DONOVAN LIVE IN L.A. (2007, JANUARY 21)

 

The CD and DVD of one of the best perfomances 

from Mr. Donovan Leitch

OST "Harold and Maude" ~ Cat Stevens, 1971

Original released on LP Vinyl Films VFR-2007-3

(Special Collector's Edition, 2007)

Um dos grandes trunfos do filme "Harold And Maude / Ensina-me a Viver" foi sem dúvida a sua banda sonora, composta pelas canções de Cat Stevens, na altura a viver o seu apogeu criativo. Essas canções ajustam-se que nem uma luva às imagens, quer através das letras quer musicalmente. E o mais curioso é que a grande maioria foi retirada de dois albuns já existentes no mercado: “Mona Bone Jakon” e “Tea For The Tillerman”, ambos de 1970. As duas únicas novidades, compostas expressamente para o filme foram os temas “Don’t Be Shy” e “If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out”.

Dada a edição recente daqueles dois albuns, não foi considerada importante na altura a saída de um novo LP com a inclusão completa das canções que apareciam no filme. Apenas no Japão apareceu uma pequena edição pirata rotulada de banda sonora que rapidamente desapareceu da circulação para desgosto de possíveis coleccionadores. Em meados da década de 80 aqueles dois temas apareceram por fim editados legalmente no 2º Volume dos “Greatest Hits" de Cat Stevens. Mas não era isso que os verdadeiros fãs queriam. Esses queriam uma verdadeira banda-sonora do filme, com as palavras “Harold”, “Maude” e “Soundtrack” estampados na capa.

Tivemos todos de esperar 37 anos, tempo mais do que suficiente para Cat Stevens ter mudado de nome, trocado as luzes da ribalta pelo recolhimento religioso e ter por fim regressado à gravação de novas canções. Mas a espera é capaz de ter valido a pena. Numa altura em que os tempos do vinil estão pouco a pouco a regressar, o aparecimento de uma edição especial para colecionadores nos fins de 2007 representou a concretização de um sonho já muito antigo. A edição foi limitada (apenas 2.500 unidades) pelo que rapidamente se esgotou. Felizmente consegui a minha cópia a tempo (apesar de ter dispendido quatro vezes mais do que o preço "oficial") e ela aqui está, em todo o seu esplendor.

O autor deste projecto chama-se Cameron Crowe, um coleccionador obsessivo de bandas-sonoras e também escritor, director, produtor e arquivista em part-time, que durante os últimos três anos meteu mãos à obra, ajudado pela sua própria editora, a Vinyl Film Records, e também pela Paramount, que produziu o filme. E, claro, contou também com a ajuda do Senhor Yusuf Islam, o regressado Cat Stevens. O resultado é excelente!

Desde logo a inclusão óbvia de todos os temas, incluindo versões alternativas e instrumentais, e prensados em vinil colorido, com oito cores diferentes à escolha (a minha cópia é em rosa claro-escuro, como se pode ver aí em cima). Vem também incluído um single de 7 polegadas com versões demo dos dois temas extras, também impresso em vinil colorido (no meu caso é branco) e acompanhado de uma pequena folha manuscrita com as letras das duas canções. Isto tudo vem inserido num dos lados da dupla capa (gatefold), a qual, no seu interior, apresenta uma montagem fotográfica de uma série de imagens relacionadas com o filme: livros, fotos, bilhetes, contas, singles, posters, enfim, uma autêntica parafernália de “Harold and Maude”.

No outro lado da capa encontra-se um grande envelope onde se pode ler “Harold & Maude Publicity Kit 25 Stills”, que é uma cópia do envelope na altura enviada à imprensa com fotografias para promoção do filme. No interior encontramos um catálogo com 36 páginas, recheado de fotografias originais e com histórias, curiosidades (sabiam que Elton John chegou a ser abordado para o papel principal?) e depoimentos de todos quantos estiveram envolvidos na produção do filme. A finalizar dois posters gigantes, um de Cat Stevens, a preto e branco, e outro com o poster a cores da edição japonesa do filme. Como se referiu atrás, este vinil encontra-se há muito esgotado, podendo apenas adquirir-se a preços exorbitantes. Entretanto, Rato Records fez uma banda-sonora especial, com 20 faixas (mais 3 bonus), onde se incluiram alguns diálogos e trechos de música clássica ouvidos no filme.

