Tears of a Clown - FP's crybaby playlist
Well this week's RR got off to a lachrymose start with the news that Dorian...OUR DORIAN.... is leaving to go to literary pastures new. We wish him well and hope this his new book will generate sales Dan Brown could only dream of. Wonder what it's about? Sure we'll find out in the fullness of time... And in the meantime it's been fascinating to see what makes you lot brim over. But just what are we reacting to here? There are many different ways in which a song can get our tear ducts flowing, but from what I've observed it seems to be a potent mixture of personal association and recollection, our knowledge of some tragedy in the singer's life or even just a sheer, gut-wrenching performance. This list, I hope, is a mixture of all three, although I've been too chicken to include Ravel's "Pavane". There are stunning vocal pyrotechnics from KD, Luz Casal and Brel which make me just well up in wonder at their tightrope walk between control and emotion. The personal tragedy is provided by Bill Evans's Waltz for his daughter Debbie, our Bergmanesque Swedes and Chet Baker who's life may, at best, be described as 'tormented'. The personal recollection element takes me back to my second year at Uni, in a great shared flat just down the road from the Meadows and opposite the official suppliers to HRH of haggis, no less. I'm instantly transported back to that flat by Tom Waits and Prefab Sprout. I think this week's theme on the Mother Ship actually asks the question I would have asked so it just remains for me to wish you all a Very Happy Easter wherever you are.
Well this week's RR got off to a lachrymose start with the news that Dorian...OUR DORIAN.... is leaving to go to literary pastures new. We wish him well and hope this his new book will generate sales Dan Brown could only dream of. Wonder what it's about? Sure we'll find out in the fullness of time... And in the meantime it's been fascinating to see what makes you lot brim over. But just what are we reacting to here? There are many different ways in which a song can get our tear ducts flowing, but from what I've observed it seems to be a potent mixture of personal association and recollection, our knowledge of some tragedy in the singer's life or even just a sheer, gut-wrenching performance. This list, I hope, is a mixture of all three, although I've been too chicken to include Ravel's "Pavane". There are stunning vocal pyrotechnics from KD, Luz Casal and Brel which make me just well up in wonder at their tightrope walk between control and emotion. The personal tragedy is provided by Bill Evans's Waltz for his daughter Debbie, our Bergmanesque Swedes and Chet Baker who's life may, at best, be described as 'tormented'. The personal recollection element takes me back to my second year at Uni, in a great shared flat just down the road from the Meadows and opposite the official suppliers to HRH of haggis, no less. I'm instantly transported back to that flat by Tom Waits and Prefab Sprout. I think this week's theme on the Mother Ship actually asks the question I would have asked so it just remains for me to wish you all a Very Happy Easter wherever you are. 
24 comments:
Princess: I must be very thick 'cos I've never been able to get deezer to play and it takes forever to not play, is there a reason to not use podbean, isn't that so much easier?
GF - saw your comment also on Scary's post. If you click twice in succession on the play symbol - the wee triangle - the the music should start automatically and very quickly too. Doesn't this work? Are you on a Mac, by any chance? Very curious about this.
And since you ask, GF, the podbean vs deezer thing is a done deal for me. I have a kind of personal ethic here that I respect copyright legislation. Not wanting to occupy any kind of bogus moral high ground here, but I've never actually up-loaded or shared a song illegally . I have pals who are copyright lawyers and know just enough about the subject to know it's horrendously complicated. All the music on deezer is on there legally and before embarking on the hobby of posting a list each week I obtained written permission from deezer that it was legal and authorised to do so. I shall however look over at the podbean site and try my hand if needed. It's just that deezer satisfies all the needs at the moment. And I like the way I can add other people's playlists to my profile as I do with Scary's on a regular basis.
Nice one, FP.
Particularly the Luz Casal track, which reminds me to mention I've now seen 2046 (on your recommendation) and thought it wonderful. Just a pity that In The Mood For Love arrived in yesterday's post, but lovefilm dvd rental is no respecter of chronology.
