31.8.07

Candle In The Wind


August 31, 2007

Text of Prince Harry's Eulogy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:05 a.m. ET
LONDON (AP) -- The text of Prince Harry's eulogy for his mother, Princess Diana, delivered Friday at a memorial service in London:

William and I can separate life into two parts. There were those years when we were blessed with the physical presence beside us of both our mother and father.

And then there are the 10 years since our mother's death. When she was alive, we completely took for granted her unrivaled love of life, laughter, fun and folly. She was our guardian, friend and protector.
She never once allowed her unfaltering love for us to go unspoken or undemonstrated.

She will always be remembered for her amazing public work. But behind the media glare, to us, just two loving children, she was quite simply the best mother in the world.

We would say that, wouldn't we.

But we miss her. She kissed us last thing at night. Her beaming smile greeted us from school. She laughed hysterically and uncontrollably when sharing something silly she might have said or done that day. She encouraged us when we were nervous or unsure.

She -- like our father -- was determined to provide us with a stable and secure childhood.

To lose a parent so suddenly at such a young age, as others have experienced, is indescribably shocking and sad. It was an event which changed our lives forever, as it must have done for everyone who lost someone that night.

But what is far more important to us now, and into the future, is that we remember our mother as she would have wished to be remembered as she was: fun-loving, generous, down-to-earth, entirely genuine.

We both think of her every day.

We speak about her and laugh together at all the memories.

Put simply, she made us, and so many other people, happy. May this be the way that she is remembered.

****the life never will be the same, after loosing a parent ... still, I feel myself devasted as Hiroshima's city .... how to dismantle an atomic bomb?

30.8.07

Ol' Man River - since september 12, 2005, U2 played 22 times this song during 'Vertigo' tour, ever as a reference of the Katrina's devastation in New Orleans and area ...


(this version is from September 12, 2005, in Toronto, Canada)

Ol' Man River (lyrics)

Dere's an ol' man called de Mississippi
Dat's de ol' man dat I'd like to be
What does he care if de world's got troubles
What does he care if de land ain't free

Ol' Man River
Dat Ol' Man River
He mus' know sumpin'
But don' say nuthin'
He jes' keeps rollin'
He keeps on rollin' along

He don' plant taters
He don' plant cotton
An' dem dat plants 'em
Is soon forgotten
But Ol' Man River
He jes' keeps rollin' along

You an' me, we sweat an' strain,
Body all achin' an racked wid pain
Tote dat barge, lif' dat bale
Git a little drunk, an' you land in jail

Ah gits weary
An' sick of tryin'
Ah'm tired of livin'
An' skeered of dyin'
But Ol' Man River
He jes' keeps rollin' along

Colored folks work on de Mississippi
Colored folks work while de white folks play
Pullin' dem boats from de dawn to sunset
Gittin' no rest till de Judgement Day

Don' look up an' don' look down
You don' dast make de white boss frown
Bend your knees an' bow your head
An' pull dat rope until yo' dead

Let me go 'way from de Mississippi
Let me go 'way from de white man boss
Show me dat stream called de river Jordan
Dat's de ol' stream dat I long to cross

Written by Hammerstein and Kern from the musical Showboat

25.8.07

Monte Castelo: I Corinthians 13 + Soneto 11 Luiz Vaz Camoes = Poetry from Bible's texts with philosophics concept of Plato's theory. 'As Quatro Estaçoes' (The Four Seasons) is the fourth album by Brazilian rock band Legião Urbana, recorded between August and October, 1989 and released on the Emi-Odeon label on October 26, 1989. Shortly before the sessions began, bassist Renato Rocha left the band, and the bass duties were taken over by both Dado Villa-Lobos and Renato Russo. The musical style differs greatly from that of the previous album, reaching for a more tranquil, peaceful general atmosphere, while the lyrics sound much more spiritual and thoughtful. Inspiration for some of the lyrics come from the Bible, Portuguese poet Luís de Camões, as well as the teachings of Buddha. It is one of the band's best selling records, and scored numerous hits in Brazil, such as "Há Tempos" and "Meninos e Meninas". "Pais e Filhos" is one of the band's most well known and anthemic songs.



