#043
Easter Eggs
Foi muito antes de termos os Kinder Surpresa que Georg Franck von Franckenau meteu pena no tinteiro e escreveu De ovis paschalibus (Sobre os ovos da Páscoa) explicando assim em 1682 a tradição alemã da “Lebre” que nessa altura do ano trazia às crianças ovos multi-coloridos.
Mas já no século XX, mais concretamente em 1979, foi o coder Warren Robinett, programador de videogames da Atari, que criou aquilo que conhecemos hoje em dia como easter egg, ao introduzir no jogo Adventure não só um nível secreto assim como uma mensagem que o revelava como verdadeiro autor do software.
Na música o trend foi “inventado” pelos Beatles. Uma muito pequena brincadeira acústica feita por Paul McCartney não encaixava nas canções do disco Abbey Road e ele pediu ao engenheiro de som para a deitar fora. Mas Geoff Emerick teve outra ideia, introduzindo Her Majesty a seguir a The End, no fim do alinhamento após uns segundos de silêncio. Assim nascia a primeira hidden track.
No tempo do vinil era complicado ter uma “faixa escondida”. Afinal, os olhos serviam na altura para alguma coisa mais do que admirar o artwork. Mesmo assim há uns quantos casos famosos dos quais escolhi dois mais ou menos incontornáveis.
O primeiro é de 1979, uma “prenda” no terceiro disco dos The Jam, All Mod Cons.
Começando com o som do apito de um comboio, a buzina de um navio e a rebentação de ondas na costa, é quase uma balada folk romântica em que o narrador se compara a um antigo marinheiro partindo da terra mãe e deixando em casa a sua English Rose, nome dado à beleza de certas mulheres inglesas. Inspirado pela home sickness que Paul Weller sentia quando em tour nos EUA e pela ausência de sua namorada na época, Gill Price. Weller disse à revista Mojo em maio de 2010: “It was me emotionally naked, speaking openly about being in love. I was aware it was something that blokes from my background didn’t do. They didn’t reveal their feelings, their sensitive side.” Talvez acanhado pela brutal honestidade sentida Weller deixou a faixa não listada na capa do álbum. Certamente a proveniência do sentido para esta música foram os versos despretensiosos dos poetas de Liverpool dos anos 60. Weller disse ainda à mesma revista britânica: “A fan had turned me on to Adrian Henri, and I learned through these poets that you could be open about your thoughts and feelings and you could juxtapose a grand, classical image with a street one.” Reza a história que esta música mais tarde inspirou o nome dos The Stone Roses.
A segunda escolha é ainda mais famosa. Train in Vain (Stand by Me) que os Clash gravaram no album London Calling não é exatamente uma faixa oculta e, de acordo com Bill Price, o engenheiro de som do álbum, “… não era para estar escondida”. No entanto não aparece nas primeiras impressões da capa do London Calling, nem tem a letra impressa no inner sleeve, mas isso aconteceu porque a colocação da música foi uma decisão de última hora que veio depois das artes finais já terem ido para impressão. Originalmente planeado para ser um flexi-disc promocional no New Musical Express, quando o acordo entre os The Clash e o semanário musical fracassou, o grupo decidiu à ultima colocar a canção no álbum. Lançado como o terceiro e último 7” de London Calling, também se tornou o primeiro single do grupo a entrar no Top 30 dos charts americanos.
Mas se já havia “tesourinhos” enterrados no vinil, imagine-se quando a música virou digital com o aparecimento do CD. Superfície bem shiny, só um laser beam conseguia ler o que lá estava gravado. Imagine-se…
E assim a partir do fim dos 80s e principalmente durante as duas décadas seguintes a coisa virou “moda”. Statement artístico ou devaneio em que o ego não vê altruísmo, este jogo de “escondidas” musicais deu pano para mangas, e muita coisa existe que deveria continuar assim, qui sapit, encoberta aos ouvidos alheios. Mas muitas outras são merecedoras recompensas para quem comprava os discos desses artistas. Algumas criações são inocentes, outras estouvadas, todas as que aqui incluo tem bilhete que dá direito a mais uma escuta.