GF, podbeaning seems to take forever on my computer, so, despite its limitations(no talk talk, or blue nile) it's far more convenient. And 'tis indeed good to share - discovering FP's playlists last week was most interesting !
Cheers Scary - I discovered Piensa en mi due to Almodovar. Lovely jubbly Miguel Bosé mimes to it in Almodovar's "High Heels" (from memory). It's a gut wrenching performance. But I've been on the podbean site and it just seemed it was offering me software to publish podcasts - which will be interesting for my work one of these days. But is there a stock of music on there? Where is it? OOOh you're gonna enjoy in the mood for love sooo much. Get yourself a decent Chinese takeaway with you and MrsScary - prefereably with lots of noodles and park yourselves in front of the telly.
Got to run, be gone for a few hours, I'll pick it up when I get back.
@FP - I think podbean only lets you upload your own mp3 files and create playlists from them for others to listen to (not share.I found the entire site a navigability nightmare, so v glad you introduced me to the joy of deezer.
Yes, I think ITMFL tonight might be a good idea. All work & no play...
SM
I'm learning to cope with Deezer, although there are some tracks it refuses to upload and I don't know why, and others it puts into my playlist that I don't recognise, but Podbean defeats me. Even finding the dashboard is a nightmare and then it won't upload either. It also seems to be slower than Deezer.
OK, I'm back; can't believe the diversity of opinion here, but of course I should. One bloke thinks deezers a nightmare, another thinks it's heaven, I think podbean is so simple, straightforward and easy and others think it's the nightmare. I also like Macs.
OK, back to square one, I gave up on Deezer long ago 'cos it wouldn't play the cuts! Much as I've wanted to hear all that stuff, I never did, whenever I'd highlight the cut I wanted to hear the laborious process would start, cut to Deezers homepage, up comes a selection of albums by the artist I want but no indication of the cut; instead there's something playing I've never heard of and no way to find what I came to hear.
After going through that several times over the months I finally said sod it or something similar, today's try was the final straw. But then something that our princess said above sent me back for another look, "if you click twice in succession on the play symbol - the wee triangle - the the music should start" and of course it does! The key words were "the wee triangle".
I've been selecting the artist by clicking on the name, ie Tracy Chapman and thus starting the above business, then I played with the other 'tools' and found that I could scroll through and make my selection that way, so much easier than my way. OK, all is forgiven except for that bit about 'ethics'.
I don't think that I share anything any more illegally than any of us does, I don't post for the purpose of defeating copyright, I do it for the same reason that you do, to share something that I like and perhaps the only difference is that mine comes from my ITunes folder and yours comes from Deezer; where did they get it from and how can they make it available at no cost when Apple makes you pay?
I've already paid for the music and it's not different from you coming by my house and my saying 'Have you heard so and so, let me play it for you". I'd be sharing it with you.
We might all be treading a fine legalistic line but what we do is for admirable purposes and were I a musician I'd totally support a venture of this nature that provided me with free advertising and enthusiastic critical acclaim.
OK, from now on I'll enjoy listening to Deezer and posting on Podbean.
I don't even try to search Deezer - I'm uploading from my own CDs on i-Tunes and that's where Deezer scores over Podbean for me because it's so logical and on the front page - I don't have to go searching through account, dashboard etc to get to it.
I tried uploading a song to deezer (Diana Ross-Concretes) for the songs about songs list, and it's still waiting for approval. I think podbean is quite simple once you realize that you click on 1. my profile 2. my account, and all the rest is easy from there. It takes a while, but I upload songs while I'm doing something else incredibly productive. And I'm with goneforeign, I'm sharing songs with friends, I'm not making a penny. I also like youTube for sharing songs, because you never know who'll hear it. I put a song on there with some super 8 footage for one of the instrumental soundtrack numbers, and It got favorited by a few people, I got comments in Italian for heaven's sake. (oh how I love html in comments) I like that world wide aspect of the world wide web.
