Colin Wilkie & Shirley Hart - Morning (1972) - Outside the City (1974)

The folk revival of the 1960s came to Germany through the playing of British-born singer/songwriter Colin Wilkie and his guitarist/vocalist wife Shirley Hart. The composer of hundreds of songs and stories, Wilkie spent 11 years as resident songwriter for SWF show Tellekolleg and seven years as host of his own weekly radio show. He passed on his unique fingerstyle approach to the guitar to influential German guitarist Franz Josef Degenhardt.

Wilkie's songs, which reflect on family, friends, political, and ecological themes, offer only a hint of his warm, intimate, stage persona. Wilkie and Hart's first album, released in 1965, was recorded with Scottish folksinger Alex Campbell. Musical theater has provided another outlet for Wilkie and Hart's talents. Their appearance as street singers in a production of John Arden's Life and Death at the Wuerttembergi National Theater in Stuttgart, helped to make the show so successful that it ran for several years.

Tracks
1. The Family of Man
2. The Wasteland
3. Morning Colin
4. The Soldier's Song
5. Willow and Rue
6. Portland Town
7. Eppelein von Gallingen
8. Put Your Hand In Mine
9. Icy Acres
10. Wat Tyler
11. When I'm Gone
12. Sunflowers
13. Mr. & Mrs. Ferlinghetti-Smith
14. The Pipelines
15. A Sailor's Life
16. Old 97
17. Ain't It Pretty
18. The Potato Eaters
19. Where Were You In the War?
20. The Unquiet Grave
21. The Märchengarten
22. The Bells of Rhymney


Colin Wilkie & Shirley Hart - Morning (1972) - Outside the City (1974)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Franz Josef Degenhardt - Wenn der Senator erzählt (1968)

Franz-Josef Degenhardt (born December 3, 1931 in Schwelm, Westphalia) is a German poet, satirist, novelist, and - first and foremost - folksinger/songwriter (Liedermacher) with decidedly left-wing politics. He is also a lawyer, bearing the academic title of Doctor of Law.

After studying law from 1952 to 1956 in Cologne and Freiburg, he passed the first German state bar examination in 1956 and the second in 1960. From 1961 he worked for the Institute for European Law of the University at Saarbrücken, where he obtained his doctorate in 1966. Degenhardt joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1961, but was forced out in 1971 because of his support for the German Communist Party.

From the early 1960s onward, in addition to practicing law, Degenhardt was also performing and releasing recordings. He is perhaps most famous for his song (and the album of the same name) "Spiel nicht mit den Schmuddelkindern" ("Don't Play With the Grubby Children," 1965), but has released close to 50 albums, starting with "Zwischen Null Uhr Null und Mitternacht" ("Between 00:00 and Midnight," 1963), renamed "Rumpelstilzchen" ("Rumpelstiltskin"); his most recent albums "Krieg gegen den Krieg" ("War against the War") and "Dämmerung" ("Twilight") came out in 2003 and 2006.

In Germany, the "Volksmusik" (folk music) has been instrumentalized in the Third Reich by the Nazis. Following the war, there were decades of embarrassment and shyness about singing folk songs.

Franz-Josef Degenhardt refers to this phenomenon in his song '"Die alten Lieder" released on the LP "Wenn der Senator erzählt ..." from 1968. The first words are: "Wo sind Eure Lieder, Eure alten Lieder? Fragen die aus andern Ländern, wenn man um Kamine sitzt."... "Tot sind unsere Lieder, unsere alten Lieder. Lehrer haben sie zerrissen, kurzbehoste sie zerklampft. Braune Horden totgeschrien, Stiefel in den Dreck gestampft."

Tracklist:

A1	Wenn der Senator erzählt...
A2	So sind hier die Leute
A3	Zug durch die Gemeinde
A4	Peruanisches Fest (Fiesta Peruana)
A5	2. Juni 1967
B1	Die Kumpanei (Da hocken die Kumpanen)
B2	Notar Bolamus
B3	Die alten Lieder
B4	Der Talisman
B5	Für wen ich singe
B6	Leere Felder

Franz Josef Degenhardt - Wenn der Senator erzählt (1968)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Alfredo Zitarossa - En Argentina (1973)

Alfredo Zitarrosa (March 10, 1936 – January 17, 1989) was a Uruguayan singer-songwriter, poet and journalist. He specialized in Uruguayan and Argentinean folk genres such as zamba and milonga, and he became a chief figure in the nueva canción movement in his country. A staunch supporter of Communist ideals, he lived in exile between 1976 and 1984. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential singer-songwriters of Latin America.

Uruguayan folk icon Alfredo Zitarrosa lived his childhood in the small town of Santiago Vázquez. Influenced by an elementary school teacher, the enthusiastic young man started paying attention to classical and traditional music. Alfredo Zitarrosa's writing skills allowed him to come in first place after participating in a local poetry contest in 1958, making his debut as a singer in the Peruvian Tulio Loza's Show, performing "Guitarrero" and "Milonga Para una Niña."

As a songwriter, his first composition, called "Recordandote," was made in 1960, a zamba later popularized by los Chalchaleros. Soon after returning to his native country, Alfredo Zitarrosa started working as an announcer and journalist without leaving his music career. On July 20, 1970, the singer/songwriter made a successful live debut in Buenos Aires, later getting his songs played throughout Latin America. In February of 1976, the artist went into exile, temporarily living in Argentina, Spain, and Mexico, returning to Uruguay in March of 1984. The talented musician passed away in January of 1989.

"En Argentina" is the Argentinian version of "Adagio En Mi Pais", with one different track (12).