(VER CRÍTICA AO FILME AQUI)

Listen To The Movies

PATTI SMITH: "Twelve"

 

Original released on CD Columbia 82876.87251.2

(US 2007, April 24)

Depois de toda uma obra sobretudo assente em canções de que é autora (apesar de ter cantado The Who, Van Morrison ou Springsteen), Patti Smith dedicou este disco a uma série de homenagens a heróis e canções que admira. Passam ali memórias de Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Dylan ou R.E.M. entre outros. O disco é uma vénia de uma grande autora feita a artisas que a inspiram (in Expresso)

According to her brief liner notes, Patti Smith indulged the idea of a covers album, considering songs as far back as 1978 on the back pages of Jean Genet's "Thief's Journal" when she was still assembling her groundbreaking early catalog; it's evident she feels that covers have been part and parcel of her recording experience from the outset. Her debut, "Horses", has her own apocalyptic version of Van Morrison's "Gloria" as well as a healthy portion of Chris Kenner's "Land of a Thousand Dances" inside "Land." On 1979's "Wave" she covered the Byrds "So You Want to Be (A Rock and Roll Star)," and scored with the single. Her intuitive reading of Bob Dylan's "Wicked Messenger" was a beautiful aspect of "Gone Again" in 1996, and she paid tribute to Allen Ginsberg by using one of his poems in "Spell," on 1997's "Peace and Noise". And who can forget her reading of Pete Townshend's "My Generation" issued on the 30th Anniversary edition of "Horses"?

While it's a popular notion these days to consider a covers album a stop-gap between albums, the truth is that Smith has never been in a hurry when it comes to recording, though she has been very productive over the last decade. She has always paid tribute in one form or another to her heroes, however disparate. This collection is a wondrous sampling of pop hits, hard rock, ballads, and soul done in Smith's inimitable way of interpreting songs - by getting inside them and breathing their meaning, and often uncovering new shades of meaning - from within. She begins with a newer, more spiritual reading of Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" letting her fine band - Jay Dee Daugherty, Lenny Kaye and Tony Shanahan - pulse the tune's changes and vibe while she comes across as a shaman leading the way down into the underworld. Her taking on Tears for Fears' smash hit "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" may come as a surprise, but in her open-throated take, the tune brims with the wisdom of a prophetess proclaiming the folly of humankind's need for power and greed. And while her version of Neil Young's "Helpless" may come across as a bit too reverent, the seed of memory is what infuses her take on this beautiful ballad. Loss and remembrance become a memento mori, an effigy to those who who've traveled on from this plane of existence. "Gimme Shelter" is a natural, and it carries all the foreboding of an apocalypse out the original nearly 40 years later as if to say that Jagger and Richard were right all along. The tune becomes a plea for shelter, rather than a demand. George Harrison's "Within You Without You" is the complete blending of spiritual longing, with droning acoustic guitars, skittering snares and open chord drones from Kaye's electric and fleshly experience. Smith's read of Dylan's "Changing of the Guard" is ambitious. Where the original was drenched in mariachi horns and a female backing chorus, she overturns those trappings and accents Dylan's last expressionistic lyric. She sings as if everything is at stake in this clash between the forces of light and darkness, where Melville, Dumas, Joan of Arc, the myth of Orpheus and the tales of Ovid are informed by both biblical prophecy and the tarot. The meld of acoustic guitars, brushed drums and muted kickdrum wind around her. The piano and Kaye's muted electric guitars fill the space where most of the backing vocals and horns once were - except where Smith's daughter Jesse Paris Smith harmonizes -- and seduce the emotion out of the nearly surreal narrative of renunciation.

