#069
A Real Mother for Ya
All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother
Abraham Lincoln
Logo no princípio do ano passado tinha a mão da minha mãe na minha quando ela se despediu desta vida. Foi um adeus simples, sem dor naquele momento, as lágrimas só vindo em soluço quando da missa na sua cremação uma semana depois.
Decidi assim fazer uma “carta”, uma escolha musical plena de piscadelas de olhos e memórias felizes. Começo com Fool’s Overture que encerra o disco Even In The Quietest Moments…, gravado em 1977 por uma banda da qual quase nunca fui muito à bola, os Supertramp. O engraçado é que este tema sempre foi a minha redenção com a banda fundada por Roger Hodgson, Rick Davies e Richard Palmer-James em 1969 desde que o ouvi na altura em que saiu. Dois anos depois a banda britânica aterrava para duas datas no Dramático de Cascais apresentando Breakfast in America. Já lá não meti os pés mas esta canção de quase 11 minutos já fazia parte do meu “léxico do amor”.
Passo logo para Patrice Louise Rushen e Remind Me, tema de Straight From The Heart, album publicado em 1982 e que muita rotação teve no programa Discoteca de Adelino Gonçalves transmitido na Rádio Comercial nos anos 80. Rushen, uma magnífica cantora e instrumentalista (piano, flauta e clarinete) ganhou notoriedade saído vitoriosa da competição no Festival de Jazz de Monterey em 1972. Nos anos seguintes gravou três discos para a Prestige até assinar com a Elektra em 1978. Este era o seu quarto para a companhia fundada por Jac Holzman e Number One (Instrumental) e Forget Me Nots são dois temas desse disco que na altura receberam nomeações para Grammy. A segunda tem vida própria posterior no jogo quem-samplou-quem-usou-quando: em 1988 sonorizando a cena do trampolim no filme Big, mas posteriormente o refrão foi usado como base para o tema do filme Men in Black de 1997 com Rushen a ser creditada como escritora e compositora, junto com Will Smith e Terri McFadden. O mesmíssimo refrão já tinha sido ouvido na música Fastlove, segundo single de Older, disco de George Michael saído em 1996.
E a terceira escolha é Chrysalis, gravado pelos canadianos Tush no LP Fantast. Matt Bauer descreveu a faixa no site exclaim.ca como “a carpe-diem rush of retro video game soundtracks fused with potent house drive”. Esta estreia é de um groove contagiante e incendiário. Ouçam que vale a pena.
A partir daí a coisa começa a disparar num dialogo filho-mãe sem ponta de nuance edipiana. Juro. Mother Please! canta Jo Ann Campbell com resposta There’s Nothing Like This por Ash Walker. Os Hotcakes da Carly Simon são servidos na God’s Kitchen dos Blancmange. A minha favorita Céu diz Teimosa, Mira Clix responde que silence is silver, em minúsculas e em francês. Mamã é petit mot disseminado um pouco por todo o lado. E não era para menos já que só os termos familiares ou coloquiais para a palavra mãe são mais que muitos:
Ma (মা), Mata (মাতা), Amma (আম্মা), Ammu (আম্মু) usados no Bangladesh, Índia.
Aama, Mata no Nepal
Mom and mommy são palavras usadas nos Estados Unidos, Canadá, África do Sul e partes do West Midlands, incluindo Birmingham, no Reino Unido.
Inay, Nanay, Mama, Ma, Mom, Mommy são usados nas Filipinas
Mum, mommy e mama são usadas no Reino Unido, Canadá, Singapura, Austrália, Nova Zelândia, Índia, Paquistão, Hong Kong e Irlanda.
Ma, mam e mammy são usados na Holanda, Irlanda, áreas do norte do Reino Unido e País de Gales; também é usado em algumas áreas dos Estados Unidos.
E em muitos outros idiomas aplicam-se igualmente pronúncias semelhantes:
Amma (அம்மா) ou tailandês (தாய்) em Tamil.
Bi-ma (बिमा) em Bodo.
Maa, aai, amma e mata são usados em línguas da Índia como Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, etc.
Mamá, mama, ma e mami em espanhol.
Mama em polaco, alemão, holandês, russo e eslovaco.
Māma (妈妈 / 媽媽) em chinês.
