I've been living away from France a long time, almost 20 years.
This song is from a time when I was briefly back in Alsace,trying to figure out what to do with my l life, and, if I would stay, what kind of life to lead there. I came to realize that my family didn't get along very well with me being back: they got used to not seeing me so often, I wasn't really a part of it anyway. My friends had all gone their ways, we were strangers. I wanted a way out of my previous job, working in big institutions or private companies, where purpose is lost in size, paperwork, uselessness. I decided to apply to an international NGO, specialized in medical support and emergency, trying to do something useful with my life and leave everything behind. To my surprise my application was well received and some months after I was on my way to China,... where I still live today.
In a way this music sums up my feelings about my hometown, family ties, old friends, memories and the desire to move on, the necessity to grow up. It always moves me deeply. In a light way.
Goosebumps! 10 Time machine: I'm here in Beijing on this glorious sunny Christmas day, remembering this summer 76, when I was fifteen and heard this for the first time, thinking it was unfair that I was born in Europe, ten years too late to have been a part of the huge movements in the US. "Movement" was a magical word which included music, rock and roll (yes Lazarus and sex and drugs) an adventurous life and freedom, "on the road". All of this in a melting pot, mixing the very delusional perception we had about reality and our own desires of escaping the limited life of a small Alsatian Village in the middle of nowhere (that we used to call the "trou du cul du monde") We had our own dissents and awareness coming up, demonstrating against nuclear power plants (my first and unique sitting!), ecological catastrophes... We were aware though that we were lucky enough to live in a very beautiful, protected area: we could walk, and cycle, and go swimming in the lakes around, wandering in the beautiful forest; we used to camp outside at all time listening to this music around fire camps, with the very new portable tape-recorder (radio-cassette), smoking pot and drinking schnapps, one of us playing the guitar not yet dreaming about leaving, rather, to imagine other kind of jobs which would allow us to stay and make the place even better. It was a wonderful period of time.
Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin acts like a "Madeleine de Proust" : the whole summer comes back, in all its details, to the point that I can almost smell the dryness of the land and see the shimmering colours of the landscape, the steam emanating from the tared road which goes along the river Rhine. Memories, memories.
This reminds me of my first year in China, when I just got to Nanning in Guangxi province, in 2002. I felt very lonely sometimes, working for an international medical NGO as country administrator. I didn't speak a word of Chinese then, and nobody was speaking any English then. It was an extraordinary journey... I used to listen to this song, which was the perfect mixture of both Western and Eastern world, to go along my travels. I remember one very specific moment, in a bus, into the northern mountains of the province, in the Dong and Miao area, after twelve hours on the very bad roads at the time, sharing this music with some other travelers. I was the only foreigner in the bus. And for some of them, the very first they saw. They laughed and loved the music, even though the CD was always jumping from a track to the other. Sublime memories
Oh what a nice way to like the damoiselle Norah again - As for Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi, It's a first! I am having a very good night of listening/reading/surfing/lazzining -
I don't know who the woman in the picture below is and why she looks so obviously quite uncomfortable to say the least, probably nothing to do with Joni Mitchell I love Joni Mitchell. I used to not like her, and for some years, I just would PSD her songs. Couldn't stand her voice. And, I don't know, I was once in one of these old lanes of Beijing, the one called hutong, listening to my local playlist. I had downloaded some songs by Joni Mitchell thinking that I should try listening given the numerous praise here on to and elsewhere, but never finding the time, the right disposition, the appeal. It was a bad bad day, lots of administrative fuss, work not nice, bank closed, family absent and bad news. Really bad day. This came up in the playlist, on shuffle. It took me by surprise. I felt so much more better after that. Like being cared by this voice, touched by a free spirit, light and funny. When this song comes up, I just listen to it, suspended in a moment some years ago, in this lane, a grey winter day, with sun in my ears...
Following Bill's comment: it's true that boundaries"don't matter so much up there" These boundaries, drawned by colonialism regardless of ethicity and the lands own history. Which explains some of the many conflicts in some of these artificial countries.
It's like seeing an old friend you used to party with and ... woosh ... yer ready to go to your old bar and smoke the ol' pack of cigarettes, drink the same pint of beer, swing by that taco joint for a late nighter and wake up and do it all over again. But wait, the old friend turns out to be kind of a dick and you forgot that part where he likes flying saucers. Nobody smokes anymore. Drinking gives you heartburn and the taco joint is now a TJ Max. That's how I feel about the Pixies' new album.
I don't share your perception of this music but I really like the way you tell the story. I could almost see the place between Welsh's bar and a painting by Hooper coming to live.
The lyrics don't seem to be the right ones though. I hear French Creole, can understand a little of it but not everything...
«Moi préféré pas vous faire
Moi préfère mo jodi»
"I'd rather you don't act I rather have mo Jodi"
Context (found on their YouTube channel)
In 1802, only 8 years after it was abolished by French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte restored slavery in the French colonies. In Guadeloupe, Mixed blood Commander Louis Delgrès gave his life to prevent the return of the abomination. In vain. Once Delgres and his supporters dead, fierce repression fell upon Guadeloupe ... Thousands of Guadeloupeans where forced to exile ... especially in Louisiana, birthplace of the Blues ...
