#062
In a Material World
Kalium kalzium
Eisen magnesium
Mineral biotin
Zink selen l-carnitin
Adrenalin endorphin
Elektrolyt co-enzym
Carbo-hydrat protein
A-b-c-d vitamin
Kraftwerk – Vitamin
Esta semana é de regresso às aulas e à classe de Química. A tabela periódica dos elementos à mistura com o hit da Madonna foi o ponto de partida. Admita-se que seja singular mas é também um probo jump start para esta sexagésima segunda M4we.
Como não sou mestre na demanda pela pedra filosofal também não fiz questão de parecer fundamentalista. Nem todas as músicas são provenientes da tabela periódica. Muitos dos elementos escolhidos são compostos, ligações com que a Ciência foi desenvolvendo o mundo contemporâneo, vidro, betão, barro, pedra, etc: Yukihiro Takahashi num Glass gravado em 1981 no album ニウロマンティック, catalogado no Ocidente como Neuromantic; Debbie Harry a catapultar os Blondie para o estrelato com Heart of Glass; o menino querido da TK Records Willie George Hale, conhecido como Little Beaver e a faixa Concrete Jungle; a banda pop inglesa Unit Four Plus Two que em 1965 viram durante uma semana este Concrete and Clay no topo da tabela de vendas no Reino Unido mais Turn to Stone, um derradeiro freakbeat nugget de proveniência down under gravada em 1968 pelos neozelandeses Concrete Lamb e ainda o mestre camaleônico David Bowie com Breaking Glass, gravado ao vivo na altura do album Stage. Deixei assim que o rato de biblioteca David Byrne compilasse tudo isto com amor, carinho e uma betoneira na canção Glass, Concrete & Stone, abertura do seu disco Grown Backwards de 2004.
Não consegui deixar de lado mais umas quantas matérias boas e de belo apreço nos meandros da construção civil: o cabo-verdiano João Cirilo com Pó D’Terra e o angolano Nuno Mindelis convidando Airto Moreira para gravar Brinca N’areia no seu disco Angola Blues do ano passado. Mas fui sendo obrigado a escolher entre tanta matéria contida nos lirismos dos intervenientes da playlist. Schneider, Pierson e os Wilson de Athens, Georgia e mais conhecidos como The B-52’s em Private Idaho têm umas linhas que não podiam não estar aqui: “Don’t let the chlorine in your eyes blind you to the awful surprise; Swimming round and round like the deadly hand of a radium clock at the bottom of the pool”. E se deixei de fora Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny que Frank Zappa gravou com os Mothers of Invention em We’re Only In It For The Money foi porque tinha de aqui meter os Cramps com Uranium Rock:
Yes, that’s me in my long Cadillac
Headin’ down the road and I ain’t comin’ back
I ain’t no red light gonna make me stop
When I find that big uranium rock
Não escolhi o óbvio Radioactivity dos Kraftwerk e como já tinha o Samba Radioactivo do JP Simões pude deitar fora uma referência mega obscura à água pesada (o óxido de deutério é um componente nuclear de fórmula D2O ou ²H2O) invocada por Thomas Dolby quando canta “drinking heavy water from a stone” em One of our Submarines.
Preferi Your Gold Teeth dos Steely Dan a tantas outras nuances douradas com que a pop pinta a manta. Mais do que um elemento é repetido, a tabela é periódica e por vezes entra em loop. Neon, gás nobre incolor com número atômico 10 (10 protões e 10 electrões) tanto aparece em Neon Zebra das Shonen Knife como na óbvia homenagem que Jonathan Marr fez este ano a Neon Lights na compilação Blitzed coordenada por Rusty Egan.
Mas voltando à verdadeira quimera do ouro que a musica pop faz ao elemento que na tabela tem a posição 79, acho que não há mesmo substância mais badalada que o ouro e talvez por isso decidi ir ainda jogar na intangibilidade do dueto improvável de Barbra Streisand com o sapo Cocas em Rainbow Connection, uma canção escrita por Kenneth Ascher e Paul Williams para a banda sonora de The Muppet Movie estreado em 1979. Apesar dos arco-íris serem fenômenos ópticos do campo da Física dizem as lendas que no fim de cada um é suposto haver um pote cheio de ouro. Acho isso razão suficiente para a inclusão desta maravilhosa canção.
