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Archive for the ‘stuff’ Category

Top Black languages

Posted in stuff on Thu May 16th 2024| Leave a Comment »

What are the most commonly known languages by Black people? No one compiles numbers that way, but this post should give you a rough idea, a first approximation.

What I counted:

  • Black counts everyone in Africa (except for White and Asian South Africans) and Black people in countries in Europe and the Americas with at least a million people of apparent African descent. This definition is a simplification to make the post doable, which is why I call it a first approximation.
  • Creole forms of a language count as part of that language. So, for example, Jamaican Patois and Nigerian Pidgin count as part of English, Haitian Creole as part of French, and so on.
  • L1 + L2 – in Africa I count both first and second language speakers. Otherwise languages like Swahili or English would seem less important than they are. In the Diaspora, though, I count only L1 speakers.

So, looking at Africa and the Diaspora separately:

Top languages in Africa:

  1. Arabic (>300m)
  2. English (234m)
  3. French (123m)
  4. Swahili (88m)
  5. Hausa (88m)
  6. Amharic (60m)
  7. Yoruba (47m)
  8. Oromo (46m)
  9. Portuguese (41m)
  10. Berber (>40m)
  11. Lingala (40m)
  12. Fula (40m)
  13. Igbo (31m)
  14. Zulu (29m)
  15. Malagasy (25m)

For comparison, in Europe Romanian has 28 million (mostly White) speakers, while English has 260 million – not all that much more than in Africa.

What about just sub-Saharan Africa? Excluding Arabic and Berber would give you an approximation – but only an approximation. Those languages bleed into sub-Saharan Africa.

What about White Africans? Most Whites live in South Africa. They were excluded. Smaller groups, like the 200,000 Portuguese Angolans and 43,000 White Kenyans, were not.

Top languages in the Diaspora (countries listed from highest to lowest):

  1. Portuguese (91m) – Brazil (pardo + preto).
  2. English  (54m) – US, UK, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Canada.
  3. Spanish (35m) – Columbia, Domincan Republic, Cuba, US, Venezuela, Ecuador.
  4. French (16m) – Haiti, France (includes overseas departments like Martinique and Guadeloupe).

Except for the US, Blacks are assigned to the main language in their country or Canadian province. So Black Brazilians count as Portuguese speakers even though plenty know English too as a second language.

And now, putting the two together:

Top languages Black languages:

  1. Arabic (>300m)
  2. English (288m)
  3. French (139m)
  4. Portuguese (132m)
  5. Swahili (88m)
  6. Hausa (88m)
  7. Amharic (60m)
  8. Yoruba (47m)
  9. Oromo (46m)
  10. Berber (>40m)
  11. Lingala (40m)
  12. Fula (40m)
  13. Spanish (35m)
  14. Igbo (31m)
  15. Zulu (29m)
  16. Malagasy (25m)

Media power: The media power of the US is so vast that even Black people in Brazil see themselves partly through the Black gringo gaze from the US. On the English-language Internet – which is 55% of the whole Internet! – Black content from the US swamps that from Africa and the Caribbean – at least as of 2016 during my Black Media Month.

By 2100, English will easily be the top language in Africa: in 2017, in nearly every country in Africa and the Diaspora, English is a required subject at school. Demand for English has spread way beyond the US and the former British Empire:

The British Empire at its peak in 1921.

In blue countries English is a required subject at school, circa 2017.

– Abagond, 2024. 

Source: Mainly Wikipedia, Babbel, and FluentU. 

See also:

587

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Best quotes on Gaza

Posted in stuff on Mon May 13th 2024| Leave a Comment »

The best quotes for understanding what has been going on in Gaza since October 7th 2023. The best I have heard so far, that is. Add your own in the comments below!

Yoav Gallant, the Israeli Minister of Defence, on October 9th 2023:

“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.”

Bassem Youssef, Egyptian comedian whose in-laws live in Gaza, October 17th 2023, on Israel playing the victim:

“They are shooting fish in a barrel, then getting annoyed with the splashes.”

