The great Ken Nordine left us four years ago this month, and in his memory, let's listen to the delightful and hilarious "My Baby" from his classic album "Word Jazz" released in 1957.
Showing posts with label spoken word. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spoken word. Show all posts
Monday, February 27, 2023
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
"Our Flag" by Ibrahim Maalouf featuring Sharon Stone
Powerful.
"Our Flag" by Ibrahim Maalouf with a spoken word section by Sharon Stone.
This nation needs a vacation
From the presentation of your hesitation
You cannot stop your disassociation
From the unethical beautification of your campaign negotiation YOU CANNOT STOP
With world wide domination
Well it’s not that easy to obtain without cessation
Of the complete dehumanization
Of what we stand for
Tell him people:
Don’t walk away boy
We’ve got something to say boy Our Country’s not a toy
Don’t walk away
You don’t get to turn your back and pretend that all you start won’t be the end
You were told to love honor protect and defend you’ve torn our hearts, our flag it cannot mend Other country’s trust was ours on lend
When will they ever believe us again?
And whose money do you think you spend? Stop pushing, stop pushing, stop pushing, stop pushing, stop pushing us to the end
Yeah, tell him people:
Don’t walk away boy
We’ve got something to say boy Our Country’s not a toy
Don’t walk away
One wonders what will be your complete undoing
Is it that you don’t remember what it is or for whom you are working?
We were considered the free world, where are we going?
Freedoms a gift, a treasure, a decency, not a coin
You can spend on graft, deceit and not repeat annoying
Phrases to brainwash unassuming children going
From channel to channel watching people dying
Buoying
Their spirits with convenient captures of coy
Reticent terrorists, fallen villains in front of millions of sad patriots who need more
Oh please tell him patriots:
Don’t walk away boy
We’ve got something to say boy Our Country’s not a toy
Don’t walk away
We want leadership with dignity and reverence for life
Memories provide possibility for more than death and strife
Roosevelt, Kennedy and King loved us too when unrest was rife
They were brave and true and wrote it with their life
Give us something real, a dream not just for you
A future without shame grief and despair
Wonder, love, brotherhood, education and care
America I love you, I treasure you and I am sorry for our mistakes
I want a leader who stands for our values, thoughts, mountains, skies, oceans, ozone and lakes
I’m unafraid to tell him:
Yes walk away boy
Cause we have something to say Our Country is not a toy
It’s time to walk away boy
Put your head down and walk walk on M*********** walk
United States of America, and democracy, I love you too...and I wish we were not at this point.
https://www.ibrahimmaalouf.com/en/
"Our Flag" by Ibrahim Maalouf with a spoken word section by Sharon Stone.
This nation needs a vacation
From the presentation of your hesitation
You cannot stop your disassociation
From the unethical beautification of your campaign negotiation YOU CANNOT STOP
With world wide domination
Well it’s not that easy to obtain without cessation
Of the complete dehumanization
Of what we stand for
Tell him people:
Don’t walk away boy
We’ve got something to say boy Our Country’s not a toy
Don’t walk away
You don’t get to turn your back and pretend that all you start won’t be the end
You were told to love honor protect and defend you’ve torn our hearts, our flag it cannot mend Other country’s trust was ours on lend
When will they ever believe us again?
And whose money do you think you spend? Stop pushing, stop pushing, stop pushing, stop pushing, stop pushing us to the end
Yeah, tell him people:
Don’t walk away boy
We’ve got something to say boy Our Country’s not a toy
Don’t walk away
One wonders what will be your complete undoing
Is it that you don’t remember what it is or for whom you are working?
We were considered the free world, where are we going?