The project Delgres
Delgres could well be the missing link in caribbean culture. Or could it be the missing link of blues ?
The Blues of those anonymous, deported once again, fleeing Bonapartist repression of 1802. From Guadeloupe to the Americas, down in Louisiana , the air still vibrates from the remaining fragrance of a secret blues, whispered solely at night fall. Long forgotten heroes that only the heart remembers… father, mother, cousin, brother of friend that no one will ever mention in books or papers but who gave everything, silently. Such as Louise Danae ( Pascal’s ancester) freed from slavery in 1841 along with her three children. She was 27.
Delgres, retrieved memory of blended songs, dances and tears of the long lost drifting souls of New-Orleans. When the blues gets loud! Sound of rust, struggle and hope.
A broken barrel of guadeloupean rum flooding the mississipi delta, getting everybody drunk. So much so that africans, indians, poor whites and all the others don’t really know where to stand anymore; so they dance! They dance to that ragged blues!
And here we are, prestigious clandestins, aboard this ship,freely sailing from Pointe a Pitre to Congo square, from Lafayette to Basse Terre, under carribean stars, all together, yet alone with Delgres Here is the video of this song
Feels like a European village/city rainy day small pub or cafe, strong drink, maybe coffee or clear liquid that makes my eyes water.
Not early, not late...maybe an afternoon after a night before and morning after with new found friend... Just many thoughts, impressions all coming too fast to think about. Just accept, remember and plan for deeper reflection later.
Thanks Bill/RP
That's really lovely. I could place myself in the heart of your story with this music and her voice. Merci!
I got this CD last weekend and it really is very good indeed, for all the bombast. What I'd not realised until looking at the lyrics is that much of it is based on Orwell's 1984, hence the songs about resistance and uprising. A really big sound. Award-winning album cover too, I read. 9 from the Nottingham jury.
Avid readers of this book here. Big brother is alive, not only here may be, but he doesn't hide, he is in plain sight, goes public. Doors are closing, but everything's alright business is rising. I love this album, most specifically the lyrics - @fredriley what about United States Of Eurasia? and thank you for your post
It is a clear plagio of Jacques Brel - Ces gens la !!!!!!!
“They're the same things that inspired Felt Mountain and Seventh Tree, really. Françoise Hardy, Jacques Brel – the song ”Jo“ is very much inspired by a Brel song, directly. We actually wrote to their estate to let them know. ” see interview here https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/interview-goldfrapp-explore-the-shadows-8800750.html
(edit) unfortunately the last 20 seconds or so are missing in the link I posted when it's actually necessary. I found the 2 ten minutes older dvds again, will try to upload this movie soon.
This is the theme music of "Twelve miles to Trona", a short story, where a man lost in a vast almost empty place, finds himself having an accidental overdose, without knowing what from - in his run to find a way to get assistance he drives through windmills fields, with this music as a background, it's fantastic and psychedelic.
I've been living away from France a long time, almost 20 years.
This song is from a time when I was briefly back in Alsace,trying to figure out what to do with my l life, and, if I would stay, what kind of life to lead there.
I came to realize that my family didn't get along very well with me being back: they got used to not seeing me so often, I wasn't really a part of it anyway.
My friends had all gone their ways, we were strangers.
I wanted a way out of my previous job, working in big institutions or private companies, where purpose is lost in size, paperwork, uselessness. I decided to apply to an international NGO, specialized in medical support and emergency, trying to do something useful with my life and leave everything behind.
To my surprise my application was well received and some months after I was on my way to China,... where I still live today.
In a way this music sums up my feelings about my hometown, family ties, old friends, memories and the desire to move on, the necessity to grow up. It always moves me deeply. In a light way.
Time machine: I'm here in Beijing on this glorious sunny Christmas day, remembering this summer 76, when I was fifteen and heard this for the first time, thinking it was unfair that I was born in Europe, ten years too late to have been a part of the huge movements in the US. "Movement" was a magical word which included music, rock and roll (yes Lazarus and sex and drugs) an adventurous life and freedom, "on the road". All of this in a melting pot, mixing the very delusional perception we had about reality and our own desires of escaping the limited life of a small Alsatian Village in the middle of nowhere (that we used to call the "trou du cul du monde")
We had our own dissents and awareness coming up, demonstrating against nuclear power plants (my first and unique sitting!), ecological catastrophes...
We were aware though that we were lucky enough to live in a very beautiful, protected area: we could walk, and cycle, and go swimming in the lakes around, wandering in the beautiful forest; we used to camp outside at all time listening to this music around fire camps, with the very new portable tape-recorder (radio-cassette), smoking pot and drinking schnapps, one of us playing the guitar not yet dreaming about leaving, rather, to imagine other kind of jobs which would allow us to stay and make the place even better.
It was a wonderful period of time.
Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin acts like a "Madeleine de Proust" : the whole summer comes back, in all its details, to the point that I can almost smell the dryness of the land and see the shimmering colours of the landscape, the steam emanating from the tared road which goes along the river Rhine.
Memories, memories.