Malcolm X in his autobiography in 1965:

“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

– Abagond, 2024.

See also:

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Macklemore: Hind’s Hall

Posted in stuff on Sun May 12th 2024| 2 Comments »

 

Note: YouTube will not let me embed the video because of its age-restricted content. Click above or here to see the video on YouTube.

Remarks:

This came out on May 6th 2024. It has not (yet) charted. It presents a good summary of the progressive Democratic view in the US of the ongoing war in Gaza. It even uses the G-word. The US government and national media are in lockstep with the Israeli government, but loads of people in blue states, like me, like most of the rest of the world, are not.

“Hind’s Hall” is named after an administration building liberated at Columbia University during the recent student protests there. It in turn is named after Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl, one of the 14,500 (and counting) children killed in Gaza in the past six months.

See also:

Lyrics: in the Original Spelling:

The people they won’t leave
What is threatening
about divesting and wanting peace?
The problem isn’t the protests
it’s what they’re protesting
Cause it goes against
what our country is funding
Block the barricade until Palestine is free
Block the barricade until Palestine is free
When I was 7 I learned a lesson
from Cube and Eazy E
What was it again?
oh yea
fuck the police
Actors in badges
protecting property
And a system that was designed
by white supremacy
But the people are in the streets
You can pay off meta
you can’t pay off me
Politicians who serve by any means
AIPAC, CUFI and all the companies
You see we sell fear around the land of the free
But this generation here
is about to cut the strings

You can ban tik Tok
take us out the algothim
But it’s too late
we’ve seen the truth we bare witness
We’ve seen the ruble the buildings
the mothers the children
And all the men that you murdered
and then we see how they spin it

Who gets to the right to defend
and who gets the right of resistance
Has always been about dollars
and the color of your pigment
But
White supremacy is finally on blast
Screaming free Palestine
until they’re home at last

We see the lies in them
Claiming it’s anti-semetic
to be anti-zionist
I’ve seen jewish brothers and sisters out there and riding
In solidarity and screaming
free Palestine with em
Organizing, unlearning
and finally cutting ties with a
State
that’s gotta rely on an apartheid system
To uphold an occupying violent
History been repeating for the last 75
The Nakba never ended,
the colonizer lied

If some kids in tents,
posted on the lawn
occupying the quad
is really against the law
And a reason to call
in the police and their squad
where does genocide land
in your definition huh?
destroying every college in Gaza and every mosque
pushing everyone into rafah and dropping bombs
The blood is on your hands Biden,
we can see it all
And fuck no
I’m not voting for you in the fall

Undecided,
you can’t twist the truth
The people out here
united
never be defeated when Freedom’s on the
horizon
Yet the music industry’s quiet
complicit in their platform of silence

What happened to the artist
what do you got to say?
If I was on a label,
you could drop me today
And be fine with it
cause the heart fed my page
I want a ceasefire
fuck a response from drake

What you willing to risk?
What you willing to give?
What if you were Gaza?
what if those were your kids?
If the west was pretending that you didn’t exist
You’d want the world to stand up
And the students finally did
Let’s get it

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Columbia University protest in 2024

Posted in stuff on Sat May 11th 2024| 58 Comments »

Columbia University in New York City, April 23rd 2024.

The Columbia University student protest (April 17th to 30th 2024) in New York City against the war in Gaza has spread across the US and beyond.

On April 17th 2024, pro-Palestinian students at Columbia declared the East Lawn a “Liberated Zone” and set up tents. On April 18th, the next day, the university suspended the protesters from being students, declared them trespassers, and then called the police – the NYPD. Over a hundred students were arrested.

But then even more tents sprang up! (Pictured above.)

On April 30th protesters took over Hamilton Hall, called Mandela Hall in the 1985 protests, now called Hind’s Hall. It is where the dean’s office is. They did this in the wake of the university suspending even more students. That night the NYPD retook Hind’s Hall, cleared the tents, and arrested 108 students. The police are to remain till May 17th, two days after the now-cancelled main graduation ceremony.

