1976
Zoot Allures

Parlando di Frank Zappa, come sempre, bisognerebbe prima bersi qualcosa di forte e poi procedere. Ma poiché sto scrivendo queste brevi cose circa alle dieci del mattino, forse la cosa non è tanto indicata; cominciamo quindi con qualche nota tecnica su questo pezzo del 1976, tratto dall'album Zoot Allures (poiché gli italiani fanno spesso i super-rockettari annisettànta senza sapere praticamente mai cosa significano veramente i titoli degli album che conoscono così bene, diciamo che significa qualcosa come: "le attrattive di uno che veste con giacca lunga e pantaloni a tubo" -la cosiddetta zoot suit; si potrebbe rendere meglio con "com'è figo uno con la giacca lunga e i pantaloni a tubo"). Altre versioni della canzone appaiono negli album Zappa in New York, Thing-Fish, You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1, You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4, The Best Band... (continuer)

The dangers of the crossing of the Ocean on the cheap ‘coffin ships’ are also vividly documented in many songs, as in the following extracts, where typhus is illustrated

As more and more Irish men and women emigrated to America, news started to flow more regularly between the two sides of the Atlantic and the temptation to leave was doubtless hard to resist: ‘So pack up your sea-stores, consider no longer, for ten dollars a week isn’t very bad pay, with no taxes or tithes to devour up your wages’. Very often, a son or a daughter in the family would be chosen to emigrate and money was gathered for the passage ticket, in the hope that it would soon be reimbursed by his or her wages in America. Later, he or she might also pay for the passage of a second member of a family, etc.
rfcb.revues.org

Sung by Cheerish the Ladies, Déanta, Planxty, Rua, Chieftains,

Starting from the period of the Great Famine, departures were generally celebrated during an evening of praying, music, story telling and dancing, called the ‘American wake’. Leaving the country was generally regarded on a par with death, as very few exiles ever returned home

Sung by Deanta, Planxty, Andy Irvine
song with the same title of a song by Pogues

The word used today for voluntary emigration in Irish Gaelic is eisimirce, but it was not in use until the beginning of the 20th century. Up until then, and naturally during the Great Famine, the only word ever used was deoraí, meaning ‘exile’.34 Reluctant exile, or emigration, was not a new phenomenon in the 1840s, but the departure from home became the lot of thousands of poor Irish families every month, a forced path to escape misery or death, as described in Lone Shanakyle, named after the mass burial pit that served as a graveyard in Kilrush, Co. Clare

Available on DÉANTA’s album Whisper of a Secret, 1997

The traditional song ‘Shamrock Shore’ relates the rage that sometimes led to retaliation by secret societies like the Ribbon Men, the White Boys or the Molly Maguires, and sometimes to the murdering of landlords

[ca 1825?]

An angry song in Irish, highly critical of the clergy itself, is ‘An Bhuatais’, the story of a Catholic priest who preferred to buy himself new boots rather than take care of his dying parishioners during Great Famine. Understandably, this song was also very rarely heard in Ireland before the second half of the 20th century.

Available on:
Áine UÍ CHEALLAIGH: Isir Dhá Chomhairle (Gael Linn, 1992)
-Three Shouts from a Hill (1999)
Slide- Harmonic Motion (2002)
Frank HARTE and Dónal LUNNY: The Hungry Voice: The Song Legacy of Ireland’s Great Hunger (Hummingbird, 2004)
Michelle Mulcahy: Suaimhneas (2012)

[1989]
Parole e musica di Linard Bardill
Nell’album intitolato “Aufs Leben los”

Non so se sia integralmente una CCG ma qualche verso mi induce a crederlo, per esempio "Ich glaube nicht an die Macht / Dafür ist mir die Gewalt zu verhasst / Und die Gesichter von Soldaten zu kindlich"...
Vedete un po' voi germanofoni se il brano è degno di essere inserito.

- from the album "Sold Out - Rod McKuen Live at Carnegie Hall", 1969

dall'album "Try Rod McKuen in the privacy of your own home" (1971).

Ispirata a Soldiers Who Wish to Be A Hero, canzone intonata dai soldati americani durante la prima guerra mondiale.

(B.B.)

Tuez les hérétiques, leurs femmes et leurs enfants !

Chanson française – Tuez les hérétiques, leurs femmes et leurs enfants ! – Marco Valdo M.I. – 2015
Ulenspiegel le Gueux – 11

Opéra-récit en multiples épisodes, tiré du roman de Charles De Coster : La Légende et les aventures héroïques, joyeuses et glorieuses d’Ulenspiegel et de Lamme Goedzak au Pays de Flandres et ailleurs (1867).
(Ulenspiegel – I, LII)
Cette numérotation particulière : (Ulenspiegel – I, I), signifie très exactement ceci :
Ulenspiegel : La Légende et les aventures héroïques, joyeuses et glorieuses d’Ulenspiegel et de Lamme Goedzak au Pays de Flandres et ailleurs, dans le texte de l’édition de 1867.
Le premier chiffre romain correspond au numéro du Livre – le roman comporte 5 livres et le deuxième chiffre romain renvoie au chapitre d’où a été tirée la chanson. Ainsi, on peut – si le cœur vous en dit – retrouver... (continuer)

2015
Il teatro degli orrori

Non manca l’attualità. Il brano Una donna recita: “Ma guarda, li vedi, amico mio sono profughi, scappano da morte certa e noi qui a farci i cazzi nostri, e tu, donna la bellezza del tuo sorriso parla del tuo coraggio la sua dolcezza è una bandiera”. Nel libretto è l’unico testo che manca, al suo posto c’è una foto. “Ho visto la foto di una ragazza e sono risalito alla fonte, l’abbiamo comprata da un’agenzia irachena. È una ragazza yazida di quattrodici anni in fuga dall’Is con quello che resta della sua famiglia, indossa un kalashnikov che le ha regalato l’Unità di Protezione del popolo kurdo per proteggerla. Lo scatto la coglie mentre si volta, coglie il suo sguardo straordinario: in questa foto c’è la contemporaneità. Non parla solo del dramma dei profughi, di questa incredibile migrazione. Parla anche di noi, dei nostri egoismi, della nostra indifferenza. Per questo ho messo solo l’immagine: il testo è quella ragazza”.