Author: Haim Roisenblatt
Composer: Shalom Secunda
Artist: Various, WJC among them
Zol Nokh Zayn Shabes
Oy, bobenyu, zog nokh nit "Got fun Avrom",
wos is do mir dir haynt der ayl?
In mayrivsayt is nokh di sun nit vargangn,
oy, bobenyu, wart nokh a wayl.
Zershter nit dem fridn, dem heylign Shabes
di shtile, di heylige ru.
Men zet nokh nit shaynen in himl keyn shtern,
oy, wart nokh a regele tzu.
Der "Got fun Avrom", er shpant uns tzurik ayn
in shvern togteglikhn yokh.
Tzu trogn dem goles, dem cheder, dem rebn
dem ol un di dayges fun wokh.
Dokh blaybt wi vershtaynert di bobe baym fenster
si is tzu mayn beytn wi toyb.
Oy "Got fun Avrom", un es kayklt arob sikh
a trer oyf der tunkeler shoyb.
Wunderbare Poesie zum Ende der arbeitsfreien Zeit und dem immer wieder beginnenden Anfang der Leiden und Anstrengungen. Die Sophistikation liegt darin, dass niemand die Anführungszeichen sprechen oder singen kann.
Unserem Chorleiter Roman Grinberg ist ein außerordentlich schönes Arrangement gelungen. Macht Spass und fühlt sich sehr gut an.
Author: Randy Newman
Artist: Randy Newman
Album: Little Criminals
Short People
wikip. classifies "Short People" as a Novelty Song and has these quite interesting facts: ...
Although Newman had never charted a single before and his previous album Good Old Boys had been his first to reach the Billboard Top 150, "Short People" soon gained attention as a novelty song, although some saw it as offensive. The song consequently became a major hit on radio, staying at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and being only kept from reaching #1 by Debby Boone's You Light Up My Life. ....
In 1978, legislation was introduced in the state of Maryland to make it illegal to play "Short People" on the radio. Contrary to popular myth, the bill did not pass....
As you might have expected but still disappointingly wikip. tries to milden the offense and so did the artist occasionally, as e.g. in an interview with the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star: "It was too bad that was my one big hit--a novelty record like The Chipmunks did," .... "It was a hit that did me no good, that did me harm. A bad break."
"The song became so popular," ... "that I'd watch a ball game on TV and they'd joke about it at half time. I was losing my sense of humor."
For the last twenty years Mr. Newman has worked mostly as a film composer and gained many prizes for that work including an Academy Award. He has scored many of Pixar's movies including Toy Story 1 & 2.
... The paternal side of his family includes three uncles who were noted Hollywood film-score composers: Alfred Newman, Lionel Newman and Emil Newman. Newman's cousins Thomas and David, and nephew Joey are also composers for motion pictures. ... Of all names: Alfred Newman, my ass.
Short People got no reason
Short People got no reason
Short People got no reason
To live
They got little hands
And little eyes
And they walk around
Tellin' great big lies
They got little noses
And tiny little teeth
They wear platform shoes
On their nasty little feet
Well, I don't want no Short People
Don't want no Short People
Don't want no Short People
Round here
Short People are just the same
As you and I
(A Fool Such As I)
All men are brothers
Until the day they die
(It's A Wonderful World)
Short People got nobody
Short People got nobody
Short People got nobody
To love
They got little baby legs
And they stand so low
You got to pick 'em up
Just to say hello
They got little cars
That go beep, beep, beep
They got little voices
Goin' peep, peep, peep
They got grubby little fingers
And dirty little minds
They're gonna get you every time
Well, I don't want no Short People
Don't want no Short People
Don't want no Short People
'Round here
Randy Newman is the first artist here that gets a second exposure. He maintains (or probably has it maintained) a nice if maybe a little boring blog styled website with all his lyrics and webcasts of quite a lot of parts of live performances. Many of those lyrics are very nice and so are the performances. It's mostly in RealMedia, which is a pity. Old fart stuff but so is he and so are we. Amen.
For a while I'll be done now with English lyrics that I am obsessed with a bit as I do not hesitate to admit. I shall take a bit more of trying on me and republish some German and Yiddish poetry here in this column. If you take a liking to this, read my lips. Still, i shall remain adamant in that I don't want no short people here.
Authors: Walter Becker & Donald Fagen
Artist: Steely Dan
Album: The Royal Scam
Haitian Divorce
Babs and clean Willie were in love they said
So in love the preacher's face turned red
Soon everybody knew the thing was dead
He shouts, she bites, they wrangle through the night
She go crazy
Got to make a getaway
And papa says
Aah - no hesitation
No tears and no hearts' breaking
No remorse
Ooh - congratulations
This is your haitian divorce
She takes the taxi to the good hotel
Bon marché as far as she can tell
She drinks the zombie from the cocoa shell
She feels alright, she get it on tonight
Mister driver
Take me where the music plays
And papa says
Aah - no hesitation
No tears and ...