The protest’s demands as set out at the encampment:

  1. Financial divestment.
  2. Academic boycott.
  3. Stop the displacement.
  4. No policing on campus.
  5. End the silence.

The main demand, the first one, is for divestment, for Columbia to pull its money out of companies that support the war in Gaza. Someone made all those bombs.

Follow the money: Columbia has been part of the US military-industrial complex since at least the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. This helped drive the protests in 1968 during the Vietnam War and now in 2024 during the war in Gaza. Even the reaction in both cases was on-brand: heavy-handed and militaristic.

Free speech: Columbia is a private university. It can throw you out whenever it feels like. If I put up a tent in front of your house and start yelling about Palestine, you can call the police to arrest me for trespassing. So can Columbia. Columbia says it is for free thought and debate, for academic freedom, and blah blah blah. But in the end, it’s all about the Benjamins, baby.

Antisemitism: Columbia, and other universities which accept government money, have to comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its various updates. Students can take the university to court if they feel unsafe there due to their race, colour, sex, religion, national origin, sex (since 1972), disability (since 2016), sexual orientation or gender identity (both since 2020). In other words, at big, private universities like Columbia, free speech ends where hate speech begins. And so the charge of antisemitism (prejudice against Jews) can and has been weaponized to shut down protest and debate about support for a foreign power. Israel has become a sacred cow.

From an open letter signed by 540 Jewish students at Columbia on May 9th:

“we face the accusation of being too European, painted as society’s worst evils – colonizers and oppressors. We are targeted for our belief [in Zionism] that Israel, our ancestral and religious homeland, has a right to exist. We are targeted by those who misuse the word Zionist as a sanitized slur for Jew, synonymous with racist, oppressive, or genocidal. We know all too well that antisemitism is shapeshifting.”

But some of the protesters were themselves Jewish.

– Abagond, 2024.

See also:

558

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Hind Rajab (هند رجب)

Posted in stuff on Fri May 10th 2024| 5 Comments »

Hind Rajab (2018-2024) was a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed during the war in Gaza. She has become a poster child of the horrors taking place there. Protesters at Columbia University named a building they took over after her, Hind’s Hall. Rapper Macklemore wrote a song with the same name. “Hind” rhymes with the “wind” that blows.

On January 29th 2024, the Israeli occupation force ordered civilians to leave western Gaza City. Hind’s uncle loaded everyone in the car to leave – her along with her aunt and four cousins. But just a few blocks later they ran into the Israeli army. Their car was shot up. Everyone died except for Hind and her 15-year-old cousin Layan.

Layan, with the help of an uncle overseas, got on the phone with the Red Crescent, the Muslim counterpart of the Red Cross. But the call ended in gunfire. Later analysis showed that the gunfire was too fast to be Palestinian but not too fast to be Israeli.

When the Red Crescent called back only Hind was still alive, now all alone in a car surrounded by the bodies of her aunt and uncle and four cousins. An Israeli tank was approaching the car.

HIND RAJAB: [translated] I’m so scared. Please come. Please call someone to come and take me.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: [translated] OK, dear, I will come and take you.

You can hear the fear in her voice. The dispatcher tried to keep her on the phone while arranging for an ambulance. Or, rather, arranging for the safe passage of an ambulance. Under international law ambulances are allowed safe passage through war zones if clearly marked. The same with journalists. But the Israelis do not uphold international law.

Night was falling, Hind was scared, but still on the phone. After three hours the Red Crescent finally got permission. The ambulance was just up the street when the Red Crescent lost contact with both the ambulance and her.

For 12 days no one knew what happened. It was unsafe to enter that part of the city. On the 12th day one of her uncles arrived. He found the ambulance and the car.

The car was shot up, riddled with bullet holes. The bodies of Hind, her aunt and uncle and four cousins were decomposing. The ambulance had been bombed. Nearby was an artillery shell – made in the USA.

She is hardly the only child to die in Gaza. According to the United Nations at least 14,500 children have died so far, as of April 29th 2024. But her story has a face and a voice, humanizing the dehumanized.