Exemplos: Mister Grieves, faixa escondida no EP Young Liars pela banda de Brooklyn TV on the Radio é um verdadeiro tributo fan boy style ao original dos Pixies aparecido em 1989 no mega clássico Doolittle. Ou a demonstração do que é uma grande banda: Peter Buck na bateria, Bill Berry a tocar baixo e Mike Mills nas teclas. Os R.E.M até mesmo quando faziam um switcharoo continuavam a soar ao mesmo de sempre. Como aqui, na ultima faixa de Green, Untitled (Track 11).
Para quem tenha ficado surpreendido pela inclusão dos Coldplay numa lista minha deixo já aqui a minha única desculpa, The Escapist para além de não constar na listagem de Viva La Vida soa ainda incrivelmente parecida em tom à primeira faixa desse disco, Life in Technicolor, tudo porque o disco foi “desenhado” para ser um loop infinito se tiver com a função repeat ligada.
Uma curta mensagem de Tom Petty: “Olá, ouvintes deste CD. Chegamos a um ponto neste álbum em que aqueles que estão a ouvir em cassete ou disco terão que se levantar – ou sentar – e virar o disco – ou fita. Para ser justo com esses ouvintes, agora vamos levar alguns segundos antes de começarmos o lado dois. Obrigado. Aqui está o lado dois”.
Fico com pena que Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou não tenha querido cantar em It’s Alright With Me, composição de Cole Porter que o ex-Wham decidiu esconder em Songs From The Last Century numa versão orquestral. No entanto sigo logo para a primeira edição do álbum Travelling without Moving de Jamiroquai que já continha Do You Know Where You’re Coming From? como bónus além da faixa oculta Funktion, um belíssimo jam que aqui deixo a tocar até ao fim.
Por incrível que pareça mas a canção mais conhecida dos Charlatans, The Only One I Know, nem sequer é um hidden track. No disco cartão de visita da banda a faixa nem sequer está incluída. No entanto na cassete promocional Selections From Some Friendly da mesma altura lá está a dita cuja… eu sei, os tempos eram a modos de constantly stoned mas não é preciso exagerar…
Já os primos mais crescidos, Blur, fizeram um double whammy na remasterização do seu segundo album Modern Life is Rubbish: numa edição com 35 faixas se alguém se lembrasse de pular até à faixa 68 encontraria When The Cows Come Home com direito a inclusão nesta m4we. Mas com um skip até à faixa 69 davamos de caras com uma beatlemaníaca Peach. Ufa.
Assim muito para a frente é o usual nestas andanças. Jarvis Cocker fez qualquer fã ter de atravessar um silêncio de 25 minutos até poder ouvir (Cunts Are Still) Running The World no seu album de 2006 The Jarvis Cocker Record.
Mas também há quem torne a “caça ao ovo” ainda mais difícil: Nick Cave, por exemplo, no estranhíssimo tributo Songs In The Key Of X: Music From And Inspired By The X-Files, colectânea de 1996 onde com auxilio dos Dirty Three (Jim White, Mick Turner e Warren Ellis) dá mote à factualidade de 0 (zero) ser um número. Esse dogma é o que leva o tema principal da famosa série de TV a ser uma faixa escondida só ouvida a quem se lembrasse de puxar 3 minutos para trás no principio do CD.
Também incluído nesta selecção é outro exemplo de pre-gap search, Every Time Is The Last Time, “escondido” pelos Bloc Party no album Silent Alarm de 2013.
