Original released on LP CBS 450307 1
(ESPAÑA, 1986)
"Poetas en Nueva York" es el título del disco que vamos a escuchar y comentar hoy. Se trata de un homenaje internacional al gran poeta Federico García Lorca. Todos los temas fueron grabados, en distintas ciudades del mundo (París, Madrid, Roma, Londres, Nueva York, Río de Janeiro, Atenas y Berlín), en 1986, año en que se conmemoraba el 50 aniversario del asesinato del poeta. Están cantados en distintos idiomas (inglés, catalán, italiano, hebreo, portugués, griego, alemán y castellano), pero siempre sobre la base de algún poema de Lorca contenido en el libro “Poeta en Nueva York”, escrito entre 1929 y 1930. García Lorca se fue en 1929 a impartir unas conferencias en Cuba y Nueva York. Pero el viaje fue quizá un pretexto para cambiar de aires y huir del ambiente que le rodeaba y que le oprimía. Debido a un fracaso sentimental y al dilema interior que sentía por su sexualidad, Lorca padeció en esa época una profunda depresión. Federico García Lorca conoció la ciudad de Nueva York en la época de la gran depresión y el crack bursátil del 29.
El paradigma del sueño americano, ese que consiste en que todos somos iguales y podemos llegar a lo más alto gracias a las oportunidades que nos ofrece la maravillosa sociedad americana, abierta, plural y libre. El poeta se encuentra con una ciudad inhumana que simboliza lo peor de nuestra civilización, el capitalismo salvaje y desaforado. Es una ciudad con vida propia, sucia, gris, fea, desalmada, caótica, ruidosa, que actúa como un vampiro que chupa la sangre y la vida de las personas. Al mismo tiempo, frente a la ciudad-monstruo se alza la masa sin nombre ni rostro, que representa lo humano, lo cálido, la alegría, el baile, la música, las ganas de vivir pese a todo”. "Poeta en Nueva York" fue para Lorca un grito de horror, de denuncia contra la injusticia y la discriminación, contra la deshumanización de la sociedad moderna y la alienación del ser humano, al tiempo que reclamaba una nueva dimensión humana donde predominase la libertad y la justicia, el amor y la belleza.
Es por ello por lo que puede ser considerada una de las obras poéticas más importantes y relevantes de la historia de este arte. Una crítica poética en un momento de cambios económicos y sociales de una magnitud única en toda la historia de la humanidad, que convierte esta obra en una profunda reflexión pesimista y hace que sea un nexo de unión entre el modernismo y la nueva era tecnológica. Una de las principales influencias que se notan en "Poeta en Nueva York" fue la del surrealismo: esta corriente pretendía renovar radicalmente la literatura, fomentar la libertad creadora del escritor a través de la libre expresión del subconsciente, abandonando cualquier tipo de convencionalismo ya fuese moral, social o artístico. Pretendían trascender la realidad accediendo a un nivel superior de conciencia, a una «sobre-realidad» – de ahí el nombre del movimiento – en la que el autor pueda expresar sin ningún tipo de ambages su visión del mundo y de la vida.
"Poeta en Nueva York" é o mais profundo e maduro livro nova.iorquino, onde Lorca incorpora magistralmente o surrealismo trágico com uma visão social aguda e fria. O que teria escrito Lorca aos cinquenta anos, ou mesmo aos sessenta? É completamenre imprevisível. Porém, tudo se poderia esperar de um homem que aos trinta anos publicou o seu "Romancero Gitano" e as suas três grandes tragédias entre os trinta e cinco e os trinta e seis... Contava apenas mais dois anos quabdo a morte o levou - fez em 1986 cinquenta anos. Nascera em 1898, em Fuente de Vaqueros, província de Granada, em Espanha. Aí viria a ser assassinado, em 1936, poucas semanas depois da Guerra Civil Espanhola ter começado. Cantores e autores de todo o mundo escolheram esse 50º aniversário para, através do seu livro "Poeta en Nueva York" lhe prestarem uma justa homenagem, musicando os seus poemas, adaptando-os às sua línguas - grego, catalão, italiano, alemão, hebreu, inglês ou português - e cantando. A poesia é uma linguagem universal. A música também. Quando ambas se unem, e quem escreveu as palavras foi Federico Garcia Lorca, nasce uma obra discográfica como esta, que sobreviverá ao longo dos anos.
Credits:
Executive-Producer – Rafael Alvero
Lyrics By – Federico García Lorca
Artwork [Front Cover Original Painting] – Eduardo Urculo
Notes:
All the tracks have been recorded in 1986, the year of commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Federico García Lorca. The album includes a leaflet that has lyrics to all of the songs and the original poems of Federico García Lorca both in Spanish and in English.
A1. "Take This Waltz" is based on the poem "Pequeño Vals Vienes" (Little Viennese Waltz), performed in English by Leonard Cohen. Produced by Michel Reusser. Recorded at Montmartre Studios in Paris.
A2. "Els Negres (Norma I Paradis)" is based on the poem "Norma y Paraiso de los Negros" (The Blacks of this World and the Next), performed in Catalan, by Lluis Llach. Produced by Lluis Llach. Recorded at Eurosonic Studios in Madrid.