Lyrics for Monte Castelo
(Portuguese)

Ainda que eu falasse a língua dos homens
E falasse a língua dos anjos,
Sem amor eu nada seria.

É só o amor, é só o amor
Que conhece o que é verdade
O amor é bom, não quer o mal
Não sente inveja ou se envaidece.

Amor é fogo que arde sem se ver
É ferida que dói e não se sente
É um contentamento descontente
É dor que desatina sem doer.

É um não querer mais que bem querer
É solitário andar por entre a gente
É um não contentar-se de contente
É cuidar que se ganha em se perder.

É um estar-se preso por vontade
É servir a quem vence, o vencedor;
É um ter com quem nos mata a lealdade.
Tão contrário a si é o mesmo amor.

Estou acordado e todos dormem todos dormem todos dormem
Agora vejo em parte
Mas então veremos face a face.

É só o amor, é só o amor
Que conhece o que é verdade.

(my English version to Monte Castelo)

Even I said the language of the men
And said the language of the angels,
Without love, nothing I would be.

Is only the love, is only the love
That it knows what is truth
The love is good, does not want the evil
It does not feel envy or vanity.

Love is fire that burn and you can't see it
It's wound that pains and is not felt
It's a contentment discontents
It's pain that makes crazy without pain.

It's not to want more than to want well
It's solitary to walk among people
It's not to content itself of contented
It's to take care of that it's gained in losing.

It's to be imprisoned for will
It's to serve to who is successful, the winner;
It's to have with who kills the loyalty.
So contrary itself it's the same love.

I am waked up and all sleep all sleep all sleep
Now I see in part
But then we will see face the face.

Is only the love, is only the love
That knows what is truth

24.8.07

Taj Mahal is a song by Brazilian soul singer Jorge Ben Jor. Released in 1972, it's a track of the album Ben, and is one of the successful songs by the youngest fans of Jorge Ben Jor. Taj Mahal is a clear reference to the history of the palace in Agra, India. The palace was constructed during the empire of Shah Jahan, as demonstration of love to Aryumand Banu Begam, his favourite wife. Begam died after the birth of 14º son of Jahan. In 1978, Jorge Ben Jor accused Rod Stewart to have plagiarized the part of Taj Mahal (“De-De-Dederede”), that he was used in Do You Think I´m Sexy?, great success of the Scottish singer. Jorge Ben Jor directed process against Rod that blamed his partner Carmine Appice for the occurrence and yielded the profits of the band to the Unicef in a beneficient spectacle in the headquarters of the ONU, in New York. Thus, Benjor didn't receive anything from the plagiarism.



Lyrics for Taj Mahal
(Portugues)
Foi a mais linda história de amor
Que me contaram e agora eu vou contar
Do amor do principe Xá-Jehan pela princesa Num Mahal
Do amor do principe Xá-Jehan pela princesa Num Mahal
Dê, dê, dêdêredê
Dê, dê, dêdêredê
Dê, dê
Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal

(my English version):
It was the most beautiful love story
That I heard and now will tell you
Of the love of prince Xa-Jehan for the princess Num Mahal
Of the love of prince Xa-Jehan for the princess Num Mahal
De, de, dederede
De, de, dederede
De, de
Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal

23.8.07

On God - Expressions with "Deus" the word for God in Brazil
The meaning of the word "Adeus" (goodbye), as there seems to be "a"+"deus" in it. Due to his remark, we had another very fruitful discussion on the many expressions Brazilians use on daily conversations, apparently not aware we are speaking the name of God in vain. By the way, Brazilians don't like to say "Adeus". There's a song called 'Partido Alto'. Read a piece of the song "Partido Alto", by Chico Buarque, and watch a video (below) with a group called MPB4, singing this song.