Falco em modo jungle? Em 1998, 16 anos depois de ficar internacionalmente conhecido com Der Kommissar, o disco Out of the Dark (Into the Light) supostamente deveria acabar com Naked (Full Frontal Version) mas após 1:40 de silêncio ainda temos direito a Geld (Ouro, mas marcado em todas as edições à venda no Discogs como Matth. XI, 15). E que tal Tom Waits a fazer beatbox? É no bem explicito Chick A Boom (Hidden Track) que acaba o disco Real Gone de 2004.
John já se tinha ido e Ringo nunca teve para se chatear com esse tipo de coisas mas Macca fe-lo em quatro álbuns. Mas decidi pegar no outro Beatle, George, que depois da sua morte a 29 de Novembro de 2001 ainda teve direito, pelas mãos do engenheiro de som Jeff Lynne, a ter editado o album póstumo Brainwashed. É de lá Namah Parvati, mantra dedicado à deusa hindú e cantado em uníssono com o seu filho Dhani Harrison.
Acabo com The Weedy Burton epílogo que os Cure introduziram no seu primeiro disco, Three Imaginary Boys. Homenagem a Bert Weedon, autor de Play in a Day, um livro mega influente sobre como tocar guitarra, bem como o primeiro guitarrista britânico a ter um sucesso nos tops ingleses. Quando comprei o disco na altura vivia fascinado com a capa (candeeiro, frigorifico, aspirador: 3 rapazes imaginários, lindo) e com os títulos das faixas, todas identificadas por bonequinhos. Tudo inventado por Chris Parry, fundador da Fiction Records e primeiro manager da banda. E tudo feito sem o controlo dos Cure, Robert Smith em 2002 chegou mesmo a dizer numa entrevista que achava “a capa uma bela merda”. Este título só foi oficializado em 2004 na reedição deluxe.
Ou talvez não, se calhar não é esta a ultima escolha desta semana e também inseri uma quadragésima primeira escondida após uns tampinhas de silêncio. Será? Seja como for tenham uma muito boa Páscoa.
“Les hommes s’occupent à suivre une balle et un lièvre : c’est le plaisir même des rois”.
Blaise Pascal, Pensées
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
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It was long before we had a taste of Kinder Surprise that Georg Franck von Franckenau put a pen in ink and wrote De ovis paschalibus (About Easter eggs) explaining, in 1682, the German tradition of the “Hare” that at this time of the year gifts children with multi-colourful eggs.
But it would be in the 20th century, more specifically in 1979, that coder Warren Robinett, video game developer at Atari, who created what we know today as an easter egg, by introducing in the game Adventure not only a secret level but also a message that revealed him as the true author of the software.
In music, the trend was “invented” by the Beatles. A small and playful acoustic romp recorded by Paul McCartney did not fit the songs on the Abbey Road album and he asked the sound engineer to throw it away. But Geoff Emerick had another idea, introducing Her Majesty after The End, closing the line-up after a few seconds of silence. Thus the first hidden track was born.
In the heyday of vinyl it was difficult to have a “hidden track”. After all, the eyes served at the time for something more than admiring the artwork. Even so, there are a few famous cases from which I chose two more or less unavoidable.
The first is from 1979, a “gift” on The Jam’s third album, All Mod Cons.
Starting with the sound of a train whistle, a ship’s horn and the surf of waves on the coast, it is almost a romantic folk ballad in which the narrator compares himself to an old sailor leaving his mother land and his English Rose at home. Inspired by the home sickness Paul Weller felt when touring the USA and the absence of his girlfriend at the time, Gill Price. Weller told Mojo magazine in May 2010: “It was me emotionally naked, speaking openly about being in love. I was aware it was something that blokes from my background didn’t do. They didn’t reveal their feelings, their sensitive side. ” Perhaps embarrassed by the brutal honesty felt Weller left the track unlisted on the album cover. Certainly the inspiration was the unpretentious verses of the Liverpool poets of the 60s, as Weller also said to the same British magazine: “A fan had turned me on to Adrian Henri, and I learned through these poets that you could be open about your thoughts and feelings and you could juxtapose a grand, classical image with a street one. ” The story goes that this song later inspired the name for The Stone Roses.