Máma em checo e ucraniano
Maman em francês e persa
Ma, mama em indonésio
Mamaí em irlandês
Mamma em italiano, islandês, letão e sueco
Māman ou mādar em persa
Mãe ou mamãe em português
Mā̃ (ਮਾਂ) em Punjabi
Maa (ମା), Bou / Bau (ବୋଉ / ବଉ) em Odia
Mama em Swahili
Em (אם) em hebraico
Má ou mẹ em vietnamita
Mam em galês
Eomma (엄마, pronunciado [ʌmma]) em coreano
Para muitas culturas do sul da Ásia e do Oriente Médio, mãe é dita amma, oma, ammi, ou “ummi”, muitas vezes denotando afecto ou mesmo uma conectividade maternal na vida de uma criança.
Leiam a lista das músicas escolhidas, é um maná de afectuosas referencias à mulher que nos trouxe ao mundo: My Mothers Advice dos Sheiks; Tom Jones com My Mother’s Eyes; Mami Panchita na voz de Marisol e Grand-Maman c’est New-York na de Trenet. Mas as medalhas de ouro e prata vão para os The Flaming Lips com Mother I’ve Taken LSD e Troy Hess na novelty hillbilly Please Don’t Go Topless Mother. Acabo com Jack Bruce a dar o importante juízo de Never Tell Your Mother She’s Out Of Tune deixando para o final a banda sci-fi jazz The Comet Is Coming que em 2019 profetizaram o album Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery de onde retirei este apropriado Because the End Is Really the Beginning.
There are no goodbyes, wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.
Mahatma Gandhi
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
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All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother
Abraham Lincoln
Early last year I had my mother’s hand in mine when she said goodbye for good. It was a simple farewell, no pain at that moment, the tears only coming in sobs at mass at her cremation a week later.
So I decided to “write a letter” shaped as a musical selection, full of nudges, winks and happy memories. I start with Fool’s Overture, which ends the album Even In The Quietest Moments…, recorded in 1977 by a band that I hardly ever liked, Supertramp. The funny thing is that this tune has always been my redemption with the band founded by Roger Hodgson, Rick Davies and Richard Palmer-James in 1969 ever since I heard it when it came out. Two years later the British band landed for two dates at Dramático de Cascais to play Breakfast in America. I didn’t set foot there, but this song of almost 11 minutes long was already part of my “lexicon of love”.
I move on to Patrice Louise Rushen and Remind Me, track out of Straight From The Heart, an album published in 1982 and which had a lot of rotation in the Discoteca program by Adelino Gonçalves, broadcast on Rádio Comercial in the 80s. Rushen, a magnificent singer and instrumentalist (piano, flute and clarinet) gained notoriety out of winning the competition at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1972. In the following years she recorded three albums for the Prestige label before signing with Elektra in 1978. This was hers fourth for the company founded by Jac Holzman and Number One (Instrumental) and Forget Me Nots were two tracks on that record that at the time received Grammy nominations. The second has a later life of its own in the game who-sampled-who-used-it-when: in 1988 it set the trampoline scene in the movie Big, but later the chorus was used as the basis for the theme of the 1997 movie Men in Black with Rushen being credited as a writer and songwriter, along with Will Smith and Terri McFadden. The very same chorus had already been heard in the song Fastlove, second single taken out from Older, George Michael’s album released in 1996.
And my third choice is Chrysalis, recorded by the Canadians Tush on the LP Fantast. Matt Bauer described the track on exclaim.ca as “a carpe-diem rush of retro video game soundtracks fused with potent house drive”. This debut is filled with contagious and incendiary grooves. Hear it, it’s well worth it.
From there on things start to pulling a child-mother string dialogue with not an hint of oedipal nuance. I swear. Mother Please! sings Jo Ann Campbell with a response of There’s Nothing Like This by Ash Walker. Carly Simon’s Hotcakes are served in Blancmange’s God’s Kitchen. My favourite Céu says Teimosa (stubborn), Mira Clix replies silence is silver, all in lower caps and in French. Mom is a petit mot scattered a little bit everywhere. And it couldn’t be any other way, not this week as familiar or colloquial terms for mother are dime a dozen:
Ma(মা), Mata (মাতা), Amma (আম্মা), Ammu (আম্মু) used in Bangladesh, India.
Aama, Mata used in Nepal
Mom and mommy are used in the United States, Canada, South Africa, and parts of the West Midlands including Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
Inay, Nanay, Mama, Ma, Mom, Mommy are used in the Philippines
Mum and mummy and mama are used in the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong and Ireland.