Tracklist:

01. Adagio en mi país [Alfredo Zitarrosa] (5:38)
02. Guitarrero [Carlos Di Fulvio] (3:11)
03. A José Artigas [Carlos Bonavita – Alfredo Zitarrosa] (2:39)
04. Canto de nadie [Alfredo Zitarrosa] (3:35)
05. La canción y el poema [Idea Vilariño – Alfredo Zitarrosa] (3:03)
06. Los hermanos [Atahualpa Yupanqui] (2:42)
07. Triunfo Agrario (Triunfo) [Armando Tejada Gómez – César Isella] (1:37)
08. Dile a la vida [Alfredo Zitarrosa] (3:28)
09. Tierrita poca [Luis Pedro Bonavita – Alfredo Zitarrosa] (2:21)
10. Canción ‘de que’ [Alfredo Zitarrosa] (3:08)
11. De Corrales a Tranqueras [Osiris Rodríguez Castillos] (2:54)
12. Chamarrita de los milicos [Alfredo Zitarrosa] (3:16)

Alfredo Zitarossa - En Argentina (1973)

(ca. 256 kbps, cover art included)

S.Y.P.H. ‎– S.Y.P.H. (1980)

A cult band in their native Germany and even more obscure to the rest of the world, S.Y.P.H. are akin to Blurt, the Fall, Wire, the Plastic People of the Universe, and other long-running acts who influence rock from its very fringes. Formed in the city of Solingen in 1977 by Peter "Harry Bag" Braatz, Uwe Jahnke, and Thomas Schwebel, the band's name wasn't originally an acronym. It was soon changed and supposedly stood for "Smashed Yankee Pummels Homo," although different explanations would be given through the years. In 1979 their debut single, "Viel Feind, Viel Her," appeared and was followed a year later by the full-length "S.Y.P.H. (Hello to the Mipau)". The experimental edge displayed on their punkish debut would be explored further on their second album of 1980, PST, which was produced by Can member Holger Czukay. After Schwebel left to join Die Fehlfarben, the band appeared on Czukay's album On the Way to the Peak of Normal before falling apart.

"S.Y.P.H." from 1980 is another classic album of German punk and new wave. It was released on the "Pure Freude" label. The A side is absolutely fabulous -- it's rough, brutish punk that's so minimal it's already post-punk. The drumming is so minimal that it reminds me of disco -- the band realized it themselves, doing a fun disco song (complete with female singing) with "What Happens?" What makes it also stand out are the simple lyrics about life and love in a post-modern world. The first four songs are total and timeless classics and still sound fresh and aggressive today. Truly great.

Tracklist:

A1 Zurück Zum Beton (1:58)

A2 Industrie-Mädchen (1:24)

A3 Lachleute & Nettmenschen (2:14)

A4 Unreif Für Die Zukunft (1:52)

A5 Mercedes (1:21)

A6 Chess Challenger (3:09)

A7 What Happens? (2:43)

A8 Heute Norm - Morgen Tod (1:43)

   Pause (1:33)

A9 Ayatolla (hidden track) (1:14)

B1 Partir (3:51)

B2 Kein Ziel (12:33)

B3 Kisuaheli (7:20)

S.Y.P.H. ‎– S.Y.P.H. (1980)

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Stefanie Wüst - Kurt Weill - A Musical Portrait

The German soprano, Stefanie Wüst, had worked before her singing studies, first in costume field and as assistant at several major German theaters (Oper und Ballett Frankfurt, Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Staatsoper München), and for several years worked in the films by Alexander Kluge. In addition to her singing studies at the Musikhochschule in Cologne she attended master-classes, including Edith Mathis and Gisela May.

In 1983 Stephanie Wüst appeared at the Kölner Schauspielhaus in the "Dreigroschen-oper" (Director: Jürgen Flimm). In 1989 she founded the ensemble KURZWEIL, in different combinations, especially for interpreting the works of Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler. In 1993 she released the album "Kurt Weill - A Musical Portrait" and she was the first in Europe to present Weill's long hidden early cycle "Ofrahs Lieder".

The selection chosen for this collection traces Weill´s development on two levels: the situation of his personal life and the evolution of his artistic expression.

Tracks:
1. Im Volkston
2. Ofrah's Lieder: In Meinem Garten Steh'n Zwei Rosen
3. Ofrah's Lieder: Nichts Ist Die Welt Mir
4. Ofrah's Lieder: Er Sah Mir Liebend In Die Augen
5. Ofrah's Lieder: Denkst Du Des Kuhnen Flugs Der Nacht
6. Ofrah's Lieder: Nur Dir Furwahr, Mein Stolzer Aar
7. Julia, Das Schone Kind
8. Die Stille Stadt
9. Berlin Im Licht-Song
10. Klops-Lied
11. Pollys Lied
12. Liebeslied
13. Surabaya-Johnny
14. Es Regnet
15. Der Abschiedsbrief
16. Complainte De La Seine
17. Youkali - Stephanie Wust/Albert Rundel/Thomas Wise
18. Je Ne T'aime Pas
19. J'attends Un Navire
20. Nannas Lied
21. Buddy On The Nightshift
22. Dirge For Two Veterans

Stefanie Wüst - Kurt Weill - A Musical Portrait

(192 kbps)

Hanns Eisler - Hollywood Songbook (Matthias Goerne, Eric Schneider)

Hanns Eisler was a composer with a social conscience, but, like the poet in one of these songs, he reaped only anguish. Driven from his native Germany where his music was banned by the Nazis, he went to California and wrote excellent film scores, but was unable to reconcile himself to Hollywood's mass culture, leaving him a stranger in a foreign land. These songs - like so much in the extraordinary "Entartete Musik" series - express the experience of actual and spiritual exile, with its aching yearning for a home that no longer exists. Most of the texts are by Eisler's friend and fellow exile, Bertolt Brecht; together they create a grim picture of bleak desolation in the midst of material plenty. The songs are connected by a feeling of isolation and despair at the state of the world, as well as a pervasive strain of desperate humor and irony. The sense of rootlessness is most clearly reflected in the songs' abrupt, incomplete-sounding endings. The musical language is eclectic but highly original, ranging from echoes of Schubert, intimations of the serialism Eisler learned from Schönberg, to cabaret songs. Eisler was finally deported back to Germany during the McCarthy era, having never attained the stature he deserved. Matthias Goerne's incomparably velvety, variable, expressive voice and riveting inward concentration give the tragedy of the uprooted exile's loneliness a shattering emotional impact, and pianist Eric Schneider is terrific. It is interesting to compare Goerne's approach to that of baritone Wolfgang Holzmair, who uses a much drier sound and very pointed diction, underlining the songs' cabaret style to give them a stinging, sardonic sarcasm with stiletto-like sharpness.

