Hi Mom,
Entry #300. I had planned something special for the 300th blog post, but I already acknowledged the 300th day since your death, Mom, and since today would be the new feature of Musical Monday, I decided to stick with it.
And this content feels significant to be count zero in the final sixty-five daily posts to Hey Mom.
Today is not a collection of all time favorite tunes of mine, but instead an odd hodge podge of music I want to share, some of which are favorites ("La Vie en Rose") and some of which are just beautiful ("Alone in Kyoto").
When I started this feature, I was inspired by Geeta Dayal's Another Green World (which I still need to write about... don't worry, I am working on it). I was especially inspired by the discussion of the healing power of music in regards to Eno's album Discreet Music.
And then a friend turned me on to an Eno article on NPR about how chorale singing changes lives. A book by Stacy Horn -- Imperfect Harmony -- chronicles her about how singing in a chorale group made her life more bearable. In the following link, IN 2013, Ari Shapiro interviews Horn and Brain Eno is quoted.
FROM - Imperfect Harmony - NPR - Chorale singing changes lives - ENO
This is TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News. I'm Ari Shapiro. Musician, composer and producer Brian Eno is both a legend and a pioneer. He played synthesizer with Roxy Music in the 1970s. He's largely credited with developing ambient music, and has produced records for Devo, the Talking Heads and U2, and collaborated with many more, from Paul Simon to Coldplay to Grace Jones.
He is also - as he shared with NPR for This I Believe - a fan of singing together. And one of the most critical elements to make it work, he says, is song choice.
BRIAN ENO: You want songs that are word-rich, and also vowel-rich, because it's on the long vowel songs of a song, such as "Bring It on Home to Me" - (singing) you know I'll always be your slave - that's where your harmonies really express themselves. And when you get a lot of people singing a harmony on a long note like that, it's beautiful.
In an earlier interview, from 2008, NPR shares about why Eno believes in singing and singing together, here: Singing: The Key to a Long Life: Eno.
I believe that singing is the key to long life, a good figure, a stable temperament, increased intelligence, new friends, super self-confidence, heightened sexual attractiveness and a better sense of humor. A recent long-term study conducted in Scandinavia sought to discover which activities related to a healthy and happy later life. Three stood out: camping, dancing and singing.
and...
So I believe in singing to such an extent that if I were asked to redesign the British educational system, I would start by insisting that group singing become a central part of the daily routine. I believe it builds character and, more than anything else, encourages a taste for co-operation with others. This seems to be about the most important thing a school could do for you.
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The following text from - Brian Eno Lists the Benefits of Singing: A Long Life, Increased Intelligence, and a Sound Civilization - via OPEN CULTURE (link above) by Colin Marshall
In Brian Eno’s A Year with Swollen Appendices, one of my very favorite books, the well-known rock producer, visual artist, and “non-musician” musician writes out all the things he is, including “mammal,” “celebrity,” “wine-lover,” “non-driver,” “pragmatist,” and “drifting clarifier.” The list gives us a kind of overview of the man’s many facets, as well as of the many facets we all have, but it doesn’t mention one of his most important roles: that of a singer.
Even within the realm of music, you might not immediately associate Eno (who there made his name spouting synthesized sounds into Roxy Music’s early records, creatively shaking up big acts like David Bowie and U2, and pretty much inventing the wordless ambient genre) with singing. But of course he’s done it since his earliest solo albums and continues to do it on relatively recent ones, and you can hear samples of both here in this post.
“I believe in singing,” says Eno. “I believe in singing together.” He expounds upon this belief in an NPR segment called “Singing: The Key to a Long Life.” He also credits the practice with the ability to ensure “a good figure, a stable temperament, increased intelligence, new friends, super self-confidence, heightened sexual attractiveness and a better sense of humor.” It offers the chance to “use your lungs in a way that you probably don’t for the rest of your day, breathing deeply and openly,” to experience “a sense of levity and contentedness,” and to “learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness.”
Beyond simply, er, singing the praises of singing, Eno also explains just how he goes about his own practice, regularly bringing together not just friends willing to sing, but “some drinks, some snacks, some sheets of lyrics and a strict starting time” — all centered around a carefully curated selection of songs. Years of this have convinced Eno of singing’s importance to our very civilization, to the point that, as he says, “if I were asked to redesign the British educational system, I would start by insisting that group singing become a central part of the daily routine. I believe it builds character and, more than anything else, encourages a taste for co-operation with others.” And it would certainly encourage whichever student turns out to be the next, well, Brian Eno.
P.S. Here’s Eno’s Group-Sing Song List:
Can’t Help Falling In Love
Love Me Tender
Keep On the Sunny Side
Sixteen Tons
Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Dream
If I Had a Hammer
Love Hurts
I’ll Fly Away
Down By the Riverside
Chapel of Love
Wild Mountain Thyme
Que Sera, Sera
Cotton Fields
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ABOUT THIS MUSIC
I posted some of the Eno sing-song songs last week, and so this week I want searching for "Dream." I found this song, and my wife and I both love Priscilla Ahn. Liesel introduced me to Ahn, so...
But I doubt Eno had this song in mind. I suspect he had the Everly Brothers' song in mind.
I follow these two "Dream" songs with a beautiful cut by Air: "Alone in Kyoto."
Next, an English translation of a song I know best because of Edith Piaf's French rendition, but here is "La Vie en Rose" by one of my favorite artists, whom I found on You Tube, Daniela Andrade. Kooley High's "Days Passed Me By" follows. I am not sure how I came upon this song, but I love it, though it sounds like a TV theme song from the 1970s, and I can't place which. Then Prince's cover of Radiohead's "Creep" from Coachella 2008 that has been making the social media rounds since his death. Then, if you have made it that far, some truly interesting stuff via Warren Ellis, one of my chief sources for interesting stuff. As Warren wrote: "Anyone up for some folkloric ambient drone from the Ukraine? Got you covered. HERBS AND POTIONS by Gamardah Fungus is gorgeous."
And to conclude, another Warren find, a podcast from the Kahvi Collective of some great and yet mellow electronica. Enjoy.
Priscilla Ahn: "Dream"
EVERLY BROTHERS: "All I have to Do is Dream"
AIR: "Alone in Kyoto"
Daniela Andrade: "La Vie En Rose"
KOOLEY HIGH: "DAYS PASSED ME BY"
PRINCE covers RADIOHEAD'S "CREEP"
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- A label from Sydney, Australia and Belfast, Northern Ireland focused on experimental ambient music.
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A podcast of music (60-ish minutes): SEKTOR-KIKISH
From the Kahvi Collective.
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Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.
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- Days ago = 302 days ago
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1605.02 - 9:31
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