YouTube:
[ "Non-Stop Dancing!" ]

Miriam Makeba [1932-2008]

Artist: Miriam Makeba

LP: Miriam Makeba
Song: "Nomeva"
[ listen ]

Legendary South African singer Miriam Makeba collapsed and died after performing in Italy this past weekend. My friend Julie broke the news to me yesterday and sent me the link to this wonderful clip of Makeba performing one of her songs:

Miriam Makeba on YouTube:
[ "Oxgam" ]

From Miriam Makeba's first LP, recorded in 1960, the beautiful track "Nomeva" is described as "A Xosa love song." You can read about Makeba's life and career [here] and you can find a moving New York Times obituary for her [here]. A friend and early colleague of Makeba's, Harry Belafonte wrote these notes for the back of her debut LP:

The critics and public have already expressed themselves about
the talent of Miriam Makeba with phrases like "a new high-voltage
electric charge" (New York World Telegram)..."the appearance of
a new star" (Look)..."sings like no one else" (Time). National notices
and feature articles in Time, Look, The New York Times, Newsweek
and many others sprang from only three engagements—her
first after arriving from South Africa.

Now is the moment for another debut—her first record album. I was
present during these recording sessions, and it was a remarkable
experience. The sparks were there in Miss Makeba's artistry and
her strangely powerful songs—in themselves a startling blend of
the highly sophisticated and the primitive. The combination of Makeba,
the music and the musicians erupted into a kind of musical spon-
taneous combustion rarely encountered in a studio. This album
which resulted presents a "Makeba-in-depth" which may never be
fully realized in quite the same way on TV or the nightclub stage.

There is little I can add to the acclaim already written by others
about this great artist. Knowing her and working with her count
as one of my greatest artistic privileges. Like you, I shall be playing
and replaying these exciting performances by one of today's strongest
musical personalities. --Harry Belafonte

And here are some (embarrassingly dated) liner notes from the back of the LP that were taken from a TIME magazine article:

TIME, The Weekly News Magazine, Feb. 1, 1960:
Singer Miriam Makeba, a Xosa tribeswoman (full name: Zensi Miriam
Makeba Ogwashu ogu vama yi keti le nenxgoma sitlu xa saku aga ba
ukutsha sithathe izitsha sizi khalu sivuke ngomso sizi chole ezo zinge
knayo zinga bikho nfalo singamalamu singa mangamla nagithi), is probably
too shy to realize it, but her return to Africa would leave a noticeable gap
in the U.S. entertainment world, which she entered a mere six weeks ago.

At Manhattan's Blue Angel, a smoky, low-ceilinged saloon-for-
sophisticates, she is delighting the customers with the songs and styles
she learned as a child. In her high, sweet, reedy voice, the knowing
can hear many echoes—of Ella Fitzgerald, whose records she bought
as a child, of Harry Belafonte, who helped her get started in the
U.S.—but she sings like no one else.

CLICK OF CORKS. The close-cropped, wooly head and the sleek
white Fifth Avenue gown come from different worlds, but the combination
has charm and grace of its own. In a ballad, she maintains the clean,
classic phrasing of a church singer, she can be roguish in a West
Indian ditty about a naughty flea, and she can make a...lament of
A Warrior's Retreat Song. ...When Makeba sings or talks in her
native Xosa dialect, its expressive staccato clicks sound like the
popping of champagne corks. Though she tries many styles, she never
sings the Afrikaaner songs of white South Africa. ("When Afrikaaners
sing in my language," she says, "then I will sing in theirs.") But whatever
mood she assumes, Miriam Makeba maintains a simple and promitive
stoicism that sets her sharply apart from the emotional, often
artificial style of American Negro singers.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON. As remarkable as anything about Makeba
is the fact that, however arresting her talent, she managed to sing
her way out of the anonymity of South African Negro life. Helping her
mother in various servants' jobs around Johannesburg, Miriam sang
in school, at weddings and funerals. If she could get close to a radio,
she tuned in the native songs played on Johannesburg radio stations.
"Anyone who sings, makes music," says she, "as long as it's
good to my ear."

At 17, she began singing at benefits—some nights for Negroes, some
nights for whites. Soon she joined a traveling group called The Black
Manhattan Brothers (eleven men and Miriam), and for three years she
barnstormed all over Rhodesia, the Belgian Congo and South Africa.
"The bus often broke down," Miriam remembers,"and after the first
five months I was crying all the time. But they kept telling me the
show must go on. We always managed to get there on time."

Miriam finally left the group to join a touring musical variety show, then
got the female lead in a Negro jazz opera called King Kong (based on
a true story of a prizefighter who killed his mistress). In 1958 restless
singer Makeba applied for a passport, and after a year's wait she was
on her way to London. From there she moved on to Manhattan's
downtown Village Vanguard, then up town to the Angel.

Miriam Makeba
[March 4, 1932 - November 10, 2008]
We will miss you, Miriam.