GRACE

 On Sunday mornings Robert, no doubt, goes to mass somewhere (he doesn't stick to one local church for some reason) and will sit uncomfortably listening to readings from a fictitious diary and whatever the Vatican wants him to hear this week in the propaganda disseminated by the guy wearing a dress in the pulpit.

I prefer to have my own spiritual experience listening to some nice music.

I generally default to choral music whether classical - Canon-type or modern choral - like Carl Orff's Carmina Burana or even Enigma. MEA CULPA - ENIGMA

This morning though I played Magnificat by Arvo Part:

ARVO PART - MAGNIFICAT

The soaring vocals spread through the house (The Old Girl is in Russell so I played this loudly through the Tannoy speakers in the snooker room) while I baked bread and prepared breakfast.

This is my 'religion'.

Robert might disagree though so here's another song, maybe more appropriate to my 'state of grace'.

IT'S A SIN - PET SHOP BOYS

CARMINA BURANA

I've liked Carl Orff's Carmina Burana for many years, since secondary school. 

I've only seen and heard it produced once, in Wellington back in 1979 as a New Zealand Ballet and Impulse Dance Theatre production. The music was taped but the sound system was pretty good. I remember the principal dancer Jon Trimmer performing the Olim lacus colueram (once I swam in lakes): Once I swam in lakes.  He was dressed as a jester and was being roasted on a spit (the swan). This was a very powerful performance and I wish that I had a video clip of it.

I heard, in a National Radio interview yesterday that Carmina Burana is going to be performed in Aucklands Holy Trinity Cathedral by three choirs -  the NZ Secondary Students' Choir, New Zealand Youth Choir, and Voices New Zealand  - forming a massed choir with over 150 singers.  I wish I could be there to hear it. This, to me is the best use of grand churches - not the silly wittering from the altar and the pulpit but the majestic sounds of the organ and choirs.

MAY I SHOW YOU MY ETCHINGS MY DEAR?

 

Maurice Chevalier casts a lecherous eye on Leslie Caron in 1958’s Gigi

This post could well have come under several of the Curmudgeons posts (The Darker Curmudgeon, The Philosophical Curmudgeon or even just The Curmudgeon) but, after a bit of discussion it was decided that I should write it.

THANK HEAVENS FOR LITTLE GIRLS

Yes you could say that songs and sequences like the above came from a simpler and more innocent time.

You could say that but there are a few facts that dispute it.

We've heard a lot in recent years about the dark side of Hollywood with racism, elitism, sexism and a whole lot of other isms were buried beneath a lot of saccharine sweetness and the dirty little secrets are only just surfacing.

Gigi is a good case in point. The film is charming and the music and songs sweet but let's not forget that it's about a girl being groomed for prostitution. That fact sits uncomfortably when you watch Maurice Chevalier’s “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” scene where he dotes on the very young Liza Minelli. His doting isn't avuncular or grandfatherly though because he’s imagining what an awesome whore that little girl will make when she gets older. 

With thanks to Richard of RBB for the inspiration for this post.*

* He likes a mention of gratitude.

BLESS ME FATHER FOR .....

Reverb hides a lot of sins ..... according to Robert the apathetic sanctimonious sinner and toilet cleaner (don't ask) and I guess that he should know.

I've never owned an electric musical instrument and certainly not a blue electric (or is that electric blue?) violin so I'll have to take his word for it.

This guy Rob (another Rob) has a video on the internet that 'explains' reverb on an electric violin.

BORING

To be honest I gave up listening to the boring bastard after a few minutes but for the more patient readers out there - 'fill your boots'.

I just skipped to some electric violin playing that I've heard before like Papa John Creach and Charlie Daniel's Band.

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW - PAPA JOHN CREACH

DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA - CHARLIE DANIEL'S BAND

FEELING ALRIGHT?

 

FEELING ALRIGHT? - THREE DOG NIGHT

Feelin' alright?
I'm not feelin too good myself
Feelin' alright I'm not feeling too good myself

I like Three Dog Night and had an album of theirs in the early 1970s. It was a good band with good singers who did cover versions of some great blues and introduced me to the original blues writers and performers.

