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AN OPENING INCANTATION
by Sean
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo - "Sizobalanda". An incantation for New Year's Eve. I don't speak Zulu, I'm not somewhere with Wikipedia; I don't know what this song is about. So do whatever you want with it. You will anyway - that's what we do with songs, we use them however we want, as chisels or hammers, as the things we break. We use breakup songs as serenades, bangers as ballads. We make insignificant ditties the stuff of wedding marches. We turn "Sizobalanda" into an incantation for New Year's Eve. Make this song promise all the things you want. Make it promise love, or health, or meaning. Make it wish for safety, justice and friendship. Make it a thrumming ganged-up do-re-fa-so-la for laughter and splendour, for clear-rayed skies and green glass bottles, for she & he & they & also for Chief Theresa Spence, who is waiting on Victoria Island, and hungry. [buy] Posted by Sean at December 31, 2012 6:19 PMComments
Man, this is 100x better than the usual indie-hipster castoffs you write about on here. awesome. Posted by lukasz at February 19, 2013 10:48 PMPost a comment |
this is a daily sampler of really good songs. all tracks are posted out of love. please go out and buy the records!
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all songs are removed within a week or two of posting. said the gramophone launched in march 2003, and added songs in november of that year. it was one of the world's very first mp3blogs. if you would like to say hello, find out our mailing addresses or invite us to shows, please get in touch: montreal, canada: sean toronto, canada: jordan toronto, canada: dan please don't send us emails with tons of huge attachments; if emailing a bunch of mp3s etc, send us a link to download them. We are not interested in streaming widgets. if you are the copyright holder of any song posted here, please contact us if you would like the song taken down early. please do not direct link to any of these tracks. please love and wonder. "and i shall watch the ferry-boats / and they'll get high on a bluer ocean / against tomorrow's sky / and i will never grow so old again."
about the authors
Sean Michaels lives in Montreal, where he is writing a novel. His work also occasionally appears at McSweeney's. Follow him on Twitter or reach him here.
Dan Beirne is an actor and writer living in Toronto. Any claim he makes about his life on here is probably untrue. Email him here Jordan Himelfarb lives in Toronto. He is an opinion editor at the Toronto Star. Jordan's posts appear at Said the Gramophone only on the last Wednesday of every month. Email him here. Site design and header typography by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet. The header graphic is randomized: this one is by .
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Said the Gramophone does not take advertising. We are supported by the incredible generosity of our readers. These were our donors in 2013.
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