I felt very lonely sometimes, working for an international medical NGO as country administrator. I didn't speak a word of Chinese then, and nobody was speaking any English then. It was an extraordinary journey...
I used to listen to this song, which was the perfect mixture of both Western and Eastern world, to go along my travels.
I remember one very specific moment, in a bus, into the northern mountains of the province, in the Dong and Miao area, after twelve hours on the very bad roads at the time, sharing this music with some other travelers. I was the only foreigner in the bus. And for some of them, the very first they saw.
They laughed and loved the music, even though the CD was always jumping from a track to the other.
Sublime memories
I love Joni Mitchell.
I used to not like her, and for some years, I just would PSD her songs. Couldn't stand her voice.
And, I don't know, I was once in one of these old lanes of Beijing, the one called hutong, listening to my local playlist. I had downloaded some songs by Joni Mitchell thinking that I should try listening given the numerous praise here on to and elsewhere, but never finding the time, the right disposition, the appeal.
It was a bad bad day, lots of administrative fuss, work not nice, bank closed, family absent and bad news. Really bad day.
This came up in the playlist, on shuffle. It took me by surprise. I felt so much more better after that. Like being cared by this voice, touched by a free spirit, light and funny.
When this song comes up, I just listen to it, suspended in a moment some years ago, in this lane, a grey winter day, with sun in my ears...
From Beijing with love 😘🌸🌏
These boundaries, drawned by colonialism regardless of ethicity and the lands own history. Which explains some of the many conflicts in some of these artificial countries.
Beautiful track.
Bewitching
But wait, the old friend turns out to be kind of a dick and you forgot that part where he likes flying saucers. Nobody smokes anymore. Drinking gives you heartburn and the taco joint is now a TJ Max.
That's how I feel about the Pixies' new album.
I don't share your perception of this music but I really like the way you tell the story. I could almost see the place between Welsh's bar and a painting by Hooper coming to live.
Under capitalism, we have man's inhumanity to man...
...where as under communism, its the other way 'round.
:)
Great discovery, thank you Bill & Rebecca!
The lyrics don't seem to be the right ones though. I hear French Creole, can understand a little of it but not everything...
«Moi préféré pas vous faire
Moi préfère mo jodi»
"I'd rather you don't act
I rather have mo Jodi"
Context (found on their YouTube channel)
In 1802, only 8 years after it was abolished by French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte restored slavery in the French colonies.
In Guadeloupe, Mixed blood Commander Louis Delgrès gave his life to prevent the return of the abomination. In vain.
Once Delgres and his supporters dead, fierce repression fell upon Guadeloupe ...
Thousands of Guadeloupeans where forced to exile ... especially in Louisiana, birthplace of the Blues ...
The project Delgres
Delgres could well be the missing link in caribbean culture.
Or could it be the missing link of blues ?
The Blues of those anonymous, deported once again, fleeing Bonapartist repression of 1802.
From Guadeloupe to the Americas, down in Louisiana , the air still vibrates from the remaining fragrance of a secret blues, whispered solely at night fall.
Long forgotten heroes that only the heart remembers… father, mother, cousin, brother of friend that no one will ever mention in books or papers but who gave everything, silently.
Such as Louise Danae ( Pascal’s ancester) freed from slavery in 1841 along with her three children. She was 27.
Delgres, retrieved memory of blended songs, dances and tears of the long lost drifting souls of New-Orleans. When the blues gets loud! Sound of rust, struggle and hope.
A broken barrel of guadeloupean rum flooding the mississipi delta, getting everybody drunk.
So much so that africans, indians, poor whites and all the others don’t really know where to stand anymore; so they dance! They dance to that ragged blues!
And here we are, prestigious clandestins, aboard this ship,freely sailing from Pointe a Pitre to Congo square, from Lafayette to Basse Terre, under carribean stars, all together, yet alone with Delgres
Here is the video of this song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNCfA2sCbbc
Feels like a European village/city rainy day small pub or cafe, strong drink, maybe coffee or clear liquid that makes my eyes water.
Not early, not late...maybe an afternoon after a night before and morning after with new found friend... Just many thoughts, impressions all coming too fast to think about. Just accept, remember and plan for deeper reflection later.
Thanks Bill/RP
That's really lovely. I could place myself in the heart of your story with this music and her voice. Merci!
Avid readers of this book here. Big brother is alive, not only here may be, but he doesn't hide, he is in plain sight, goes public. Doors are closing, but everything's alright business is rising.
I love this album, most specifically the lyrics -
@fredriley what about United States Of Eurasia? and thank you for your post
Everybody in my hotel room loves this song...
!!!!!!!
“They're the same things that inspired Felt Mountain and Seventh Tree, really. Françoise Hardy, Jacques Brel – the song ”Jo“ is very much inspired by a Brel song, directly. We actually wrote to their estate to let them know. ”
see interview here https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/interview-goldfrapp-explore-the-shadows-8800750.html
Twelve miles to Trona by Wim Wenders - using Eels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16jujVqoVXw
Enjoy!
(edit)
unfortunately the last 20 seconds or so are missing in the link I posted when it's actually necessary. I found the 2 ten minutes older dvds again, will try to upload this movie soon.