#079
Flower Power & Bouquet Naturalis
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.
William Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Engraçado, a semana passada escolhia música sobre o dia e a noite. Da mesma forma como sem escuridão nada nasce também sem luz nada medra e por isso sigo esta semana na senda do colorido e perfumado mundo em que a pop floresce em canções que nos lembram o nosso lugar na Natureza, quarenta grinaldas sónicas para felicidade de quem as ouça. E escolho, hastes solitárias ou corolários odoríficos de cores vivas, nata e fina flor do engenho musical.
Começo com A Mellow Mood for Maidenhair de Mort Garson de quem já havia aqui escolhido um outro tema do LP Mother Earth’s Plantasia editado em 1976, album inteiramente composto de temas supostamente realizados num Moog para serem ouvidos por plantas. Sem grande reconhecimento na altura, era oferecido a quem comprasse uma planta na loja Mother Earth em Melrose Avenue, LA (ou quem comprasse um colchão da marca Simmons no Sears?). Veio a adquirir um certo estatuto de culto culminando nas re-edições da Sacred Bones em vinil, cassete e cartucho 8 pistas. Como dizia Ralph Waldo Emerson, “a Terra ri em flores”.
Expurgo um pouco de flor de sal na retórica e vou colhendo frutos deste arranjo, o milagre é que rosas são muitas e por isso aqui deixo as escolhidas, Japanese Rose que Luisa Sobral gravou em There’s a Flower in my Bedroom; Lynn Anderson com (I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden ou Katie Melua em Mary Pickford (Used To Eat Roses). Apesar de ser flor que se cheire, por motivo de falta de espaço acabei por deixar fora do ramalhete imensas outras rosáceas.
E assim pude podar mais umas quantas coisas: o dente-de-leão, dandelion que vim a a conhecer e apreciar nos anos em que vivi em Londres, da familia das margaridas e que aqui empata com a rosa. A Dandelion Dies In The Wind retirado do trigésimo primeiro album gravado por Elton John, que no entanto foi gravado em 1967 mas que nunca havia sido editado até ao Record Store Day do ano passado concluindo uma edição mais largada em Julho deste ano. Ou a Vegetable Orchestra, fundada em 1998 em Viena e composta por dez músicos, um cozinheiro e um técnico de som. Os seus instrumentos são todos feitos de vegetais produzindo um sincopado isomorfismo sonoro como o Dandelion Goes Deeper (Frank Martiniq Mix) que aqui escolhi. Ou até mesmo o simples Dandelion dos Rolling Stones. Aproveito para lembrar a quem vá brevemente ao Reino Unido para provar a obscura gasosa D&B, dandelion and burdock e que fazia a minhas delícias quando lá vivia.
Butterflies are not insects,’ Captain John Sterling said soberly. ‘They are self-propelled flowers.
Robert A. Heinlein – The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
E continuo num modo que é assim entre cirandar pelo Botânico ou andar às compras na Romeira: Tatsuro Yamashita com Morning Glory e Noël Coward com London Pride; o mestre Morricone com Dulce Pontes a cantar I Girasoli ou Stevie Wonder em The Journey Through the Life of Plants em Venus’ Flytrap and the Bug. Da banda sonora da Musica no Coração a Julie Andrews a entreter a familia Von Trapp com Edelweiss ou mesmo Fruko y sus Tesos no afrosound colombiano de Flores Silvestres.
David Sylvian e Ryuichi Sakamoto, nenhum deles flor de estufa mas encantadoramente frágeis em The Scent Of Magnolia, ou um macho Sinatra ainda na flor da idade com a Violets for Your Furs com que desfecha o disco Songs for Young Lovers de 1954. Meia década depois, em 1961, o IBM 7094 tornou-se o primeiro computador a cantar, cantando exactamente a música com que me preparo para o fim desta m4we, Daisy Bell, composta por Harry Dacre em 1892. A vocalização foi programada por John Kelly e Carol Lockbaum e o acompanhamento por Max Mathews. E assim nasceu a inspiração para a cena final com o Hal 9000 no clássico de Kubrick, 2001: Uma Odisseia no Espaço.
The dew had finished making love to many
A rainbow smelling sweet was in the air
I envied all the silence I saw growing
So unmoved by things outside of themselves
And how I wished that I could come back as a flower
To spread the sweetness of love
No caso de nunca terem lido deixo aqui a recomendação de darem uma snifadela pelas páginas de Plant Love: The Scandalous Truth About the Sex Life of Plants de Michael Allaby, verdadeiro kama sutra botânico e que deixa qualquer um que o leia com a explicação de porque é que esta semana fecho mesmo o raminho com o post bop do Keith Brown Trio com Come Back As a Flower na voz da convidada Melanie Charles, versão de outra música cantada originalmente por Syreeta no album de Stevie Wonder atrás mencionado. Envolto em mil perfumes, despeço-me, desejando-vos um floral fim de semana.
Prefiro a derrota com o conhecimento da beleza das flores, que a vitória no meio dos desertos, cheia da cegueira da alma a sós com a sua nulidade separada.
Fernando Pessoa – Livro do Desassossego
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
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I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.
William Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Picture this, last week I was picking music about day and night. But In the same way that without darkness nothing is born, without light nothing grows and that’s why this week I’m following the path of the colourful and fragrant world in which pop flourishes in songs that remind us of our place in Nature, forty sonic wreaths for the happiness of those who listen.. And I choose, solitary stems or scented corollaries of bright colours, cream of the flowering crops of musical acumen.
