Category: All Music Considered

Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina

Writing that post about Javier Milei’s talk got me into the mood to listen to a couple of songs from the 1978 musical Evita. The lyrics are by Tim Rice and music is by the incomparable Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The movie Evita was released in 1996. Here’s Madonna as Eva Perón singing “Don’t cry for me, Argentina.” She’s awesome in this song. Here are some of the words:

It won’t be easy, you’ll think it strange
When I try to explain how I feel
That I still need your love after all that I’ve done

You won’t believe me
All you will see is a girl you once knew
Although she’s dressed up to the nines
At sixes and sevens with you
 . . .
Continue reading “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina”

Albéniz and Satie

A village in Austrias. Credit – wikimedia commons – Markus Bernet

The Spanish or acoustic guitar and the piano are two favorite Western classical instruments. Here are two pieces: one on the guitar and the other on the piano.

First a composition by Isaac Albéniz (1860 – 1909), the Spanish virtuoso pianist and composer. He composed it for the piano but the piece is more popularly played on the guitar. It’s titled Asturias — after the Spanish region called Asturias. Continue reading “Albéniz and Satie”

Across the Universe

It’s time to muse about music. The words muse and music are related, as one can guess from the spelling. The big dictionary says that Muse refers to “any of the nine sister goddesses in Greek mythology presiding over song and poetry and the arts and sciences.” That suits me since who wouldn’t be in favor of songs, poetry and science, I ask you.

In my formative years, I was exposed to a healthy dose of music and poetry in various languages. English and Hindi language poetry predominated as did English and Hindi language songs. I took special delight in the songs of The Moody Blues and The Beatles. Their songs particularly resonated with me because those two bands were heavily influenced by Indian philosophy. I’m still crazy about them after all these years. (Did you get the reference to another band in that last bit?[1]) Continue reading “Across the Universe”

Yeha Noha (Wishes Of Happiness And Prosperity)

I like the rhythms of Native American music. I have a collection of songs that are based on them. I say based on them because they essentially are “covers”, not the originals. Here’s one — Gesso’s Guitar Song by Mystic Rhythms Band.

A couple of decades ago, I had rescued a CD from a pile of stuff my friend Courtenay was about to trash. It was titled “Sacred Spirit.” The songs grow on you. I find them soothing. Here’s a song from that CD: Yeha Noha (Wishes Of Happiness And Prosperity).

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

Pass the Dutchie

Time for a musical interlude. A few fun songs. The first is from a one-hit wonder Jamaican band Musical Youth.

When I first heard the song long years ago, I mistakenly thought that “pass the dutchie” meant pass the bong. Only recently I learned that dutchie refers to a “dutch pot” and the stew-like dish made in it. It’s food that is being passed. Hence the words, “How does it feel when you have no food.” Continue reading “Pass the Dutchie”

Two Guitar Pieces

I am partial to Spanish guitar compositions. Here are a couple I especially like.

The wiki has details of the composition Asturias by Isaac Albéniz (1860 – 1909.) He was a child prodigy who first performed at the age of four. Continue reading “Two Guitar Pieces”

AMA – The 2nd Oct edition

Fragile by Sting

Indians know Oct 2nd as “Gandhi Jayanti.” Most Indians celebrate Gandhi as the one who is responsible for India’s independence from the British Raj. That’s patently false but being false has never deterred the ignorant. Most people — not just Indians — are ignorant anyway.

Gandhi was a monster. I have wasted a lot of time arguing why. Here are a few of my previous posts on Gandhi. Indians should be told who the man actually was. This one is not about Gandhi.

This post is about two of my favorite musicians who were born on Oct 2nd: Don McLean in 1945, and Sting in 1951.

To celebrate those two singers, here are two of their songs. First the 1971 super-hit song by Don McLean. Continue reading “AMA – The 2nd Oct edition”

AMC – Dolphins

By NASA–Wikimedia commons

I have never seen dolphins in the sea — only in captivity at the SeaWorld in San Diego, CA, and at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, CA.

It’s hard to believe that these animals evolved from land-dwelling mammals to become aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. The wiki says —

Dolphins are descendants of land-dwelling mammals of the artiodactyl order (even-toed ungulates). They are related to the Indohyus, an extinct chevrotain-like ungulate, from which they split approximately 48 million years ago.

The primitive cetaceans, or archaeocetes, first took to the sea approximately 49 million years ago and became fully aquatic by 5–10 million years later.

Continue reading “AMC – Dolphins”

AMC – Africa

Oumou Sangaré

Considering that I’ve been listening to music for many decades, it’s not surprising that I have around 5,000 favorite songs. I’m not exaggerating: I do have 5,000 favorite songs.

Those songs give me pleasure and joy, solace and comfort. I know them intimately, each of them associated with treasured memories. Many of them I can still recall when I first heard them, and why they entered my collection of favorites.

Today I would like to present three foreign language songs. I consider Bengali (my mother tongue), Hindi and Marathi to be domestic languages, and consider English to be a “native” language since I think, read, write and speak it better than any other language. The rest are all foreign languages to me, including French which I understand a bit of. Continue reading “AMC – Africa”

AMC – Kabir Bhajans

Veena Sahasrabuddhe

I love bhajans. The wiki explain that the word bhajan connotes “attachment, devotion to, fondness for, homage, faith or love, worship, piety to something as a spiritual, religious principle or means of salvation.”

On its historical roots, it notes that “in Hinduism, Bhajan and its Bhakti term Kirtan, have roots in the ancient metric and musical traditions of the Vedic era, particularly the Samaveda. The Samaveda Samhita is not meant to be read as a text, but sung as it is like a musical score sheet that must be heard.” Continue reading “AMC – Kabir Bhajans”