December elején már szerepelt itt a MusicPress blogon egy hosszabb beharangozó cikk a New York-i dalszerző-gitáros-énekesnő Suzanne Vega új albumáról: a február 3-án megjelenő Tales From The Realm Of The Queen Of Pentacles az 1959-es születésű művésznő nyolcadik sorlemeze, mely csaknem hét év kihagyással követi a hetediket (időközben saját kiadót alapított, ahol 2010 és 2012 között a négyrészes Close Up albumsorozaton régi szerzeményeit csoportosította és játszotta újra lecsupaszított formában). Hűséges zenészei, a basszista Mike Visceglia és a dobos Doug Yowell mellé a gitárosából immár producerévé is előlépő Gerry Leonard – aki a kétezres évtized első felében David Bowie zenei rendezőjeként is dolgozott és még a tavalyi The Next Dayen is pengetett – az új lemez felvételeihez a Bowie-táborból is áthozott három fekete zenészt, Gail Ann Dorsey basszusgitáros-vokalistanőt, illetve Zachary Alford és Sterling Campbell dobosokat. A Don't Uncork What You Can't Contain című számhoz meghökkentő módon a 50 Cent-féle Candy Shopból vettek hangmintát (míg a dalszöveg egy másik hiphop slágerre, a friss Grammy-díjas Macklemore & Ryan Lewis-féle Thrift Shopra is hivatkozik), a Václav Havel emlékére íródott Horizon (There Is A Road) című záródalt pedig a prágai Smikov kamarazenekarral rögzítették. Az intellektuális és költői szövegvilágot meglepően friss hangzással tálaló új Suzanne Vega-album itt már megjelenés előtt végighallgatható.
FRISSÍTÉS: a teljes tízszámos album a YouTube-on!
Crack In The wall
A crack appeared inside a wall
A door sprang up around it.
Each of these so finally drawn
I could not believe I found it.
A wildish wind blew it open wide
My childish mind followed on outside
And so I found myself among
My hearts delight surrounded.
A world of wonder lay without
It was all of nature's calling.
With field and forest, cloud and sun
Cascades of salt water falling
With heights and valleys, dark ravines
Ivy thick and wild, deep and thorny scenes
And yet each thing did love its place
In the lap of all of nature's sprawling.
And so and so it goes.
I asked the one whose land this was
If I could have a token
To take with me back to the other side
To have and hold unspoken.
I asked three times and was thrice denied.
I asked again without my pride
And found I'd lost the life I'd lived
Returned as one now broken.
A rag, a crumb, a withered leaf
In chilly winds of cold relief
I found myself as I once was
As from a dream awoken.
And so and so it goes.
But then a crack appeared inside a wall
And a door sprang up
Around it.
Fool's Complaint
How I hate the Queen of Pentacles!
Sitting on her golden throne
In her domestic tyranny
All roads lead back to her alone.
The whole wide world
Is a great big drain
With the vortex as her heart.
All her needs and wants
Wishes and whims
Take precedence on this chart.
But what do I know?
My card's the fool, the fool, the fool
That merry rootless man.
With air beneath his footstep
And providence as his plan.
Providence as his plan.
Oh it's such expensive innocence!
Never knowing any cost.
She throws around her finery
For us to fetch when it gets lost.
She's on the golden platform.
I'm down here in the fields.
I wage my way through the kitchen
Salting her next meal.
But what do I know?
My card's the Fool! The fool the fool.
That merry rootless man.
WIth air beneath my footstep
And providence as my plan.
Providence as my plan.
But what do I know?
I'm just the Fool! The fool the fool.
That merry rootless man.
WIth air beneath my footstep
And providence as my plan.
Providence as my plan.
I Never Wear White
I never wear white
White is for virgins
Children in summer
Brides in the park.
My color is black black black
Black is for secrets
Outlaws and dancers
For the poet of the dark.
Black is the truth
Of my situation.
And for those of my station
In life. All other colors
Lie.
I never wear white
White is too blinding
Always reminding
Of the innocent who fall
My color is black black black
For the crone, and the bastard
The schoolgirl in uniform
The servant in the hall.
Black is the truth
Of my situation,
And for those of my station
In life. All other colors
Lie.
My color is black black black
Like the gangster and widow
It's the shade and the shadow
It's the depth into your eye
My color is black black black black black
Don't Uncork What You Can't Contain
A man finds a bottle on the bottom shelf
Forgotten and covered in dust
The label is already half worn off
Still, open it up he must.
As the corkscrew into the cork it goes
He hears the weird refrain,
"Do you what you like, but never uncork
Uncork what you can't contain
Do what you like but never uncork
Uncork what you can't contain."
Pandora had a pretty little box,
Wisely she kept it hid
Until one day she couldn't resist
Playing around with the lid
As the demons flew and the shadows grew
This song went around her brain:
"You can do what you like but never uncork
Uncork what you can't contain,
You can do what you like but never uncork
Uncork what you can't contain."
As the demons flew and the shadows grew
This song went around her brain:
"You can do what you like but never uncork
Uncork what you can't contain."