"An issue of major importance, hugely impressive. Goerne has obviously been smitten by these wonderful, neglected songs: he calls them 'the 20th century Winterreise´ and in performances as gripping as these it is hard to contradict him. They are Eisler's songs of exile, written in Hollywood while the Germany for which he felt both passionate revulsion and deep nostalgia sank into the abyss. Most of the 46 short songs are settings of poems by Brecht, some written specifically for Eisler, but they also incorporate 'mini-cycles' to texts by MOrike and Eichendorff, two poems by Blaise Pascal (set in English) and one or two others including a single poem by Eisler himself.
The songs are not here sung in the order in which Eisler eventually published them, but the sequence chosen makes poignant dramatic sense, chronicling Brecht's and Eisler's horror at what was happening in Germany, their flight and exile, their reaction to the alien world of Hollywood and meditations on Germany's vanished past, hideous present and uncertain future. As performed here, the cycle ends with a loving homage to Schubert, 'On Watering the Garden', followed by the haunting and moving 'Homecoming', a vision of Berlin obliterated by bombardment, and by the intense and characteristically Eislerian lyricism of 'Landscape of Exile' ('The ravines of California at evening...did not leave the messenger of misfortune unmoved'). These were Eisler's first Lieder since his student days, and to convey his epic theme in a sequence of miniatures he ranged across all the styles available to him, from a terse, Schoenberg-derived angularity via Berlin cabaret towards, more and more as the sequence proceeds, deliberate evocation of Schubert, Schumann and Mahler.

They demand a prodigious expressive range from any singer who undertakes them. Goerne can sing 'On Suicide' with a mere thread of sound without ever losing the quality of his voice but can then swell in an instant to a formidable fff for the last syllable of the terrifying final line ('People just throw their unbearable lives away'). The sheer beauty of his voice is just what those many homages to the Lied tradition need. His English is pretty good, his diction immaculate, and he makes a memorably sinister thing of the seventh Hollywood Elegy (set in English; Brecht's German original is lost), that horrifying image of a man sinking in a swamp with a a 'ghastly, blissful smile'. Goerne has done nothing better; this is a masterly and profoundly moving achievement. His pianist is first-class, the recording admirable." -  from: Gramophone (1/1999)

Hanns Eisler - Hollywood Songbook (Matthias Goerne)
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Geisterfahrer - Schatten voraus (1980)

Geisterfahrer were a German new wave / post punk band from Hamburg, formed in 1979.

"This thing, this album, this sound took me by surprise....

Unfortunately, they are only known in their natal country (Germany), where they still have a small cult following and not anywhere else

I can tell you, however, that this band pioneered goth alongside Joy Division and The Cure (I'm still surprised that nobody knows them), unlike The Cure or Joy Division, they have a more "urban" sound (very German indeed), and the songs are pretty upbeat, reminiscent of the German New Wave, but thereby lies angst, despair, uneasiness and rawness that may have given Martin Hannet a fatal heart attack (and a run for his money)..

The first side is, although still pretty dark, catchy enough for your local post-punk subculture wannabes, but the album doesn't really turn into an horror rollercoaster until the 2nd side kicks in. When "Das Haus" starts, it seems like it haunts the place where the album is played, "Schatten" seems like its trying to summon Ian Curtis' decrepit ghost into the listener's mind, "Wasser" is sinister and scary enough to sit in the corner and cry in fear, way more paranormal than "Das Haus", and "Vertrauen" invokes some kind of nasty murder in an abandoned metro somewhere in Berlin, perpetrated by deranged satanic cultists...

If you shamelessly play frisbee with this, you may have took a very wrong decision...." - UncleUber

"Schatten voraus" was their first album, released in 1980 on "Konkurrenz Schallplatten". 

Tracklist:

A1 Das Ufer 4:20
A2 Pestkreuze 3:35
A3 Scharlach 3:20
A4 Terror/Liebe 2:45
A5 Sand Am Meer 2:27
A6 Es Tut Nicht Mehr Weh 3:22
B1 Das Haus 2:10
B2 Schatten 4:05
B3 Wasser 2:52
B4 Vertrauen 8:20

Geisterfahrer - Schatten voraus (1980)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth, Dagmar Krause, Ernst Stötzner - Bertolt Brecht: Zeit wird knapp

Experimental composer and director Heiner Goebbels was born in Neustadt, Germany, on August 17, 1952, relocating to the Frankfurt area at age 20 to study music and sociology. He first achieved recognition in 1976 upon premiering a number of works, including "Rote Sonne", "Circa", and "Improvisations on Themes by Hanns Eisler", most performed in conjunction with the "Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester".

Concurrently, Goebbels also collaborated with Alfred Harth and, beginning in 1982, he served as a member of the longstanding art rock trio Cassiber. He further expanded his growing oeuvre with a series of theatrical, film, and ballet scores, and during the mid-'80s began writing and directing audio plays of his own, seeking his initial inspiration in the texts of Heiner Mueller. His theatrical and musical works have won numerous awards across Europe.

"Bertolt Brecht - Zeit wird knapp" is a collaboration of Heiner Goebbels with Alfred Harth, Dagmar Krause and Ernst Stötzner. It was recorded and mixed between August and October 1981 at "Tonstudio Zuckerfabrik" in Stuttgart.Germany. It came with a 16 page text-booklet and was available only at "2001 mailorder", Frankfurt. The album combines the poetry of Bertolt Brecht with free jazz and free improvisation.

Heiner Goebbels plays piano, cembalo, synthesizer, cello, guitar, bouzuki, bass; Alfred Harth plays saxophone, clarinet and flute; Dagmar Krause and Ernst Stötzner supplied their voices.

Tracklisting:

Side A:
1. Tagesanbruch
2. Ich, Bertolt Brecht
3. Schwächen
4. Morgens und abends zu lesen
5. Liebeslied
6. Abbau des Schiffes Oskawa durch die Mannschaft
7. Es lebt eine Gräfin in schwedischem Land
8. Die Vögel warten im Winter vor dem Fenster

Side B:
1. Apfelböck oder Die Lilie auf dem Felde
2. Der Pflaumenbaum
3. Legende von der Entstehung des Buches Taoteking auf dem Wege des Laotse in die Emigration
4. Liedchen aus alter Zeit
5. Sonett
6. Deutsches Lied
7. 1940 (Ich befinde mich auf dem Inselchen Lidingo)
8. Ich, Bertolt Brecht / An die Nachgeborenen / Wer zuhause bleibt, wenn der Kampf beginnt / Adresse des sterbenden Dichters an die Jugend

Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth, Dagmar Krause, Ernst Stötzner - Bertolt Brecht - Zeit wird knapp
(192 kbps, front cover included)

VA - Burg Waldeck Festival 1967 - Chanson Folklore International

This double album documents the fourth Burg Waldeck Festival, 1967. The festival theme was "Das engagierte Lied" ("The engaged song"), three thousand people came to attend the concerts and lectures given by forty-two different groups, solo performers, and speakers.

Refelcting the gradual politicization of the festival, the artists were all asked to answer four questions about the politically engaged song and their own artistic commitment. The organizers stated in the festival programm: "The fourth festivl should openly discuss not only the difficult questions of our society, but also the difficult question about the form of artistic engagement."

