A Question of Honour

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Marilyn Jackson

I’ve been getting acquainted with the music of vocalist Sarah Brightman who sings classical and contemporary music.  Here, in A Question of Honour, she appears in a very dramatic stage presentation as a goddess and makes a strong commentary on the causes and perhaps the meaning of conflict.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vBYwI_DoZc&context=C308ed8bADOEgsToPDskIsoNKlj7X0xzfpekREtbQn.
Perhaps though I’m reading something into it as according to Wikipedia,
this grand production was presented at a World Boxing Championship
match in Europe in 1995. On another Wikipedia site about the song
(AQOH), it states that In Japan, it has been adopted as the theme music
of Federal Internation Football Association (FIFA) World Cup broadcasting
since 2000.  I’m not a big sports fan so I wonder about the phenomenon
of the popularity of this song and production.  I suspect it helps everyone
keep a perspective on sports and gaming activities.   Also, as a peacenik, I
need to be reminded perhaps that the International Olympics were
created as an alternative to war, as an outlet for countries to compete
in a good way.

The original seems to be in Italian and is by Frank Peterson, a German
music producer.  Here are lyrics using both English and Italian from http://www.justsomelyrics.com/933650/Frank-Peterson-A-Question-of-Honour-Lyrics

Ebbene? … N’andrò lontana,

Come va l’eco della pia camana,
Là, fra la neve bianca;
Là, fra le nubi d’or;
Là, dov’è la speranza, la speranza
Il rimpianto, il rimpianto, e il dolor!
Well? I will go far,
As the echo of the devout bell goes,
Here, between the snow white woman;
Here, between clouds of gold;
Here, dov’ it is the hope, the hope
The regret, the regret, and the grief!

Ebbene? … N’andrò lontana,
Là, dov’è la speranza, la speranza
Il rimpianto
Sola e lontana!
Well? N’ I will go far,
Here, dov’ it is the hope, the hope
The regret
Single and far!

Two men collide
When two men collide, when two men collide
It’s a question of honour
Two men collide
When two men collide, when two men collide
It’s a question of honour
Two men collide
When two men collide, when two men collide

If you win or you lose, it’s a question of honour
And the way that you choose, it’s a question of honour

I can’t tell what’s wrong or right
If black is white or day is night
But I know when two men collide
It’s a question of honour

If you win or you lose, it’s a question of honour
And the way that you choose, it’s a question of honour
If you win or you lose, it’s a question of honour
And the way that you choose, it’s a question of honour

I can’t tell what’s wrong or right
If black is white or day is night
I know when two men collide
It’s a question of honour

Ebbene? … N’andrò lontana,
Come l’eco della pia campana,
Là, fra la neve bianca;
Là, fra le nubi d’or;
N’andrò, n’andrò sola e lontana!
E fra le nubi d’or!
Well? N’ I will go far,
Like the echo of the devout bell,
Here, between the snow white woman;
Here, between clouds of gold;
N’ I will go, n’ I will go single and far!
And between clouds of gold!

Posted in Uncategorized, War and Peace | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Nella Fantasia, Hymn to the Rainforest vs The Mission

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Marilyn Jackson

I happened to learn about the song, “Nella Fantasia” (“In My Fantasy”) which according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nella_Fantasia is an Italian song based on the “Gabriel’s Oboe,” the haunting beautiful theme from the film The Mission (1986).

Sara Brightman first recorded it and probably also wrote it.  She is quoted, My next song was originally an instrumental written by the composer Ennio Morricone for the film The Mission. About three years ago I wrote to Mr. Morricone, asking whether he would give me permission to turn this particular piece into a song. He flatly refused. So every two months I would send yet another begging letter, until I think he became so sick of me that he finally relented. And I am really glad that he did, because I think it works beautifully as a song.

One can’t help think about the film, The Mission, while reading the lyrics and listening to the song.  The whole conundrum of how people reject Christianity because of its overcontrolling aspects vs the ideals it offers is brought forward in my mind.  You can find different links of her and others singing it on Youtube but this one is particularly poignant and a contrast to The Mission as it is sung as a hymn to the rainforest:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSdNlHo_Zms

The Prince’s Rainforests Project invited Sarah Brightman to sing at an event they hosted to engage the financial community in the task of finding a solution to the problem of making rainforests worth more alive than dead. This is the film that accompanied her singing. The music is Nella Fantasia – used in the soundtrack of the movie – The Mission, and often called a Hymn To the Rainforest.
For more information on the work of The Prince’s Rainforests Project, and to sign up and add your voice to the call to end tropical rainforest destruction go to http://www.rainforestSOS.org The future of the rainforest is our future too.

The translation on Wikipedia is:

In my imagination I see a fair world,
Everyone lives in peace and in honesty there.
I dream of souls that are always free,
Like the clouds that fly,
Full of humanity in the depths of the soul.

In my imagination I see a bright world,
Even the night is less dark there.
I dream of souls that are always free,
Like clouds that fly.