Almost a perfect victim: While she was defenceless and innocent, she is not quite White enough and Israel is so much a part of the White American power structure that even Rachel Corrie, an actual White person, did not rate as a perfect victim. But Hind is close enough to touch the hearts of at least some White people. At least that of Ana Kasparian, a news presenter who cried on air. If, that is, you count Armenian Americans as White.

– Abagond, 2024.

Sources: mainly Democracy Now!

See also:

524

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Portuguese media diet review

Posted in stuff on Thu May 9th 2024| 3 Comments »

I was on a Portuguese media diet from February 21st to March 28th 2024. Nearly all private consumption of news, books, music, the Internet, etc, was in Portuguese. “Portuguese” included its creoles, dialects, and ancient forms. So Galician, Latin and Cesária Évora were included.

What I learned:

  • We all live in linguistic bubbles. Some are bigger than others, but they are still bubbles. Not everything in English is available in Portuguese. It works the other way too – not everything in Portuguese is available in English – but to a lesser extent. Because the English bubble is way bigger than the Portuguese one. But it is still a bubble. There are still things that stand beyond its reach. It is like those ancient maps of the world that become more and more inaccurate the further you get from the mapmaker’s hometown – until eventually whole continents are missing!
  • English is going to take over the world. A long-time fear of mine is that the US would turn the world into one big New Jersey, that it would culturally flatten the earth. I was hoping Chinese would keep it in check – or at least the inevitable decline of US power. But now we are at the stage where nearly every country on the planet requires its students to learn English. And a world-wide computer network that pretty much requires some knowledge of English: no matter what settings I chose, I could not completely shut out the English on the Internet. It was always there, like wallpaper. English is becoming the metric system of languages.
  • Portuguese media is Eurocentric – even though most of its speakers are Black. For example, I have a book from Brazil about the history of Africa from prehistoric times onward. Egypt is barely mentioned despite its well-documented history.
  • Amazon Brazil does not deliver to the US. Not even e-books for the Kindle! So for Portuguese books, I was limited to whatever chanced to be on US Amazon – and hope that the book I wanted was shipped by a reliable third-party company. One of the major importers has a terrible rating. Ugh.

What I most missed:

  • Left-wing debate in the US. Left-wing positions in the US are reported overseas but not the debate except in broad strokes.
  • My Latin-English dictionary. I was allowed to read Latin as part of my diet but I could not use my Latin dictionary because it is in English! But now I can see how it was becoming a crutch.
  • The King James Bible. This surprised me. I do think the Latin Vulgate is a more trustworthy translation, but I cannot read it with the same ease as the King James.

What I did not miss at all:

  • The 24/7 Trump circus. Trump is world news but not at the obsessive levels found in the US.
  • Pro-Israeli propaganda. Yet another sickening feature of English-language news media, especially with a genocide in Gaza going on.

– Abagond, 2024.

See also:

542

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Anitta, Ludmilla & Snoop Dogg: Onda Diferente

Posted in stuff on Sun May 5th 2024| 1 Comment »

Remarks:

This song has been mercilessly ringing in my head! I thought it was about giving up a boyfriend who is bad for you, but it is about weed! Whoosh! Despite the presence of an international singer, rapper norte-americano Snoop Dogg, it did not chart outside of Brazil (#64) or Portugal (#49). It came out in 2019.

The video seems male-gringo-gazey. You know how those out-group girls are! But I would not blame Snoop. Anitta, the one in the neon-pink wig, loves showing off her bottom in most of her videos. Her mother says she is like another person. I see what she means: in interviews Anitta seems almost normal! Even if her American English accent was coached.