Freedoms a gift, a treasure, a decency, not a coin
You can spend on graft, deceit and not repeat annoying
Phrases to brainwash unassuming children going
From channel to channel watching people dying
Buoying
Their spirits with convenient captures of coy
Reticent terrorists, fallen villains in front of millions of sad patriots who need more
Oh please tell him patriots:
Don’t walk away boy
We’ve got something to say boy Our Country’s not a toy
Don’t walk away
We want leadership with dignity and reverence for life
Memories provide possibility for more than death and strife
Roosevelt, Kennedy and King loved us too when unrest was rife
They were brave and true and wrote it with their life
Give us something real, a dream not just for you
A future without shame grief and despair
Wonder, love, brotherhood, education and care
America I love you, I treasure you and I am sorry for our mistakes
I want a leader who stands for our values, thoughts, mountains, skies, oceans, ozone and lakes
I’m unafraid to tell him:
Yes walk away boy
Cause we have something to say Our Country is not a toy
It’s time to walk away boy
Put your head down and walk walk on M*********** walk
United States of America, and democracy, I love you too...and I wish we were not at this point.
https://www.ibrahimmaalouf.com/en/
Tuesday, April 6, 2021
Lord Byron's "She Walks in Beauty" by Marianne Faithfull with Warren Ellis
For National Poetry Month:
The legendary and unstoppable Marianne Faithfull, still recovering from near-death from COVID, recites George Gordon, Lord Byron's "She Walks In Beauty" to Warren Ellis' music...
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
http://www.mariannefaithfull.org.uk/
The legendary and unstoppable Marianne Faithfull, still recovering from near-death from COVID, recites George Gordon, Lord Byron's "She Walks In Beauty" to Warren Ellis' music...
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
Sunday, October 7, 2018
The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet
After many versions in existence since WW I, the English speaking world adopted the final version of The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet in 1959. It could come in useful...memorize it.
Thursday, July 20, 2017
"fullmoon" by Ryuichi Sakamoto
After the previous posting of "Life, Life" by Ryuichi Sakamoto from his new release "async" here, let's listen to another profound track called "fullmoon." Another transcendent track.
"Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty, and yet it all seems limitless."
IT is limitless.
YOU are not.
But YOU are a part of IT.
This is the paradox.
Don't waste your time here.
Be a part of IT.
http://www.sitesakamoto.com/
"Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty, and yet it all seems limitless."
IT is limitless.
YOU are not.
But YOU are a part of IT.
This is the paradox.
Don't waste your time here.
Be a part of IT.
http://www.sitesakamoto.com/
Monday, July 10, 2017
"Life, Life" by Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian
Earlier this year, legendary musician-composer-producer-actor-activist Ryuichi Sakamoto released "async," a new collection of music. The lushly spiritual "Life, Life" is from that collection, and it features a delicate spoken word performance by equally legendary musician and prior collaborator David Sylvian of a poem by the Russian poet Arseny Tarkovsky, father of the filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (previously here). This is transcendent work.
And this I dreamt, and this I dream,
And some time this I will dream again,
And all will be repeated, all be re-embodied.
You will dream everything I have seen in dream.
To one side from ourselves, to one side from the world,
Wave follows wave to break on the shore.
On each wave is a star, a person, a bird,
Dreams, reality, death - on wave after wave.
No need for a date: I was, I am, and I will be.
Life is a wonder of wonders, and to wonder
I dedicate myself, on my knees, like an orphan,
Alone - among mirrors - fenced in by reflections:
Cities and seas, iridescent, intensified.
A mother in tears takes a child on her lap.
http://www.sitesakamoto.com
http://www.davidsylvian.com
And this I dreamt, and this I dream,
And some time this I will dream again,
And all will be repeated, all be re-embodied.
You will dream everything I have seen in dream.
To one side from ourselves, to one side from the world,
Wave follows wave to break on the shore.
On each wave is a star, a person, a bird,
Dreams, reality, death - on wave after wave.
No need for a date: I was, I am, and I will be.
Life is a wonder of wonders, and to wonder
I dedicate myself, on my knees, like an orphan,
Alone - among mirrors - fenced in by reflections:
Cities and seas, iridescent, intensified.
A mother in tears takes a child on her lap.
http://www.sitesakamoto.com
http://www.davidsylvian.com
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
"Dirtday!"
I had the supreme pleasure of seeing Laurie Anderson's newest piece, "Dirtday!" in concert last night.
Laurie Anderson is one of the 20th and 21st centuries most outstanding talents. Avant garde musician, performance artist, monologuist extraordinaire, raconteur, illustrator, filmmaker, painter, video and film artist, and composer, Anderson has been at the forefront of art performance, creating technologies (along with several instruments like the tape bow violin, the talking stick, and voice filters which she uses extensively in her work) and stunning special effects to help realize her fantastic vision on stage and off.
