padam, padam...

Edith Piaf - Padam Padam

Cet air qui m'obsède jour et nuit
Cet air n'est pas né d'aujourd'hui
Il vient d'aussi loin que je viens
Traîné par cent mille musiciens
Un jour cet air me rendra folle
Cent fois j'ai voulu dire pourquoi
Mais il m'a coupé la parole
Il parle toujours avant moi
Et sa voix couvre ma voix

Padam...padam...padam...
Il arrive en courant derrière moi
Padam...padam...padam...
Il me fait le coup du souviens-toi
Padam...padam...padam...
C'est un air qui me montre du doigt
Et je traîne après moi comme un drole d'erreur
Cet air qui sait tout par cœur

Il dit: "Rappelle-toi tes amours
Rappelle-toi puisque c'est ton tour
'y a pas d'raison pour qu'tu n'pleures pas
Avec tes souvenirs sur les bras...
" Et moi je revois ceux qui restent
Mes vingt ans font battre tambour
Je vois s'entrebattre des gestes
Toute la comédie des amours
Sur cet air qui va toujours

Padam...padam...padam...
Des "je t'aime" de quatorze-juillet
Padam...padam...padam...
Des "toujours" qu'on achète au rabais
Padam...padam...padam...
Des "veux-tu" en voilà par paquets
Et tout ca pour tomber juste au coin d'la rue
Sur l'air qui m'a reconnue
...
Écoutez le chahut qu'il me fait
...
Comme si tout mon passé défilait
...
Faut garder du chagrin pour après
J'en ai tout un solfège sur cet air qui bat...
Qui bat comme un cœur de bois...

this song is about its melody - padam, padam, padam. it causes a great uproar for her. She sees all the comedies and all the tragedies of her past loves. In one performance Piaf says, "This melody you will hear follows me everywhere I go. I hear it when I am sad and especially when I am glad. It seems to mock me for my past sins. It taunts me and it is driving me crazy."

Qui bat comme un cœur de bois... - it beats like a wooden heart...

make our garden grow...

Cunegonde - June Anderson, Candide - Jerry Hadley, Leonard Bernstein, conducting


Leonard Bernstein died within a few weeks of this performance. June Anderson was severely ill with the flu during the performance but Bernstein literally begged her to sing, saying that she was his ideal Cunegonde. Jerry Hadly committed suicide a few months ago. This may very well be the ultimate recording of Bernstein's Candide.

CANDIDE
You've been a fool
And so have I,
But come and be my wife.
And let us try,
Before we die,
To make some sense of life.
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow...
And make our garden grow.

CUNEGONDE
I thought the world
Was sugar cake
For so our master said.
But, now I'll teach
My hands to bake
Our loaf of daily bread.

CANDIDE AND CUNEGONDE
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow...
And make our garden grow.

(ensemble enters in gardening gear and a cow walks on)

CANDIDE, CUNEGONDE, MAXIMILLIAN, PAQUETTE, OLD LADY, DR. PANGLOSS
Let dreamers dream
What worlds they please
Those Edens can't be found.
The sweetest flowers,
The fairest trees
Are grown in solid ground.

ENSEMBLE (a cappella)
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow.
And make our garden grow!

(The cow dies)

VOLTAIRE
Any questions?


update:

After posting "Make our garden grow", I realized that I also had to post Christa Ludwig, who was in the same performance as the Old Woman, singing "I am easily assimilated." She almost, no, she did, steal the show with this number. If you watch carefully, you will see June's face with a grin on it because she's enjoying it, as sick as she was during the performance, and actually is applauding Ms. Ludwig at the end, a fairly rare thing to see in a performance.

I had the pleasure to spend an evening with Ms. Ludwig and her husband. By the end of the night my sides ached from laughing. As funny as she did this role, she is the same way, and more, in person. At one point in the evening she turned to her husband, who seemed to be talking alot, and said, "I'm supposed to be the Diva, not you!" We all lost it...