See also:

Lyrics (original Portuguese and English):

[Intro: LUDMILLA]
Uuh-uuh-uuh-uuh-uuh-uuh-uuh
Uuh-uuh-uuh-uuh-uuh-uuh-uuh

[Verso 1: Anitta & LUDMILLA]
A noite está cada vez melhor
As minhas pernas já já vão dar um nó
O meu sangue já ferveu
A minha onda já bateu

[Refrão: Anitta & LUDMILLA]
Então então então sai, sai, sai da minha frente
Sai, sai, sai da minha frente
Hoje eu vou dar trabalho numa onda diferente
Hoje eu vou dar trabalho numa onda diferente
Então sai, sai, sai da minha frente
Sai, sai, sai da minha frente
Hoje eu vou dar trabalho numa onda diferente
Hoje eu vou dar trabalho numa onda diferente

[Pós-Refrão: Anitta, LUDMILLA & MC LF]
Bateu!
Boom, boom, balançou, boom, boom
Bateu!
Boom, boom, balançou, boom, boom
Bateu, fudeu, bateu, fudeu
Bateu, fudeu, bateu, fudeu, bateu

[Verso 2: Snoop Dogg]
Anitta, Anitta, so glad to meet ya
I’m big Snoop Dogg and I’ll be the feature
Born and bred in the LBC, all about that DPG
Gin and juice, chronic weed, c’mon, girl, put that thing on me (Boom, boom, balançou, boom, boom, boom)
If I was you and you was me, would you do what I’m ’bout to do?
Hell yeah, do it to ’em, uncle Snoop
Take flight, make life, look just like the video
You lookin’ so pretty, yo, take me to your city, yo (Boom, boom, balançou, boom, boom, boom)
Bring a bunch of girls, ain’t no need for no fellas
I paid them boys a visit when I slid through the favelas
Smoke it up, burn it up, light it up, pour it up
G’s up, hoes down, back it up, now turn it up (Boom, boom, balançou, boom, boom, boom, turn it up)

[Refrão: Anitta, LUDMILLA & Ambas]
Então sai, sai, sai da minha frente
Sai, sai, sai da minha frente
Hoje eu vou dar trabalho numa onda diferente
Hoje eu vou dar trabalho numa onda diferente
Então sai, sai, sai da minha frente
Sai, sai, sai da minha frente
Hoje eu vou dar trabalho numa onda diferente
Hoje eu vou dar trabalho numa onda diferente

[Pós-Refrão: Anitta, LUDMILLA & MC LF]
Bateu!
Boom, boom, balançou, boom, boom
Bateu!
Boom, boom, balançou, boom, boom
Bateu, fudeu, bateu, fudeu
Bateu, fudeu, bateu, fudeu, bateu

[Saída: Ludmilla]
Caraca, tô loucona!

Source: Genius Lyrics.

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Oz Bambaz: Balangandã

Posted in stuff on Sun Apr 28th 2024| Leave a Comment »

Remarks:

A blast from the past! This song came out in 2005 and in 2007 it made my list of the Brazilian songs I like.

It seems like an innocent dance song, but it might have a sexual double meaning that goes over my head.

The style of music is pagode baiano, which was influenced by samba and reggae and came out of Bahia in the north-east of Brazil in the 2000s and 1990s. The band Oz Bambaz were among its pioneers.

See also:

Lyrics: 

Olha o balanganda, olha o balanganda (2x)
Brinco de ouro, colar no pescoço, pulseira no braço, cabelo enfeitado(2x)

Todo mundo mexe, todo mundo bole, todo mundo quebra, tudo mundo samba (2x)
Mexe, bole, quebra, samba (2x)

Vai a lua e vem o sol
E você caiu no samba
Deixe o som te levar
Deixe a vida rolar
Jogue tudo pro alto
E começe a sambar, sambar, sambar

Vem meu amor não deixe a vida passar na janela
Vem pra o arrastão dos Bambaz que a galera espera
Eu vou no passo, no passista, no bandeira e
marcação, tum tum tum bate coração

Source: letras.mus.br. 

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Savanofsky: Only KJV

Posted in stuff on Sun Apr 21st 2024| 3 Comments »

Remarks:

A song about KJV Onlyism! And a funny one at that. It even has over 350,000 views on YouTube in its first 16 months (it came out in December 2022). Who would have thought.