Ma, mam, and mammy are used in Netherlands, Ireland, the Northern areas of the United Kingdom, and Wales; it is also used in some areas of the United States.
As well in many other languages similar pronunciations apply:
Amma (அம்மா) or Thai (தாய்) in Tamil.
Bi-ma (बिमा) in Bodo.
Maa, aai, amma, and mata are used in languages of India like Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu etc.
Mamá, mama, ma, and mami in Spanish
Mama in Polish, German, Dutch, Russian and Slovak
Māma (妈妈/媽媽) in Chinese
Máma in Czech and in Ukrainian
Maman in French and Persian
Ma, mama in Indonesian
Mamaí, mam in Irish
Mamma in Italian, Icelandic, Latvian and Swedish
Māman or mādar in Persian
Mãe or mamãe in Portuguese
Mā̃ (ਮਾਂ) in Punjabi
Maa(ମା), Bou/Bau(ବୋଉ/ବଉ) in Odia
Mama in Swahili
Em (אם) in Hebrew
Má or mẹ in Vietnamese
Mam in Welsh
Eomma (엄마, pronounced [ʌmma]) in Korean
In many south Asian cultures and the Middle East, the mother is known as amma, oma, ammi or “ummi”, or variations thereof. Many times, these terms denote affection or a maternal role in a child’s life.
Read the list of chosen songs, it is a bonanza of affectionate references to the woman who brought us to the world: My Mothers Advice by The Sheiks; Tom Jones with My Mother’s Eyes; Mami Panchita in Marisol’s voice and Grand-Maman c’est New-York in Trenet’s. But both gold and silver medals go to The Flaming Lips with Mother I’ve Taken LSD and Troy Hess in a hillbilly novelty called Please Don’t Go Topless Mother. I end up with Jack Bruce pushing forward the important advice of Never Tell Your Mother She’s Out Of Tune leaving for the end sci-fi jazz band The Comet Is Coming who in 2019 prophesied the Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery album from which I took this appropriate Because the End Is Really the Beginning.
There are no goodbyes, wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.
Mahatma Gandhi
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
Supertramp – Fool’s Overture
Patrice Rushen – Remind Me
Tush – Chrysalis
Jo Ann Campbell – Mother Please!
Ash Walker – There’s Nothing Like This
Carly Simon – Hotcakes
Marisol – Mami Panchita
Paul Simon – That Was Your Mother (Gui Boratto Remix)
You’ll Never Get to Heaven – Eye, Soul and Hand
Aztec Camera – All I Need Is Everything
Karel Gott – Ó, Mami, Dík (Mamy Blue)
Brix Smith & Marty Willson-Piper – Joys of You
Sheiks – My Mothers Advice
Céu – Teimosa
Cindy – My Mother
Thomas Oliemans – Et maintenant
Tom Jones – My Mother’s Eyes
Alexis Valet – Any Sunday with Her
Bryan Ferry – Slave to Love (Valique Remix)
Danan Hargeysa feat. Mohamed ‘Huro’ Abdihashi – Uur Hooyo (Mother’s Womb)
Carwyn Ellis & Rio 18 – Ble Aeth Yr Amser
Los Chichos – Mami
Rare Earth – Mothers Oats
Sweetwater – Motherless Child
Blancmange – God’s Kitchen
Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy – Icing On The Cake
Philippe Cohen Solal & Mike Lindsay – Can a Boy Forget His Mother
Mira Calix – silence is silver
Coast Social Orchestra. Leader, Alexander Ayub – Mamie Sistah Mai Deah (Mommy, Sister My Dear)
Vintage League Music – Helping Hand feat. Johnny Trama, The B3 Kings & Jesse Dee
The Flaming Lips – Mother I’ve Taken LSD
Troy Hess – Please Don’t Go Topless Mother
Benny Goodman with Billie Holiday – Your Mother’s Son In Law
Wilson Pickett – Night Owl
Charles Trenet - Grand-Maman c’est New-York
The Artist (Formerly Known As Prince) – Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother / Wife
Magoya – The Most Beautiful Lie feat. Ella Knight
Isata Kanneh-Mason – Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
Jack Bruce – Never Tell Your Mother She’s Out Of Tune
The Comet Is Coming – Because the End Is Really the Beginning