I start with A Mellow Mood for Maidenhair by Mort Garson, from whom I had already chosen another theme from the LP Mother Earth’s Plantasia released in 1976, an album entirely composed of themes supposedly made with a Moog but to be heard by plants. Without much recognition at the time, it was offered to anyone who bought a plant at the Mother Earth store on Melrose Avenue, LA (or to whom buying a Simmons mattress at Sears?). It came to acquire a certain cult status culminating in the re-editions by Sacred Bones on vinyl, cassette and 8-track cartridge. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “the earth laughs in flowers”.
I purge a little fleur de sel in the rhetoric and I reap the fruits of this arrangement, the miracle is that there are many roses and that’s why here I leave only a few chosen ones, Japanese Rose that Luisa Sobral recorded in There’s a Flower in my Bedroom; Lynn Anderson with (I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden or Katie Melua in Mary Pickford (Used To Eat Roses). Despite being a well smelled flower, due to lack of space I ended up throwing many other stems out of the window.
And so I was able to prune a few more things: the dandelion that I came to know and appreciate in the years I lived in London, from the daisy family and which here ties with the rose in number of picks. A Dandelion Dies In The Wind taken from the thirty-first album recorded by Elton John, which was however recorded in 1967 but had never been released until Record Store Day last year, concluding a longer edition in July this year. Or the Vegetable Orchestra, founded in 1998 in Vienna and made up of ten musicians, a cook and a sound technician. Their instruments are all made of vegetables producing a syncopated sound isomorphism like in the Dandelion Goes Deeper (Frank Martiniq Mix) that I selected here. Or even the humble Dandelion by the Rolling Stones. I would like to take this opportunity to remind anyone going to the UK to taste the obscure carbonated D&B drink, made of dandelion and burdock extracts, which I very much enjoyed while I lived there.
Butterflies are not insects,’ Captain John Sterling said soberly. ‘They are self-propelled flowers.
Robert A. Heinlein – The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
And I keep going in a mode that’s like between strolling through the Botanical and shopping in Romeira: Tatsuro Yamashita with Morning Glory and Noël Coward with London Pride; master Morricone with Dulce Pontes singing I Girasoli or Stevie Wonder in The Journey Through the Life of Plants with Venus’ Flytrap and the Bug. From the soundtrack of Musica no Coração to Julie Andrews entertaining the Von Trapp family with Edelweiss or even Fruko y sus Tesos in the Colombian afrosound of Flores Silvestres.
David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto, neither hothouse flowers but charmingly fragile in The Scent Of Magnolia, or a male Sinatra still in his prime with Violets for Your Furs with which he closes the album Songs for Young Lovers from 1954. Half a decade later , in 1961, the IBM 7094 became the first computer to sing, singing exactly the song with which I begin the end of this m4we, Daisy Bell, composed by Harry Dacre in 1892. The vocalisation was programmed by John Kelly and Carol Lockbaum and the accompaniment by Max Mathews. And so was born the inspiration for the final scene with Hal 9000 in Kubrick’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The dew had finished making love to many
A rainbow smelling sweet was in the air
I envied all the silence I saw growing
So unmoved by things outside of themselves
And how I wished that I could come back as a flower
To spread the sweetness of love
In case you haven’t read it, I recommend you to sniff through the pages of Plant Love: The Scandalous Truth About the Sex Life of Plants by Michael Allaby, a true botanical kama sutra that leaves anyone who reads it with an explanation to my decision of closing this week’s selection in a tight branch with Keith Brown Trio’s post bop of Come Back As a Flower in the voice of his guest Melanie Charles, a version of a song originally sung by Syreeta on the aforementioned Stevie Wonder album. Wrapped in a thousand perfumes, I say goodbye, wishing you a floral weekend.
Prefiro a derrota com o conhecimento da beleza das flores, que a vitória no meio dos desertos, cheia da cegueira da alma a sós com a sua nulidade separada.
Fernando Pessoa – Livro do Desassossego
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
Mort Garson – A Mellow Mood for Maidenhair
Novos Baianos – Se Eu Quiser Eu Compro Flores
Elton John – A Dandelion Dies In The Wind
Andy Capp – Poppy Show
Ennio Morricone & Dulce Pontes – I Girasoli
David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto – The Scent Of Magnolia
Julia Lee & Her Boy Friends – Lotus Blossom
Frank Sinatra – Violets for Your Furs
Katie Melua – Mary Pickford (Used To Eat Roses)
Stackridge – Marigold Conjunction
Stereophonics – Daisy Lane
Grupo 5 – Uma Canção Tal Como A Flor
Narf Zayd – El Paseo de Las Flores (Salomar 2000 Mix)
Tatsuro Yamashita – Morning Glory
Melody Louledjian & Antoine Paloc – Catalogue de fleurs, Op. 60- VI. Le Brachycome
Stevie Wonder – Venus’ Flytrap and the Bug
The Vegetable Orchestra – Dandelion Goes Deeper (Frank Martiniq Mix)
Kate Bush – Lily
Julie Andrews – Edelweiss
Mark Ronson – Daffodils ft. Kevin Parker
Manuela Moura Guedes – Flor Sonhada
Lynn Anderson – (I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden
Bob Luman – Buttercup
The Andrews Sisters – Tulip Time
Luli Lucinha e o Bando – Flor Lilás (Kenny Dope Remix)
John Type – Sunflower Lola (Fromwood Black Orchid Remix)
Sly5thAve – Poinciana
Filarmonica Fraude – Flôr de Laranjeira
The Rolling Stones – Dandelion
Andrew Wasylyk – Avril Hydrangeas
Hinako Omori – The Richest Garden in your Memory
Bob Dylan – Wallflower
bawab & Sydka – Orchid
Vanessa Daou – Flower Of My Fears
Sandra De Sá – Negra Flor
Fruko y sus Tesos – Flores Silvestres
Luisa Sobral – Japanese Rose
Noël Coward – London Pride
IBM 7094 – Daisy Bell
Keith Brown Trio – Come Back As a Flower