Tomorrow - White Bicycle

Artist: Tomorrow

Song: My White Bicycle

Album: Tomorrow, 1967

"My White Bicycle" was written by Tomorrow in 1967 and is included in their one and the same name lp of 1969. Tomorrow was a psychedelic english-band in which they are grown people like Steve Howe (later guitarist of Yes) and John Alder, aka Twink, drummer with Pink Fairies and Pretty Things (he played in the fantastic "SF Sorrow") , and tell us this curious story inspired by a beautiful idea of a group of anarchists, the Dutch Provos. Attention, we are in the homeland of the bicycle, the Netherlands, and we're in the legendary '60: the white bikes are bicycles made in common, whoever needs it and then take a leave there, ready for anyone to want it! Beautiful also the text from which an excerpt paradigmatic sentence for those who love cycling race: "moving fast everything looks great"

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John C. Alder of Tomorrow writes:

"My White Bicycle" was written out of what was actually going on in Amsterdam. One of the owners of Granny Takes a Trip, Nigel Weymouth, had gone there and come back with a Provos badge which he gave to me. They were kind of like a student anarchist group that believed everything should be free. In fact, they had white bicycles in Amsterdam and they used to leave them around the town. And if you were going somewhere and you needed to use a bike, you'd just take the bike and you'd go somewhere and just leave it. Whoever needed the bikes would take them and leave them when they were done.

Nigel told me about this and I told Keith West (lead singer) this and a bit later we went to Amsterdam and he wrote a song about it. So "My White Bicycle" comes out of that Provo thing.

The main guitar theme of "My White Bicycle" comes from what we were listening to at the time. We were listening to Ravi Shankar and Gabor Zarbo at the time. So our influences were Indian mainly. Steve may have picked up on that with the riff or he may have just pulled it out of the air, I don't know. It's like a droning sitar sound.

We recorded the album at Abbey Road Studios starting in the Spring of 1967. The Beatles were working on ST. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND. Our album was released in early 1968.

The song has been covered by Nazareth, and appears on a solo album by Steve Howe (a member of Tomorrow). The San Francisco Art Lab sells a promotional poster for this song for $50. 

video

Riding all around the street
Four o'clock and they're all asleep
I'm not tired and it's so late
Moving fast everything looks great.
My white bicycle, my white bicycle
See that man, he's all alone
Looks so happy but he's far from home
Ring my bell, smile at him
Better kick over his garbage bin
My white bicycle, my white bicycle
The rain comes down but I don't care
The wind is blowing in my hair
Seagulls flying in the air
My white bicycle
Policeman shouts but I don't see him
They're one thing I don't believe in
Find some judge, but it's not leavin'
Lift both hands, his head in disgrace
Shines no light upon my face
Through the darkness, we still speed
My white bicycle and me
My white bicycle, my white bicycle

Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti - Volo Sulla Mia Città

Artist: Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti
Song: Volo Sulla Mia Città
Album: La Testa Indipendente, 2001

from blog:
ho scritto questo pezzo in un momento difficile, quando facevo a pugni con il malessere che si avvicina alla depressione. In fondo a quel buco ho avuto l'intuizione di essere il solo responsabile della mia esistenza (e per questo anche delle mia disgrazie). Quanta presunzione c'e' in un ragazzo di provincia che decide di diventare un inventore di immaginario? Ma c'e' una sola realtà per un cantastorie. La realtà è credere alle proprie BUGIE. Crederci fino a riuscire a volare con una bici. E così mi sono sentito piccolo, anzi, bambino, quando la mia passione era capire come la natura aveva elaborato infinite forme di esistenza, tutte diverse ma ugualmente bellissime. 'Sono ora come sono sempre stato e se solo ci crederò lo sarò per molto ancora.
Eltofo, 30 Luglio 2001

Ho scritto queste righe per raccontare un momento buio. Una depressione. Insomma la chiamano così ma io la chiamo anche in un altro modo. Rock & roll, un giorno su due giorni giù. A me succede spesso e non sono riuscito ancora ad abituarmi. Ogni volta che suono, ogni volta che pubblico qualcosa, perdo un pezzo di me e come reazione all'eccitazione, segue il buio. Perciò Rock & roll, un giorno su due giorni giù. E non dico che cosa mi provocano le telecamere televisive. Penso sia per questo che ho scelto l'assenza dell'immagine pubblica per la cosa a cui tengo di più. Il mio gruppo. Ho provato a descriverla con una metafora questa depressione che mi prende, ciclica. Come una bicicletta che vola, solo se sto bene. la scrittura poi ha aperto un frammento della mia infanzia, quando il mio interesse più grande era capire la natura e passavo giornate da solo dentro i campi non coltivati della periferia di Pordenone. Pordenone, un altro elemento importate delle canzoni nuove ma questo ve lo racconto domani.
Eltofo, 27 Giugno 2001.

