The second Reading List comprises reading choices by my friend, at times co-songwriter, and fellow avid reader Francisco Silva. Francisco laid to rest his old (pun intended) music composition Old Jerusalem and has been taking off in new directions with The June Carriers and Velho Homem. In Francisco’s own words.
Some of my musical reading material… :
Warren Ellis – Nina Simone’s Gum: A Memoir of Things Lost and Found is a picaresque story of the amulet engendered by Warren Ellis as an excuse to digress about music, creativity, humanity, etc.
Whyndam Wallace – Lee, Myself & I: Inside The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood is Lee Hazlewood’s life story as retold by his former manager, journalist Wyndham Wallace.
Bruce Adams – You’re With Stupid, the Chicago scene and the Kranky label by the quill of one of its founders, Bruce Adams.
Various – Rock Rendez Vous the photos of the iconic Lisbon club (and the portrait of an era).Rob Young – Electric Eden a detailed and multifaceted story of British folk music and its context.
Harold F. Eggers – My years with Townes van Zandt: Music, Genius and Rage” – the uncanny account of Harold F. Eggers’ time as road manager to Townes van Zandt in his prime and beyond it – an assignment that only a Vietnam veteran could tackle.
Ian Preece – Listening to the Wind: Encounters with 21st Century Independent Record Labels. Interviews and profiling of some of the most interesting (obscure?) independent record labels of our time: Light In The Attic, Thrill Jockey, International Anthem, Touch, Sublime Frequencies, Temporary Residence, Important, Paradise of Bachelors, Scissor Tail, among others.
… and two extraordinary graphic novels: the hitherto rare Storyville by Frank Santoro and the amazing Rusty Brown (but it could also be the just as beautiful – if not more so – Jimmy Corrigan) by Chris Ware.
Monday, 8th April 2024, 3-4pm (gmt+1)Running Tracklist: 01 – Raquel Pinheiro – Big Bang (radio edit) 02 – Old Jerusalem – Red sun over the interstate 03 – Franz Schubert – Erlkönig, (Op. 1, D. 328 – Wer reitet so spät sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau) 04 – The Modern Lovers – Dodge Veg o-matic 05 – Bernard Butler – Camber Sands 06 – The Fugs – Bartleby The Scrivener 07 – Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 08 – David Gray – Say Hello, Wave Goodbye (Soft Cell cover) 09 – The Beatles – Drive My Car 10 – The Clash – Lost In The Supermarket 11 – Kings of Leon – Going Nowhere (live in Nashville) 12 – Siouxie & The Banshees – The Passenger (Iggy Pop cover) 13 – The Proclaimers – I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) (2011 remaster) 14 – Aaron Copland – Going to Heaven! (Emily Dickinson poem, sung by Sanford Sylvan) 15 – Little Eve – The Loco-Motion (remaster) 16 – The June Carriers – Pastoral Epigraph
Old Jerusalem – Breeding angels – drawing by Francisco Silva
My Amazing Songs & Other Delights #63 – The Say Hello, Wave Goodbye edition is tomorrow Monday, 8th, 3-4pm (gmt+1) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
The title comes from the Soft Cell song of the same name, here on a cover by David Gray. The meaning refers to saying hello to something new, goodbye to an old, beloved one. In this case, the old beloved one is Old Jerusalem that Francisco Silva is retiring with a last concert on the 20th, at Socorro here in Porto. Old Jerusalem’s farewell includes Breeding angels, a demos album that contains Red sun over the interstate – that is also on this week’s programme – a song I have the previledge of known, and often sing on my own home, for a couple of years.
If Francisco is retiring Old Jerusalem, he is bringing, given birth, to The June Carriers that release their debut album Equanimity on the 10th. And now, beginnings and endings, and metting, and journeys, and the same thing, that yet is, but isn’t, become even more interesting.
My track Big Bang, that opens the show, has the exact same guitar line as The June Carriers’s Pastoral Epigraph, that closes the show. It is a travel from the The Big Bang, from the ends, or beginnings, of The Universe to Earth. The guitar, of course, is played be Francisco on both instrumentals. As for the why and how Francisco’s guitar line ended up on my track, on both tracks, that is for another day.
What my Big Bang and Then June Carriers’ Pastoral Epigraph shows is how the exact same guitar line, although easily recognisable, can feel so different depending of its surrounding, of the musical ambience and creation. Of how two people compose differently with the same guitar line (or any other same musical bit). Other than knowing I was going to use his guitar line, Francisco had no say, nor knew, what I was going to do with it. I didn’t have a clue how he was going to use it on what become The June Carriers’ first album.
My 16 choices for this The Say Hello, Wave Goodbye edition are all about travel, journeys, inner and outer, out in space, on our planet, far from home, standing still. The Modern Lovers’ Dodge Veg o-matic is probably the best going nowhere song ever. Bartleby, the immovable, “I prefer not to” scrivener of Henry Melville’s tale as his very fixed ideais regarding is life, his views, doing, moving, changing in ways others find normal is not for him.
Some journeys don’t end well. Like in the Erlkönig a Schubert lieder, with lyrics by Goethe, in which a father rides madly through the night, on horseback, with his son, whistle the Erlking is enticing the child, that tries to draw dad’s attention. The lieder ends with the blunt “In seinen Armen das Kind war tod” (roughly “in your arms the child is dead”.
Others have twist and turns. Diferentes in perspective, depending where we find ourselves. My photos of the maze from my favourite local park are taken from inside it and I know my way around it because I know from where the whole maze can be seen. However, on a foggy day, I may, and still get lost in it. The colour and black and photo illustrate the same thing seen in two different ways.
Tracklist: 01 – Raquel Pinheiro – Big Bang (radio edit) 02 – Old Jerusalem – Red sun over the interstate 03 – Franz Schubert – Erlkönig (Op. 1, D. 328 – Wer reitet so spät sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau) 04 – The Modern Lovers – Dodge Veg o-matic 05 – Bernard Butler – Camber Sands 06 – The Fugs – Bartleby The Scrivener 07 – Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 08 – David Gray – Say Hello, Wave Goodbye (Soft Cell cover) 09 – The Beatles – Drive My Car 10 – The Clash – Lost In The Supermarket 11 – Kings of Leon – Going Nowhere (live in Nashville) 12 – Siouxie & The Banshees – The Passenger (Iggy Pop cover) 13 – The Proclaimers – I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) (2011 remaster) 14 – Aaron Copland – Going to Heaven! (Emily Dickinson poem, sung by Sanford Sylvan) 15 – Little Eve – The Loco-Motion (remaster) 16 – The June Carriers – Pastoral Epigraph
Mondo Bizarre Magazine 