Perhaps no tune moves here like Smith's reading of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," with help from Sam Shepherd and John Cohen on banjo, Peter Stampfel on fiddle, and Kaye and Duncan Webster on guitar in a strange dreamscape driven by a standup bass. Smith digs into the lyric and then offers a poem that is as much an early American folk song elegy to the environment Kurt Cobain grew up in as it is to what's happening to America itself, but with current touches. Her poet's heart not only complements the original but makes the song timeless and brings Cobain's mature spirit to flesh once more. It is the most moving track on the set and the most visionary. Smith closes her set with a true outlaws campfire song in Gregg Allman's "Midnight Rider," and a darker than written, sparsely textured, elegiac cover of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise," with a truly haunting piano by Luis Resto. Her small notes annotating each track are welcome and revealing in and of themselves. If this is truly the covers album Smith has always wanted to record, she's succeeded on a level with the best of her studio recordings and a welcome addition to her catalog. Each song has her imprint without sacrificing the intent or spirit of the original. Full of slow burning passion and emotion, "Twelve" is magnificent. (Thom Jurek in AllMusic)

NORAH JONES: "Not Too Late"

 

Original released on CD Blue Note 0946.3.74516.2.5

(US 2007, January 30)

Recoils from fame usually aren't as subdued as Norah Jones' third album, "Not Too Late", but such understatement is customary for this gentlest of singer/songwriters. "Not Too Late" may not be as barbed or alienating as either In Utero or Kid A - it's not an ornery intensification of her sound nor a chilly exploration of its furthest limits - but make no mistake, it is indeed a conscious abdication of her position as a comfortable coffeehouse crooner and a move toward art for art's sake. And, frankly, who can blame Jones for wanting to shake off the Starbucks stigmata? Although a large part of her appeal has always been that she sounds familiar, like a forgotten favorite from the early '70s, Jones is too young and too much of a New York bohemian to settle into a role as a nostalgia peddler, so it made sense that she started to stretch a little after her 2004 sophomore set, "Feels Like Home", proved that her surprise blockbuster 2002 debut, 2Come Away with Me", was no fluke. First, there was the cabaret country of her Little Willies side band, then there was her appearance on gonzo art rocker Mike Patton's Peeping Tom project, and finally there's this hushed record, her first containing nothing but original compositions. It's also her first album recorded without legendary producer Arif Mardin, who helmed her first two albums, giving them a warm, burnished feel that was nearly as pivotal to Jones' success has her sweet, languid voice. Mardin died in the summer of 2006, and in his absence, Jones recorded "Not Too Late" at the home studio she shares with her collaborator, bassist and boyfriend Lee Alexander. Although it shares many of the same sonic characteristics as Jones' first two albums, "Not Too Late" boasts many subtle differences that add up to a distinctly different aesthetic. Jones and Alexander have stripped Norah's music to its core. Gone are any covers of pop standards, gone are the studio pros, gone is the enveloping lushness that made "Come Away with Me" so easy to embrace, something that "Not Too Late" is most decidedly not.

While this might not have the rough edges of a four-track demo, "Not Too Late" is most certainly music that was made at home with little or no consideration of an audience much larger than Jones and Alexander. It's spare, sometimes skeletal, often sleepy and lackadaisical, wandering from tunes plucked out on acoustic guitars and pianos to those with richer full-band arrangements. Norah Jones has never exactly been lively - part of her charm was her sultry slowness, ideal for both Sunday afternoons and late nights - but the atmosphere here is stultifying even if it's not exactly unpleasant. After all, unpleasantness seems to run contrary to Jones' nature, and even if she dabbles in Tom Waits-ian carnivalesque stomps ("Sinkin' Soon") or tentatively stabs at politics ("My Dear Country"), it never feels out of place; often, the shift is so subtle that it's hard to notice. That subtlety is the biggest Achilles' heel on "Not Too Late", as it manifests itself in songs that aren't particularly distinctive or performances that are particularly varied. There are exceptions to the rule and they all arrive with full-band arrangements, whether it's the lazy jazz shuffle of "Until the End," the country-tinged "Be My Somebody," or the wonderful laid-back soul of "Thinking About You." These are songs that not only sound full but they sound complete, songs that have a purposeful flow and are memorable for both their melody and sentiment. They would have been standouts on "Feels Like Home", but here they are even more distinctive because the rest of the record plays like a sketchbook, capturing Jones and Alexander figuring out how to move forward after such great success. Instead of being the end result of those experiments, the completed painting after the sketch, "Not Too Late" captures their process, which is interesting if not quite compelling. But its very release is a clear statement of artistic purpose for Jones: its ragged, unfinished nature illustrates that she's more interested in pursuing her art than recycling "Come Away with Me", and if this third album isn't as satisfying as that debut, it nevertheless is a welcome transitional effort that proves her artistic heart is in the right place. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