Old Woman - Christa Ludwig



I was not born in sunny Hispania,
My father came from Rovno Gubernya.
But now I'm here, I'm dancing a tango;
Di dee di! Dee di dee di!
I am easily assimilated.
I am so easily assimilated.

I never learned a human language.
My father spoke a High Middle Polish.
In one half-hour I'm talking in Spanish:
Por favor! Toreador!
I am easily assimilated.
I am so easily assimilated.

It's easy, it's ever so easy!
I'm Spanish, I'm suddenly Spanish!
And you must be Spanish, too.
Do like the natives do.
These days you have to be
In the majority

Tus labios rubi
Dos rosas que se abren a mi,
Conquistan mi corazon,
Y solo con
Una cancion.

Mis labios rubi
Dreiviertel Takt, mon tres cher ami,
Oui ou, si si ja ja ja, yes yes, da da.
Je ne sais quoi!

Me muero, me sale una hernia!

A long way from Rovno Gubernya!

Mis/Tus labios rubi
Dos rosas que se abren a mi,
Conquistan mi corazon,
Y solo con
Una divina cancion.
De tus labios rubi!
Rubi! Rubi!
Hey!

Donizetti's Tudor Trilogy...

Gaetano Donizetti wrote three opera about the queens of the Tudor era in England - Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, & Roberto Devereux. They are a great trilogy, though I've never heard of any company doing them in trio. It could be a great success. Below are scenes from each of the operas.

The first is with Dame Joan Sutherland as Anna Bolena; the second is Montserrat Caballe in the "Final Scene" from Maria Stuarda; and the third is Edita Gruberova as Elisabeth I in Roberto Devereux. The last is also quite different than the first two in that it is a revisionist production from Bayreuth. Europeans are wont to update operas and they always seem to do it right.

oh, and if you don't remember your Tudor history, someone gets their head chopped off at the end of each opera. What else would you expect?

enjoy...



Anna Bolena
with Dame Joan Sutherland


Maria Stuarda
with Montserrat Caballe



Roberto Devereux
with Edita Gruberova as Elizabetta I

best days - graham colton...

this is my newest music-crush. i really like his music and voice. i also have a penchant for what i call "story songs". songs that relate a story or part of a scene. his song "New Year's Resolution" is my current favorite, but i couldn't find a decent video of it.

With everything I've ever done
I'd give it all to everyone
For one more day
Another night I'm waking through
Another door I walk into
I can't break

And it's a winding road
And it's a long way home

So don't wait
For someone to tell you it's too late
Cause these are the best days
There's always something tomorrow
So I say let's make the best of tonight
Here comes the rest of our lives

I count the steps
The distance to
The time when it was me and you
It's so far gone

Another face,
Another friend,
Another place,
Another end,
But I'll hang on

And it's a winding road

And it's a long way home

So don't wait
For someone to tell you it's too late
Cause these are the best days
There's always something tomorrow
So I say let's make the best of tonight
Yeah, let's make the best of tonight
Here comes the rest of our lives
Rest of our lives

And it's a winding road
It's a long way home

So don't wait
For someone to tell you it's too late
Cause these are the best days
There's always something tomorrow
So I say let's make the best of it

Don't wait
Cause no one can tell you it's too late
Cause these are the best days
There's always something tomorrow
So I say let's make the best of tonight
Yeah, let's make the best of tonight
We'll make the best of tonight
Here comes the rest of our lives

i will go with you...