In my imagination there exists a warm wind,
That breathes on the cities, like a friend.
I dream of souls that are always free,
Like clouds that fly,
Full of humanity in the depths of the soul.

 

Posted in Ecology, Peace & Harmony | 1 Comment

Gabriella’s Song

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Marilyn Jackson

This song was the theme for the Swedish film As It Is In Heaven .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y765gdd3rEc, about a well known musician who moves to a small town and becomes the church choir director.  He builds such trust and community among the choir members that their lives are transformed though this threatens others in their lives and in the community.  This song is given to a woman who was repeatedly beaten by her husband to sing in their concert.

It is interesting that the lead male actor here, Michael Nyqvist http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0638824/bio is also the lead actor in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the first of an intense film trilogy, which even more so reveals the struggles of abused and battered women

I think this song is mainly for women, not just women who suffer overt abuse.  It is about women’s struggle with patriarchy though probably can be meaningful for anyone who has felt oppression.  I find it meaningful to sing it in Swedish but also in English in this singable version I’ve translated below:

Gabriella’s Song
Right now is when I’m alive
I have got this time here on Earth
And my longing has brought me here
All I lack and all I’ve gained

It is still the way that I chose
My trust went far beyond words
It has shown me a little bit
Of the heaven I never found

I must feel that I am living
All the time I have
And I’ll live the way I choose
I must feel that I am living
Knowing I was good enough

I have never forgotten my past
I have only left it sleeping
Maybe I never had a choice
Only willing to be alive

I want to be happy living being who I am
Knowing I am strong and free
See how night turns into day
I am here and my life is only mine
And the heaven I thought to be
I will find it there somewhere

I want to feel that I have lived my life

Posted in Scandinavian Music, Uncategorized, Women's Music | 1 Comment

Basin Street Blues–New Orleans, Land of Dreams

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Marilyn Jackson

Here’s what Wikipedia says about Basin Street Blues:

Basin Street Blues is a song often performed by Dixieland jazz bands, written by Spencer Williams. The song was published in 1926 and made famous in a recording by Louis Armstrong in 1928. The famous verse with the lyric “Won’t you come along with me/To the Mississippi…” was later added by Glenn Miller and Jack Teagarden.

The Basin Street of the title refers to the main street of Storyville, the notorious red-light district of the early 20th-century New Orleans French Quarter. It became a red light district in approximately 1870.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basin_Street_Blues

I first learned this song out of a piano book my brother gave me as a present (57 Popular Teaching Pieces for Easy Piano by John Brimhall, California Music Press, 1970).  It was always one of my favorite songs in the book and I was born and grew up near the Mississippi River.

I don’t know how things are going in New Orleans nowadays but to me it is about a place in the south where white and black and all other hues came together for music and celebration.  When my husband and I sang it in our apartment in Oakland it gave me perspective on my multiracial street, though it wasn’t exactly New Orleans.

Here, basically, are those lyrics …

Won’tcha come along with me
To the Mississippi
We’ll take the boat to the land of dreams
Steam down the river, down to New Orleans

The band’s there to meet us
Old friends to greet us
Where all the light and dark folk meet
(Stream Down the River [or instrumental]) This is Basin Street

Basin Street, is the street
Where the elite always meet
In New Orleans….. land of dreams
You’ll never know how nice it seems
or just how much it really means

Glad to be, yes-siree,
Where welcome’s free and dear to me
That’s why I can’t lose my Basin Street Blues

(instrumental break)

Oh, Basin Street…… is the street
Where the elite always meet
In New Orleans….. land of dreams
You’ll never know how nice it seems,
or just how much it really means

I’m glad to be, yes-siree,
Where welcome’s free and dear to me
That’s why I can’t lose this Basin Street Blues

Here are some revised 2nd and 3rd stanzas attributed to Ella Fitzgerald.  Instead of “where all the light and the dark folk meet” it says “where all the proud and elite folks meet.”  Instead of where the elite always meet” it says “where the best folks always meet.”

The band’s there to meet us
Old friends there to greet us
Where all the proud and elite folks meet
Heaven on earth, they call it Basin Street

Basin Street is the street
where the best folks always meet
in New Orleans, land of dreams
you’ll never know how nice it seems,
or just how much it really means

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/e/ella_fitzgerald/basin_street_blues.html

Here, Ray Charles sings close to the version that I learned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr_h4upTUXo&feature=related

 

Posted in Multiculturalism | Leave a comment

Let the The Mary Ellen Carter Rise Again

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Marilyn Jackson

I’ve been singing The Mary Ellen Carter song and learning the words this week.  It is really inspiring.  It was written by singer songwriter Stan Rogers, not long before his death.  He sings it at this site, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT-aEcPgkuA&NR=1 but at the beginning of the video,  Robert Cusick tells how the song saved his life as he was actually on a sinking ship. You can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mary_Ellen_Carter

I think of the song’s message figuratively, in that though depression is part of life, really, it is always important to find away out of it again (without drugs if possible, in my view).  When I think of people in my life who have died or when I am in contact with others who have lost loved ones, I think about the importance of writing to let others know about who these people were, to continue their legacy.

