16 décembre 2009
James Taylor - Fire and Rain
Une chanson qui trouve tout à fait sa place ici aujourd'hui, pour tous les liens qui existent entre elle et le roman que je viens de terminer d'écrire (si, si, maintenant, il est bel et bien terminé).
Pourtant, si je cite quelques titres musicaux dans ce roman, celui-ci n'y figure pas. Il y a du Simon and Garfunkel, du Leonard Cohen, du Rickie Lee Jones, du Bellini, du Cure, aussi... mais pas de James Taylor.
Pourtant le texte de la chanson, l'époque à laquelle elle est sortie, la vie même du chanteur... auraient justifié ce choix.
Mais j'avais aussi d'autres choix à faire...
Voilà donc une façon de me rattraper.
Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone
Susanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can't remember who to send it to
I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again
Won't you look down upon me, Jesus
You've got to help me make a stand
You've just got to see me through another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand
And I won't make it any other way
Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again
Been walking my mind to an easy time my back turned towards the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around
Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things
to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground
Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again, now
Thought I'd see you one more time again
There's just a few things coming my way this time around, now
Thought I'd see you, thought I'd see you fire and rain, now
18 novembre 2009
Marillion - Sympathy
Now when you climb into your bed tonight
And when you lock and bolt the door
Just think about those out in the cold and dark
'cause there's not enough love to go 'round
No there's not enough love to go 'round
And sympathy is what we need my friends
And sympathy is what we need
And sympathy is what we need my friends
'cause there's not enough love to go 'round
No there's not enough love to go 'round
Now half the world hates the other half
And half the world has all the food
And half the world lies down and quietly starves
'cause there's not enough love to go 'round
No there's not enough love to go 'round
No there's not enough love to go 'round
No there's not enough love to go 'round
And sympathy is what we need my friends
And sympathy is what we need
And sympathy is what we need my friends
'cause there's not enough love to go 'round
No there's not enough love
No there's not enough love to go 'round
Original créé par les Rare Birds (Steve Gould, Dave Kaffinetti, Graham Field, Mark Ashton, Andy Curtis) en 1969
15 octobre 2009
Ladylike Dragons - 13 minutes
Il y a quelques mois, j'avais repéré sur le blog de François Alquier un trio dénommé "Ladylike Dragons". Bien sûr, puisque c'est son métier, François en présente beaucoup, des musiciens. Certains ne sont pas du tout ma tasse de thé, d'autres me plaisent bien mais sans plus... et puis, il y a des groupes comme celui-là.
La vidéo qui était présentée ("13 minutes" que j'ai insérée ci-dessous) et les quatre titres écoutables sur leur Myspace m'avaient séduit d'emblée. Ceux qui parcourent mon blog savent que j'aime assez les contrastes (ceux qui ont lu mes romans doivent également l'avoir compris). Or, Ladylike Dragons parvient à allier de façon fort agréable une belle énergie (voir une rage puissante dans certains passages de certains titres) avec un délicat sens de la mélodie. Tout cela est mis en oeuvre sous des formes elles aussi très variées et contrastées : changement d'ambiance d'un titre à l'autre, changement de rythme au sein d'un même titre, un zeste de cordes par-ci, un soupçon de claviers par-là... Enfin, pour parfaire le tout, il faut quand même signaler que la demoiselle qui chante a un beau brin de voix (autant dans les moments de "rage" que dans les passages plus calmes) et elle et ses deux compères savent manipuler leurs instruments avec une belle dextérité qui permet à leurs compositions d'être un peu plus élaborées que les traditionnels boum-boum-boum que l'on entend si souvent.
En conclusion, ayant appris que leur premier album sortait le lundi 12 octobre, j'ai fait l'acquisition de la chose dès le jour J et j'ai pu aller un peu plus loin dans l'exploration des qualités de ce trio. Et les 13 pistes du CD ne font que les confirmer.
En jetant une oreille sur leur Myspace, vous aurez déjà une bonne idée de ce qu'ils savent faire et des contrastes dont je parle plus haut : "Slavery" et "13 minutes" pour le côté sauvage et "The Wisdom of my faith" pour la douceur, avec, au milieu, un titre plutôt pop au titre si poétique : "Fuck off (the beautiful day").
Bonne écoute.
03 avril 2009
E.S.T. - From Gagarin's Point Of View
Je sais, je vous l'avais déjà fait écouter ce thème, mais c'était la version live. Ici, tout aussi envoûtante, la version studio, qui date de 97 (et dont la vidéo est pas mal non plus). Je me la passe dix fois par jour (en alternance avec le dernier (et posthume) album d'EST, Leucocyte), et c'est à chaque fois la même émotion.
Et je la réécouterai sûrement encore dix fois aujourd'hui et demain, juste avant de décoller. Bon, OK, je n'irai pas aussi haut que Gagarin, mais j'aurais quand même un point de vue pas désagréable, en survolant la France entre Lyon et Bordeaux.
Mais je me tais et vous laisse avec le génie des dix doigts d'Esbjörn Svensson.
02 avril 2009
Marillion - Happiness is the road
The greatest blessing that we have
Is the dawn of each new day
A chance to finish what we started
And made a mess of yesterday
As day comes out of night
A chance to get it right
A chance to start again
A chance to get it right
The people here
Full of love and comfortable in themselves
Not scared to let go
No fear round here
I met this man
In Utrecht Netherlands
He was a doctor of the body and the soul
He said to me:
Man, there's a book you have to read.
I feel your pain. It makes me cry
But these tears are yours - not mine.