The singer, Savanoksy, is breaking up with his girlfriend Amanda because she is unwilling to read the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. She will meet him halfway by reading the New King James Version (NKJV). Like the KJV, it translates the same Greek text, the Textus Receptus, but in modernized English. But KJV Onlyists believe that the KJV is the ONLY trustworthy English translation of the Bible. So they durst not read the NKJV, much less the ESV, CSB, NASB or others which translate the Nestle-Aland text, a scholarly reconstruction of the Greek New Testament.

Like “Home”, this song probably depends  too much on context to be much good on its own.

Note that the King James English in the song is often ungrammatical but used for comic effect.

See also:

Lyrics:

[Verse 1: Savanofsky, Amanda Savan]
Are you breaking up with me?
Thou hast verily spake
I don’t understand
Like, I literally don’t understand the words that you’re saying
Thy love is better than wine, and yet
Tryna play me with the ESV? (The ESV?)
I durst not, only KJV
Tryna play me with the CSB (That’s a good translation)
Methinks not, only KJV
Tryna playeth the NASB, I durst not
Need a KJB, I’m only KJV
Henceforth, readeth KJV
Or thwarteth all plans to lay with me
I’m only KJV

But we have the exact same theology
I’m only KJV
But you just started reading the King James like a week ago
I’m only KJV

Lo, time for my next chick to weddeth
She wist not mine Textus Receptus
Thou art fair, hast dove’s eyes, and pleasant
But methinks thou dost much protesteth

Okay, okay, baby, I have a solution
Why don’t we just read the New King James Version?

Go thy way
Thy hair’s a flock of goats, yet go thy way
Meseems thou shouldest go thy way
Go thy way
Thy hair’s a flock of goats, yet go thy way
Meseems thou shouldest go thy way

Okay, fine, but you still think I’m saved, though, right?
Methinks not, only KJV
Oh, I think you’re in a cult
I’m only KJV
I’m only KJV

Source: Genius Lyrics.

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Neil Diamond: If You Know What I Mean

Posted in stuff on Sun Apr 14th 2024| 36 Comments »

Remarks:

This has been ringing in my head most of the week! The usual cure (hear the whole song to completion) did not make it go away. It is not even a song I particularly like. I figured it was a premonition of some sort, so when my sister said, “Guess who died?” I said, “Neil Diamond!” – but it was O.J. Simpson.

This was a top-20 hit in North America in 1976, at the height of his powers. Not sure what the song is about. The English-language Wikipedia, the only one to comment on the matter, states:

‘Diamond has stated that the song is a “tender recollection” of a relationship in his teens, in which he successfully seduced a significantly older woman.’

He and Barbra Streisand, who has also appeared in this space, were in the same chorus in high school back in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

See also:

Lyrics:

When the night returns just like a friend
When the evening comes to set me free
When the quiet hours
That wait beyond the day
Make peaceful sounds in me

Took a drag from my last cigarette
Took a drink from a glass of old wine
I closed my eyes and I could make it real
And feel it one more time

Can you hear it, babe
Can you hear it, babe
From another time, from another place
Do you remember it, babe

And the radio played like a carnival tune
As we lay in our bed in the other room
When we gave it away
For the sake of a dream in a penny arcade
If you know what I mean
If you know what I mean, babe

And here’s to the songs we used to sing
And here’s to the times we used to know
It’s hard to hold them in our arms again
But hard to let them go
Do you hear it, babe
Do you hear it, babe
It was another time
It was another place
Do you remember it, babe

And the radio played like a carnival tune
As we lay in our bed in the other room
When we gave it away
For the sake of a dream in a penny arcade
If you know what I mean
If you know what I mean
If you know what I mean
If you know what I mean

If you know what I mean, babe
If you know what I mean

Source: Genius Lyrics.

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Beyonce: Blackbird

Posted in stuff on Sun Apr 7th 2024| 1 Comment »

Remarks:

Beyonce, now in her Cowboy Carter phase, just came out with a cover of “Blackbird” (1968) by the Beatles. It is recorded over the original guitar and foot-tapping. She is backed by four Black female country music singers.

