This will be the end of this short series of songs, I promise. Here are two lovely sounds for the weekend (and nothing Halloweeny...I'm sure you can find those elsewhere).
First off, here's the song I was going to post yesterday. The song itself was made more famous by other Latin American singers (Mercedes Sosa in particular who died very recently - another blogger wrote about her here) but this version is sung by the writer of 'Gracias a la vida' (Chilean Violeta Parra 1917-1967). She had the obligatory tragic end but it's a beautiful song...a really beautiful song. If you don't know Spanish I would just enjoy the sounds but if you really want an idea of meaning there is a translation here. I haven't gone through it word for word to see how good it is but it could give you at least an idea of what the song is about (if you really want that).
And another person I wanted to squeeze into this week's DJ set was Nina Simone (1933-2003). What a woman, what a musician, what a voice like no other...so here she is singing another song about life ('la vida' is life in Spanish...and I'm sure at least some of you know that). Although Simone did write songs this one is not one of her own compositions but was written by James Rado and Gerome Ragni with music by Galt MacDermot (read about it here – it originated in the musical 'Hair' which I've never seen a production of in any format – anyone else seen it?). Anyway, on with the weekend...here's Nina:
Have a great weekend...a weekend full of life!
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9 comments:
Professor Simone! Have I died and gone to heaven.
Hey, Mr. DJ, put another record on ...
I'd forgotten how much fun DJing could be...
DJ nightmares are hilarious. You dream the record on one deck is nearly finished and you just can't find anything you want for the other one (all a bit dated now a lot of them have everything already set up on a laptop!). I woke up sweating a couple of times over that one! And only once did I ever hear a record just run out in a club...I thought the DJ had lost it but no, it was a police raid!
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got my beer, got my crisps, got my whisky, got my gin,got bad eyes, goofy grin, got my appointment at the clinic.
What is it about Latin american singers, Rachel, they seem to have the whole troubled history of the area in their voices. (rather like old russian ladies often seem to have the whole history of Russia in the lines on their faces.)
grr blooger ate my post, but thanks for thsese Rachel.
I've always loved Nina Simone, but I loved Violetta Para more; never heard her before, now she's on my Christmas list!
Don't stop DJing, it's great, X
I'd wonder about being a blog-jockey but the problem with that is that you'd be a BJ and I think that's already applied elsewhere...
x
Thanks for the link but above all thanks for posting that clip of Violeta. Having read her biography recently, written by her daughter, I now understand much more this, sometimes impulsive but always passionate, woman who tried to put Chilean folklore centre stage and pulled it off magnificently.
Excellent post.
Greetings from London.
Now that sounds like a book I want to read!
x
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