    

ART GARFUNKEL: "Some Enchanting Evening"

Original released on CD ATCO R2 74851

(US, January 2007)

There is a strangeness that is nearly otherworldly in hearing Art Garfunkel - half of one of the most enduring duo's in rock's history books - singing pop standards. Garfunkel was primarily a harmony vocalist in his duo with Paul Simon, but it was that voice that added authority and excitement to their recordings. His own solo records have been less successful, perhaps because he was a never a songwriter per se, though he has written. On 2002's "Everything Waits to Be Noticed", he worked with Maia Sharp and Buddy Mondlock and the result was deeply satisfying. "Some Enchanted Evening"'s material is most appealing because it is so well known and has been interpreted by some of the greatest singers in history - Sinatra, Bennett, Washington, Fitzgerald, Vaughan, just to name a few - and it's also the most treacherous. Let's face it, Rod Stewart's multi-volume "Great American Songbook" series sold well, but it was a critical and musical disaster because he has no idea how to phrase these songs: he sounded like a rock vocalist trying to swing (and he didn't pull it off at all.) Here, Garfunkel claims in a liner comment that he is "under the sway of two magnificent singers: Chet Baker and Johnny Mathis." OK. But he has neither Baker's dryly vulnerable restraint nor Mathis' grand sense of drama. Garfunkel tries a naturalist approach to songs by Johnny Mercer ("I Remember You"), George & Ira Gershwin ("Someone to Watch Over Me"), Harold Arlen ("Let's Fall in Love"), Antonio Carlos Jobim ("Quiet Nights" [aka "Corcovado"]); Lerner & Loewe ("I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face"), Irving Berlin ("What'll I Do"), and Rodgers & Hammerstein ("If I Loved You"); and that's only about half. The first three alone are, for all their beauty, barbed wire fences with lipstick and perfume traces left on their pointed spires. Perhaps it's also why Garfunkel wrote on another panel "It wasn't Monet, it was France..." In other words, he was seduced by both the dreamy nature of the material, and its magical, love-soaked melodic and lyric lines as well as his being spellbound by the two previously mentioned singers. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the voice to pull this off. His sense of subtlety is too prevalent here. His voice lacks that phrasing that Baker's had, where he sang like he played trumpet. The subtlety in Baker's delivery was vulnerability that had an edge. Here, Garfunkel's so soft , one could crush his voice and, worse yet, the song, in an alley. His breathy delivery is also fraught with a kind of unwelcome rawness that contributes to his lack of authority. Check the break and crack in "I'm So Glad There Is You." There are a few places here where his singing fits the material or brings something new to it: on "Quiet Nights," his softness is exactly what the song demands, a whisper nearly from the one who articulates not only lyric, but the rhythm. The best performance on the album is in "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," where Garfunkel sings clear and true; there's no smoke or whisper in the grain of his voice, just the way the material finds its way inside him and he lets it out naturally, without artifice. The other nagging flaws here are the arrangements: the strange pedal steel guitar (played by Dean Parks), with the synth strings and woodwinds are just awful; the drum loops on "You Stepped Out of a Dream," and the weird, weird weird synth bass on "Some Enchanted Evening." What these arrangements do is force the singer into a different place, one full of smoke and mirrors where the tune isn't there, just its framework, leaving too much weight on the vocalist to bring it all together. Art Garfunkel is, when he wants to be, a singular vocalist who possesses gentleness, power and emotional authenticity, when he wishes to. It is almost totally absent on "Some Enchanted Evening". (Thom Jurek in AllMusic)