Diz que deu, diz que dá
Diz que Deus dará
Não vou duvidar, ó nega
E se Deus não dá
Como é que vai ficar, ó nega

(Say it was possible, tell me it is
Say God will make it so
I won't doubt it, my babe
And if God doesn't
How will it be, my babe?)

As you could read, God is mentioned in times of despair, or when we can't speak what we really mean. In fact, the song "Partido Alto" is one of the many which had its lyrics censored in the dark years of the military dictatorship. One could naively think that due to the strong presence of Catholicism in Brazil, we speak the name of God at least once a day, completely unaware of the weight of our words. However, there are many other reasons to call Him: blind faith that compensates poverty, total disbelief against our social pyramid, deep indignation on our politicians, the list is long. Here are very popular expressions (among many) on "Deus".

1. A Deus dará.: give it to God, He will solve it
2. Deus te crie!: in southern Brazil, when someone sneezes, we say, God raises you!
3. O amanhã a Deus pertence.: tomorrow belongs to God
4. (também sou) filho de Deus.: (I‘m also) son/daughter of God, I also have rights
5. Se Deus quiser...: if God wishes so, if it‘s His will
6. Pelo amor de Deus!: for the love of God! I can‘t believe it!
7. Só Deus (resolve)...: only God (solves it, fixes something)
8. Fique / fica com Deus.: be with God, take care, goodbye

What about "Adeus"? In the past, the full expression at parting was "A Deus te entrego", or "To God I deliver you", meaning I won't be here anymore, so you're in His hands. As time went by, some of the original words were forgotten, the sentence was contracted to "A Deus", and nowadays it's only "Adeus", everything together. Naturally, many don't know the origin of the word, but we all comprehend it's a beautiful, but sad farewell. And that's one of the reasons we Brazilians avoid saying "Adeus". Maybe its translation is "Take care".

Morroco, Spiderman, Abbey Road, U23D - The Songwriting Seam

U2.Com hooked up with Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and U2 in Morocco earlier in the summer, to bring you the inside track on the Fez songwriting sessions.

In Part 1 Larry explained that ‘Sometimes you just have to get away in order to write the songs.’ In our second Fez story, the band check out a headline act at the Festival of Sacred Music. In our third story Adam discussed the ‘looser rhythmic structures’ the band have been working with and in our latest update from Fez Edge muses on everything from why they went to Morocco to working with Bono on ‘Spiderman’ and the ‘shock’ of the third dimension at the Cannes film festival. Read on!

So how would you describe what you’re doing here in Morocco with Brian and Danny?
We’re following our instincts which has inspired us to work with the two of them without any clear ambition for where the music is going to go. And for the first time we’re writing together which is totally new and the idea is that we’ll make music and decide later what’s going to happen to it. Everyone’s been quite liberated by this proposition so the music has been coming really easily - the few things we have reviewed we’ve really enjoyed but at the moment we just keep coming up with new ideas.

Why Morroco?
It’s partly about getting out of our comfort zone, giving us the ability to concentrate intensely on the music which can’t be done in Dublin so easily because everyone’s lives are there. But it’s also because we’d had a good time here once before, because the Festival of Sacred Music was taking place and because Brian has been interested in Arabic music for years. And then we also felt we might meet some interesting musicians and we certainly have, some great percussionists, some violin players and it’s exciting for us if we can find new territory.

Compared with All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb this feels quite left-field.
We’re always up for that, for trying something different. It was an early decision of ours that whatever we were going to do next, we didn’t want to go into it with the same set of ideas about what it would be and what we were trying to achieve. We’ve tried to free ourselves of the constraints of thinking ahead, we just wanted to make music for the sake of it.

And Brian and Danny are co-musicians at this stage?
Yes, co-writers, co-conspirators and we don’t know where the music is going to go. We’ve recorded a lot here and elements of that might end up being used, we’ll see, but it could be that we take this material and re-record it elsewhere. We’re planting seeds really, working with the knowledge that whatever we end up with we’ll definitely preserve some element of what we have here.

