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| Trumpet - Photograph Alex Waterhouse-Hayward |
Not too long ago I was listening to Brahms bagatelle No. 25 in A Minor WoO 59, "Für Elise"
on CBC Radio in my car that was so beautiful (I had never heard it before) that I stopped my car and called VSO pianist Linda Lee Thomas. Her husband John Washburn answered so I told him about the wonders of the bagatelle. His comment was, “Oh, to listen to something for the first time!”
on CBC Radio in my car that was so beautiful (I had never heard it before) that I stopped my car and called VSO pianist Linda Lee Thomas. Her husband John Washburn answered so I told him about the wonders of the bagatelle. His comment was, “Oh, to listen to something for the first time!”
I remember the first time I heard Desafinado in 1962 Stan
Getz and Charlie Byrd’s Jazz Samba.
Of songs like the Police’s Message in a Bottle and Nick Lowe’s
Cruel to Be Kind there seems to be a label for them, pop songs or pop hits
which to me deprecates their true worth.
These days I listen to almost no music at home. Most of my
music is readily available in my head’s memory. If I am to listen to music at
home from my fine stereo (JBL Studio Monitors) I want to do that with a friend
and even better with new friends.
There was one song that was in my head today. It is the
American group Beirut’s Santa Fe. There are many lovely versions but I like the
earlier ones that feature that instrument that I dislike (!) the accordion.
Another song running wild in my head is John Cale’s Dead or
Alive from his 1981 Honi Soit album (which I have).
There is a common thread that binds Beirut’s and John Cale’s
songs and that is that both feature trumpets. There are two in Santa Fe and one
in Dead or Alive.
When Dead or Alive came out my writer friend Les Wiseman wrote
for Vancouver Magazine a little essay (to which I contributed photographs and
something I wrote) called Good Things in Bad Times. There was a recession in
Canada and in Vancouver at the time. The essay included stuff that was not
expensive (or free) that was good for lifting one’s spirits.
My contribution (besides taking pictures of a man smoking a
lovely Cuban Montecristo Claro ($15 at the time) was describing the pleasure of
driving my yellow Fiat X-19 mid-engine sports car on the windy narrow road
between the end of the West Van Marine drive shopping area to Horseshoe Bay. I
counted all the curves and played in my cassette player John Cale’s Dead or
Alive.
Of Beirut I remember that sometime in 2011 I took Rosemary
to the UBC School of Dentistry for a consultation. It was a hot summer day at
noon. I stayed in the car and turned on the radio. It was Stephen Quinn’s show.
He played Santa Fe (I had never heard it before). I especially loved that
accordion and two trumpets. Later on I found out that lead singer/songwriter
Zach Condon (has an unusually lovely voice) was influenced by many travels
abroad and particularly listening to mariachi (and their trumpets) in Mexico.
So these days these songs will be in my head often and I
just might break down and buy Beirut’s Rip Tide. You never know when I might
want to share this with a friend in the comfort of my living room.
Beirut
Your days in one
This day undone
(The kind that breaks under)
All day at once
(for me, for you)
I'm just too young
(And what of my heart)
This day was once
(Silence before)
All grace of lost
Can't wait at all
(Can't wait at all)
Temptation won
And whatever comes through the door
I'll see it face to face
All by your place
Sign me up Santa Fe
And call your son
Sign me up Santa Fe
On the cross Santa Fe
And all I want
Sign me up Santa Fe
And call your son
And I and I and I alone want you to know
And I and I and I alone
And I and I and I alone want you to know
And I and I and I alone
Your days…
Dear or Alive – John Cale
Sooner or later she said she'd be my friend
Honest and faithful till the very end
Well enough of that I'm tired of hearing it anyway
She turns and smiles says goodbye in her inimical way
Happy to see her in the back of a magazine
Lying there nude sporting that stupid grin
So get on with it straight on and porno bound
Just leave me out of it I'm not proud
It would have taken you a long long time
Happy to see her in the back of a limousine
Laughing and crying at everything she'd seen
Well enough of that she should have known better anyway
When I told her what I'd seen she was so ashamed
It would have taken me a long long time
The a year from monday everything I said came true
That's when the d. a. called me he said dead or alive for
you
They found her
Dead or alive
I want you dead or alive she said
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6z6IKJ-Tzghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwLLXgnV-to