The second choice is even more famous. Train in Vain (Stand by Me) that the Clash recorded on the album London Calling is not exactly a hidden track and, according to Bill Price, the album’s sound engineer, “… was not supposed to be hidden”. However, it does not appear on the cover of the first pressings, nor does it have the lyrics printed on the inner sleeve, but this was because the placement of the song was a last-minute decision that came after the final artworks had gone already to print. Originally planned to be a promotional flexi-disc offered with the New Musical Express, when the agreement between The Clash and the musical weekly failed, the group finally decided to put the song on the album. Released as London Calling’s third and final 7”, it also became the group’s first single to enter the Top 30 of the American charts.
But if there were already “tiny treasures” buried in vinyl, imagine when music went totally digital with the appearance of the CD. Such a shiny surface, only a laser beam could read what was encoded there. Imagine…
And so from the end of the 80s and mainly during the next two decades, it became “fashionable” to have some sort of concealed goodies lying around. Artistic statement or mere deluded fantasy in which the recording artist’s ego doesn’t see altruism, this game of musical “hide & seek” became very popular.
There’s a lot, of course, that should continue like this, qui sapit, covered up to our ears, maybe even lost in time while many others are worthy rewards for all those who bought the records. Some creations are innocent, others madcap, all that I include here have a ticket stub attached that entitles you to one more listen.
Examples: Mister Grieves, track hidden in the EP Young Liars by the Brooklyn band TV on the Radio is a true fan boy style tribute to the Pixies original that appeared in 1989’s mega classic Doolittle. Or the demonstration of what a great band is: Peter Buck on drums, Bill Berry playing bass and Mike Mills on keys. The R.E.M even when doing a switcharoo continued to sound the same as always. Like here, on Green’s last track, Untitled (Track 11).
For those who were surprised by the inclusion of Coldplay in a list of mine, I leave here my only excuse, The Escapist, besides not being included in the list of Viva La Vida, it still sounds incredibly similar in tone to the first track of this album, Life in Technicolor, everything because the disc was “designed” to be an infinite loop if you had the repeat function on.
A short spoken-word message from Tom Petty: “Hello, CD listeners. We’ve come to the point in this album where those listening on cassette or record will have to stand up – or sit down – and turn over the record – or tape. In fairness to those listeners, we’ll now take a few seconds before we begin side two. Thank you. Here is side two.”
It’s a shame that Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou didn’t want to sing in It’s Alright With Me, a Cole Porter composition that the former Wham decided to hide inside Songs From The Last Century in an orchestral version. However moving on to the first edition of Jamiroquai’s Traveling without Moving album, which already contained Do You Know Where You’re Coming From? as a bonus in addition to the hidden track Funktion, a beautiful jam that I leave here to play ’til the end.
Incredibly, but the Charlatans’ best-known song, The Only One I Know, is not even a hidden track. On the band’s “business card” album the track is not even included. However on the promotional tape Selections From Some Friendly, dated from the same time, there it is, the song is there, in plain sight. I know, at the time everyone’s state of mind was “sort of constantly stoned” but there is no need to exaggerate…
Their older cousins, Blur, had a double whammy in the remastering of their second album Modern Life is Rubbish: in an edition with 35 tracks someone thinking to skip to track 68 would find When The Cows Come Home entitled to inclusion in this week’s m4we. But with a skip up to track 69 one would come across a beatlemaniac Peach. Ouch.
So much forwards is the usual in this sort of monkey business. Jarvis Cocker made any fan go through a 25-minute silence before he could hear (Cunts Are Still) Running The World on his 2006 album The Jarvis Cocker Record.