As´well as the usual figures of Degenhardt, Schobert and Black, Hedemann, Wader, Mossmann, Mey and Hüsch there were also several first time appearances including the author Erich Fried and the gypsy jazz group Schnuckenack Reinhardt. The GDR was "officially" represented in the form of the Brecht singer Hermann Hähnel and by Inge Lammel and Erna Berger from the Institut für Arbeiterlieder of the Akademie der Künste in East Berlin. They presented a workshop on Wolfgang Steinitz´s research on the German democratic folk song. In the discussions, however, they were asked uncomfortable questions about Wolf Biermann and the suppressed Liedermacher scene in the GDR, questions which they dodged or were not able to answer.

A unprecedent event was the concert of Alex Kulisiewicz from Poland, who performed in the clothes of a concentration camp prisoner. With broken voice and alarming authenticity he sang songs he had gathered as an inmate at Sachsenhausen. After the war he had written down from memory seven hundred pages of songs and texts in four languages.

Burg Waldeck Festival 1967 - CD 1
Burg Waldeck Festival 1967 - CD 2
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Hanns Dieter Hüsch - Live im Unterhaus (1973)

Hanns Dieter Hüsch grew up in the Niederrhein-Area near the Netherlands and had to suffer of 'pes adductus' until he was 11 years old. Because he could not play with other children, he became a loner and began to write. When he was 22, Hüsch began to study in Mainz, "but I did not study, I wrote cabaret pieces". In 1949 Hüsch married Marianne and they had a daughter named Anna. At the time, they did not earn enough money to feed the young family, and Hüsch moved to Stuttgart, where he obtained employment at the local radio station. He worked under the direction of Guy Walter as author, songwriter and radio commentator.

 In 1955 Hanns Dieter Hüsch started his first cabaret ensemble, 'Arche nova', which became famous in southern Germany and Switzerland.

From 1965 on, Hüsch released phonograph records with literary cabaret pieces, chansons and poems - he sold more than 50 albums until his death. In 1967 he joined the left-wing German student movement and performed on Burg Waldeck. But some elements of the student movement did not like Hüsch's non-violent attitude. They heckled his performances from June 1968 until August 1969 and "it was just as if your comrades told you that you are not good enough for the fight and that you have to give it up", said Hüsch. He was disappointed and hurt by their actions against his art, decided not to perform in Germany for years, and moved to Switzerland.

In 1972 he returned to German cabaret stages and subsequently became one of the most productive and successful representatives of literary cabaret in Germany, with more than 200 performances every year. In 1985 his wife died, and Hüsch wrote his most successful programme ever: "Und sie bewegt mich doch"/"And yet she moves me". In 1988 Hüsch left Mainz and went to Cologne, where he met his second wife Christiane. In 1996 Hüsch contracted lung cancer, caused by his cigarette smoking, but survived. Until the end of 2000, he toured with his farewell programme "Wir sehen uns wieder" ("We will meet again") in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In 2001, a stroke ended his plan to play King Lear at the Staatstheater Dresden. Complications resulting from the stroke and cancer confined him to his home in Windeck near Cologne, where he was nursed by Christiane. Hanns Dieter Hüsch died 6 months after his 80th birthday.

It is said that more than 3.5 million people have seen Hanns Dieter Hüsch's live performances from 1947 to 2000. He received the Bundesverdienstkreuz and, twice, the German Cabaret award "Deutscher Kleinkunstpreis"; he also received honorary citizenship of Moers and Mainz, the North Rhine-Westphalia culture prize, the 1995 Kassel Literary Prize, and the culture prize of Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as other honors.

Tracklist:

	1. Schallplatte A-Seite	25:05
A1	Hüsch Über Hüsch
A2	Tucholsky
A3	Wie Ich Die Frieda Kennenlernte
A4	Ich Schäm' Mich So
A5	Von Windeln Verweht
A6	Die Großen Leeren Plätze
A7	Ich Möcht' Ein Clown Sein
	1. Schallplatte B-Seite	25:46
B1	Geistige Leute
B2	Und Samstags Zu Beethoven
B3	Belmondo
B4	Holland & Norderney
	2. Schallplatte A-Seite	24:55
C1	Frieda Und Der Wilde Westen
C2	Radio-Vorschau
C3	Humanistisches Gymnasium
C4	Silvester
	2. Schallplatte B-Seite	25:55
D1	Silvester (Fortsetzung)
D2	Die Prüfung
D3	Hausmusik
D4	Nachfeier
D5	Sinn Des Lebens

Hanns Dieter Hüsch - Live im Unterhaus (1973)
(128 kbps, front cover included)

The Residents - Meet The Residents (1974)

The Residents are true avant-garde crazies. Their earliest albums (of which this is the first) have precedents in Captain Beefheart's experimental albums, Frank Zappa's conceptual numbers from Freak Out!, the work of Steve Reich, and the compositions of chance music tonemeister John Cage -- yet the Residents' work of this time really sounds like nothing else that exists. 

All of the music on this release consists of deconstructions of countless rock and non-rock styles, which are then grafted together to create chaotic, formless, seemingly haphazard numbers; the first six "songs" (including a fragment from the Nancy Sinatra hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'") are strung together to form a larger entity similar in concept to the following lengthier selections. The result is a series of unique, odd, challenging numbers that are nevertheless not entirely successful. 

The album cover is a fierce burlesque of the Beatles' first U.S. Capitol label release, sporting puerilely doctored photographs of the Fab Four on the front and pictures of collarless-suited sea denizens on the back (identified as Paul McCrawfish, Ringo Starfish, and the like). This is an utterly bizarre platter that may appeal to very adventurous listeners.

Tracklist:

Side A (23:06):

Boots (Hazelwood) (1:30)
Numb Erone (1:23)
Guylum Bardot (1:22)
Breath and Length (1:45)
Consuelo's Departure (1:55)
Smelly Tongues (1:35)
Rest Aria (5:41)
Skratz (1:18)
Spotted Pinto Bean (6:37)

Side B (21:19):

Infant Tango (6:01)
Seasoned Greetings (5:12)
N-ER-GEE (Crisis Blues) (10:06)


The Residents - Meet The Residents (1974)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Reverend Gary Davis - Manchester Free Trade Hall 1964

Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis, (April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972) was a blues and gospel singer and guitarist. His unique finger-picking style influenced many other artists and his students in New York City included Stefan Grossman, David Bromberg, Roy Book Binder, Woody Mann, Nick Katzman, Dave Van Ronk, Tom Winslow, and Ernie Hawkins.