Volo sulla mia città con la bicicletta

E faccio finta di non sapere quanto male fa cadere giù

Con la luna appiccicata sulla schiena

E la testa piena di petali di te

Volo sulla mia città con la bicicletta

Volo sulla mia città con la bicicletta

E spero non mi faccia male stare senza

E se solo mi spavento

E se solo mi spavento

Poi cado giù… cado giù…

E se solo mi spavento

E se solo mi spavento

Sono ora come sono sempre stato

Un bambino in piedi in mezzo a un pratoIn mezzo all’erba verde, più alta di me

Sono ora come sono sempre stato

E se solo mi spavento

E se solo mi spavento

Poi cado giù… cado giù…

E se solo mi spavento

E se solo mi spavento

E se solo mi spavento

E se solo mi spavento

E se solo mi spavento

E se solo mi spavento

Uhuu uhuu ah…

review

Masters Of Reality - Bicycle

Artist: Masters Of Reality

Song: Bicycle

Album: Sunrise On The Sufferbus, 1993

The Masters of Reality, in my opinion the best among the heirs of Black Sabbath (the name resumed the title of the third album, "Masters of Reality" indeed), heavy sounds of grunge and stoner rock include 47 seconds of cycling peace in the disc "Sunrise On The Sufferbus, 1993.

And look at the front cover where, in addition to a nice rabbit cycling, is stressed in the presence of this disc drummer of Cream, Ginger Baker.

review

Late at night I get around

Pedal round this lonesome town

on a bicycle

John Cale - Bicycle

Artist: John Cale

Song: Bicycle
Album: Hobo Sapiens, 2003

Even a bike and carelessness, still moments of pure relaxa described by great music: John Cale write "Bicycle" for "Hobo Sapiens" (2003), built on the basis of a simple electronic drum loop seasoned by a whisper voice designed by Brian Eno.

Inspired by the uninhibited bravado of Beck and the nonchalant eclecticism of The Beta Band, amongst others, Cale has spent much of the last two years billeted in his Greenwich Village basement studio, mastering the 21st century musician’s paint box, Pro Tools - revelling in the freedom and complete creative control the digital technology affords. The first fruit of this recording renaissance, in which shimmering, disembodied electronics couch remarkable new songs and densely detailed arrangements are ratcheted up to new heights, is HoboSapiens, Cale’s first full-length album of songs in seven years. A twelve-track cavalcade of sample-laden rock, Grand Guignol balladry and unclassifiable instrumental exotica, HoboSapiens is a consummate John Cale album in the noble tradition of Paris 1919, Fear, or Music For A New Society - albeit with a modernist twist. Holding a magnifying glass to global human Diasporas, its lyrics zoom cinematically from Zanzibar to Pacific Palisades via Niagara Falls and the Norfolk Broads – its frame of reference positively encyclopedic.

Per anni Cale ha coltivato una sua specie di schizofrenia, dividendo con la spada i dischi rock e pop da quelli di esperimento. Negli ultimi tempi pare tendere a una ricomposizione: il penultimo Walking On Locusts (splendido) e questo nuovo Hobosapiens (inferiore ma sempre notevole) fluttuano dolcemente in un mondo di canzoni strane, evolute, dove il gusto per le sorprese sonore e la ricerca si combinano con una piacevole semplicità di schemi e fruibilità. Un disco romantico, drammatico, elegiaco, con la bella voce profonda dell'artista e un tessuto elettronico che rende semplicemente vera la boutade del titolo: Cale ha davvero il tono e il passo del cantastorie da strada, con i mezzi però della più evoluta tecnologia. Fra i brani spiccano Magritte, con la sinuosa viola del vecchio signor VU, la frivola Bicycle e Reading My Mind, che presenta curiosi, concitati campionamenti in lingua italiana. (riccardo bertoncelli)

Cale scrive, architetta, suona, fa quasi tutto da sé appoggiandosi come non mai alle macchine, fidando sul potere oscuro e incantatorio dello studio di registrazione. Il suo merito principale è di aver saputo dominare questa situazione con naturalezza, con solenne savoir faire, con generosità mai tronfia, senza giammai scivolare in tentazioni auto-agiografiche o trendiste (come invece avviene purtroppo - e fin troppo - al quasi coetaneo Bowie). Un palinsesto dunque che alterna tinte altere (quella Caravan che sembra i Massive Attack in estasi gospel, quella Over Her Head che fa idealmente incontrare Mark Lanegan e Brian Eno, o quella Verses che sembra un David Sylvian downtempo) e disinvolte (il folk rock alla Steve Wynn di Things - poi trasfigurato technofunk in Things X - oppure l'escursione nu jazz di Look Horizon), vagamente stranite (l'ossificazione reggae di Chums Of Dumpty, le composite deviazioni waitsiane di Waiting For Blonde) e solari (il kraut-pop liofilizzato - con un piccolo aiuto di mister Eno - di Bycicle, o il saltellante jingle jangle - con tanto di finti found voices cinematici in italiano - di Reading My Mind).John l'affilato è addirittura impagabile quando omaggia René Magritte in - pensate un po' - Magritte (una suggestione serrata d'archi, ritmiche cupe, voce colta ai margini di un delirio) e addirittura Ezra Pound in E. Is Missing (elettroniche liquide, felpate, pulsanti, chitarre in vena di sogni & carezze) senza spendere un centesimo di retorica snob (come invece talora capita al vecchio sodale Lou Reed). Sa essere convincente in quel rigurgito new wave (versante Talking Heads o primo Peter Gabriel) con ectoplasmi surf e piglio noise (leggi: Flaming Lips) che risponde al nome di Twilight Zone, e perfino toccante quando in Wilderness Approaching - dalla soundtrack di Paris, film del regista angloiraniano Ramin Niami) si affida al vocione perentorio, ad un piano snervato e a poco altro che non sia il cuore.Una collezione dunque di suoni complessi, strutturati, curiosi. Ma freschi come una pioggia di foglie in autunno, tra colori come pagine di ricordi, nell'inquieta serenità del vivere dentro ciò che fuori non è (più) dato. Senza il peso di un passato troppo grande da sopportare. Tirando le fila di un presente certo non altrettanto glorioso (come potrebbe?) eppure vivo come non mai. (stefano solventi)