Paul McCartney, who wrote the song and gets producer credits on this cover, approves:

“… I thought she had done a killer version of the song. When I saw the footage on the television in the early 60s of the black girls being turned away from school, I found it shocking and I can’t believe that still in these days there are places where this kind of thing is happening right now. Anything my song and Beyoncé’s fabulous version can do to ease racial tension would be a great thing and makes me very proud.”

The original was recorded a month after Martin Luther King was assassinated.

There are other interpretations and accounts of the song, but it seems like this is becoming the official one.

As maybe you can imagine, Alicia Keys has already done a cover (back in 2011).

See also:

Lyrics:

[Verse 1: Beyoncé]
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
(You were only waiting for this moment to arise)

[Verse 2: Beyoncé]
Blackbird singing in the dead of night (Dead of night, night)
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see (Learn to see all of your life)
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free

[Chorus: Beyoncé]
Blackbird fly (Blackbird, blackbird, fly, fly, fly, fly)
Blackbird fly (Blackbird, blackbird, fly, fly, fly, fly)
Into the light of a dark, black night

[Bridge: Beyoncé]
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh

[Chorus: Beyoncé]
Blackbird fly (Fly)
Blackbird fly (Fly)
Into the light of a dark, black night

Beyoncé & Rumi Carter
[Verse 3: Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, Reyna Roberts & Tanner Adell]
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly (Learn to fly, learn to fly)
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

[Outro: Reyna Roberts & Tanner Adell, Beyoncé, All]
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Source: Genius Lyrics.

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Joan Osborne: One of Us

Posted in stuff on Sun Mar 31st 2024| 1 Comment »

Remarks:

This came out in 1995, a top-ten hit in both the US and UK. The video shows scenes from “Schindler’s List” (1993) – not part of Osborne’s original video, which was filmed at the Coney Island amusement park.

See also:

Lyrics:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

If God had a name
What would it be? And would you call it to His face
If you were faced with Him in all His glory?
What would you ask if you had just one question?

And, yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryna make his way home

If God had a face
What would it look like? And would you wanna see
If seein’ meant that you would have to believe
In things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints
And all the prophets?

And, yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryna make his way home

Just tryna make his way home
Back up to heaven all alone
Nobody callin’ on the phone
‘Cept for the Pope, maybe, in Rome

Yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryna make his way home

Like a holy rollin’ stone
Back up to heaven all alone
Just tryna make his way home

Nobody callin’ on the phone
‘Cept for the Pope, maybe, in Rome

Source: letras.

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Rita Lee: Lança Perfume

Posted in stuff on Sun Mar 24th 2024| 1 Comment »

Remarks:

Rita Lee getting her 1980 on! We last saw her in 1967 as a cymbal-playing Mutant. She has since become the Queen of Brazilian Rock. Much of her music, though, would count as soft rock in the US – because she adapted rock music to local tastes. Just like how Mexican and Chinese restaurants in the US adapt their food to local tastes.

Championing sexual freedom, this is one of her better known songs. It was a hit in Brazil, France, Argentina and Uruguay. In the US it reached #70 on the dance chart.

The beginning of the song sounds very familiar to me, but all I can think of is “Somebody’s Baby” (1982) by Jackson Browne.

Olivia Newton-John’s own roller skating song also comes from 1980.

Rita Lee passed away last year.

Requiescat in pace. 

See also:

Lyrics: 

Lança, menina, lança todo esse perfume
Desbaratina, não dá pra ficar imune
Ao teu amor que tem cheiro de coisa maluca
Vem cá, meu bem, me descola um carinho
Eu sou neném, só sossego com beijinho
Vê se me dá o prazer de ter prazer comigo
Me aqueça

Me vira de ponta-cabeça
Me faz de gato e sapato
E me deixa de quatro no ato
Me enche de amor, de amor, oh

Lança, menina, lança todo esse perfume
Desbaratina, não dá pra ficar imune
Ao teu amor que tem cheiro de coisa maluca
Vem cá, meu bem, me descola um carinho
Eu sou neném, só sossego com beijinho
E vê se me dá o prazer de ter prazer comigo
Me aqueça