Reverend Gary Davis cut his first records during the '30s, established his early mature style with a new spate of records in the mid-'40s, doggedly persevered and was roundly "rediscovered" by the folk and blues revivalists of the late '50s and early '60s. On May 8, 1964 the Rev, on tour with something called the Blues and Gospel Caravan, was recorded in live performance with his Gibson guitar at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England. In 2008 Document released a compact disc containing all of the music known to have been taped during that set. This is a revealing and wonderfully honest album of traditional songs, including "If I Had My Way," a ritual first recorded by Blind Willie Johnson decades earlier and lucratively covered by the Caucasian folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary. Also present at the Free Trade Hall was whoop-and-holler harmonica ace Sonny Terry, an expressive performer who exchanges words and blows up a duet with Davis on "The Sun is Going Down" and solos at length on "Coon Hunt." Davis alternately sang both sacred as well as bracingly worldly blues tunes, and also tapped into his own early roots with the "Cincinnati Flow Rag" and Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag," syncopated episodes that, along with everything else on this excellent album, link him directly to old time ragtime/blues guitar legends Henry Thomas, Blind Boy Fuller, and Blind Blake.

Tracklist:

01. You Got To Move
02. If I Had My Way
03. The Sun Is Going Down
04. I'm A Soldier
05. I Got A Little Mama, Sweet As She Can Be
06. Sally, Please Come Back To Me (Worried Blues)
07. Cocaine Blues
08. Cincinnati Flow Rag
09. Children Of Zion
10. Coon Hunt (Harmonica Instrumental)
11. Maple Leaf Rag


Reverend Gary Davis - Manchester Free Trade Hall 1964
(256 kbps, cover art included)

VA - The Collector´s "Die Dreigroschenoper" / "The Threepenny Opera"

VAI's "The Collector's The Threepenny Opera" is a reissue of a Mastersound disc that came out about a decade before this VAI issue appeared. It features the 1930 "original cast" recording of "Die Dreigroschenoper" with the Lewis Ruth Band, which, although temporarily eclipsed by the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, has been continuously in print in some form or another since it was reissued on LP by Telefunken in the early '50s. Indeed, it appears that the Telefunken LP is the source for much of this material as telltale reverberation used on that reissue is clearly present here.

In the CD era, this Lewis Ruth Band performance has appeared on discs issued by Symposium, Capriccio, Pearl, by Telefunken's successor Teldec, in the giant 11-CD box of Lotte Lenya that Bear Family put out and yet more. Of the other performances included to fill out the disc, namely the 1931 Mahagonny "original cast" recording, Otto Klemperer's Kleine Dreigroschenmusik made the same year, Bertolt Brecht's two records of (ahem!) singing, and Lenya's 1929 Bilbao-Song, all have appeared elsewhere except for one track, French cabaret singer Damia's 1931 recording of "Moritat". This is a notable exception, as Damia is a terrific singer, and it is instructive as to how, through minor changes, Kurt Weill's "modernistic" music could be refashioned into a form capable of pleasing a more mainstream audience. Perhaps someday we will see a Damia collection that will include this along with some of her other recordings.

Certainly, the Lenya Bear Family box is excessive even for many of her most ardent fans. The Capriccio discs have the value of being more sonically honest, if noisier than these. The added reverb on VAI's "The Collector's The Threepenny Opera" is too much, and might be so for the average "collector." Nonetheless, if one has never owned or heard these performances, wants to, and cannot stand 78 noise, then VAI's "The Collector's The Threepenny Opera" may prove an attractive option.

This album features historic recordings of selections from the Weill-Brecht classic "Threepenny Opera", as well as selections from two of their other collaborations, "Mahagonny" and "Happy End". Here´s an overview:

Brecht-Weill: DIE DREIGROSCHENOPER - selections
Lotte Lenya and the 1930 German cast, with the Lewis Ruth Band conducted by Theo Mackeben [rec. 1938]

Moritat ("Mack the Knife") / Song of the Inadequacy of Life
Performed by Bertolt Brecht with Theo Mackeben's Jazz Band [rec. 1930]

Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (Little Threepenny Music)
Berlin State Opera Orchestra conducted by Otto Klemperer [rec. 1930]

Complainte de Mackie (Moritat)
Mme. Damia with Orchestra conducted by Pierre Chagnon [rec. 1931]

Brecht-Weill: MAHAGONNY - selections
Lotte Lenya with The Three Admirals, Theo Mackeben's Ultraphon Jazz Orchestra
Berlin Cast and the Orchestra of the Kurfürstendamm Theatre, Berlin, conducted by Hans Sommer [rec. 1930-1932]

Brecht-Weill: HAPPY END - Bilbao Song
Lotte Lenya with Theo Mackeben's Orchestra [rec. 1930]


Tracklist in detail:

1. Die Dreigroschenoper: Overture - Lewis Ruth Band/Theo Mackeben

2. Die Dreigroschenoper: Moritat (Mack, The Knife) - Kurt Gerron

3. Die Dreigroschenoper: Ballad Of The Agreeable Life - Willy Trenk-Trebitsch

4. Die Dreigroschenoper: Love Duet - Erika Helmke/Willy Trenk-Trebitsch

5. Die Dreigroschenoper: Cannon Song - Kurt Gerron/Willy Trenk-Trebitsch

6. Die Dreigroschenoper: Pirate Jenny - Lotte Lenya

7. Die Dreigroschenoper: Act I Finale - Lotte Lenya/Erika Helmke/Erich Ponto

8. Die Dreigroschenoper: Barbara Song - Lotte Lenya

9. Die Dreigroschenoper: Jealousy Song - Lotte Lenya/Erika Helmke

10. Die Dreigroschenoper: Farewell - Erika Helmke/Willy Trenk-Trebitsch

11. Die Dreigroschenoper: Act II Finale - Willy Trenk-Trebitsch

12. Die Dreigroschenoper: Procurer's Ballad - Lotte Lenya/Willy Trenk-Trebitsch

13. Die Dreigroschenoper: Song Of The Inadequacy Of Life - Erich Ponto

14. Die Dreigroschenoper: Moritat (Reprise) - Lotte Lenya

15. Die Dreigroschenoper: Final Chor - 1930 German Cast

16. Die Dreigroschenoper: Moritat - Bertolt Brecht

17. Die Dreigroschenoper: Song Of The Inadequacy Of Life - Bertolt Brecht

18. Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (Little Threepenny Ste): Moritat - Berlin State Opr Orch/Otto Klemperer

19. Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (Little Threepenny Ste): Ballade - Berlin State Opr Orch/Otto Klemperer

20. Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (Little Threepenny Ste): Tango-Ballade - Berlin State Opr Orch/Otto Klemperer

21. Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (Little Threepenny Ste): Cannon Song - Berlin State Opr Orch/Otto Klemperer

22. Die Dreigroschenoper: Moritat - Mme. Damia

23. Mahagonny: Alabama Song - Lotte Lenya/The Three Admirals

24. Mahagonny: As You Make Your Bed - Lotte Lenya

25. Mahagonny: Medley - Lotte Lenya/Berlin Cast Of The Kurfurstendamm Theatre, Berlin

26. Happy End: Bilbao Song - Lotte Lenya

VA - The Collector´s "Die Dreigroschenoper" / "The Threepenny Opera"
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester - Mit gelben Birnen (Trikont, 1980)

The "Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester" was hailing from Frankfurt/Main, Germany and featured the saxophonists Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth and Christoph Anders (who were founding the avant-rock group Cassiber together with Chris Cutler a little later) as well as the composer Rolf Riehm (no idea if he is related in any way with the other famous composer Wolfgang Rihm - probably not, as the name spelling is slightly different). Other musicians were amateurs, some of them later became well-known actors, journalists or literature scholars. They played not only on rock and jazz concerts and festivals, but also - or even mainly - on demonstrations of the left-wing movement, blending political awareness with some hilarious humour and the art of noise making.

They performed at demonstrations against the Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant and the Gorleben Nuclear Waste Repository, at "Rock gegen Rechts", concerts against far-right politics, and the Russell Tribunal. Their activities have been described as applied politics by means of music ("angewandte Politik mit den Mitteln der Musik").  The band also played at the 1980 JazzFest Berlin at the Berliner Philharmonie. They disbanded in 1981.

Their second album "Mit gelben Birnen" was recorded in September 1979 and August 1980 and released on the Trikont label. A review of the 1980 LP noted that the cover shows protests in Gorleben.

Tracklist:


1 Trotz alledem (trad. arranged by Heiner Goebbels) 3:47
2 Die Hügel von Ca'n Geroni (by Rolf Riehm) 2:53
3 Hälfte des Lebens (by Heiner Goebbels, words by Friedrich Hölderlin) 2:36
4 Poema para el despertar de un niño (by Johannes Eisenberg, written by Cumbo, Rubio) 3:07
5 Ohne dass ich sagen würde, ich bin der neue Führer (arr. by Goebbels, comp. by Hübner) 7:50
6 Präludium (by Johann Sebastian Bach, arranged by Rolf Riehm) 2:10
7 Einzugsmarsch (''Enlightenment'' by Sun Ra, arranged by Heiner Goebbels) 2:24
8 Zirkus (by Rolf Riehm) 3:53
9 Baderkatalog 3:30
10 Großvater Stöffel (by Hanns Eisler, lyrics by Bertolt Brecht) 0:37
11 Trauermarsch (by Willem Breuker) 3:11
12 O'Guarracino (trad. arranged by Heiner Goebbels) 4:52
13 Maschine 3:42
14 Kommet Ihr Hirten (Composed by Trad.) 1:14

 
Bonus tracks from the cd re-release:
15 Verstandsaufnahme (by Heiner Goebbels, words by Erich Fried) 3:04
16 Poltergeist (trad. arranged by Heiner Goebbels) 2:33


Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester - Mit gelben Birnen (Trikont, 1980)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Die Entstehungsgeschichte der Dreigroschenoper

Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) was far and away the greatest commercial success in either of their careers, enjoying thousands of performances in Germany alone. In many ways it was a revolutionary work, turning its back on traditional operatic practices and unabashedly reverting to the tradition of the number opera, as well as forming a viable synthesis between "highbrow" and "lowbrow" musical traditions. It has endured as Weill's most recognizable work, and the popularity of excerpted songs, such as "Mack the Knife" will ensure its reputation for years to come.               

 In 1920 a revival of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728) opened in London and proceeded to break the record for the longest-running production -- a record previously held by Gay's 1728 original (The Beggar's Opera was in fact so popular in the 1920s that it spawned a line of product tie-ins, including fans, figurines, and illustrations). Music publisher B. Schott Söhne tried to cash in on that show's popularity by contracting an adaptation with Paul Hindemith in 1925, but the composer refused, leaving the way clear for others to try. Weill and Brecht, who were in the midst of work on their Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny), interrupted that project and set to work on their own adaptation, which became The Threepenny Opera.

The first production, in 1928, was fraught with difficulties. Days before the premier, revisions were still being made, cast members were being replaced and fighting amongst themselves, and the director was threatening to quit. The production was expected to fail dismally. Everyone involved was then caught off guard when, within a week of the premiere, "Threepenny fever" had spread across Germany, and theaters throughout the country were announcing productions of Die Dreigroschenoper. Noted musicologist and arch-modernist Theodore Adorno insisted that the public liked Threepenny only because they didn't understand it -- that Weill had embedded an ironic statement in a false gesture towards popular musical styles -- a gesture which the public had misinterpreted as sincere. This was nonsense to Weill, who made no apologies for the work's popularity.

Die Dreigroschenoper differed from the original Beggar's Opera in some important aspects. While 51 of the 69 songs in Gay's work are traceable to European folk or popular tunes, Weill composed an entirely original score (save the "Morgenchoral," which is retained from Gay's original). Also, while Gay's work contained pointed, and specific, social commentary, the 1928 Dreigroschenoper contained no such explicit references, though it often took a satirical or farcical tone. When Brecht released a "literary" version of the work in 1933, he awkwardly interpolated several dogmatic discourses, betraying his increasingly Marxist views, but this version has never gained the popularity of the original. In both, the gangster Macheath, facing execution, is suddenly granted a reprieve because, as a character in Gay's opera states, "an opera must end happily!"               

This is a collage about the making of the "Threepenny Opera" by Peter Eckhart Reichel, using snippets of original recordings.

Die Entstehungsgeschichte der Dreigroschenoper

Agnes Bernelle - Father´s Lying Dead On The Ironing Board

Agnes Bernelle was born as Agnes Bernauer, 1923, in Berlin, Germany; she died on 16 February 1999, Eire. Bernelle’s Hungarian-born father, Rudolph Bernauer, was a theatre owner who also wrote lyrics, and Marlene Dietrich was a family friend. She made her film debut at the age of seven, playing a boy. Her father was Jewish and in 1936, with the rise of the Nazis, the family moved to London to escape persecution.