“Ele até há coisas” que parecem ser mais do universo dos comic books que da sala de aulas mas que no entanto preservam um lado nerdy académico: os Wings com Magneto and Titanium Man ou Daniele Torchio que ao assinar como Captain Torkive gravou em 1979 este Krypton que aqui escolhi. Mas também há outras escolhas que são bem mais materialistas, com relação directa a outro “vil” metal: o cobre. Se Brass and Bongos de Syd Dale, Elliot Ireland & Alessandro Rizzo é instrumental de “abanar o porta moedas” o que dizer de Brass in Pocket, grande hit do disco de estreia dos Pretenders? É que “brass” é uma expressão do inglês nortenho para dinheiro, possivelmente do tempo em que “moedas escuras” (coppers) ainda valiam alguma coisa…
Balloons are full of helium, and so is every star
Stars are mostly hydrogen, which may someday fill your car
Hey, who let in all these elephants?
Did you know that elephants are made of elements?
Elephants are mostly made of four elements
And every living thing is mostly made of four elements
Plants, bugs, birds, fish, bacteria and men
Are mostly carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen
Come on come on and meet the elements
You and I are complicated, but we’re made of elements
Meet the Elements dos They Might Be Giants está inserido no disco Here Comes Science de 2009. Este foi o quarto disco de música para crianças da banda nova-iorquina e até um consultor científico foi chamado para o projeto porque, como John Flansburgh admitiu, “frankly, I was a terrible science student in high school. My last memory of the periodic table was right before I lost consciousness”. Parece uma directa resposta e homenagem a The Elements, musica escolhida para encerrar esta M4we e publicada originalmente por Tom Lehrer em 1959, primeiro no album An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer, gravado ao vivo em Harvard e posteriormente (mas ainda no mesmo ano) num registo de estúdio, More Of Tom Lehrer.
Que este fim de semana seja de folia, como se tivéssemos passado no exame… Se não souberem o que fazer apareçam no SBES. Logo à noite sou eu quem vai explodir o laboratório montado no Coliseu. Apareçam. Se acharem necessário tragam cábulas.
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
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Kalium kalzium
Eisen magnesium
Mineral biotin
Zink selen l-carnitin
Adrenalin endorphin
Elektrolyt co-enzym
Carbo-hydrat protein
A-b-c-d vitamin
Kraftwerk – Vitamin
This week we go back to school, more precisely to Chemistry class. The periodic table of elements mixed with Madonna’s hit was the starting point. Admittedly a singular but honest as well jump start for this sixty-second M4we.
As I’m not a master in the quest for some sort of philosopher’s stone, I didn’t make a point of being fundamentalist either. Not all songs come from the periodic table. Many of the chosen elements are alloys of some sort, composed, connections with which Science has developed the contemporary world in which we live, glass, concrete, clay, stone, etc: Yukihiro Takahashi in a Glass recorded in 1981 on ニウロマンティック, album cataloged in the West as Neuromantic; Debbie Harry catapulting Blondie to stardom with Heart of Glass; TK Records darling Willie George Hale aka Little Beaver and the track Concrete Jungle; the British pop band Unit Four Plus Two, who, for a week back in 1965, saw this Concrete and Clay at the top of the sales chart back home, plus Turn to Stone, an ultimate freakbeat nugget from down under recorded in 1968 by new zealanders Concrete Lamb and also chameleon master-of-disguise David Bowie with Breaking Glass, recorded live at the time of the Stage album. All this so I could let library rat David Byrne compile all this with love, affection and a cement mixer in the song Glass, Concrete & Stone, opener of his 2004 album Grown Backwards.
I couldn’t leave aside a few more good and well-regarded materials in the intricately engineered world of civil construction: cape verdean João Cirilo with Pó D’Terra and angolan Nuno Mindelis inviting Airto Moreira to record Brinca N’areia on his album Angola Blues put out last year. But I was forced to choose among so much material contained in the lyricisms of the players on the playlist. Schneider, Pierson and the Wilsons from Athens, Georgia, better known as The B-52’s, in Private Idaho have some lines that just had to be here: “Don’t let the chlorine in your eyes blind you to the awful surprise; Swimming round and round like the deadly hand of a radium clock at the bottom of the pool”. And if I left out Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny that Frank Zappa recorded with the Mothers of Invention in We’re Only In It For The Money, it was because I had to put the Cramps here with Uranium Rock:
Yes, that’s me in my long Cadillac
Headin’ down the road and I ain’t comin’ back
I ain’t no red light gonna make me stop
When I find that big uranium rock
I didn’t go for the obvious Radioactivity by Kraftwerk and as I already had JP Simões’ Radioactive Samba I could throw away a mega obscure reference to heavy water (deuterium oxide is a nuclear component with D2O or ²H2O as a formula) invoked by Thomas Dolby when he sings “drinking heavy water from a stone” in One of our Submarines. I preferred Your Gold Teeth by Steely Dan to so many other golden nuances with which musicians paint the pop canvas. More than one element is repeated, the table is periodic and sometimes it loops. Neon, a colorless noble gas with atomic number 10 (10 protons and 10 electrons) appears both in Neon Zebra by the Shonen Knife and in the obvious homage Jonathan Marr did this year to Neon Lights in the Blitzed compilation coordinated by Rusty Egan.