KATIE MELUA: "The Ultimate Collection"

Original released on CD Digipak BMG 538433672

(EU 2018, October 5)

Divas Cantam Caetano

b.s.o. almodóvar

Original released on Double CD EMI 50999 5 1 2859 2 0

(MEXICO 2007, December 4)

¿Qué tienen en común Caetano Veloso, Manzanita y Miguel de Molina? Lo mismo que Chavela Vargas y Sara Montiel con Los Panchos: Pedro Almodóvar. Estos nombres y muchos otros han prestado su voz al director en las bandas sonoras de sus películas y ahora quedan reunidos en "B.S.O. Almodóvar". El disco recoge la esencia de la filmografía del realizador de "Todo sobre mi madre". «Las canciones en mis películas son parte esencial del guión, una especie de voz en of musical que explica, desvela secretos y enriquece la acción donde aparece», escribe Pedro Almodóvar en el libreto de "B.S.O. Almodóvar", un doble CD que recoge 29 canciones de sus filmes elegidas por el manchego. «En esta banda sonora recopilatoria de las canciones que han aparecido en mis películas hay de todo, y sobre todo intérpretes geniales (con la excepción de un servidor berreando el divertimento que lleva por título "Gran Ganga")», explica Almodóvar. «Impera el eclecticismo, hay mucho desgarro, pero también hay pop ligero, incluso 'disco music', y ternura y emoción a raudales».

 

Toda la filmografía 'almodovariana' está representada por artistas «en la cima de su talento y cantando temas inspiradísimos», según la opinión del director. Es una mirada diferente y fundamental hacia su cine a través de la música porque estas canciones «tienen una función dramática y narrativa, y son tan descriptivas como los colores, la luz, los decorados o los diálogos». Cantantes que, afirma Almodóvar, «he tenido la suerte de que me acompañaran y enriquecieran mi vida y mi cine, y me gustaría compartirlos con vosotros y que los disfrutárais tanto como yo».

DISCO 1:

1. Tajabone (Ismaël Lo, 1996) 

"Todo Sobre Mi Madre"

2. Cucurrucucú Paloma (Caetano Veloso, 2002) 

"Hable Con Ella"

3. Luz de Luna (Chavela Vargas, 1991) 

"Kika"

4. Tonada de Luna Llena (Caetano Veloso, 1994) 

"La Flor de Mi Secreto"

5. Ne Me Quitte Pas (Maysa Mataraso, 1966) 

"La Ley del Deseo"

6. Lo Dudo (Los Panchos, 1953) 

"La Ley del Deseo"

7. Espérame en el Cielo (Mina, 1981) 

"Matador"

8. La Bien Pagá (Miguel de Molina, 1957) 

"Que He Hecho Yo Para Merecer Esto?"

9. Quizás, Quizás, Quizás (Sara Montiel, 1963) 

"La Mala Educación"

10. Soy Lo Prohibido (Olga Guillot, 1993) 

"Trailer Para Amantes de lo Prohibido"

11. Puro Teatro (La Lupe, 2006) 

"Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios"

12. Soy Infeliz (Lola Beltrán, 1969) 

"Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios"

13. Por Toda a Minha Vida (Elis Regina e António Carlos Jobim, 1974) 

"Hable Con Ella"

14. La Cumparsita (Xavier Cugat, 1946) 

"Kika"

15. Las Espigadoras (La Rosa del Azafrán) (F. Delta, 1962) 

"Volver"

DISCO 2:

1. Un Año De Amor (Luz Casal, 1991) 

"Tacones Lejanos"

2. Piensa en Mi (Luz Casal, 1991)

"Tacones Lejanos"

3. En el Último Trago (Chavela Vargas, 1994) 

"La Flor de mi Secreto"