Bernelle’s father wrote and directed some films while in London. She worked with the Free German League of Culture and also took part in propaganda broadcasts to Germany, as ‘Vicky the Sailor’s Sweetheart’. In 1945 she married Desmond Leslie, an Irish fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force who was a cousin of Winston Churchill. In the post-war years and on through the 50s the Leslies moved in a social circle that included Claus von Bulow and Farouk, the former king of Egypt, and ranged through London and the Riviera. She was in a BBC radio series, which starred and was directed by Orson Welles. Bernelle made British theatrical history when in 1956 she became the first nude to officially move. (The Lord Chancellor’s office stipulated that nudity was permissible only if unclothed ladies remained demurely stationary.)

In 1963, Bernelle took a one-woman show into Peter Cook’s Establishment Club, later performing the show in the West End. In this show she sang songs by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this material remaining a staple of her repertoire throughout her subsequent career and which she would also record on "Bernelle And Brecht And …", an extremely rare LP. Also in 1963, she and her husband moved to Eire.
Following her 1969 divorce and subsequent remarriage, Bernelle worked mainly in Dublin where she became a popular performer in radio, theatre, film, television and cabaret. A television documentary, "I Was That Little Girl", traced her return to Berlin where she researched her roots and performed her cabaret act. Elvis Costello produced her mid-80s album "Father’s Lying Dead On The Ironing Board". The follow-up "Mother, The Wardrobe Is Full Of Infantrymen" featured lyrics by Tom Waits and poets Adrian Mitchell, Roger McGough and Christopher Logue. Bernelle published her memoirs in 1996. Her final screen performance was as a bedridden woman in the 1998 short Still Life.               

The album "Father´s Lying Dead on The Ironing Board" is a collection of songs which started life in the satirical and political cabaret of between-the-wars Germany and had new life breathed into them during London´s  satire movement in the 1960s.
The album features lyrics by Agnes Bernelle adapted and translated from the texts of Joachim Ringelnatz, Klabund, Frank Wedekind, Jacques Prevert. The music was written by Michael Dress, except "Ballad Of The Poor Child", a traditional adapted by Agnes Bernelle.

Tracklist:

1	Chansonette	1:20
2	Bertha De Sade	2:05
3	Hafen Kneipe	3:36
4	Tootsies	3:07
5	The Girl With Brown Mole	1:58
6	The Horse	3:34
7	Night Elegy	5:24
8	The Homecoming	1:57
9	Ballad Of The Poor Child	4:21
10	The Hurdy Gurdy	3:46
11	The Nightingale	1:54

Agnes Bernelle - Father´s Lying Dead On The Ironing Board
(256 kbps, cover art included)

More infos via http://agnesbernelle.net/.

Hanns Eisler – Hollywood Songbook (Lieder of the Exile) – Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Hanns Eisler and his wife, Lou, spent the last five years of their exile in southern California, where he supported his family by composing film scores for RKO Studios—winning Oscar nominations in 1943 and 1944.
One of his most remarkable works—a cycle of art songs, or “lieder”, titled the “Hollywood Songbook”—was completed in this period. In a mixture of styles (twelve-tone, romantic, blues), the cycle is based on poems by Brecht, Goethe, Shakespeare, Mörike and Hölderlin.
As a whole, they confirm Eisler’s reputation as one of the most able composers of lieder in the 20th century.
Like his other work, the songs are communicative and direct—some of them last no more than one or two minutes.

Free of sentimentality, they nevertheless express a concentrated emotional clarity. The German baritone Matthias Goerne offers this admiring assessment: “For me, this chance discovery of this huge body of work by a real 20th century composer was a revelation, in that here was an artist comparable, in my opinion, to Brahms. The integrity, the consciousness of the times is so very great in Eisler that I was inspired to combine his songs with those of Schubert…. [O]ne might say that the ‘Hollywood Liederbuch’ is the ‘Winterreise’ of our times.”

Here´s the interpretation of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with Aribert Reimann on piano:

Hanns Eisler Hollywood Songbook (Lieder of the Exile)
(192 kbps, ca. 61 MB)

Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester - Hört, Hört! (Trikont, 1977)

The "Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester" was a brass band formed in 1976, in Frankfurt, by Heiner Goebbles, Alfred Harth, Christoph Anders and others - in an attempt to reinforce artistically the left student movement demonstrations of that period. The band, designed mostly for live appearances, was consisting of about twenty musicians and played on stage, at the streets and in diverse political activities.

In spite of the circumstances of its birth, "The So-Called Left Radical Brass Orchestra" never was a preacher of left dogmatism. Their repertoire crossed the music history from baroque & classical period, early twentieth century to free-jazz and avant-garde, including original pieces, traditonal themes, covers of Hanns Eisler, Frank Zappa etc.

The band was close to student protests for political and social improvements, with topics such as civil disobedience, protest against nuclear power and offenses against human rights. They played at events of the Frankfurt Sponti scene, trying to add music with a political message. They were inspired by Hanns Eisler's music, with a communicative dimension ("kommunikative Dimension").

Their interpretations were imaginative, inventive, uncompromised but not snobbish, eclectic, intellectual and yet very amusing - a channel for direct communication with the people.

Their first album "Hört, hört!" was recorded in July 1977. Some tracks of the album (1-1,3,5 and 1-14) are live recordings from a concert at the cinema "Harmonie" in Frankfurt. It incluedes the track "Ich bin halt die Kotze aus deiner Glotze", a cover of "I´m The Slime" by Frank Zappa.

Tracklist:

1 Vorspiel und "Gedanken über die rote Fahne" (by Hanns Eisler) 2:52

2 Begleitung (by Rolf Riehm) 2:07

3 Tagesschau (by Alfred Harth, Heiner Goebbels, Rolf Riehm) 7:32

4 Ich bin halt die Kotze aus Deiner Glotze (''I'm the Slime'' by Frank Zappa) 2:37

5 Chickmatch-Blues (by Alfred Harth) 3:12

6 Die Fabriken und Stück (by Hanns Eisler, Rolf Riehm) 3:16

7 Circa (by Heiner Goebbels) 5:17

8 Rote Sonne (by Trad. Arranged by Heiner Goebbels) 2:23

9 Der Anwalt des Schreckens (by Rolf Riehm, lyrics by Peter Paul Zahl) 2:30

10 Ya no somos nosotros (by Karaxu, arranged by Heiner Goebbels) 1:37

11 La resistencia se organisa (by Karaxu, arranged by Heiner Goebbels) 4:54

12 Homesick-Blues (by Rolf Riehm, lyrics by Peter Paul Zahl) 3:28

13 Lied von der Gedankenfreiheit (by Walter Mossmann) 1:50

14 Tschüs (by Walter Kubiczek, lyrics by Dieter Lietz) 1:33

 

Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester - Hört, Hört! (Trikont, 1977)

(320 kbsp, cover art included)

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Another 4 Way Street

Recorded along the same spring-summer tour of 1970 as "Four Way Street", this two-CD bootleg fills in a few holes that were left by that set, even in its expanded CD form.

