Comme une Cigarette

Comme une Cigarette – Marco Valdo M.I. – 2010
Cycle du Cahier ligné – 91

Comme une Cigarette est la nonante et unième chanson du Cycle du Cahier ligné, constitué d'éléments tirés du Quaderno a Cancelli de Carlo Levi.

Depuis la fin des hostilités, lorsqu'en 1918, après Caporetto, Verdun, la Somme, l'Yzer et autres Piaves, les belligérants s'étaient dit avant de rentrer chez eux – lucides – « À la prochaine ! », est né le divin enfant : le célèbrissime « Soldat Inconnu ». Il n'y a pas plus connu que le soldat inconnu. Un soldat créé tout exprès pour la cause patriotique, un soldat choisi au hasard dans un gigantesque tas de cadavres...

Et , commente Lucien l'âne qui avait vu la guerre de Troie, vu le nombre de soldats inconnus accumulés en ce temps-là, il a dû y en avoir des veuves du soldat inconnu.

Passons, dit Marco Valdo M.I. en le coupant sèchement, l'heure... (continua)

[1971]
Album “This Is Free Belfast! – Irish Rebel Songs from the Six Counties”, Folkways Records
Sull’aria della popolare scozzese “Football Crazy”
Testo trovato su The Balladeers

One of the riot control weapons devised by the British Army to maintain the military occupation of Ulster is the rubber bullet. Presumably, this more "humane" tool of warfare will demonstrate the "kindliness" of the authorities in the Six Counties, although its success in achieving that objective has been nil.

Una delle armi di controllo per le proteste escogitate dall'Esercito inglese per mantenere l'occupazione militare dell'Ulster sono i proiettili di plastica. Presumibilmente, questo strumento di guerra più "umano" dimostrerà la "gentilezza"" delle autorità nei Sei Paesi, sebbene il suo successo nel raggiungere quell'obbiettivo sia stato nullo.
(Nota dal libretto che accompagna il disco)

[1971]
Album “This Is Free Belfast! – Irish Rebel Songs from the Six Counties”, Folkways Records
Sull’aria di “The Rocks O' Bawn”

[1971]
Album “This Is Free Belfast! – Irish Rebel Songs from the Six Counties”, Folkways Records
Scritta da Barney McIlvogue

To the memory of Patrick Rooney, aged nine, killed by a stray bullet, Divis Street, Belfast, during the fighting on the night of 14th August, 1969.
On that night, Northern Ireland's 90% Protestant police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), rioted throughout the Catholic ghettoes of Belfast. They savagely attacked innocent people and drove through the streets indiscriminately firing their weapons. One result of this demonstration of the RUC's fascist and racist interpretation of law and order was the murder of little Patrick Rooney while he lay in his bed.
One wonders if Patrick's father could view his little boy's body with part of his head blown off, the room awash with Patrick's blood, and then dismiss this horror from his mind with a "manly" shrug of... (continua)

[1977]
Album “England's Vietnam - Irish Songs of Resistance”, Folkways Records
Scritta da Barney McIlvogue

An immigration ballad composed in 1970 in the early days of the struggle when CS gas [il terribile gas lacrimogeno testato in Vietnam e Irlanda ed usato ancora ai giorni nostri… chi era a Genova nel 2001 ne sa qualcosa] and RUC [Royal Ulster Constabulary, la polizia nord-irlandese, altro nemico dei repubblicani] brutality made many a man despair of trying to raise a family in such conditions. Was the price worth it and could things ever really be changed? Fortunately many did stay to fight for a better life for their kids.

[1977]
Album “England's Vietnam - Irish Songs of Resistance”, Folkways Records
Scritta da Barney McIlvogue

The small back street ghettoes of Belfast have been the setting for so many of the battles in the present struggle. They have suffered most of the direct oppression of British imperialism and in return have produced many of the leaders and sadly but inevitably the martyrs who have paid with their lives to see this country free. People who will be remembered when the names of the generals and the politicians have long been forgotten, this is a song about them.
(Nota dal libretto che accompagna il disco)

Canzone – che richiama in qualche modo I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night di Alfred Hayes - dedicata al militante repubblicano nord-irlandese e membro dell’IRA Joe McCann, ucciso dagli inglesi nel 1972. Quando fu colpito – alla schiena – era disarmato.

Joe McCann era già passato... (continua)

[2001]
Album: Weird Revolution

[1977]
Album “England's Vietnam - Irish Songs of Resistance”, Folkways Records

Scritta da Barney McIlvogue

The Peoples' Taxis first appeared on the Falls Road, Belfast, when the Corporation withdrew public transport from routes through Republican areas where a riot or a gun battle was a daily occurrence. The gap was quickly filled by a group of local taxi men. At lOp per person it must be the cheapest adventure trip in Western Europe. This song is dedicated to Tony, one of our political prisoners in Long Kesh.
(Nota dal libretto che accompagna il disco)

Falls Road è il nome di una delle strade principali di Belfast, quella che divide i quartieri cattolici da quelli protestanti di Shankill Road. Durante il conflitto contro gli occupanti inglesi e la guerra civile tra le due comunità contrapposte il servizio di trasporto pubblico fu interrotto per motivi di sicurezza in tutte le aree dove... (continua)

[1977]
Album “England's Vietnam - Irish Songs of Resistance”, Folkways Records

Scritta da Barney McIlvogue

The song tells of the anguish of the internee's wife, as she watches her husband being dragged from their bed and brought to Long Kesh, there to be held in a barbed wire cage without charge or trial for an indefinite period. As she watches the politicians selling out she comes to the conclusion that it will take more than words to end the repression of a State guilty of such inhuman behaviour. Now, in May 1975 despite Merlyn Rees' pathetic lies [Lord Merlyn-Rees, labourista, segretario di Stato per il Nord Irlanda tra il 1974 e il 1976, ndr] over 300 Republicans are in Long Kesh.
(Nota dal libretto che accompagna il disco)

[1977]
Album “England's Vietnam - Irish Songs of Resistance”, Folkways Records
Scritta da Brian Whoriskey

“The people of Vietnam fought for 30 years before achieving their independence. The path to freedom may be long and hard but for England the simple message is that the days of the colonists are over, and, for all her military might, she cannot forever deny the Irish people their freedom”
(Nota dal libretto che accompagna il disco)

[1982]
Album "The Blue Mask"