For some reason the song above came into my mind this morning and it was most likely because I was thinking about Richard, Shelley and Stephanie. I haven't had COVID thank Robert's god - I had three RAT tests in hospital during the week and was 'all clear'. I don't want to get it but it is worrying to hear of germaphobes like Richard getting it no matter what precautions he's taken. Maybe it was the maskless (cleanskin) chardonnay he drinks.

I'm not feeling so good myself but I feel a hell of a lot better now that I'm home. My plan for today is to move things (DVDs, PS games, computer connections etc) from the spare cupboard in the small lounge (which has become The Old Girl's 'woman-cave' since we put another TV in there where she can watch her romcoms, Marvel-type sci-fi films and other assorted stuff I can't stand). I'll move this stuff into the dresser I put in the shed last weekend and apologise for not having a photograph to show you. Maybe I can take one and update this post later.

Anyway, here's another Three Dog Night song to keep you going.

A CHANGE IS GONNA COME - THREE DOG NIGHT

They do a pretty good job on this song but it's not a patch on Sam Cooke's original.

A CHANGE IS GONNA COME - SAM COOKE

Cooke's version is more poignant not in the last because it's drawn from his personal experiences.

I hope that this isn't a downer given the news around the world so just remember:

It's been a long
A long time coming
But I know a change gonna come
Oh, yes it will

 

I'D RATHER GO BLIND ...*

 * A traditional saying and the most well known is "I'd rather go bling than see you walk away" the song written by Ellington Jordan and co-credited to Billy Foster and Etta James. It was first recorded by Etta James in 1967 and subsequently become regarded as a blues and soul classic.

Lyrics

Something told me it was over
When I saw you and her talkin'
Something deep down in my soul said, 'Cry, girl'
When I saw you and that girl walkin' around
Whoo, I would rather, I would rather go blind, boy
Then to see you walk away from me, child, no
Whoo, so you see, I love you so much
That I don't wanna watch you leave me, baby
Most of all, I just don't, I just don't wanna be free, no
Whoo, whoo, I was just, I was just, I was just
Sittin here thinkin', of your kiss and your warm embrace, yeah
When the reflection in the glass that I held to my lips now, baby
Revealed the tears that was on my face, yeah
Whoo and baby, baby, I'd rather, I'd rather be blind, boy
Then to see you walk away, see you walk away from me, yeah
Whoo, baby, baby, baby, I'd rather be blind...

James version is, to me, the best and she recorded several versions of the song. This live performance though shows how she really put her heart into it:

ETTA JAMES

The song has been covered by quite a few well-known musicians, some doing great versions like BB.King and Elkie Brooks and others mangling it like Rod Stewart and a whole lot of Britain's Got Talent-type wannabes.

Beyonce did a good job in the film Cadillac Records in which she played the part of Etta James:

BEYONCE

Another quite powerful version is by Beth Hart who has a great voice and presence enough to do this song justice:

BETH HART

The first version I heard myself wasn't the original by Etta James, it was sung by Christine Perfect  who was in the band Chicken Shack which I used to listen to in the late 60s and early 70s along with lots of other British R&B bands. I still like her version:

CHRISTINE PERFECT

***********************

Now I appreciate the sentiment in the song and the meaning of the song title as a failed love affair can be devastating, but I do feel that Ellington Jordan et al might not have enough of an appreciation of how devastating actually going blind is. I'm not blind and, touch wood (I'm superstitious) am not going blind but I do have poor eyesight and have to wear corrective eyeglasses. This has always been a hassle in day to day activities like sports, lovemaking, work, driving, swimming and, on the one occasion, getting the shit kicked out of me alongside Richard at a Wellington party (I had to hold on to my glasses so that the thugs didn't smash them as they were trying to do with my head).

LION TAMER?

I was listening to Dire Strait's Wild West End today (again). God I love this song - it's so evocative.

 WILD WEST END

The lyrics are spot-on and this bit always 'gets' me: 

And my conductress on the number nineteen

She was a honey

Pink toenails and hands all dirty with money

Greasy hair easy smile

Made me feel nineteen for a while

Devotees of this blog -  and I can assure you that they have reached single figures already - will remember that I wrote about this song about 6 years ago: CONNECTIONS #1

I had noticed a connection between it and an old Hancock's Half Hour programme from the 1960s.

Excuse me - I'm off to YouTube to see if I can find that old programme.