But there are also those who make the “egg hunt” even more difficult: Nick Cave, for example, in the strange tribute Songs In The Key Of X: Music From And Inspired By The X-Files, a 1996’s compilation, where with the help of the Dirty Three (Jim White, Mick Turner and Warren Ellis), underlines the fact that 0 (zero) is a number. This dogma is what turns the main theme of the famous TV series into a hidden track only heard by those who would pull 3 minutes back at the beginning of the CD.
Also included in this selection is another example of a pre-gap search, Every Time Is The Last Time, “hidden” by the Bloc Party on the 2013 Silent Alarm album.
Falco in jungle mode? In 1998, 16 years after becoming internationally known with Der Kommissar, the album Out of the Dark (Into the Light) was supposed to end with Naked (Full Frontal Version) but after 1:40 of silence we still have the right to Geld (Gold, but marked in all editions for sale on Discogs as Matth. XI, 15). How about Tom Waits doing the beatbox? It is in the very explicit Chick A Boom (Hidden Track) that the 2004 album Real Gone ends.
John was already gone and Ringo never got to lose his cool because of this kind of stuff but Macca did it on four albums. But I decided to take on the other Beatle, George, who, after his death on November 29, 2001, still had the right, through the hands of the sound engineer Jeff Lynne, to have the posthumous album Brainwashed published. It is from there this Namah Parvati, a mantra dedicated to the Hindu goddess and sung in unison with his son Dhani Harrison.
I end with The Weedy Burton, epilogue introduced by The Cure on their first album, Three Imaginary Boys. Tribute to Bert Weedon, author of Play in a Day, a mega influential book on how to play the guitar, as well as the first British guitarist to have a success on the English tops. When I bought the album at the time, I was always fascinated with the cover (lamp, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner: 3 imaginary boys, beautiful) and with the titles of the tracks, all identified by small doodles. All invented by Chris Parry, founder of Fiction Records and the band’s first manager. And all done without the control or consent of the band, Robert Smith in 2002 went so far as to say in an interview that he thought “the cover was a beautiful piece of shit”. This title was only made official in the deluxe reissue of 2004.
Or maybe not, maybe this isn’t the last music chosen, maybe I also inserted a forty-first hidden track after a few bouts of silence. Is it? Would I? Whatever, I just want to wish you all a mighty fine Easter.
“Les hommes s’occupent à suivre une balle et un lièvre : c’est le plaisir même des rois”.
Blaise Pascal, Pensées
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
Talc – We’re T.A.L.C
The Beatles – Her Majesty
Lauryn Hill – Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You
Blur – When The Cows Come Home
Beach House – Wherever You Go
Whiskeytown – To Be Evil
The Libertines – France
They Might Be Giants – Token Back to Brooklyn
Bloc Party – Every Time Is The Last Time
Janet Jackson – Can’t Be Stopped
R.E.M. – Untitled (Track 11)
Jarvis Cocker – (Cunts Are Still) Running The World
The Clash – Train in Vain (Stand by Me)
TV on the Radio – Mister Grieves
The Jam – English Rose
The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – Make Mistakes
Belle And Sebastian – Songs For Children
Coldplay – The Escapist
Atmosphere – Say Shh
Tom Petty – Hello CD Listeners
Lyle Lovett – The Girl in the Corner
Green Day – All By Myself
Eels – Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues
Jamiroquai – Funktion
George Harrison with Dhani Harrison – Namah Parvati
Black Moth Super Rainbow – The Primary Color Movement
Kanye West – Late
The Charlatans – The Only One I Know
Falco – Geld
Beck – Diamond Bollocks
George Michael – It’s Alright With Me (Instrumental)
Amy Winehouse – Mr. Magic (Through The Smoke)
The Roots feat. Talib Kweli – Rhymes and Ammo
Nick Cave and The Dirty Three – X-Files Theme (Orchestra Version)
Q-Tip – Do It, See It, Be It
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Poor Song
The Ramones – The SpiderMan Theme
Tom Waits – Chick A Boom
UNKLE – Tired of Sleeping
The Cure – The Weedy Burton