Macklemore went to the thrift shop
Looking to pop some tags
Found an ancient oil lamp
Hidden among the rags
So he picked it up and he rubbed it down
Thought he'd gone insane
Cause a genie flew out singing
"never uncork
Uncork what you cant contain"
Genie flew out singing "never uncork
Uncork what you can't contain"
He picked it up and he rubbed it down
Thought he'd gone insane
Cause the genie flew out singing "never uncork
Uncork what you can't contain"
Sometimes though you have to
Let out what you're keeping inside
If you keep it all in, your head will spin
And your mouth is all tongue tied
You've got to find the way to say what you say
And get it down on the page
Or the stage
It's the cage for that tiger rage that you can't contain
Yes the page and the stage is the cage for that tiger rage
That you can't contain, for real
The page and the stage is the cage
For that tiger rage, what it is that you feel
So do what you like but you better uncork
Uncork what you can't contain
Do what you like but you better uncork
Uncork what you can't contain
Cause the page and the stage is the cage
For that tiger rage that'll cause you pain
Do what you like but you better uncork
Uncork what you can't contain
Jacob And The Angel
The angel came to Jacob
The room began to glow
Jacob asked the angel
Are you friend or are you foe?
The angel never answered
But smote him on the thigh
They wrestled through the darkness
Till morning filled the sky
This thing between us, has wings, it has teeth
It has got horns and feathers, and sinews beneath
Angel or demon, to the truth I am bound, and so
This thing between us must be wrestled down
Jacob held on to the angel,
Who turned to fly, and to flee
He said I must have your blessing
Before I let you leave me
The angel never answered
But smote him on the thigh
They wrestled through the darkness
Till morning filled the sky
And in the light
He knew another name
As he struggled and surrendered
To the next part of the game
This thing between us, has wings, it has teeth
It has got horns and feathers, and sinews beneath
Angel or demon, to the truth I am bound, and so
This thing between us must be wrestled down
This thing between us, has wings, it has teeth
It has got horns and feathers, and sinews beneath
Angel or demon to the truth I am bound and so
This thing between us must be wrestled down.
Silver Bridge
My heart is full today
For the recently departed
Of sorrow and of sympathy
Into that land uncharted
The old man turned away from me
The stairway he ascended
I heard his struggle through the night
with Saturn's hand extended
All those nights when you can't sleep
Your heart and mind is racing
Are you standing on that bridge
Which way are you facing?
I stared upon his body as
My soul was filled with wonder
I stayed there frozen in one place
I could not be pulled asunder
All those nights when you can't sleep
Your heart and mind is racing
Are you standing on that bridge
Which way are you facing?
I'd sent him upstairs with a kiss
Now he lay in light of silver
It seemed to me I saw that bridge
That he had taken over
Should I make the move to him?
He wasn't mine for claiming
I witnessed all there was to see
And withdrew without the naming
When I knew that he had been
So much more than sleeping
I stayed with him the afternoon
In a kind of vigil keeping
All those nights when you can't sleep
Your heart and mind is racing
Are you standing on that bridge
Which way are you facing?
My heart is full today
For the recently departed
Of sorrow and of sympathy
Into that land uncharted.
Song Of The Stoic
I am a man
I've been working all my days
This is my accounting
Of my means and of my ways
More years are behind me now
Than years that are ahead
Looking back I feel
This is my story to be said.
I faced my father down
Inside the hallway of our home
18 years of pain
Upon my body to the bone
Demons lived inside of him
They forced him to the act
The layers of the bruises
To my body was the fact.
Ooooh
I grew and went into the world
And learned to know it's code
Of spoken and unspoken
And I learned to love the road
I shoulder every burden like
A mule with a heavy pack
Every coin I earn is another
Knot within my back.
Ecstasy and pleasure come
At much too great a cost
I keep myself upon the earth
But measure what I've lost
Winged things they brush against me
Never mine to hold
I keep my eyes upon the ground
And carry on as old.
Ooooh
I met a woman
She had the gifted touch
Her hands were wise with healing
And with wonder and all such
As the fates would have it
Each to others we are wed
We confine ourselves to friendship
And we stay out of the bed.
Oooh
Now I turn around to face
The specter of my age
My soul it fights my body
Like a bird will fight it's cage.
I see that last horizon
I hope it brings me peace
I look forward to the day
At last my body knows release.
Ooooh
Ooooh
Laying On Of Hands/Stoic 2
Mother Theresa understood the laying on of hands
What I often wonder is how she kept from hearing love's demands
If in her loneliness she ever dreamed of following earthly commands, oh yeah.
Mother Theresa understood the laying on of hands.
Touch is a language. What it you have to say to me?
Come and talk about it. Tell me where you're locked and where you're free.
Brutality or tenderness, our bodies are exchanged in all eternity, oh yeah.
Touch is a language. What is it you have to say to me?
In this wilderness do we hurt or heal within our daily plans, oh yeah.
Mother Theresa understood the laying on of hands.
Mother Theresa understood the laying on of hands
Mother Theresa understood the laying on of hands.
Epictetus probably slept with hands above the covers
Lost no sleep in counting sheep or numbers of ex-lovers.
The thing about a stoic is he's always understated
I don't know about happiness but virtue's overrated.
La la la la
La la la la
La la la la la la
Road Beyond This One (Horizon) for Václav Havel
There is a road
Beyond this one
It's called the path
We don't yet take
I can feel how it longs
To be entered upon
It calls to me with a cry
And an ache
As we go
Along this one
And we live
The way we do
Love pulls us on
To that distant horizon
So true.
I knew a man
Who lived in jail
And his tale
Is often told
He dreamed of that line that he called the divine
And when he was free
He led his country
Yes he taught
the way of love
And he lived
In that way too
Love called him on
To that distant horizon
So true
There is a road
Beyond this one
Called the path
We don't yet take
I can feel how it longs
To be entered upon
It calls to me with a cry and an ache
As we go along this one
And we live in the way we do
Love pulls us on to that distant horizon
Love pulled him on to that perfect horizon
Love pulls you on to that distant horizon so true.
Suzanne Vega ezzel fotóval búcsúzott a héten elhunyt Pete Seegertől, akivel 12 éves korában szerepelt először egy színpadon:
Déri Zsolt
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