I also like this recording by Liam Clancy:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Fwg3mowGU

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She went down last October in the pouring, driving rain.
The skipper he’d been drinking  and the mate he felt no pain.
Too close to Three Mile Rock and she was dealt her mortal blow
And the Marry Ellen Carter sitting low.

There was just us five aboard her when she finally was a-wash.
We worked like hell to save her all heedless of the cost.
And the groan she gave as she went down, it caused us to proclaim
That the Mary Ellen Carter’d rise again.

Well, the owners wrote her off, not a nickel would they spend.
“She gave twenty years of service, boys, and met her sorry end.
But insurance paid the loss to us, so let her rest below,”
They laughed at us and said we’d have to go.

But we talked of her all winter, some days around the clock,
She’s worth a quarter million,  a-floating at the dock.
And with every jar that hit the bar we swore we would remain
And watch the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

Chorus:
Rise again, rise again,
Let her name not be lost to the knowledge of men
For those who loved her best and were with her to the end,
We’ll make the Mary Ellen Cater, rise again.

All spring, now, we’ve been with her on a barge lent by a friend.
Three dives a day in a hard hat suit and twice I’ve had the bends. Thank God it’s only sixty feet and the currents here are slow
Or I’d never have the strength to go below.

But we’ve patched her rents, and stopped her vents,
dogged hatch and porthole down
Put cables to her fore and aft and girded her around;
And tomorrow, noon, we hit the air and then take up the strain
And watch the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

Chorus

For we couldn’t leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale.
She’d saved our lives so many times, living through the gale;
And the laughing, drunken rats who left her to a sorry grave,
They won’t be laughing in another day.

And you, to whom adversity has dealt that final blow,
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
Turn to and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!

Last Chorus  2x
Rise again, rise again,
Thou your heart, it be broken, your life about to end,
No matter what you’ve lost, be it a home, a love, a friend,
Be like the Mary Ellen Carter:
RISE AGAIN!

Guitar chords:

Dm//Am/C
Dm/Am/C/Dm
Dm//C/Am
Bflat/C/Am/Dm

(same for chorus
and verses)

http://www.chivalry.com/cantaria/lyrics/mary-ellen-carter.html

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And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda ~ The Cycle of War….

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Marilyn Jackson

And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda is a song written by Scottish-born Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle in 1971.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the_Band_Played_Waltzing_Matilda

I never knew what this song was about before now when I heard it on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCekeoSTwg&NR=1&feature=fvwp and now that I read the words copied below here.  It describes the experience of a young man who becomes a soldier, becomes maimed and realizes in the process, the futileness of the cycle of war….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I was a young man I carried me pack
And I lived the free life of the rover
From the Murray’s green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in 1915 my country said: Son,
It’s time to stop rambling, there’s work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
When the ship pulled away from the quay
And amid all the tears, flag waving and cheers
We sailed off for Gallipoli

It well I remember that terrible day
When our blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell they call Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk, he was ready, he primed himself well
He rained us with bullets, and he showered us with shell
And in five minutes flat, we were all blown to hell
He nearly blew us back home to Australia

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
When we stopped to bury our slain
Well we buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then it started all over again

Oh those that were living just tried to survive
In that mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
While around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head
And when I awoke in me hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead
I never knew there was worse things than dying

Oh no more I’ll go Waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

They collected the wounded, the crippled, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind and the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And when the ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where me legs used to be
And thank Christ there was no one there waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity

And the Band played Waltzing Matilda
When they carried us down the gangway
Oh nobody cheered, they just stood there and stared
Then they turned all their faces away

Now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Renewing their dreams of past glories
I see the old men all tired, stiff and worn
Those weary old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask “What are they marching for?”
And I ask myself the same question

And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
But year after year, their numbers get fewer
Someday, no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong
So who’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?

http://celtic-lyrics.com/forum/index.php?autocom=tclc&code=lyrics&id=36

© Eric Bogle

Posted in War and Peace | Leave a comment

Music & Social Change

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Marilyn Jackson

This blog has been started by Drs. Cynthia Lawrence and Marilyn Jackson of the Western Institute for Social Research.  It is about songs and music that are inspiring and motivational for social change and social change movements.  We are starting this blog around Labor Day in September 2010 in Berkeley, California.  We intend to post old and new song lyrics to discuss and hope to engage in dialogue as we learn the songs and about their history.  The song, Bread & Roses has been rolling around in my mind since I heard Judy Collins’ recording on Labor Day weekend.  Here are the lyrics…. I didn’t realize ’til now that John Denver wrote the music.

I’m copying this from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_Roses

Song Lyrics

As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!
As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women’s children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.
As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.
As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life’s glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and roses.
Posted in About Us, Labor | 3 Comments