Me vira de ponta-cabeça
Me faz de gato e sapato
Ah, ah, me deixa de quatro no ato
Me enche de amor, de amor, oh

Lança, lança perfume
Oh, lança, lança perfume
Oh, lança, lança, lança perfume
Lança perfume

Lança, menina, lança todo esse perfume
Desbaratina, não dá pra ficar imune
Ao teu amor que tem cheiro de coisa maluca
Vem cá, meu bem, me descola um carinho
Eu sou neném, só sossego com beijinho
Vê se me dá o prazer de ter prazer comigo
Me aqueça

Me vira de ponta-cabeça
Me faz de gato e sapato
E me deixa de quatro no ato
Me enche de amor, de amor, oh

Lança, menina, lança todo esse perfume
Desbaratina, não dá pra ficar imune
Ao teu amor que tem cheiro de coisa maluca
Vem cá, meu bem, me descola um carinho
Eu sou neném, só sossego com beijinho
E vê se me dá o prazer de ter prazer comigo
Me aqueça

Me vira de ponta-cabeça
Me faz de gato e sapato
Me deixa de quatro no ato
Me enche de amor, de amor, oh

Lança, lança perfume
Oh, lança, lança perfume
Oh, lança, lança, lança perfume
Lança perfume
Lança perfume

Oh, lança perfume, lança perfume
Oh, lança, lança perfume
Lança perfume
Lança perfume

Oh, lança perfume, lança perfume

Source: Letras.mus.br. 

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The Raspberries: Go All the Way

Posted in stuff on Sun Mar 17th 2024| Leave a Comment »

Remarks:

Eric Carmen passed away this past week. This is my favourite song of his by far. For me it is the quintessential rock song, like what Shannon’s  “Let the Music Play” (1984)  was to dance music in the 1980s. In 1972 this song went to #5 on the pop charts in both Canada and the US. It did not chart in the UK: the BBC refused to play it because of the lyrics. It did not chart beyond the Anglosphere.

Eric Carmen was mentioned in this space before for ripping off Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #2.

Requiescat in pace. 

See also:

Lyrics:

I never knew how complete love could be
Till she kissed me and said
“Baby, please, go all the way
It feels so right being with you, here, tonight
Please, go all the way
Just hold ‘me close, don’t ever let me go ”

I couldn’t say what I wanted to say
Till she whispered
“I love you so, please, go all the way”
It feels so right being with you, here, tonight
Please go all the way
Just hold me close
Don’t ever let me go

Before her love I was cruel and mean
I had a hole in the place where my heart should have been
But now I’ve changed and it feels so strange
I come alive when she does all those things to me
And she says, “Come on, come on, come on
I need you, I love you, I need you”

“Baby, please, go all the way
It feels so right being with you, here, tonight
Please, go all the way
Just hold ‘me close don’t ever let me go ”

Source: Vagalume. 

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Ananda, Joker Beats: Quero Que Tu Vá

Posted in stuff on Sun Mar 10th 2024| Leave a Comment »

Remarks:

This came out in 2018. I do not know if it ever charted, but as of 2024 it has 92 million views on YouTube. This song is the brainchild of MC Koringa of metropolitan Rio. That is presumably him at the end of the video. The Wikipedia says his style of music is “funk melody”. It comes out of Latin freestyle, the dance music I knew in New York in the late 1980s! And which apparently fills a huge chunk of my brain.

See also:

Lyrics:

Sabe por que passo e finjo que não te vejo
Bloquear tua cara é hoje o meu maior desejo
Tu evapora com a minha tolerância
Não te dei abertura então não de confiança

Não vem me rotular
Não caibo em caixa direito
E me respeita se tu quer respeito
Não vou te mostrar que hoje tô avessa
Mas nada me impede de te xingar na minha cabeça

Refrão

Eu quero que tu vá
Vá tomar no c*
Para de tomar conta da minha vida e vai,
Pra p* que pariu, aonde já se viu
Hoje eu tô tipo,
Tolerância zero!

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