m on May 13th, 2005

I haven’t actually thought about how I’d specifically answer these questions since reading Steve’s post yesterday, but it’s been on my mind. So I thought it might be interesting to see, in 30 minutes, what kind of answer I’d drum up about my favorite music. So here goes!

  • Top 5 Lyrics that Move My Heart
    1. “Já sei namorar” — Armando Atunes, Carlinhos Brown, Marisa Monte
    2. “Águas de março” — Tom Jobim
    3. “Finale” (from West Side Story) — Steven Sondheim
    4. “Hang onto your Ego” — Brian Wilson
    5. “Don’t Fence Me In” — Cole Porter
  • Top 5 Instrumentals
    1. “A Love Supreme” — John Coltrane
    2. “Pavane pour une Infante défunte” — Maurice Ravel
    3. “II B.S.” — Charles Mingus
    4. “Abidan” (pref. the version off Bar Kokhba) — John Zorn
    5. “Czardas” — (as performed by) Tiny Bell Trio
  • Top 5 Live Music Experiences
    1. Phish, Deer Creek, Second Show, Summer ’95 (or was it the first show?)
    2. Dimitri from Paris, Metro, Spring Break ’01 (?)
    3. Saint Etienne, Double Door, Fall ’02
    4. Sonic Youth, Summer Breeze, May ’98
    5. They Might Be Giants, Orpheum Theater, May ’90
  • Top 5 Artists You Think More People Should Listen To
    1. Saint Etienne
    2. Stereolab
    3. Gintarė
    4. Talking Heads
    5. Masada
  • Top 5 Albums You Must Listen to from Start to Finish
    1. A Love Supreme — The John Coltrane Quartet
    2. Pet Sounds — The Beach Boys
    3. Abbey Road — The Beatles
    4. After the Playboy Mansion Disc II — Dimitri from Paris
    5. California — Mr. Bungle
  • Top 5 Musical Heroes
    1. John Zorn
    2. John Coltrane
    3. Charles Mingus
    4. Niccolò Paganini
    5. Serge Gainsbourg

11 Responses to “Top 5 Records”

  1. great list. i’ve really been trying to turn people on to pet sounds lately. maybe it’ll help if i say, “moacir thinks it’s a great album, too.”

  2. Perhaps. Man, that album is really good. I don’t care if it makes me look like a Wicker Park-livin’ hipster to say it, either. I don’t know if, however, “Hang on to your Ego” deserves to be in that top five—I think I may have been sort of swung by listening to it that morning. In its place, I think, I might put “We Have All the Time in the World.” I have no idea who wrote the lyrics, but Louis Armstrong performed it for the best/saddest Bond flick, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and, well, damn that song is sadddddd.

    Now will someone explain to me why I’ve been listening to “Ain’t no Mountain High Enough” (Marvin Gaye and Temptations versions) on loop for the last 40 hours?

  3. John Zorn? Not questioning your choice, just curious.

  4. Curious about what?

  5. Curious as to why he’s at #1. Never heard you drop science about him. I’m embarassed to say I only have direct experience of his work through coughViolentFemmescough.

  6. Well, it’s been my experience that no one I know likes him, so I don’t bring him up. Same with Negativland. I think it’s a shame—I think both are geniuses (as much as a “band” can be genius), but I’ve heard far too many times “this isn’t actually music” to bother to try and convert. I think Zorn’s endless creativity and rabid genretheft is something to be aspired to, though. I wouldn’t call him obscure (at least not by contemporary jazz standards), so who knows what’s up. People just don’t like music that’s that potentially aggressive without lyrics about ex-girlfriends, maybe. Or, dare I say it, it demands a certain, um, literacy? I don’t know why I instantly fell in love with Naked City when I heard it for the first time in the early-90s, but I did. I liked it since it was like nothing I’d ever heard before, and, yet, still very familiar and approachable, because it pulled from sources that one might not consider the realm of serious music—television themes, cartoons, etc. It’s the same thing with Mr. Bungle.

  7. ok, here are the lyrics, in, um, a few batches. I figure I’ll sorta translate the Portuguese ones (or point to a good translation).

    Já sei namorar
    I already know how to love
    Já sei beijar de língua
    I already know how to kiss with tongue
    Agora, só me resta sonhar
    So now all that’s left is to dream
    Já sei onde ir
    I already know where to go
    Já sei onde ficar
    I already know where to stay
    Agora, só me falta sair
    So now all that’s left is to leave

    Não tenho paciência pra televisão
    I don’t have patience for the television
    Eu não sou audiência para a solidão
    I’m not the audience for solitude
    Eu sou de ninguém
    I belong to no one
    Eu sou de todo mundo
    I belong to everyone
    E todo mundo me quer bem
    And everyone loves me well (?)
    Eu sou de ninguém
    I belong to no one
    Eu sou de todo mundo
    I belong to everyone
    E todo mundo é meu também
    And everyone belongs to me as well

    Já sei namorar
    I already know how to love
    Já sei chutar a bola
    I already know how to shoot the ball
    Agora, só me falta ganhar
    So now all that remains is to win
    Não tenho juizo
    I don’t have judgment/reason
    Se você quer a vida em jogo
    If you want life as a game
    Eu quero é ser feliz
    I want to be happy

    Tô te querendo como ninguém
    I love you like no one else
    Tô te querendo como Deus quiser
    I love you like God would
    Tô te querendo como eu te quero
    I love you like I love you
    Tô te querendo como se quer
    I love you like you love to

  8. For “Águas de março,” check out this site, complete with decent translation. The translator gets caught on a few words. “Caingá” is a tree, and I understand “matita pereira” as a row of pear trees. Finally, the “garrafa de cana,” I think, is less general than a “bottle of liquor”; it’s more of a bottle of cane liquor.

    “Finale,” I guess, counts as a sort of “Somewhere Reprise,” so here is the single stanza sung:

    There’s a place for us
    A time and place for us
    Hold my hand and we’re halfway there
    Hold my hand and I’ll take you there
    Somehow, someday, somewhere.

    And here’s “Don’t Fence Me In,” a possible critique of private property?

    Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above,
    Don’t fence me in.
    Let me ride through the wide open country that I love,
    Don’t fence me in.
    Let me be by myself in the evenin’ breeze,
    And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees,
    Send me off forever but I ask you please,
    Don’t fence me in.

    Just turn me loose, let me straddle my old saddle
    Underneath the western skies.
    On my Cayuse, let me wander over yonder
    ‘Til I see the mountains rise.

    I want to ride to the ridge where the west commences
    Gaze at the moon ’til I lose my senses
    I can’t look at hovels and I can’t stand fences
    Don’t fence me in.

  9. You forgot “Top 5 Songs Associated With The Red Sox, However Silly Or Nominal:”

    1. “Dirty Water”
    2. “Sweet Caroline”
    3. That funny song about Pedro
    4. “Lean Back” Sox Remix
    5. “Tessie”/”Merry Merry Merry Frickin’ Christmas” (tie)

  10. Blyan, that is more or less already covered here.

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