#071
Faites vos jeux, rien ne va plus!
Oh, there’s black jack and poker and the roulette wheel
A fortune won and lost on every deal
All you need’s a strong heart and a nerve of steel
Viva Las Vegas, viva Las Vegas
Elvis Presley – Viva Las Vegas
A expressão Faites vos jeux, rien ne va plus! surgiu no século XVII, quando da criação do jogo de roleta porque antes de cada novo lançamento o croupier assinalava o encerramento do tempo para jogar avisando assim cada apostador que era agora ou nunca que tinham de investir na cor ou no número que achavam ser “ganhador”.
Imagens glamorosas de um espião com “ordem para matar ou engatar” não nos deviam dissuadir da percepção dos nocivos efeitos que o vício do jogo tem na vida de tanta gente. A pressão de conquista faz-se sentir até mesmo no xadrez, com o relógio a marcar ponto, continuo, guardião do tempo, que teima em ir passando, sem mostrar um “lucky break”, a sorte a bafejar quem arrisca, nas palavras do actor, produtor e guionista Don Simpson it’s not how you play the game, it’s how you place the blame.
O meu pai supostamente gostava de jogar. A mim nunca me assistiu tal coisa. Joguei rugby, não gostava de futebol (mesmo assim escolhi esta semana uma estranha forma de blues chamada Football Game do disco Crazy Clown Time de David Lynch). Joguei muita moeda de vinte-e-cinco-tostões nas arcades da cidade. Space Invaders, Breakout, Galaga, Q-Bert, Defender, alguns deles jogos para a Atari VCS, mas como em casa “não tinha alí” era no Restauradores que a coisa se desenrolava. Hoje é uma manhosa loja da Levi’s, ali ao lado do complexo que destruiu o Éden de Cassiano. Talvez por isso encadeei Computer Game Theme from The Invader do primeiro disco dos YMO com o Computer Games que dava título ao album que George Clinton gravou em 1982. Isto, nem que de propósito, na semana em que sai a notícia da intenção da Microsoft querer comprar a Activision Blizzard por US$ 69 biliões.
Nunca meti uma ficha que fosse numa slot machine, “bandido-maneta” do desespero, não acho graça à coisa. Talvez as poucas vezes que achei piada de estar num casino, foi para cantar com os Nouvelle Vague no Estoril e, há muitos anos, no antigo flutuante de Macau. Não gosto de perder, como diz a crença popular, nem a feijões. No entanto acho que a derrota faz parte da vida. E se for para ter azar ao jogo então talvez seja por uma abençoada boa sorte no amor. Não deixo de ver a coisa um pouco como o mestre Michael Jordan: I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
Começo esta semana com Blackjack, da banda sonora escrita por Jack Ashford e Robert White para um filme blaxploitation de 1978 e até ao apito final tudo é jogo… sigo logo para os portugueses Álamos com Stop That Game, segundo de dois 7” gravados para a Sonoplay em 1969. E depois vou tentando a sorte com tudo o que seja apanágio e parangona para sorte e azar. Peter Gabriel em modo it’s a knockout com Games Without Frontiers; o Armando Teixeira como Balla e a canção A Meu Favor; Die Tausend Augen Des Mabuse, relação mantida pelos Propaganda com o maléfico doutor jogador dos filmes de Fritz Lang ou mesmo What Game Shall We Play Today? do disco Return to Forever, marco histórico datado de 1972 no jazz de fusão, que deu nome ao conjunto que uniu Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Joe Farrell, Airto Moreira e Flora Purim e hoje justamente considerado como um dos grandes clássicos do jazz eléctrico.
Black cats creep across my path
Until I’m almost mad
I must have ‘roused the devil’s wrath
Cause all my luck is bad
I make a date for golf and you can bet your life it rains
I try to give a party and the guy upstairs complains
I guess I’ll go through life
Just catchin’ colds and missin’ trains
Everything happens to me
I never miss a thing
I’ve had the measles and the mumps
And every time I play an ace
My partner always trumps
Guess I’m just a fool who never looks before he jumps
Escrito por Hoagy Carmichael e Johnny Mercer Everything Happens To Me numa remistura pela dupla Gonzales e Renaud Letang é o tema interpretado por Chet Baker que fui “biscar” ao album Jazz In Paris Remixed. Já mais à frente escolhi Poker Para Un Perdedor, single de 1983 do cantor asturiano José Celestino Casal Álvarez, mais conhecido na vizinha Espanha como Tino Casal e que nos tempos da movida madrileña não só gravava discos pop de sucesso como também pintava e ajudava outros artistas, como o seu amigo Almodóvar para quem desempenhou o papel de produtor e mecenas financeiro do filme Labirinto de Pasiones, o qual lhe valeu uma das suas posteriores imagens de marca, la chaqueta roja usada no filme pelo actor Imanol Arias, o pantone vermelho em pandã com o LP do ano seguinte de nome Hielo Rojo.
