Spondylitis Association of America Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Forum your favorite obscure music

Hee hee, you're absolutely right about Marcel Cerdan. I might add that he was a married man, umm
to someone else. Don't feel too dated Spense. I'm almost right there with you. I remember seeing her on the Ed Sullivan show too. And like you, my high school French teacher played one of her songs in class, I think it was Milord, which is still my all-time favourite. At that time I could only understand a few of the lyrics. I do a little better now.

I think she is a good example of the human condition. I think optimism and despair were equal partners in her life. We have to carry on as best we can even knowing how things will end.

There's a llanero song whose lyrics go something like this, sorry I'm not going to put in accent marks.

"La vaca mariposa tuvo un ternero, un beserito lindo como un bebe. Da me lo papaito dicen los ninos cuando lo ven nacer, y ella l'esconde por los jojotes que no se da que la mariposa tuvo un ternero. Y los pericos van, y el gabilan tambien con frutas criollas acerca d'el. La mariposa no sabe que hacer, porque ella sabe la suerta d'el."

There might be some mistakes. I'm working off memory and my Spanish isn't as good as my French.
Sorry, I absolutely hate translating. I do so much of it at work.


toby

I tried using a web-page translator to put those lyrics into English, but the results were ... well, confusing. Although, it may not be your memory entirely, the lyrics may just not make much sense literally.

According to the babel fish translator, the song has something to do with a cow butterfly having a bull calf ... (then it becomes confusing) ... and somehow Creole fruits are involved. Oh well ...
Sometimes lyrics just don't translate. LOL

Spenser23

Computer translating programs are horrible. I'm sure some of it is my bad too though. My Spanish skills are mostly verbal and some of the spelling is probably off. It doesn't help that the letters "v" and "b" sound the same in Spanish. Also, I'm pretty sure some of it is local slang of the llaneros, the cowboys from the plains of Venezuela.

Anyway, since you seem interested and I have a moment, here ya go.

"The cow named Mariposa (Butterfly) had a calf, a little calf as pretty as a baby. Give me the little guy said the children when they see him born and she hid him in the corn so no one would know that she had calved. And the parakeets come, and the eagle as well, bringing local fruits all around him. Mariposa doesn't know what to do because she knows his fate."

I hope that clears it up for you. Geez, I hate that song in a way. It always makes me want to cry, kinda like Ol' Yeller. I guess it's partly cause I was raised on a farm and that sappy hick stuff still gets me. I'm such a wuss for some things.

Keeping with the country theme, back in my farm days I used to love some of the old timey country performers, Jimmy Rogers, Montana Slim, Hank Williams, and Bob Wills. Anybody else remember Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys? LOL

Now the cd player in my rig has either My Chemical Romance or Green Day. My tastes seem to go all over the place.

toby

Thanks Toby. I guess it loses something in the translation.

Old Yeller was a real tear-jerker when we were kids wasn't it? I haven't seen it in 40 years at least, but I still remember that climactic scene.

I remember Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys too.
Although I don't have any of their music in my collection.

My taste is all over the place too.

I've got Leonard Bernstein's "Candide" playing as I write this.

Spenser23

There's a new guy in Nashville, a friend I believe of Dr. Phil's. Maybe a relative. He is
one of the new crop that has shot up in the last two years, he sings Amarillo Sky or something like that, and another song called Johnny Cash. I have a feeling he's going to make it bigtime.
If he can get through the herd of blondes who have taken over Nashville..Do you, Spenser, or Toby remember a singer named Robin John I think it is, sang a song called "Sad Eyes". I didn't know until after, that he had like two albums go platinum before that album, was late 80's. And I loved one song the Commodores sang when Lionel Richie was a commodore, called "Once, Twice, Three Times a Lady"..Remember it? Same time as
Billy Joel sang some song I loved about "I don't want you to tell me it's alright, you don't have to tell me when to go home, on and on and then "either way you wake up with yourself". I cannot remember what the name of it was. I used to scan from station to station on my way to work, usually managed to hear both, I had a pretty long drive

Spenser, after I wrote that I was thinking the same thing, that it just didn't carry the same weight in English. That's another reason I hate to translate, especially lyrics and poetry. Poetry is really, really hard. You have to keep the same meaning, rhymes and cadence. I do better with prose. I could have punched it up a bit; but then someone would have pointed out that the translation wasn't exact. It's always difficult to balance literal meaning with connotations and intent when you translate. It's waaaaay more than just swapping out words, which is what computer programs do. That's why they're always off, that and they don't generally compensate for the different word orders of languages.

MsJay, I don't remember the name Robin John, maybe Spenser does. I do remember the song "Sad Eyes" though. It was a slow, lyrical ballad sort of song, no? I loved it at the time. It's funny you mentioned Lionel Richie and Billy Joel. My wife loved them both. I ended up buying Billy Joel's "The Stranger" album because of her. I still have it too. It was the first album we listened to together. If memory serves, we used that as an excuse to go to *ahem* a more private part of my family's house back when we were just dating.
There was a song on that album with the line, "She'll carelessly cut you and laugh while you're bleedin'" That song pretty much described to me the gf a couple of gf's before I met my wife. LOL
That one actually pulled a knife on me once. And no, I didn't deserve it. The worst thing is I kept seeing her after that.... the sex was that good!

Funny the power of music to transport us to a different place and time, huh?

toby

In the 70's my Mom use to play a vinyl record called Plantasia. When played, it would make your plants happy and GROW! No kidding.

Mort Garson's spacey electro pop music made with a synthesizer was soooo 70's that it "grew" on you. Wonder why it hasn't made a comeback?

I don't remember "Sad Eyes" or the singer. I'll have to look it up. The Billy Joel lyrics are from his song called "My Life." I grew up in Huntington on Long Island, which is where Billy Joel is from.

One of the fathers of electronic music was one of the musicians I mentioned earlier, Raymond Scott (1908-1994). He influenced a lot of other musicians including a young Robert Moog with his early electronic work and his development of the "Electronium".

Of course, he's also remembered for the fact that Warner Brothers used a lot of his music in the background of their Bugs Bunny cartoons. Check out this cool website devoted to him:

www.raymondscott.com

and this webpage which shows the electronium:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/07/28...ne-sits-silent/

I always loved how quirky Scott's music is, even his old 78's that my parents had in their collection. I've got him on CD now, but I still have the 78's. LOL

Spenser23

I had his name wrong, after all, it's been a long time

Robert John, (born Robert John Pedrick, Jr. in 1946 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American singer/songwriter. He is best remembered for the 1979 song "Sad Eyes". This song, which features John's falsetto vocals, reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 that summer.

In addition, John had a #3 hit in 1972 with his version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Hey Spenser,
I was checking out King Oliver this morning and found this You Tube of Him and his Jazz Band. Very cool. Even shows an old Paramount 78 record in the days when they cost 75 cents! Its a real blast to the past. Glad you mentioned him, I'll check out Red Allen next and see if they have anything.
Here's the You Tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-iEtTfgv4w