4. Encadenados (Lucho Gatica, 1989) 

"Entre Tiniebles"

5. Sufre Como Yo (Albert Pla, 1995) 

"Carne Tremula"

6. A Good Thing (Saint Etienne, 2005) 

"Volver"

7. Gran Ganga (Almodóvar & McNamara, 1982) 

"Laberinto de Pasiones"

8. Where Is My Man (Eartha Kitt, 1983) 

"Trailer Para Amantes de lo Prohibido"

9. Resistiré (Dúo Dinámico, 1988) 

"Átame"

10. Volver (Estrella Morente, 2006) 

"Volver"

11. El Rosario de Mi Madre (Duquende con Manzanita, 1999) 

"Carne Tremula"

12. Se Nos Rompió el Amor (Bernanda y Fernanda de Utrera, 1990) 

"Kika"

13. Voy (Bambino, 1967) 

"Trailer Para Amantes de lo Prohibido"

14. Cuando Nadie Te Quiera (Bambino, 1964) 
"Trailer Para Amantes de lo Prohibido"

NEIL YOUNG: "Live At Massey Hall, 1971"

Original released on CD Warner Music Canada CDW 43327

(CANADA 2007, March 13)

The second volume of Neil Young's long-promised, suddenly thriving Archives series is "Live at Massey Hall", preserving a 1971 acoustic show at the Toronto venue. Where the first volume captured a portion of Neil's past that wasn't particularly well documented on record - namely, the rampaging original Crazy Horse lineup in its 1970 prime - this second installment may seem to cover familiar ground, at least to the outside observer who may assume that any solo acoustic Young must sound the same. That, of course, is not the case with an artist as mercurial and willful as Young, who was inarguably on a roll in 1971, coming off successes with Crazy Horse, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and his second solo record, 1970's "After the Gold Rush". The concert chronicled on "Live at Massey Hall" finds Neil dipping into these recent successes for material, as he also airs material that would shortly find a home on 1972's "Harvest" in addition to playing songs that wouldn't surface until later in the decade - "Journey Through the Past" and "Love in Mind" wound up on 1973's "Time Fades Away", "See the Sky About to Rain" showed up on 1974's "On the Beach" - and then there's two songs that never showed up on an official Neil Young album: the stomping hoedown "Dance Dance Dance," which he gave to Crazy Horse, and "Bad Fog of Loneliness," which gets its first release here. This is a remarkably rich set of songs, touching on nearly every aspect of Young's personality, whether it's his sweetness, his sensitivity, his loneliness, or even his often-neglected sense of fun. 

True, the latter only appears on "Dance Dance Dance," but that comes as a welcome contrast to the stark sadness of "See the Sky About to Rain." But even if "Down by the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand" retain their intense sense of menace when stripped of the winding guitar workouts of Crazy Horse, this concert isn't dominated by melancholy: it's a warm, giving affair, built upon lovely readings of "Helpless," "Tell Me Why," "Old Man," and an early incarnation of "A Man Needs a Maid" (here played as a medley with "Heart of Gold") that removes the bombast of the "Harvest" arrangement, revealing the fragile, sweet song that lies underneath. While this concert isn't as freewheeling and rich as Young's studio albums of the early '70s - each record had a distinctive character different from its predecessor, thanks in part to producer David Briggs, arranger/pianist Jack Nitzsche, and Young's supporting musicians, including Crazy Horse or the Stray Gators - it nevertheless captures the essence of Neil Young the singer and songwriter at his artistic peak. That's the reason why this concert has been a legendary bootleg for nearly four decades and why its release 36 years after its recording is so special: it may not add an additional narrative to Neil Young's history, but it adds detail, color, and texture to a familiar chapter of his career, rendering it fresh once more. No wonder Briggs wanted to release this concert as an album between "After the Gold Rush" and "Harvest": it not only holds its own against those classics, it enhances them. ["Live at Massey Hall" was also released as a two-disc set that contained a CD of the show and a DVD containing the same concert in high fidelity audio.] (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)