Not sure what happened to my previous post attempt, but 'twas but a general whinge about the lack of simple step-by-step podbean instructions. I just don't have the time to google questions about how it all works, when deezer makes it so much easier.
But there will be times (I feel a 'Spirit of Eden' moment approaching) when deezer's mainstream predilection will not be enough to capture all of that week's theme tunes.
One day, I hope to master the Youtube phenomenon...
SM
Back in after a nice dinner with his indoors and a pal. Respect to GF and very glad that deezer is now working - great one. Just FYI the business model of deezer is an interesting one. It's advert funded but there is also a link from each album I believe to a site which allows you to buy the song in question. So it's basically one big glorious advert. And they have a collective agreement with organisations such as the SACEM which deals with artists' rights in France as well as with, I believe, several record companies. Nite nite
Enjoyed this (except for the jazz, I just can't be doing with it!). Lovely to hear The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore, especially as it reminds me of Truly Madly Deeply. If you can get through that film without crying...well, I just can't find the words.
TracyK: I love that scene too. This song has taken on a special sadness given that Anthon Minghella who made that movie has just died at 54. Too cruel.
The sobs. The snot. The rawness. Oh, and Alan Rickman's VOICE. Mmm-mn!
Very sad about Minghella, I really rate The Talented Mr Ripley too: I shyed away from the English patient as it seemed a bit stagey and I have unfond memories of The Sheltering Sky (I was young, forgive me!), to which it seemed quite similar. Anyone recommend it?
I had The English Patient on video, watched the first hour, got boredand went to bed. Next day decided to give it another five minutes before abandoning it and was sucked in completely and watched rivetted until the end, when I was in floods of tears. Oh dear, it's sad.
Tracy: I loved the Sheltering Sky, one of my all time films, even bought the DVD and have played it multiple times. But I realise it's shortcomings and that many are very dismissive of it, but I'm a desert obsessive, I'd watch Eastenders set in the Sahara. Give it another go.
And I liked the English Patient, possibly for similar reasons. And then there's Lawrence....
And you've got to work on your jazz problem.
The bit that gets me about TMD, apart from the scene where they do 'The sun ain't gonna shine anymore' is the bit where Jamie actually comes back - Juliet Steven's frantic disbelief and joy always make me cry. I loved Mr Ripley too. Masterpiece. The English patient made me weep buckets and I haven't seen The Sheltering Skies - but will get it out on video pronto.
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Very curious as to what we can do about TracyK's aversion to jazz. It doesn't necessarily need fixing - I think we're just frustrated cos we want her to enjoy this stuff as much as we do. But I would humbly sumit that if Waltz for Debbie doesn't make the breakthough then...what will???
haven't seen The English Patient yet, but to go back to the earlier discussion, Deezer usually doesn't ahve the songs I look for which is why I use Podbean if I want to upload something that I can't find anywhere else. I firs search youtube, then deezer, then hype machine, then songerize, and if I still can't find it upload it to podbean. I agree that the Dashboard is stupidly hard to find. i just start typing my podbean user name in the address bar and I get to it though. Sometimes podbean is capricious with uploading. If it takes too long, try clicking upload again, and it's always easier if the file is in mp3 format.
Wow - looks like you try all the options before podbean! But is there mudic to listen to on podbean or is it just software?
I have no idea what other people use it for, I think it sells itself as a podcast manager.
I just wrote a longish comment here, hit 'publish' and it disappeared!
OK, I was obviously being flippant re. Tracy's 'jazz problem', but it drew a response from FP suggesting Bill Evans 'Waltz for Debbie' might be a good starting point to introduce someone to jazz. I thought about it and were I to try I think I'd suggest a very wide spectrum of music, much of it from a prior era and most of it very blues based, and then I thought that I recalled Tracy posting Barber's Adagio at RR so I thought a variation on that might be an interesting suggestion, So I've just posted a jazz version of that piece, it's by Charlie Haden.
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