"Dirtday!" is the third piece in a talking trilogy that started in 2002 with "Happiness" and continued with 2004's "The End Of The Moon." Some themes that arc across all three pieces include observations about the state of the country both literally and figuratively. Although Anderson's work has always included the "personal-IS-political" ethos, it seems to be manifesting itself more clearly and directly in her more recent works. And I believe that is because the country has never been this splintered and shaky in our living memories. In "Dirtday!" she returned again and again to an image of the country torn asunder:
"I dreamed the country was a a battleground...
At least I think it was a dream."
And then:
"I dreamed the United States was designated a battleground.
Memories and dreams being what they are, the country is looking a lot like a battleground."
I have seen Laurie Anderson many, many times over the years (I even saw her legendary "United States I - IV" in the early 80s), and "Dirtday!" feels at once familiar and new. At play is her very subtle sense of humor and her ability to temper dark subjects with a wryness that comes from her objective observational style, all underscored by a shifting, haunting soundscape that ebbs and flows. But it seems that the piece is light on stories (I recall past shows being crammed full of fascinating anecdotes), and more colored by a mournful music. Her violin pieces all seem to be crying and in despair. This seems to be in contrast to the celebratory reason for adding an exclamation point to the title of this show. These are dark times for us not only as a country, but as a planet. Anderson obviously feels this and she expressed it in simple ways, like a section she called "Words that start with 'the'..."
"THE dark
THE war
THE future
THE light
THE end"
The middle of the show was punctuated by a lovely spoken interlude, sans music, delivered from an easy chair, that was about the passing of her beloved dog Lolabelle, musings about Tibetan Buddhism, and the nature of love and loss. It was the most personal moment I have ever seen from Anderson. It puts the rest of her material in perspective, letting us know that she is genuine and earnest about all that she says.
http://www.laurieanderson.com/home.shtml
Laurie Anderson is one of the 20th and 21st centuries most outstanding talents. Avant garde musician, performance artist, monologuist extraordinaire, raconteur, illustrator, filmmaker, painter, video and film artist, and composer, Anderson has been at the forefront of art performance, creating technologies (along with several instruments like the tape bow violin, the talking stick, and voice filters which she uses extensively in her work) and stunning special effects to help realize her fantastic vision on stage and off.
"Dirtday!" is the third piece in a talking trilogy that started in 2002 with "Happiness" and continued with 2004's "The End Of The Moon." Some themes that arc across all three pieces include observations about the state of the country both literally and figuratively. Although Anderson's work has always included the "personal-IS-political" ethos, it seems to be manifesting itself more clearly and directly in her more recent works. And I believe that is because the country has never been this splintered and shaky in our living memories. In "Dirtday!" she returned again and again to an image of the country torn asunder:
"I dreamed the country was a a battleground...
At least I think it was a dream."
And then:
"I dreamed the United States was designated a battleground.
Memories and dreams being what they are, the country is looking a lot like a battleground."
I have seen Laurie Anderson many, many times over the years (I even saw her legendary "United States I - IV" in the early 80s), and "Dirtday!" feels at once familiar and new. At play is her very subtle sense of humor and her ability to temper dark subjects with a wryness that comes from her objective observational style, all underscored by a shifting, haunting soundscape that ebbs and flows. But it seems that the piece is light on stories (I recall past shows being crammed full of fascinating anecdotes), and more colored by a mournful music. Her violin pieces all seem to be crying and in despair. This seems to be in contrast to the celebratory reason for adding an exclamation point to the title of this show. These are dark times for us not only as a country, but as a planet. Anderson obviously feels this and she expressed it in simple ways, like a section she called "Words that start with 'the'..."
"THE dark
THE war
THE future
THE light
THE end"
The middle of the show was punctuated by a lovely spoken interlude, sans music, delivered from an easy chair, that was about the passing of her beloved dog Lolabelle, musings about Tibetan Buddhism, and the nature of love and loss. It was the most personal moment I have ever seen from Anderson. It puts the rest of her material in perspective, letting us know that she is genuine and earnest about all that she says.
http://www.laurieanderson.com/home.shtml
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