A3. "Grido A Roma" is based on the poem "Grito Hacia Roma" (Cry To Rome), performed in Italian by Angelo Branduardi. Recorded at Forum Studios in Rome.
A4. "Nacimiento De Christo" is based on the poem of the same name (The Birth of Christ), performed in Castillian by Victor Manuel. Produced by Geoff Westley. Recorded at Marcus Music, Eel Pie and Parsifal Studios in London.
A5. "ילדותך במנטון" is based on the poem "Tu Infancia En Menton" (Your Childhood in Menton), performed in Hebrew by David Broza. Produced by Louis Lahav. Recorded at The Ranch Studios in New York.
A6. "Asesinato" is based on the poem of the same name ("Murder"), performed in Castillian by Paco y Pepe De Lucia. Produced by Miguel Ángel Arenas. Recorded at Circus Studios in Madrid.
B1. "A Aurora" is based on the poem "La Aurora" ("Dawn"), performed in Portuguese by Raimundo Fagner e Chico Buarque. Produced by Trinaldo Areas. Recorded at Sigla Studios in Rio de Janeiro.
B2. "Φεύγω Για Το Σαντιάγο" is based on the poem "Son de Negros de Cuba" (Blacks Dancing to Cuban Rhythms), performed in Greek by Georges Moustaki y Mikis Theodorakis. Produced by Mikis Theodorakis. Recorded at Zeta Studios in Athens.
B3. "Unsleeping City" is performed in English by Donovan. Recorded at Eurosonic Studios in Madrid.
B4. "Kleines Unendliches Gedicht" is based on the poem "Pequeño Poema Infinito" (Little Infinite Poem), performed in German by Manfred Maurenbrecher. Produced by Hubert Henle. Recorded at Thomas Funk Studios in Berlin.
B5. "Oda a Walt Whitman" is based on the poem of the same name (Ode to Walt Whitman), performed in Castillian by Patxi Andión. Recorded at Circus Studios in Madrid.
En el primer disco de podemos encontrar todavia claras influencias del rock de los 50. La mayoria de los temas son muy rapidos. El nivel es alto y solo lo baja algun tema como "Sueño Escoces", aunque para compensar y acabar con un buen sabor de boca tenemos una joyita romantica: "Esos Ojos Negros". (in RateYourMusic)
Eric Clapton adopted a new, tougher, hard R&B approach on "August", employing a stripped-down band featuring keyboard player Greg Phillinganes, bassist Nathan East, and drummer/producer Phil Collins, plus, on several tracks, a horn section and, on a couple of tracks, backup vocals by Tina Turner, and performing songs written by old Motown hand Lamont Dozier, among others. The excellent, but incongruous, leadoff track, however, was "It's in the Way That You Use It," which Clapton and Robbie Robertson had written for Robertson's score to the film "The Color of Money". Elsewhere, Clapton sang and played fiercely on songs like "Tearing Us Apart," "Run," and "Miss You," all of which earned AOR radio play. That radio support may have helped the album to achieve gold status in less than six months, Clapton's best commercial showing since 1981's "Another Ticket", despite the album's failure to generate a hit single. The title commemorates the birth in August 1986 of Clapton's son Conor. [The CD version of the album contains the bonus track "Grand Illusion."] (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)
Few new bands receive the kind of critical buzz that Lone Justice generated prior to the release of their first album in 1985, and one senses the band (not to mention producer Jimmy Iovine and Geffen Records) wanted to deliver something special to merit the hype. Which was not necessarily a good thing; "Lone Justice" is an album that tries so hard to be great that it sometimes ends up tripping over its own ambitions. The record leaves no doubt that the first edition of Lone Justice was a very good band; on the best cuts, Maria McKee's voice sounds like a force of nature, bassist Marvin Etzioni and drummer Don Heffington are a strong and imaginative rhythm section whether they were playing souped-up country shuffles or fifth-gear rock & roll, and if guitarist Ryan Hedgecock isn't quite a virtuoso, he's solid and inspired when he gets to step to the forefront. But guest keyboardist Benmont Tench and the other high-priced help (including Little Steven, Mike Campbell, and an uncredited Annie Lennox) often overwhelm the group's personality, and while McKee's songs celebrating the heart and soul of rural America are unquestionably sincere, they don't always ring true ("After the Flood" and "Pass It On" sound more like writing exercises than narratives centered around believable characters), and they also seem to inspire Iovine's most bombastic production decisions. Where Lone Justice succeeds is on straight-ahead rockers like "East of Eden" and "Working Late," the C&W weeper "Don't Toss Us Away," and the tough "love gone bad" number "Ways to Be Wicked," all of which prove that this band really did have the goods. In the wake of the 1990s alt-country movement, in which dozens of bands mined similar musical territory with more satisfying results, Lone Justice sounds like an example of too many cooks spoiling the soup; there's enough good stuff to make it worth hearing, but its hard not to wish Lone Justice had gotten the sort of sympathetic but hands-off production that allowed Wilco and the Jayhawks to do their best work. (Mark Deming in AllMusic)
