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La canzone più bella di questo disco l'ho sentita un pomeriggio alla radio. Una voce da Lady Holiday che ha mangiato una fisherman e una batteria anche un po' spazzolata, un ritmo jazzato strozzato.
È finito troppo presto, l'avrei ascoltato per ore. Per fortuna per una volta alla fine hanno detto il titolo: Mad Tom Of Bedlam - Jolie Holland!
Questa canzone è bastata a farmi prendere il cd, tutto il resto è in più, ho pensato, regalato.
Poi ho scoperto che quella canzone non l'ha scritta Jolie Holland e che il resto non è proprio come questo pezzo, gli manca forse quella vena di follia e di improvvisazione strampalata. Però è bello lo stesso - anche se - spazia fra le radici della musica americana più tradizionale, ma quella così antica da essere stata di recente riscoperta da molti giovani musicisti. La chiamano Prewar folk explosion, e fra i pionieri ci sono anche Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newson e Langhorne Slim, solo per citarne alcuni.
Musica per stare seduti sulla veranda più a lungo del necessario, con la porta di casa aperta per far entrare solo un pezzo di cielo stellato (il cielo enorme del texas lombardo) pensando a come far quadrare i conti del bilocale ranch (quest'anno c'è stata una moria di vacche...).
O per tirare fuori la vecchia salopette di jeans e starsene a guardare il tramonto e il barcone 92 barrato che scorre lento sul fiume della circonvallazione interna, ukulele, piedi nudi e un samurai fra i denti.
O per ciondolare con qualcosa on the rocks in mano nel sempre meno fumoso Scimmie Cotton Club del naviglio ruggente, mini di satin, una gardenia e una sad song fra i capelli.
Even citygirls get the blues?
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Sascha (03:08)
Tonight, my heart is full of a sad song
My lonesome lover has taken off
I'm wandering around on a cloud
Empty-hearted and down and out
It's been a week, I think, since he rolled into town
And it's been years that I've heard these stories about
This fellah he's so brave and so alive
Turning this world around from the out to the inside
Well, our courtship was brief and magnetic
I was singing at the corner bar
And we both felt so romantic
We took a walk with the moon
Down to the train yard
Well, it was too much for me
My gypsy heart was inflamed
Put me at the head of your list
And don't forget to call my name
Well, I fell in love with a boy
Who has a real live romance with a train
Oh, my beautiful lover and friend
This is exactly what I wanted
And now I'm feeling so haunted
And I can't get you out of my mind
I can't forget him as he's rolling away
And it's all I can do is just to stay here
Is just to stay
03 Old Fashioned Morphine (04:35)
Gimme that old fashion morphine
Gimme that old fashion morphine
Gimme that old fashion morphine
It's good enough for me
What was good enough for my grandpa
It was good enough for my grandpa
It was good enough for my grandpa
It's good enough for me
Sister don't get worried
Sister don't get worried
Sister don't get worried
Because the world is almost done
Gimme that old fashion morphine
Gimme that old fashion morphine
Gimme that old fashion morphine
It's good enough for me
It was good enough for billy burroughs
It was good enough for billy burroughs
It was good enough for billy burroughs
It's good enough for me
Sister don't get worried
Sister don't get worried
Sister don't get worried
Because the world is almost done
Gimme that old fashion morphine
Gimme that old fashion morphine
Gimme that old fashion morphine
It's good enough for me
It was good enough for Isabelle Eberhardt
It was good enough for Isabelle Eberhardt
It was good enough for Isabelle Eberhardt
It's good enough for me
Sister don't get worried
Sister don't get worried
Sister don't get worried
Because the world is almost done
05 Mad Tom of Bedlam (02:52)
For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam,
Ten thousand miles I've travelled
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes
For to save her shoes from grave
Still I sing bonney boys, Bonney mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonney
For they all go bare, and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money
I went down to Satan's Kitchen
For to get me food one morning
And there I got souls piping hot
All on the spit a-turning
Still I sing bonney boys, Bonney mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonney
For they all go bare, and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money
The spirits white as lightening
Did on my travels guide me
The sun did shake and the moon would quake
Whenever they espied me
Still I sing bonney boys, Bonney mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonney
For they all go bare, and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money
My staff has murdered giants
And my bag a long knife carries
For the mince pies from children's thighs,
And feed them to the faeries
Still I sing bonney boys, Bonney mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonney
For they all go bare, and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money
Tonight I'll gonna murdering
The man in the moon to a powder
His staff I'll break and his dog I'll shake
And there'll howl no demon louder
Still I sing bonney boys, Bonney mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonney
For they all go bare, and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money
To see Mad Tom of Bedlam,
Ten thousand miles I've travelled.
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes,
For to save her shoes from gravel
Still I sing bonney boys, Bonney mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonney
For they all go bare, and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money
09 Darlin Ukelele (04:07)
Darlin Ukelele
That I've been dreaming of
Darlin Ukelele
That I love
When I'm in San Francisco
I'm dreaming all the time
Deep in the park
Where the constellations shine
Darlin Ukelele
That I been dreaming of
Darlin Ukelele
That I love
Dreaming by the ocean
Walking by the sea
Talking to a starfish
And the mermaids sing to me
10 Damn Shame (04:50)
I hid out on the front porch
I laid up in my mind
I looked for me a love
The best one I could find
He got himself a ticket
On an international flight
Oh it’s nothing
But a goddamn shame
Is what it is
Oh it’s nothing
But a goddamn shame
The smell of burnt exhaust
Drifts into the bar
It’s midnight in California
It’s high noon where you are
Motorcycles and booze
Dirty old perfume
Oh it’s nothing
But a goddamn shame
Is what it is
Oh it’s nothing
But a goddamn shame
I tried to go to sleep
In my haunted little room
The shadows are churning
In the passage of the moon
It’d break my heart to tell you
I couldn’t come so soon
Oh it’s nothing
But a goddamn shame
Is what it is
Oh, it’s nothing
But a goddamn shame
Tell me one more time
Why you went away
It makes a little sense
In the light of day
When evening comes around
All my senses fly away
It’s nothing
But a goddamn shame
Is what it is
Oh it’s nothing
But a goddamn shame
11 Tiny Idyll / Lil Missy (02:41)
Hey little Missy
Don't think we won't miss you
When you go out on the road
When you go out on the road
I know half of the story
Has never been told
Well, I heard you're going up in California
Oh don't you think we won't be praying for you
Oh don't you think we won't be praying for you
Oh we can't do nothing but adore you
Hey little Missy
Don't think we won't miss you
When you go out on the road
When you go out on the road
I know half of the story
Has never been told
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