Instrumental.

Ralph McTell - Girl On A Bicycle

Artist: Ralph McTell

Song: Girl On A Bicycle

Album: My Side Of Your Window, 1969

Streets Of London, 1975

Collection; At His Best; etc.

...they are a wonderful blend of sensitive song writing (‘Streets Of London’, ‘Father Forgive Them’, I’ve Thought About It’), tender love songs (‘Nanna’s Song’), ragtime blues guitar (‘Too Tight Drag’, ‘Blind Blake’s Rag’), blues (‘Louise’), psychedelic folk (‘Girl On A Bicycle’, ‘Spiral Staircase’) and innovative guitar playing (‘Rizraklaru’, Willoughby’s Farm’). They represent the core of Ralph’s style. (John Crosby)

Hey little girl on the bicycle, wheels spin like they're riding on air.
Hey little girl on the bicycle, wheels flash like the sun in her hair.
And the wheels go round but the bike has stopped moving
Trees on the river move by her.

Hey little girl on the bicycle, sun blaze in her hair like a flame,
And the river's reflecting her bicycle, and the reeds whisper her name,
And the wheels go round but the bike has stopped moving,
Trees on the river move by her.

Hey little girl on the bicycle, dressed in white, the trees were in green.
Sparkling cycling bicycle that moves through the trees like a dream
And the wheels go round and the trees have stopped moving
Suddenly she is gone.

La, la, la...etc..

Elvis Presley's bicycle

1946

Elvis Presley wanted a bicycle for his 11th birthday, but the parents cannot afford a bicycle that Elvis wants, so Gladys talks him into accepting a guitar instead. Elvis' first guitar costs $12.95 and is purchased at the Tupelo Hardware Company.

Elvis in Good Old Germany. The photograph shows the famous singer around 1959 as a simple young man, signing autographs for kids on the road.

Cocorosie - The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn

Artist: Cocorosie

Album: The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn (2007)

Songs: Animals, Raphael

Cocorosie have always been weird -- their first album was utterly bizarre, and so was their second.
But their creepy freakfolk sound is taken a step further in their third album, "The Adventures Of Ghosthorse And Stillborn." The sister duo's sound is more polished and complex in this one, but remains eerie, bizarre and enticing -- like a fantastical child's dream.
It opens with Bianca crooning "Of aaaaaalllll the white horses," over rattly maraca, keening guitar, chittering birds and a smooth keyboard melody. But by nature it's hip-hop oriented, with some childlike rapping:
"He's moved a little nearer/to the master of our laughter/to the master of our song... then we gathered in a circle/still drown the rainbow fire/burning amber's not united/we remember mystical beauty." It's gloriously catchy, but kept from being merely poppy by all those odd sounds and extra melodies.
Things get less openly catchy with the songs that follow -- skittering ambient rap, clattering pop tunes that are crammed with keyboard tones and scratchy samples, music-box ballads, wistful little meandering freakfolk tunes, and delicate guitar pop with a soaring keyboard edge.
The music in "The Adventures Of Ghosthorse And Stillborn" is almost TOO full at times, like a dusty room filled with old dolls and ornate toys. But it's never predictable -- there's always a weird new melody draped in oddball sounds for them. You never even have the chance to get bored.
The instrumentation is a bit more electronically oriented this time around, with waves of organ and keyboard over the smooth piano, rattly drums and ringing guitar. Sometimes these girls throw in some random samples (is that a duck?), bicycle bells, and some toy instruments -- it's a little cluttered, but it makes every song wildly unpredictable.
The songs are just as unpredictable -- sometimes silly, somtimes somber. They're filled with crystals, rollercoasters, werewolves, witches, wanting to go to Japan, and girls who talk to geese. All these are sung in Bianca's versatile voice, which can flip from opera to rap, and back to a high, rambling crack-pixie voice.
Cocorosie go into stranger, eerie territory with their polished third album, a checkered mix of freakfolk and crazy pop. Definitely a must-listen.