Elvis Costello - Shipbuilding

Artist: Elvis Costello

Song: Shipbuilding

Album: Punch The Clock (1983)

Brano intenso e drammatico, Shipbuilding, è un amaro intervento sul tema caldo della guerra delle Falklands. Langer e Costello scrissero la canzone per Robert Wyatt e nell'agosto 1982 produssero il suo 45 giri. Elvis volle però recuperare il brano su Punch The Clock, ufficialmente «per farlo ascoltare a un pubblico più grande» ma forse per il semplice fatto che era una gran bella canzone e sarebbe stato un peccato non metterci il cappello sopra. Aveva ragione, e in più ebbe la grande idea di coinvolgere Chet Baker alla tromba per un emozionante assolo dei suoi. Shipbuilding fece epoca, e molti oggi ricordano Punch The Clock proprio per quello; per quella voce dolente, quella tromba degli angeli e le amare riflessioni sul lavoro e la guerra di un uomo qualunque nella triste Gran Bretagna di Margaret Thatcher. (Riccardo Bertoncelli)

The plangent "Shipbuilding," a surprise hit for Robert Wyatt in England, carefully delineates a town where war is about to cure the unemployment problem. "Within weeks they'll be reopening the shipyards/And notifying the next of kin/Once again," Elvis sings with unusual care, high in his register. A stirring trumpet solo by the legendary Chet Baker beautifully enhances the track's wistful lament. "It's all we're skilled in/We will be shipbuilding." It's a beautifully simple, almost terse, rumination, clear as water. (Rolling Stones)

musica

live

Is it worth it?
A new winter coat and shoes for the wife
And a bicycle on the boy's birthday.

It's just a rumour that was spread around town
By the women and children, soon we'll be shipbuilding

Well I ask you
The boy said 'Dad, they're going to take me to task
But I'll be home by Christmas.

It's just a rumour that was spread around town
Somebody said that someone got filled in
For saying that people get killed in
The results of their shipbuilding.

With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls.

It's just a rumour that was spread around town
A telegram for a picture postcard
Within weeks they'll be reopening the shipyard
And notifying the next of kin
Once again.

It's all we're skilled in
We will be shipbuilding.

With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls.

Paolo Conte - Boogie

Artist: Paolo Conte

Song: Boogie

Album: Paris milonga, 1981

Concerti 1986

L’album di Paolo Conte 1984

Collezione 1988

The Best Of

Wonderful 2006

musica

video

Due note e il ritornello era già nella pelle di quei due
il corpo di lei mandava vampate africane, lui sembrava un coccodrillo
i saxes spingevano a fondo come ciclisti gregari in fuga
e la canzone andava avanti sempre più affondata nell’aria
quei due continuavano, da lei saliva afrore di coloniali
che giungevano a lui come da una di quelle drogherie di una volta
che tenevano la porta aperta davanti alla primavera
qualcuno nei paraggi cominciava a starnutire,
il ventilatore ronzava immenso dal soffitto esausto,
i saxes, ipnotizzati dai movimenti di lei si spandevano
rumori di gomma e di vernice, da lui di cuoio
le luci saettavano sul volto pechinese della cassiera
che fumava al mentolo, altri starnutivano senza malizia
e la canzone andava elegante, l’orchestra era partita, decollava
i musicisti, un tuttuno col soffitto e il pavimento,
solo il batterista nell’ombra guardava con sguardi cattivi
quei due danzavano bravi, una nuova cassiera sostituiva la prima,
questa qui aveva gli occhi da lupa e masticava caramelle alascane,
quella musica continuava, era una canzone che diceva e non diceva,
l’orchestra si dondolava come un palmizio davanti a un mare venerato
quei due sapevano a memoria dove volevano arrivare
un quinto personaggio esitò prima di starnutire,
poi si rifugia nel nulla
era un mondo adulto, si sbagliava da professionisti...

Blur - Mace

artist Blur
song Mace
album Popscene (ep) 1992, The Special Collectors Edition
1994

Pedaling on a bicycle
I'm on my way to make a call
I've tried to touch you
Through the double glazing
But the curtains were drawn & the family out the away

You used to know but now you don't [X3]
No one can see when they've got mist in their eyes

They're papering the wall and the windows
No logic here in or out
The heatings on and I'm feeling drowsy
I fall asleep and dream of burning down the house

You used to know but now you don't [X3]
No one can see when they've got mist in their eyes

I'm pedaling on my bicycle
I'm on my way to make a call
The sun is out and I'm feeling drowsy
I fall asleep and dream of burning down the house

You used to know but now you don't [X6]
No one can see when they've got mist in the eyes

Frank Zappa - Cyclophony

Frank Zappa. Start behind the drums, guitarist becomes sublime, distinctive personality, composer, conductor; he write avant-garde music, stupid songs and experimental. In 1966 he made "Freak Out", the first "concept album" of rock music, the first double-lp; career mixing all genre, before fusion, before crossover.

And even before "Freak Out", on March 14 1963 to show part of Steve Allen and there, with an orchestra jazz in the background, "plays" a bicycle (a Schwinn, for fans, borrowed from his sister Candy). The sounds are produced by blowing the handlebars, pedals running plucked rays as harp or playing it with a bow.
It's interesting that he had asked repeatetly to participate in the show presenting his jazz compositions, but only when propose to play "Cyclophony" Steve Allen showed some interest.

Here's how to remember the events organizer of the show:
... I got a call from a young man who identified himself as Frank Zappa. He said he wanted to teach Steve (Allen) how to “blow bicycle.” “Blow bicycle,” I repeated.
“Yeah, you know, like, the bicycle is a musical instrument.”
(…) I asked Frank to come in and a couple of days later he arrived with his old Schwinn. He was wearing a black suit (all three buttons buttoned), a white shirt, and a black knit tie. Still in his early 20s—and years before he became a pop music icon who bridged the gap between classical music and rock—he looked like a small town bank teller trainee. He put his bike on its kick-stand in the lobby of the Hollywood theater where we video taped the show and plucked the spokes as if they were the strings of a harp, pitter-pattered on the seat as if it were Buddy Rich’s tom-tom, and, removing the hand-grips, blew across the hollow chrome handle bars, creating the sounds of a wind instrument. He then played a short, improvisational piece and upon its completion, stood waiting for my reaction.
I laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding,” I said.
“You didn’t like it?” he said, seeming genuinely wounded. “I can play another song.”

more

The show:
part one:
http://it.sevenload.com/video/v1OpHOs-Frank-Zappa-on-the-Steve-Allen-Show-Part-One-1963
part two:
http://it.sevenload.com/video/p9GHKiV-Frank-Zappa-on-the-Steve-Allen-Show-Part-Two-1963