Jennifer Warnes was familiar with Leonard Cohen from a tour of duty as one of his backup singers in the early '70s, but this collection of Cohen's songs must have shocked her AM radio fans who knew her from her '70s country-pop hits and her movie themes, if they were even able to connect the woman who sang "It's the right time of the night for makin' love" with the one who declared "First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin" over stinging guitar work by Stevie Ray Vaughan on the opening track here. As that pairing suggests, Warnes wisely took a tougher, more contemporary approach to the arrangements than such past Cohen interpreters as Judy Collins used to. Where other singers tended to geld Cohen's often disturbingly revealing poetry, Warnes, working with the composer himself and introducing a couple of great new songs ("First We Take Manhattan" and "Song of Bernadette," which she co-wrote), matched his own versions. The high point may have been the Warnes-Cohen duet on "Joan of Arc," but the album was consistently impressive. And it went a long way toward reestablishing Cohen, whose reputation was in a minor eclipse in the mid-'80s. A year later, with the way paved for him, he released his brilliant comeback album "I'm Your Man". For Warnes, the album meant her first taste of real critical success: suddenly a singer who had seemed like a second-rate Linda Ronstadt now appeared to be a first-class interpretive artist. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)
In the early 1980s, Paul Simon's solo career had hit a low point. Following a very successful but fraught reunion with former partner Art Garfunkel, Simon's marriage (with actress Carrie Fisher) fell apart and his previous record, "Hearts and Bones" (1983), was a significant commercial disappointment. In 1984, after a period of depression, Simon became fascinated with a bootleg cassette of South African township music. He planned a trip to Johannesburg in the new year with Roy Halee, where he spent two weeks recording with South African musicians. Simon returned home and "Graceland" was recorded throughout much of 1985–86, in several cities and locations, including New York, Los Angeles, London, and Louisiana. The tracks features an eclectic mixture of musical styles, including pop, rock, a cappella, zydeco, isicathamiya, and mbaqanga. Simon created new compositions inspired by the recordings made in Johannesburg, collaborating with both African and American artists. Executives at Warner Bros were unconcerned with Simon's material, viewing him as a "bad investment" due to the failure of his previous two solo albums. This worked in Simon's favor, he later argued, as they offered no input on his content. According to Halee, he believed executives at the label viewed the duo as "crazy".
Sobre Rui Veloso já tive a oportunidade de ler as opiniões
mais díspares. Lembro-me aqui há alguns anos, num comentário a um post inserido
no blog YéYé do meu amigo Luís Pinheiro de Almeida, de alguém o apelidar, e
cito, «o António Calvário do cavaquismo, assim uma espécie de cantor do
regime!» No polo oposto, quantas vezes a designação de “Pai do Rock Português”
não lhe foi já concedida? É por demais sabido que extremismos nunca levarão
nada a bom porto. E se apenas por maledicência se pode conotar o Rui Veloso com
o nacional-cançonetismo (o que até pode não ser um insulto, pois mesmo dentro
desse género musical existem coisas muito interessantes e de
qualidade), já o cognome de “Pai do Rock Português” só poderá ser atribuído por
ignorância. Como diria o meu amigo José Forte, «Rui Veloso é tanto pai do rock
português como o Elvis Presley é o rei do rock ‘n’ roll». Com o devido
distanciamento, é claro. Aliás, sendo o Rock um tipo de música marginal e
irreverente, nunca lhe consegui vislumbrar “sangue azul” ou atribuir sequer uma
ascendência legítima. Pelo contrário, sempre o vi mais como que um bastardo
filho-da-mãe, fruto acidental de uma noitada de copos e devaneios.
Há quem também tente justificar o êxito do Rui Veloso com as
condições propícias em que ele apareceu. Económicas, sociais e culturais. Não
partilho dessa opinião. É verdade que os tempos têm a sua influência, mas penso
sinceramente que Rui Veloso seria sempre Rui Veloso e que a sua qualidade se
imporia de qualquer modo, independentemente da altura em que aparecesse, contra
ventos e marés e arautos da desgraça. A propósito, vale a pena ler o que
escreveu o Daniel Bacelar, um dos pioneiros, no início da década de 60, do Rock
cantado em português (e se o Rui Veloso fosse efectivamente o “Pai do Rock
Português”, o Daniel seria provavelmente o “Avô”): «A minha opinião vale o que vale mas continuo a achar que no
meio de muita coisa má que apareceu no chamado novo Rock dos anos 80, apareceu
muita coisa boa que como de costume desapareceu (as pessoas têm de ganhar a sua
vida por outros lados) e também apareceu o excepcional. Incluo o Rui nesta
última classe, pois acho-o um artista completo (extraordinário guitarrista, uma
voz expressiva e rica, e um compositor cheio de talento). O que lamento é a
nossa capacidade tão portuguesa de destruir aquilo que é bom (a nossa inveja é
uma doença que nos consome até á destruição total que aí vem em passo acelerado
) em vêz de acarinhar e divulgar o que há de bom nesta terra.»
