Memories of Music: July 2012

Saturday, July 21, 2012

I don't know which of these I heard first, but between the three of them I fell in love with African music.

Most likely it was Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes that I heard first. It is a hauntingly beautiful song that appeals to my innate mystic sense, but when I first heard Youssou N'Dour's ethereal vocal crescendo at around 4:30 I was transported to a place I did not know.

I've been following that sound since.

I first heard Johnny Clegg in the early 80s. It was this particular lyric...

Ancient bones from Olduvai
Echoes of the very first cry
"Who made me, here and why? --
Beneath this copper sun."

My very first beginnings
Beneath the copper sky
Lie deeply buried
In the dust of Olduvai

And we are scatterlings of Africa
Both you and I...

in this particular song...

...that touched something deep and organic in me.

Paul Simon's Graceland had one song in particular that dropped the veil for me. The guitar and vocal accompaniment on this song is pure life, devoid of all artifice and pretence.

These songs have done more to transform my taste than any others.

This is certainly mangificent

Primal

Guitar Neck

    6 5 4 3 2 1

 0  E A D G B E
    ===========
 1  F | | | C F
    -----------
 2  | B E A | |
    -----------
 3  G C F | D G
    -----------
 4  | | | B | |
    -----------
 5  A D G C E A
    -----------
 6  | | | | F |
    -----------
 7  B E A D | B
    -----------
 8  C F | | G C
    -----------
 9  | | B E | | 
    -----------
10  D G C F A D
    -----------
11  | | | | | |
    -----------
12  E A D G B E
    -----------

Seems like a nice introduction...

...to the Medieval and Renaissance period.

Wow

Boléro

I made this video

Based on one of my favorite songs. I sometimes feel it is the song of my life.

Blows Against the Empire is a concept album by Paul Kantner and Grace Slick, released under the name Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship, the first album to use the "Starship" name, although the personnel line-up was not the same as would appear on the first actual Jefferson Starship album.

Personnel

Paul Kantner – vocals, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, banjo, bass machine
Grace Slick – piano, vocals
Jerry Garcia – banjo on "Let's Go Together", pedal steel guitar on "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite", sound effects and vocals on "XM", lead guitar on "Starship"
Bill Kreutzmann – drums on "Let's Go Together"
Mickey Hart – percussion on "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite", sound effects and vocals on "XM"
Joey Covington – drums and vocals on "Mau Mau", congas on "Hijack"
Jack Casady – bass on "A Child Is Coming" and "Sunrise"
David Crosby – vocals and guitar on "A Child Is Coming" and "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite", background vocals on "Starship"
Graham Nash – congas on "Hijack", sound effects on "Home", background vocals on "Starship"
David Freiberg – background vocals on "Starship"
Harvey Brooks – bass on "Starship"
Peter Kaukonen – lead guitar on "Mau Mau"
Phill Sawyer^[9] – sound effects on "Home" and "XM"

Side one
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Mau Mau (Amerikon)"	Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Joey Covington	6:33
2.	"The Baby Tree"	Rosalie Sorrels	1:42
3.	"Let's Go Together^A"	Kantner	4:11
4.	"A Child Is Coming"	Kantner, Slick, David Crosby	6:15

Side two: Blows Against the Empire
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Sunrise"	Slick	1:54
2.	"Hijack"	Kantner, Slick, Marty Balin, Gary Blackman	8:18
3.	"Home"	Kantner, Phill Sawyer, Graham Nash	0:37
4.	"Have You Seen the Stars Tonite?"	Kantner, Crosby	3:42
5.	"XM"	Kantner, Sawyer, Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart	1:22
6.	"Starship"	Kantner, Slick, Balin, Blackman	7:07