Donna Summer - I Will Go With You

Stranded alone on a sea of emotion
You found me
Your love was a light
In the darkness that shone
So profoundly
Say that you’ll stay
Do not be afraid, afraid
You, you’re my breath
The air I breathe
You are my imagination
Su le finesse
Song of my heart
Secrets I’m not afraid to whisper

Con te partiro
I’ll go where you lead me
Wherever you are
(forever and ever we’ll stay)
In love together
I will go with you
I’ll go where you lead me
Forever true
(forever and ever we’ll stay)
In love together

Stranded alone on a sea of emotion
You found me
It’s you who first found me
Come here, come here
Put your arms around me,
Come here
It’s you who surrounds me
Come here, come here
Come here
Come here
You, you’re my breath
The air I breathe
You are my imagination
Su le finesse
Song of my heart
Secrets I’m not afraid to whisper

I will go with you
I’ll go where you lead me
Forever true
(forever and ever we’ll stay)
In love together
Con te partiro
I’ll go where you lead me
Wherever you are
(forever and ever we’ll stay)
In love together
I will go with you
I’ll go where you lead me
Forever true
(forever and ever we’ll stay)
In love together

Con te partiro
I’ll go where you lead me,
Wherever you are
I will go with you
I’ll go where you lead me
Forever true
In my...
Heart!


this video could have been great without the pretty dancers doing a lot of stupid moves. i love this version of the song the best...

when they get the best of you...

Wave of You
Ari Gold

we can build this dream together...

Jefferson Starship, Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now



Looking in your eyes, I see a paradise.
This world that I found is too good to be true.
Standing here beside you, I want so much to give you this love in my heart that im feeling for you
Let them say we're crazy.
I don't care about that.
Put your hand in my hand, baby, don't ever look back.
Let the world around us just fall apart.
Maybe we can make it if we're heart to heart.
And we can build this thing together, stand in stone forever, nothing's gonna stop us now.
And if this world runs out of lovers we'll still have eachother.
Nothing's gonna stop us, nothing's gonna stop us now.
I'm so glad I found you, I'm not gonna lose you, whatever it takes to stay here with you.
Take it too the good times, see it through the bad times.
Whatever it takes is what I'm gonna do.
Let them say we're crazy.
What do they know?
Put your arms around me, baby, don't ever let go.
Let the world around us just fall apart.
Baby, we can make it if we're heart to heart.
Oh, all that I need is you.
All that I ever need.
All that I want to do is hold you forever, forever and ever.

And we can build this thing together, stand in stone forever, nothing's gonna stop us now.
And if this world runs out of lovers we'll still have eachother.
Nothing's gonna stop us, nothing's gonna stop us now.

And we can build this thing together, stand in stone forever, nothing's gonna stop us now.
And if this world runs out of lovers we'll still have eachother.
Nothing's gonna stop us, nothing's gonna stop us now.

i know it's been forever...

i've been busy, shall i say? i know. no excuses! well, to start this up again, below is probably the perfect song "Who wants to live forever" originally done by Queen. I'm going to do something different.

when I did tapes for some of the bars in Chicago many years ago, usually for cocktail hour, i really enjoyed mixing different versions of the same song by various artists. though i could seamlessly mix them, i don't have the expertise to do videos or on a website. so i will just post some videos of the song... if the video doesn't identify who is singing, try to guess for fun. enjoy...



















and, of course...




There's no time for us
There's no place for us
What is this thing that builds our dreams yet slips away
from us

Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever....?

There's no chance for us
It's all decided for us
This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us

Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever?

Who dares to love forever?
When love must die

But touch my tears with your lips
Touch my world with your fingertips
And we can have forever
And we can love forever
Forever is our today
Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever?
Forever is our today

Who waits forever anyway?


the original is my favorite. but the third one with the two young children singing sent chills up my spine.

freddie would have been really proud of them...

i saw her today at a reception

A glass of wine in her hand
I knew she would meet her connection
At her feet was her footloose man

No, you can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
And if you try sometime you find
You get what you need




But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need, ah yes...

you with the sad eyes...

don't be discouraged
oh I realize
it's hard to take courage
in a world full of people
you can lose sight of it all
and the darkness inside you
can make you fell so small



wow!

this was recorded on March 19, 2007 on the view. an old favorite with a new sound...