You can’t break the rules until you know how to play the game cantava Rickie Lee Jones logo no seu primeiro disco como se tivesse a dar-me instruções sobre baseball, esse jogo do qual nunca percebi as regras mas do qual profundamente adoro as vestes e assim como a forma como o campo supostamente em forma de diamante melhor explica a straight face com que Bogie afirmava que “um cachorro quente no estádio é melhor do que um bife no Ritz”. E a prova absoluta disso é a Doris Day, em conjunto com o Ronald Reagan e o Bob Crosby implorando Take Me Out to the Ball Game.
Do outro lado da mesa de jogo, o hustler Paul Newman afirma que if you’re playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can’t tell who the sucker is, it’s you. E aproveitando a deixa disparo uma trovoada de sortudos sucker punches: Judy Garland a cantar Lucky Day; Annie Ross e Zoot Sims com I’m Just a Lucky So and So; o popcorn hit Lucky Me por Chance Halladay ou mesmo Dá Sorte, tema escondido na manga de Elis Regina no seu primeiro disco editado em 1961 pela Continental e que nas re-edições se chama Nasce uma Estrela mas cujo o titulo original é Viva A Brotolândia. Quando foi lançado Elis tinha apenas 16 anos e a critica não foi lá muito benevolente, com Rossini Pinto do periódico carioca Correio da Manhã a descrever a seleção de canções “as mais pobres possíveis” e que os rocks e calypsos incluídos eram “horríveis”. Discordo profundamente
Chaque joueur doit accepter les cartes que la vie lui distribue. Mais une fois qu’il les a en main, lui seul peut décider comment jouer ses cartes pour gagner la partie. – Voltaire
Spiel ist aus
Gioco finito
ゲームオーバー
Umdlalo uphelile
Fi del joc
Игра закончена
Pau ka pāʻani
Gem drosodd
Game Over
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
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Oh, there’s black jack and poker and the roulette wheel
A fortune won and lost on every deal
All you need’s a strong heart and a nerve of steel
Viva Las Vegas, viva Las Vegas
Elvis Presley – Viva Las Vegas
Faites vos jeux, rien ne va plus! was said for the very first time somewhere in the 17th century, more or less when the game of roulette was created, before each new turn of the wheel the croupier would that way signal each gambler that it was now or never that they had to invest in what they thought as a “winning” color or number.
Glamorous images of a spy “with a license to kill or score” should not dissuade us from recognizing the hurtful effects that any gambling addiction has on people’s lives. This compulsion to triumph is felt even in chess, with the clock ticking, continuous guardian of time, insisting on ticking, sometimes without displaying a single “lucky break”, fortune beckons those who take risks, for in the words of actor, producer and screenwriter Don Simpson it’s not how you play the game, it’s how you place the blame.
My father supposedly liked to gamble.But that’s a bug that never bit me. I played rugby, I didn’t like football (even so this week I chose “a strange form” of blues called Football Game from David Lynch’s Crazy Clown Time album). I threw a lot of twenty-five-cents in arcades when younger. Space Invaders, Breakout, Galaga, Q-Bert, Defender, some of them games for the Atari VCS, but at home “there wasn’t one” so all this unfolded in Restauradores. Today in its place a Levi’s store, right next to the complex that destroyed Cassiano’s Éden Cine-Teatro. Maybe that’s why I joined Computer Game Theme from The Invader from YMO’s first album with Computer Games, name-dropping the album recorded by George Clinton in 1982. This, as if on on purpose, the same week that news came out informing us of Microsoft’s intention on buying Activision Blizzard for a pornographic sum of $69 billion.
I’ve never put a chip into a slot machine, “one-armed bandits” of despair, I really get no kick out of it. Perhaps the few times I found it cool to be in a casino, it was while singing with Nouvelle Vague in Estoril and, many years before, on the old floating one in Macau. I don’t like to lose, as popular belief says, even “if just betting beans”. However, I think losing is part of everyday life, he who’s unsuccessful at play may feel blessed luck when in love. I can’t help but see it a bit like master Michael Jordan: I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
I start this week with Blackjack, taken from the soundtrack written by Jack Ashford and Robert White for a 1978 blaxploitation film and from then on and until the final whistle everything is a game… i segue into portuguese band Álamos and Stop That Game, second of two 7” recorded for the Sonoplay label in 1969. From then on I try my luck with everything that is a prerogative and paragon for good and bad luck. Peter Gabriel playing a it’s a knockout model with Games Without Frontiers; Armando Teixeira as Balla and the song A Meu Favor; Die Tausend Augen Des Mabuse, a relationship maintained by Propaganda with the evil spieler doctor from Fritz Lang’s films or even What Game Shall We Play Today? from the album Return to Forever, a landmark in fusion jazz dating back to 1972, which gave its name to the group bringing together Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Joe Farrell, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim and today rightly considered one of the great classics of electric jazz.
