Joan Baez's sister's man

Well I did not know that Joan Baez had a sister. I did not know either that she was a singer and that her husband seems to have been a quite interesting song writer of the beat generation. I must admit I never had heard of him: Richard Farina (actually with a tilde on the n).

After listening to a few songs of his: the house of un-american Blues activity dream and the falcon, I have to say I am quite impressed. He seems to have died quite early.

I really like the Falcon:

---

THE FALCON

Oh, the falcon was a pretty bird, wandered as she flew.
She danced around and pranced around wherever the warm winds blew.
And the falcon was a pretty bird. Her voice was always still,
But men with drums and men with guns they taught her how to kill.

Her eye was on the sparrow. Her mind was on the dove,
But no one cared and no one dared to speak to her of love.
Her eyes are always hooded. Her claws are sharp as steel.
We teach her not to see too much. We teach her not to feel.

Go build you a log cabin on a mountain so high,
And hear the feathered war-birds yell as she goes screaming by.
She'll tease you. She'll please you. She'll satisfy your needs,
But someday she might turn around and maul the hand that feeds.

Your hours might be numbered. Your end might come someday.
Go break her chain and free her brain and send her on her way.
And the falcon is a pretty bird, wonders as she flies.
She asks us easy questions. We tell her easy lies.

---

This can be heard on youtube: The Falcon

Elli Malou and Jean Lemon

Well I discovered both of these german singer/songwriter sometimes ago in June and I have been listening to their music a few times now.

About Elli Malou, I can say that her text really speak to me and also were some catchy tune which were nice companions of my days and nights. This might change again. The songs from her CD are really nice, but somewhat sad or melancholic. But the first songs I heard from her were some funny somewhat derisive(?) songs.

Jean Lemon has also a nice CD which I might like a little less, but which is still worth listening. He plays in a very rhythmic way the guitar, but this without being boring or annoying which is nice. His texts are also quite well written and cool,
though perhaps a little too cool, or perhaps I should say the images or poetic tools he used are a bit too far fetched sometimes. But don't get me wrong I like it. It's cool.

Schließ Aug und Ohr

That's a nice little german songwriter song from the 1920's.

Schließ Aug und Ohr für eine Weil
Vor dem Getös der Zeit.
Du heilst es nicht und hast kein Heil
Als wo dein Herz sich weit

Die Stunde kommt da man dich braucht
Da sei du ganz bereit,
und in das Feuer das verrauscht
wird dich als letztes Scheit.

Dein Amt ist Hüten, Haaren, Sehen
In die Ewigkeit.
So bist du schon so im Weltgeschehen
Befangen und befreit.

More Info on the song can be found there. But the beginning is already interesting:

'Schließ Aug und Ohr“ galt während der NS-Zeit als eine Art „Besinnungslied“ unter den verbotenen und damit illegalen Jugendgruppen. Der Text stammt von dem jüdischen Dichter und Literaturwissenschaftler Friedrich Gundolf, zu dessen Studenten 1921 pikanterweise auch der berüchtigte spätere NS-Propagandaminister Goebbels zählte, der Gundolf verehrt haben soll.'

In other words, the song was a small song which was very often used in youth groups which were forbidden. The author was the jewish poet and literature academic Friedrich Gundolf. Goebbels is said to have belonged to a literature group and to have "adored" Gundolf.



The version I heard and really liked was sung by Rotwein und Pimpinelle. The guitar at the beginning was a very nice intro to the song.

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Well I figured that I'd just start with this band, cos they are good and I just didn't know they were the singers of these songs:

• Bad Moon Rising


• Proud Mary


• Down on the corner


• Fortunate Son


• ...

They're a bunch of great songs to sing along and are cert'nly cool to play with a band.
The funny thing is: I don't remember hearing the name of this band very often
and though they wrote so many well known songs.