Does being in North Africa make you think differently about how you make music?
Definitely and that’s coming through in the work, in the musical structures… we don’t feel confined by the standard formats of contemporary music. So if we feel like we’re doing something too reminiscent of how we might have done it in the past, we move on. We’re trying to find other blueprints and formats for songs.

Eno describes Arabic music as having a more narrative thread than the cyclical nature of African-based music…
Because of its scale it’s not a music that lends itself particularly to harmony and so it tends to be about a very clear melodic line. That top line can be taken by a vocal or another instrument - violin often - and it’s interpreted, reconfigured and restated in all kinds of different ways. So effectively a melodic idea, sometimes a very involved melodic idea, is really the centrepiece of the whole thing, unlike a lot of songs founded on the principles of western harmony. Now we’re not jettisoning that tradition but we’re allowing some of those ideas to bleed through into this new work.

Larry remarked on the connections between Irish traditional music and North African music, connections which have been obscured over the centuries.
Yeah, there are certain musics you can find in Ireland which are almost identical, like those you find in the west of Ireland, a kind of singing based on all the little quarter notes with a style totally North African and stretching out to India. It seems to have nothing to do with western music at all.

Last time U2.Com were in the studio with the band it was Abbey Road in London and Rick Rubin was at the helm?
We’re very excited about the material we worked on with Rick, some great songs came out of it - none of which we have played with Brian and Danny. It feels like that is a separate set of material. There were two recordings that did come out from that period on the last collection but if there is maybe not a full record there with Rick, there is the bones of a record and I think we’ll get back to that because we enjoyed working with him, he’s a very inspiring character.

It feels like you’ve hit a very strong songwriting vein since late last year ?
And we just want to keep going with it. It’s like we’ve hit a seam and we want to keep hammering away as long as we can. Inevitably, when you go on the road, your songwriting chops start to get a little dull - there are so many other considerations when you’re playing live - but we’re going to keep this writing going until we want to stop or until it is time to tour again.

At the same time, Bono and you are writing for another project?
Yes, the rumours are true, we’ve been working on the Spiderman stage show. What attracted us was the opportunity to work with Julie Taymor, the director. We’re also working with a writer, Glen Berger, and producers from the world of Broadway. We’ve actually done a lot of the writing already and we’re entering a phase where we’re going to workshop the first draft of script and songs. After that we’ll be in a better position to see if we’re close - or not too close! For us, like Julie, we’re kind of intrigued by the possibility that if we can find an interesting angle on Spiderman then it could have a far greater audience than if we got together with her to work on an opera which would risk being confined to the art house world. We don’t want to do something that is the usual musical fayre of Broadway, and we do want to break new ground, but we also want to make something that people can relate to, that has the chance of being popular on a mass scale.

U23D has also been on your mind recently, particularly with the Cannes premiere.
It’s worked out really well, and it does everything it says on the can. We had a great team on this who came on stage really close to the band and it is the perspective that all true fans of the band, of music generally, would really want to have at a concert. You get the full scale of the event, 3D and big-screen. I found the images of the stadium show pretty awe-inspiring along with the incredible intimacy that 3D brings, the ability to be so close to individual members of the band that you feel like you are standing next to them.

The Director of Photography on U23D said that the film would give even the band would a new take on being in the band.
Yes, its true, I’ve never seen a U2 show so this was the closest I’ve been. Some things were quite shocking to me - like Jim Sheridan picked up on how separate we are during the show up there. When you’re watching a 2D image, you don’t get a sense of that depth and distance and while there are lots of moments when we are very close to each other, a lot of the time we are really separated. Jim said to me he just realised how lonely it must be being the drummer - you’re holding down the whole foundation of the thing but there’s no-one there saying, ‘Come on Larry!’ or whatever because everyone else is off doing other things. Sure, with the technology we use, ear-monitors and so on, we’re totally in touch with each other musically, but physically that separation is interesting to me and I haven’t figured it out.
It’s an unashamed concert movie but as a visceral experience it is on a different planet to anything we’ve ever done in 2D. I was shocked by it, it’s extremely powerful.

More from Fez in a little while. source: U2.com / aug 14, 2007