At the grotto
In the greasy chair
Sits the Charlie with the lotion and the kinky hair
When she smiled, she said it all
The band was hot so
They danced the famous merengueo
Now we dolly back
Now we fade to black
Tearful reunion in the USA
Day by day those memories fade away
Some babies grow in a peculiar way
It changed, it grows, and everybody knows
Semi-mojo
Who's that kinky so-and-so?
And papa goes
Ooh - no hesitation
No tears and no hearts' breaking ...
Funny thing that one. Quintessential non-singing musical prodigy Walter B. in his old age allowing himself to sing on stage one of them numbers. Can't sing for 3 cents, I'm lovin' it nonetheless, makes me feel better about my own c-class singing.
14.03.2008, 08:45 Wie ein Hauch, der im All balanciert
Author: Georg Kreisler
Artist: Georg Kreisler
Album: Unheilbar Gesund
Wie Schön Wäre Wien Ohne Wiener
Wien is' a schöne schöne Stadt, das weiß alle Welt!
Aber wissen Sie, was mir ganz besonders g'fällt?
Weder der Stephansturm noch der Johann Strauss,
Nicht a Wiener G'spusi, schon gor ned die Musi,
nein, was ich am liebsten hab, ich sag's grad heraus:
Die Messer, die Messer! Die G'schäften san ganz voll davon!
In jeder Zahl, aus Edelstahl und aus der Monarchie.
Zum Schnitzen, zum Schlitzen, wohin man schaut auf Schritt und Tritt,
für'n Pudel, für'n Strudel und für die Chirurgie.
Wer Wien liebt, - und das tun doch heut die meisten Leut,
der denkt bei soviel Messer gleich an diese Möglichkeit:
Wie schön wäre Wien ohne Wiener!
So schön wie a schlafende Frau.
Der Stadtpark wär' sicher viel grüner,
und die Donau wär' endlich so blau.
Wie schön wäre Wien ohne Wiener,
ein Gewinn für den Fremdenverkehr!
Die Autos ständen stumm, das Riesenrad fallat um,
und die lauschigen Gassen warn leer,
in Grinzing endlich Ruh - und's Burgtheater zu!
Es wär herrlich, wie schön Wien dann wär.
Keine Baustelln, keine Schrammeln,
und im Fernsehn kein Programm!
Nur die Vogerln und die Pferderln
und die Hunterln und die Baam'.
Und wer durch dies' Paradies muß,
fände später als Legat
statt des Antisemitismus
nur ein Antiquariat.
Weder Krankheit noch Genesung.
Weder Fürsten noch Parlament.
Wär für Wien nicht diese Lösung
das perfekte Happy-End?
Und der Wein wächst ungetrunken,
und die Geigen wer'n geschont.
Und der Mond wirft seine Funken
tief im Prater auf die Unken.
Und die Unken schaun versunken in den Mond.
Wie schön wär mein Wien ohne Wiener.
Wie ein Hauch, der im All balanciert.
Vielleicht gibt's wo a fesche Angina,
die ein Wohltäter her importiert.
Wie schön wäre Wien ohne Wiener,
nur einmal möcht' ich es so sehn!
Und schreite ich sodann
den Kahlenberg hinan
und bleib oben voll Söligkeit stehn,
und seh dann aus der Fern
mein liebes leeres Wean,
werd' ich sagen: Sehn's, jetzt ist's da schön!
11.03.2008, 11:07 Why The Hell Did God Create Movies?
Author: Paul Simon
Artist: Paul Simon
Album: One Trick Pony
That's Why God Made The Movies
When I was born my mother died
She said bye-bye baby, bye-bye
I said "Where you goin'?"
"I'm just born"
She said I'll only be gone for a while
My mother loved to leave in style
And that's why God made the movies
So I laid around in my swaddling clothes
Until the doctor came and turned out the light
Then I packed my bag
And my nametag
And stole away into the night
Hopeing things would work out alright
That's why God made the movies
Say you will, say you will
Say you'll take me to your loving breast
Say you'll nourish me with your tenderness
The way the ladies sometimes do
Say you won't, say you won't
Say you won't leave me for no other man
Say you'll love me for the way I am
Say you will, say you will
When I was born my mother died
She said bye-bye baby, bye-bye
And since that day
I've made my way
The notorious boy of the wild
Adopted by wolves when he was a child
That's why God. That's why God.
That's why God made the movies
Artist: Billie Holiday
Words and Music: Abel Meeropol
Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black body swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
Meeropol wrote "Strange Fruit" to express his horror at lynchings after seeing Lawrence Beitler's photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. He published the poem in 1937 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine. Though Meeropol/Allan had often asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to music, he set Strange Fruit to music himself. The song gained a certain success as a protest song in and around New York. Meeropol, his wife, and black vocalist Laura Duncan performed it at Madison Square Garden.
Barney Josephson, the founder of Cafe Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday. Holiday performed the song at Cafe Society in 1939 and made it immortal.
Wirklich toll
Die Serie war wirklich toll. Ich hoffe auf Staffel 2 und natürlich darauf, dass auch diese hier gezeigt wird. Ich werde mal in schauen, wenn ich in Israel bin, ob es dort die DvD zu einem erschwinglichen Preis gibt. Außerdem weiß dort vielleicht jemand, ob eine zweite Staffel geplant ist....
