TAS - "Round Da Corner". I found this song while flitting round the net. It was in a directory of sumptuous indie rock. "What's this?" I thought. "What's da corner?" I put it on, casual-like, not paying much attention - and there (slip), the song's slithering persistent horn sample, its little green snake, slipped into my brain and lodged there. It's a sound green as palm-tree leaf, tail-wagging and twisting all over my dull and heavy grey matter.
I emailed the source of the song: "That's my roommate, Tracy," he wrote back. "Moved [to Toronto] from the Bahamas. ... She did this last week. ... Every verse is about a different dance. Apparently, people in the bahamas know how to dance to this song already because the lyrics tells them. It works a lot differently than it does here."
I don't entirely agree with Ryan. Things don't really work that differently here. When I put this on I listen to the rapidfire beat of feet, the imperatives of TAS herself, the way the music advances and retreats, like a party, the way a party's noise seems to swell and ebb away and swell again. And I can see how you're supposed to dance. Yeah - "skullin'" is like this... "Goombé is this". It's pretty darn clear. Just listen to the beat and move your hips like this - yeah, like that, you got it. Yeah. Let dem know who in charge.
Also - O less-ignorants-than-i, - is this ragga? What ought one call it?
[Thanks to Ryan. If anyone knows where to hear/buy more, please let me know.]
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Gavin Bryars with Tom Waits - "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (excerpt)".
Gavin Bryars: In 1971, when I lived in London, I was working with a friend, Alan Power, on a film about people living rough in the area around Elephant and Castle and Waterloo Station. In the course of being filmed, some people broke into drunken song - sometimes bits of opera, sometimes sentimental ballads - and one, who in fact did not drink, sang a religious song "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet". This was not ultimately used in the film and I was given all the unused sections of tape, including this one.
Bryars copied the tape loop onto one continuous reel, he composed an orchestral accompaniment, and he recorded an album of the tramp's song - a meditation, a psalm, a slow-cresting paean. It was originally released in 1975. When a revised, extended edition was being prepared in 1993, Bryars secured a contribution from Tom Waits, who had cited the original as his favourite piece of music. And so, here is a slice of it.
I heard about this composition about two years ago. I made a note to try to find Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me, and then forgot all about it. And then today I stumbled across this track, from (I believe) the coda, and I remembered; it all came back.
It is amazing.
Not just because it's beautiful, because that homeless man's voice turns back on itself and changes from weary to utterly joyous. Not just because of the shine on those strings and horns. Not just because Tom Waits takes his time, digging in his deep coat pockets for something to say - then dredging up a quiet expression of his heart's own discontent. Not just because of all this. But also because of all that it suggests must have preceded it. This is the end of a piece: the crescendo of feeling, the climax and denouement. And so there's a beginning and middle that came before. I feel like someone who has been wandering through the black woods, through the white snow, and who has fallen over the tip of something golden poking up from the ground. And you dig and you dig and you realise it's a tower, a shrine, a cathedral, a city, a world. All of it there for you to find.
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You Ain't No Picasso continues its Xmas series of guests-choosing-mixes-of-mp3s with a guest selection by John Vanderslice.
Clem Snide's Eef Barzelay, ever the good jew, offers a free download of his version of "Joy to the World" [mp3]. It's tender as a hand on your hand, a soft expression of humble hope hope hopes. It's careful and quiet; it's gorgeous and very earnestly meant. I love Christmas carols too: all that community, all that feeling, so many dreams wrapped up in ivy, laughter and candlelight. And good tunes, too.
Download the Memphis Industries mini Christmas album, with artwork! Featuring the Go! Team live in Toronto, and The Pipettes doin' "White Christmas". Hooray!
Posted by Sean at December 16, 2005 03:01 AM