Hey guys - just wanted to share this little slice of happiness with you. Strasbourg is a total white-out at the moment (I'll be back with somes images and if you're very unlucky my first attempt at garage band. Be afraid. Be very afraid). For this reason we all have thoughts (and hopefully more) for our fellow brothers and sisters who live on the streets. On that note, here's a clip of homeless gentleman - one "Mustard" - who has just blown me away with this very raw, unkempt and ultimately very beautiful version of one of my top ten ever pop songs : "Creep" by Radiohead.
Question to go: Has a busker ever blown your mind? Where was it?
What did they play and why was it so fuckin' special?
I'm off to get the groceries.
I may be gone for some time.....
Bisous FP
UPDATE: Back from Lidl over t'Rhine and on the theme of busking was reminded of this experiment to see how many people actually pay attention to the music being played around them. Well.. would YOU have stopped in your tracks....???
10 comments:
p.s; You are allowed to cry. We all did here...
How come he's got a shiny new guitar and clean clothes?
Spill points for eagle eyed Tinny. Akcherloi they lent him the guitar but that doesn't explain the Barbour jacket... Just who is Mustard really? Thom Yorke in disguise? Guy Richie? Stephen Fry? You could hide almost anything under that beard.. OK so I really AM off for the groceries now. Can't put it off any longer. Milk or bread anyone?
About twenty years ago, ToffeeGirl and I were coming back from a gig in London and we walked past a busker at Tottenham Court Road tube station playing a Jonathan Richman song (can't for the life of me remember which one). We stopped to listen and throw some money in his guitar case and walked off with a smile on our faces (one each).
Several months later, we were in the same tube station and saw the same busker. As soon as he saw us, he stopped playing what he'd been playing and started playing the Jonathan Richman song for us. Quality ...
32 years ago Mrs. Fintan & I were walking down the steps to a Market St. Bart Station in SF & passed 3 guys walking up. I was in love & something she (not yet my Mrs.) said made me sing out " A, I'll always love you( from the film American Hotwax ,out at the time) at " B, because your heart is mine" the 3 guys, now at the street level joined in in perfect time. They sang the whole song as my girl gripped my hand for all it's worth. After they finished I offered up a fiver, which they refused saying " nah, you guys are in love" a perfect moment.
When I was in StPetersburg Russia in the early noughties (a town I associate with great music and bands, absolutely) there was a troupe of street performing busker-types who set themselves up as a kind of 'street' Beatles. Not only playing Beatles songs (faithfully) but also dressing like them and having haircuts like them and the works. It charmed the locals - always a crowd gathered around them whenever they were playing (usually on Nevsky Prospekt, St P's main drag) - but seemed particularly delightful to me, given their faithfulness to the sounds and details of the music (in as much as one can when playing al fresco acoustic)although always with a Russian feel. Their version of Love me do (perhaps surprisingly) was particularly touching.
Some quality posts there.
Toffee: your own private busker there. Quality indeed.
Fintan28: Indeed a perfect moment. If you saw that scene in a film, you'd think "....naaaaaaaah". Great that life sometimes IS more poetic than art. Kudos.
Sourpus: Donds for the Russian Beatles. Or should that be.. Beatniks? That pun very nearly works.....
Keep em coming...
FP.
Back from the groceries.
Was picked up by a guardian angel and ferried across the Rhine as opposed to the Mersey. A Hallöchen to Nilpferd. You got snow in Benztown, then?
This past Christmas in NYC we heard a woman's voice in the subway. It sounded like opera, really pure and very high. We turned a corner, expecting to see a singer, but instead we saw... the 'Saw Lady' - a lady playing the musical saw! We took her card. Her website is www.sawlady.com/blog - she writes about what happens when she plays in the subway.
@FP thanks. I have often said everyone should enjoy at least 1 perfect moment in your life & that was probably mine. I think people sometimes plan for perfection & end up dissapointed. the rest of the story was we were on a trip to meet her family In the bay area & my dad in Sacramento so we were both nervous. but We had that day in 'Frisco for just us. Asked her to marry me at my dad's a couple days later, but I think the deal wwas done right there at the BART Plaza.
I was standing outside a bar downtown the other week, & a homeless person asked me for a cigarette. I offered him a (cheap) cigar as it was the holidays. He turned me down. Now I know that beggars can be choosers.
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