Black cats creep across my path
Until I’m almost mad
I must have ‘roused the devil’s wrath
Cause all my luck is bad
I make a date for golf and you can bet your life it rains
I try to give a party and the guy upstairs complains
I guess I’ll go through life
Just catchin’ colds and missin’ trains
Everything happens to me
I never miss a thing
I’ve had the measles and the mumps
And every time I play an ace
My partner always trumps
Guess I’m just a fool who never looks before he jumps
Written by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer Everything Happens To Me in a remix by the duo Gonzales and Renaud Letang is the tune performed by Chet Baker that I “dealt” from the album Jazz In Paris Remixed. Further on, I chose Poker Para Un Perdedor, a 1983 single by asturian singer José Celestino Casal Álvarez, better known in neighbouring Spain as Tino Casal and who at the times of the movida madrileña not only recorded successful pop albums but also painted and helped out other artists, like his friend Almodóvar for whom he played the role of producer and financial patron of the film Labirinto de Pasiones, which earned him one of his later brand images, la chaqueta roja used in that film by actor Imanol Arias, the red pantone in tandem with the following year’s album, titled Hielo Rojo.
You can’t break the rules until you know how to play the game sang Rickie Lee Jones on her first album as if giving me clues on baseball, that game of which I never understood the rules but of which I deeply adore the attire and how the supposedly diamond-shaped field best explains Bogie’s straight face that “a hot dog at the stadium is better than a steak at the Ritz.” As possible absolute proof of that is Doris Day, together with Ronald Reagan and Bob Crosby short of begging Take Me Out to the Ball Game.
Across the table, hustler Paul Newman states that if you’re playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can’t tell who the sucker is, it’s you. Taking advantage of the cue, I shoot a thunderstorm of lucky sucker punches: Judy Garland singing Lucky Day; Annie Ross and Zoot Sims with I’m Just a Lucky So and So; the popcorn hit Lucky Me by Chance Halladay or even Dá Sorte, a song hidden up Elis Regina’s sleeve on her first album released by Continental in 1961and which in re-editions is called Nasce uma Estrela but whose original title is Viva A Brotolândia. When it was released Elis was only 16 years old and the critics were not very benevolent, with Rossini Pinto, of Rio de Janeiro’s daily Correio da Manhã, describing the selection of songs as “the poorest possible” and that all rock and calypsos included were “horrible”. I totally disagree.
Chaque joueur doit accepter les cartes que la vie lui distribue. Mais une fois qu’il les a en main, lui seul peut décider comment jouer ses cartes pour gagner la partie. – Voltaire
Spiel ist aus
Gioco finito
ゲームオーバー
Umdlalo uphelile
Fi del joc
Игра закончена
Pau ka pāʻani
Gem drosodd
Game Over
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
Jack Ashford and Robert White – Blackjack
Álamos – Stop that Game
Robert Palmer – Looking For Clues
Tatsuhiko Yamamoto – 恋のマッド·ゲーム
Lerdy Hutson – Lucky Fellow
Ralph Myerz & The Jack Herren Band – Casino
Peter Gabriel – Games Without Frontiers
Balla – A Meu Favor
Chance Halladay – Lucky Me
Elvis Presley with The Jordanaires – Viva Las Vegas
Blues Trottoir – Poker
Chet Baker – Everything Happens To Me (Remixed by VV (Gonzales & Renaud Letang))
Doris Day – Take Me Out to the Ball Game (with Ronald Reagan and Bob Crosby)
Charlie Haden Quartet West – If I’m Lucky feat. Melody Gardot
Burt Bacharach – Dream On James, You’re Winning
Dorothy Ashby – Games
Propaganda – Die Tausend Augen Des Mabuse
YMO – Computer Game Theme from The Invader
George Clinton – Computer Games
Chick Corea – What Game Shall We Play Today?
The Wiseguys – Casino “Sans Pareil”
Samir & Abboud – Games
Judy Garland – Lucky Day
Willie Nelson – Luck Be a Lady
Haruko Kuwana – Chance
David Lynch – Football Game
Barry White – Playing Your Game, Baby
Annie Ross & Zoot Sims – I’m Just a Lucky So and So
Casal – Poker Para Un Perdedor
The Yardbirds – Little Games
Elis Regina com Orquestra de Severino Filho – Dá Sorte
The Artist (Formerly Known As Prince) – Silly Game
The Casino Royal – Casino West
Mel Tormé – Games People Play
Lene Lovich – Lucky Number (Slavic dance version)
Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox feat. Kelley Jackle – Poker Face
The Stylists – The Jackpot
OTherlover – Ball Games (OTherlover Edit)
Red River Boys – The Red Deck of Cards
Fleetwood Mac – Future Games