But going back to the gold rush that pop music “digs and mines” to the element that has the 79th position in the table, I think there isn’t really any more fashionable substance than gold and maybe that’s why I decided to still play in the intangibility of Barbra Streisand’s improbable duet with Kermit the frog in Rainbow Connection, a song written by Kenneth Ascher and Paul Williams for the soundtrack of The Muppet Movie premiered in 1979. Although rainbows are optical phenomena in the field of physics, legends say that at the end of each one there’s supposed to be a pot full of gold. I think that’s enough to include this wonderful song here.
A few choices seem to be more from some sort of comic book universe than the classroom, but which nevertheless preserve a nerdy academic side: the Wings with Magneto and Titanium Man or Daniele Torchio who, when signing as Captain Torkive, recorded in 1979 this Krypton chosen here. But there are also some choices that feel much more materialistic, directly related to another “vile” metal: copper. If Brass and Bongos by Syd Dale, Elliot Ireland & Alessandro Rizzo is instrumental in “shaking the coin purse”, what about Brass in Pocket, the big hit from the Pretenders’ debut album?Let’s not forget that “brass” is a northern English expression for money, possibly from the time when “dark coins” (coppers) were still worth something…
Balloons are full of helium, and so is every star
Stars are mostly hydrogen, which may someday fill your car
Hey, who let in all these elephants?
Did you know that elephants are made of elements?
Elephants are mostly made of four elements
And every living thing is mostly made of four elements
Plants, bugs, birds, fish, bacteria and men
Are mostly carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen
Come on come on and meet the elements
You and I are complicated, but we’re made of elements
They Might Be Giants’ Meet the Elements is featured on the 2009 Here Comes Science album. This was the New York band’s fourth children’s music album and even a science consultant was called in on the project because, as John Flansburgh admitted, “frankly, I was a terrible science student in high school. My last memory of the periodic table was right before I lost consciousness.” It seems like a direct response and homage to The Elements, song chosen to close this M4we and originally published by Tom Lehrer in 1959, first on An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer, recorded live at Harvard and later (but still that same year) on a studio album, More Of Tom Lehrer.
May this weekend be one of fun, as if we had passed the exam… If you don’t know what to do, show up at the SBES. Later tonight, I’m the one who’s going to blow-up the laboratory set up in Coliseu. Show up and if you find it necessary bring cheat sheets.
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
Ann Wilson & The Daybreaks – Through Eyes and Glass
They Might Be Giants – Meet the Elements
Paolo Nutini – Pencil Full of Lead
Chrissy Zebby Tembo – I’m Not Made of Iron
The The – Sodium Light Baby
Pretenders – Brass in Pocket
Prince & The New Power Generation – Diamonds And Pearls
Pierre Arvay – Cobalt 60
David Byrne – Glass, Concrete & Stone
João Cirilo – Pó D’Terra
Emma-Jean Thackray – Mercury
Captain Torkive – Krypton
Kraftwerk – Vitamin
Les Paul – Steel Guitar Rag
David Bowie – Breaking Glass (Live)
Aphrodelics – Rollin On Chrome (K&D Wild Motherfucker Dub)
Holger Czukay – Ride a Radiowave
JP Simões – Samba Radioactivo
Nuno Mindelis – Brinca N’areia feat. Airto Moreira
Wings – Magneto and Titanium Man
Shonen Knife – Neon Zebra
Unit Four Plus Two – Concrete and Clay
Sweet – Love Is Like Oxygen
Edith Johnson – Nickel’s Worth Of Liver Blues
Steely Dan – Your Gold Teeth
Ikue Mori, Brian Marsella and Sae Hashimoto – Lapis Lazuli
Jono Ma – Neon Lights (In Homage)
Blondie – Heart of Glass (12″version)
Yukihiro Takahashi – Glass
Leonard Cohen – Iodine
Maximum Joy – In The Air (Extended Version)
Antsy McClain and The Trailer Park Troubadours – Cubic Zirconium in the Rough
Syd Dale, Elliot Ireland & Alessandro Rizzo – Brass and Bongos
The B-52’s – Private Idaho (Live at the Pavillion)
The Cramps – Uranium Rock
Coven – One Tin Soldier
Concrete Lamb – Turn to Stone
Little Beaver – Concrete Jungle
Barbra Streisand with Kermit the Frog – Rainbow Connection
Tom Lehrer – The Elements