You're focussing on all of your bad yesterdays
The worry lines are getting deeper every day
And deep inside you
No surprise - there's a crisis!
You might have been to blame
But you can't go on this way
Must I watch and pray?
While you torture yourself with what's behind ya
Torture yourself with what awaits ya
Draggin' that guilt and regret inside ya
Anxious of the goals that always evade ya
Your mind will find a way to be unkind to you somehow
But all we really have is happening to us right now
HAPPINESS IS THE ROAD
And each baby... A human sunrise
Each baby - a human sunrise..
Look around you
Feel your soul inside you
Look inside you
Feel the life course through you
The life that's giving In every thing that's living
The plants and the trees
The birds and the bees
And apes like you and me
HAPPINESS IS THE ROAD
You're a slave to your mind
But you are not your mind
You are not your pain
Say it again
You are not your pain
Say it again
You are not your pain
Happiness aint at the end of the road
Happiness aint at the end of the road
Happiness IS the road
The road
HAPPINESS IS THE ROAD
17 février 2009
Marillion - Beautiful
Everybody knows that we live in a world where they give bad names to beautiful things
Everybody knows that we live in a world where we dont give beautiful things a second glance
Heaven only knows that we live in a world where what we call beautiful is just something on sale
And the leaves turn from red to brown
To be trodden down
To be trodden down
And the leaves turn from red to brown
Fall to the ground
Fall to the ground
We dont have to live in a world where we give bad names to beautiful things
We should live in a beautiful world
We should give beautiful a second glance
And the leaves fall from red to brown
To be trodden down
Trodden down
And the leaves turn green to red to brown
Fall to the ground
And get kicked around
You strong enough to be..
Have you the courage to be..
Have you the faith to be..
Honest enough to say..
Dont have to be the same..
Dont have to be this way
Cmon and sign your name
You wild enough to remain beautiful?
Beautiful
All the leaves turn from red to brown
To be trodden down
Trodden down
And we fall green to red to brown
Fall to the ground
To be kicked around
You strong enough to be..
Why dont you stand up and say
Give yourself a break
They laugh at you anyway
So why dont you stand up and be
Beautiful.
01 février 2009
Lisa Ekdahl - It's oh so quiet
Voilà mon ambiance actuelle. Bon, évidemment, elle est un peu perturbée, de temps à autre, par quelques sursauts d'impatience. Ah ! l'impatience ! l'impatience ! l'impatience ! Allons, réécoutons Lisa Ekdahl :
Découvrez Lisa Ekdahl!
Mmmh, ça va mieux. Je peux continuer à attendre la sortie de mon bouquin... patiemment.
22 décembre 2008
Robin McKelle - Abracadabra
Parfois, l'humeur est un peu "Siamese Twins".
Eh puis, tout d'un coup, heureusement, elle bascule.
Comme par magie.
Mais est-ce uniquement de la magie ?
Au passage, je tiens à dire que je garde un souvenir tout particulier du concert de Robin McKelle auquel j'ai assisté à Vienne en 2007, et pour cause : après elle, venait sur scène un trio que j'adore (je le dis au cas où personne ne l'aurait remarqué) : celui du regretté Esbjörn Svensson. C'est pour EST que j'étais venu à Jazz à Vienne, mais la découverte de leur consoeur, de sa voix et de son swing enjoué fut une très agréable façon de patienter avant l'entrée en piste des suédois.
19 novembre 2008
The Cure - A Strange Day / Siamese Twins
Découvrez The Cure!
Découvrez The Cure!
01 novembre 2008
Iron Maiden - The Legacy
Tell you a thing
That you ought to know
Two minutes of your time
Then on you go
Tell tale of the men
All dressed in black
That most of them
Not coming back
Sent off to the war
To play little games
And on their return
Can't name no names
Some strange yellow gas
Has played with their minds
Has reddened their eyes
Removed all the lies
And strange as it sounds
Death knows no bounds
How many get well
Only time will tell
Only time will tell
You lie in your death bed now
But what did you bring to the table
Brought us only holy sin
Utter trust is a deadly thing
To the prayer of holy peace
We didn't know what was lying underneath
So how could we be such fools
And to think that we thought you the answer
I can't begin to understand in all the lies
But on your death bed I can see it in your eyes
Just as clear as all the sweat upon your brow
It really makes sense I can see it clearly now
Tangled up in a web of lies
Could have been a way to prophesise
Unaware of the consequence
Not aware of the secrets that you kept
Nothing that we could believe
To reveal the façade of faceless men
Not a thing that we could foresee
Now a sign that would tell us the outcome
You had us all strung out with
promises of peace
But all along you cover plan was to deceive
Can it put to rights now only time will tell
Your prophecies will send us all to hell as well
Left to all our golden sons
All to pick up on the peace
You could have given all of them
A little chance... at least
Take the world to a better place
Given them all just a little hope
Just think what a legacy
You now... will leave
We seem destined to live in fear
And some that would say Armageddon is near
But where there's a life while there's hope
That man won't self destruct
Why can't we treat our fellow men
With more respect and a shake of their hands
But anger and loathing is rife
The death on all sides is
becoming a way of life
We live in an uncertain world
Fear understanding and ignorance
is leading to death
Only the corpses are left
For vultures that prey on their bones
But some are just not wanting peace
Their whole life is death and misery
The only thing that they know
Fight fire with fire life is cheap
But if they do stop to think
That man is teetering right on the brink
But do you think that they care
They benefit from death and pain and despair