In addition to a complete version of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," it offers Neil Young's "Tell Me Why", Stephen Stills' "As I Come of Age," "Woodstock," and "Blackbird" (none of which appear on the "Four Way Street" CD) and "Black Queen," which wasn't on the LP version of the album.

By the same token, several numbers off of the official album, including "Chicago," "King Midas in Reverse," "Right Between the Eyes," "Cowgirl in the Sand," "Laughing," "The Lee Shore," and "Don't Let It Bring You Down," are not on this bootleg.

The audio quality is excellent, soundboard quality in stereo, overall a match for the official release in more ways than one - "Four Way Street" itself was one of the last major live albums to go out without any "sweetening" of the vocals, and "Another Four Way Street", as a bootleg, is naturally similar in this detail. The vocals are rough, to be sure, and the sound is raw, especially on the electric portion of the set which, as with the official CD, is on disc two. The singing ultimately suffers under the high-wattage guitars, "Woodstock" being a shadow of its official studio version, in spite of the crunchy texture and driving beat achieved here.    

These soundboard recordings are also known as "The Complete Bill Halverson Tapes" and as "Live At Lakehurst", a non-existant concert

Disc 1:
01. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
02. On The Way Home
03. Teach Your Children
04. Tell Me Why
05. Guinnevere
06. Don't Let It Bring You Down
07. 49 Bye-Byes / America's Children
08. Love The One You're With

Disc 2:
01. Pre-Road Dawns
02. Long Time Gone
03. Helplessly Hoping
04. Southern Man
05. As I Come Of Age
06. Ohio
07. Carry On
08. Woodstock
09. Find The Cost Of Freedom

The Forum, Los Angeles, June 28, 1970 - Disc one: tracks 1-5
Fillmore East, New York, June 7, 1970 - Disc one: tracks 6-9
The Forum, Los Angeles, June 26, 1970 - Disc two: tracks 1-9

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Another 4 Way Street - CD 1
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Another 4 Way Street - CD 2
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Bremer Chor "Die Zeitgenossen" & Gruppe Argus - Lieder zur internationalen Solidarität (1978)

Found this album on a record fair some weeks ago. It was recorded in July 1978 at Studio Nord, Bremen, and released in 1978 on the label "Verlag Atelier im Bauernhaus".

The choir "Die Zeitgenossen" from Bremen/Germany, conducted by Hartmut Emig, is accomapnied by some musicians, called "Gruppe Argus". They are singing and playing international solidarity songs from Greece, Chile, South Africa ,Germany, USA and Portugal. "Die Zeitgenossen" were seeing themselves as a part of an emanzipatoric choir movement, according to the Hanns Eisler slogan: "Unser Singen muss ein Kämpfen sein!"

These protest songs are beautiful folk music with a big choir of up to 100 singers according to the infos in the booklet scans. Sometimes even too beautiful if you consider the tragic songs and lyrics.

Tracklist:
01. Die ganze Erde uns (Greece) 03:00
02. Ich bin die Front (Greece) 02:53
03. Venceremos (Chile) 03:32
04. Das neue Leben (Chile) 03:12
05. Lied für unsere Gefallenen (Chile) 05:54
06. Nougqougqo (South Africa) 02:19
07. Ndodemnyama (South Africa) 02:48
08. Grândola, Vila Morena (Portugal) 02:47
09. Hold the fort (USA) 03:36
10. Und schon morgen (Germany) 03:59
11. Oh freedom (USA) 02:04

Musicians:
Bremer Chor Die Zeitgenossen

Gruppe Argus:
Wiebke Rendigs: vocals
Stephan Uhlig: guitar, vocals
Christian Uhlig: bass, vocals
Dietz Koldewey: guitar, vocals

Soloists:
Wiebke Rendigs: alto (1,6)
Rotraud Schalipp: soprano (5)
Ivesa Lübben: flute (5)
Achim Klug: bass (8)
Frank Drecoll, Heiner Borcherding: tenors (8)
Wilhelm Meerkamp: announcer (9)

Guests:
Alexander Ahrens: cello (5)
Rolf Wieneck: banjo (9)
Levi Gioro & the Athenians: bouzoukis (1,2)


Bremer Chor "Die Zeitgenossen" & Gruppe Argus - Lieder zur internationalen Solidarität (1978)
(ca. 256 kbps, cover art included)

Pink Anderson ‎– Vol.2 - Medicine Show Man (1962)

"Medicine Show Man", subtitled "Pink Anderson Vol. 2", is an album by blues musician Pink Anderson recorded in 1961 and released on the Bluesville label the following year

Like volume one and three of the series of LPs Anderson did for Bluesville, this was recorded in 1961 (though it was recorded in New York City whereas the others were recorded in Spartanburg, SC). Volumes one and three were mostly traditional songs; these are all traditional songs in the public domain. It follows that if you liked volumes one and three, you'd probably like this too; if you want to choose just one, you're about as well off with any of the individual volumes. If you had to split hairs, it seems that Anderson sounds a bit more comfortable in the studio/recording setting on this one than on the others, and a tad less countrified and more urbane. The tone is cheerful and easygoing, like that of a well-loved man entertaining his neighbors. Which is not to say this is a throwaway; the phrasing and rhythms are crisp, and the ragtime-speckled folk/blues guitar accomplished.

Roland Ellis of Gaslight Records said "Plain old pastoral blues is what it's all about here. Pink Anderson's Vol 2. Medicine Show Man sees travelin' folk fused with traditional blues in order to tell simple stories about lower class life in the southern United States and yep that's pretty much it. Relentlessly circular blues patterns. Twee, surface scratching lyrics. One guitar and one vocal and one unwaveringly steady dynamic. Light hearted blues might be paradoxical, but that's how this record could perhaps best be described ... Pink Anderson's Vol 2. Medicine Show Man albeit interesting from a socio-cultural perspective, really does lack that depth and backbone required to make a record feel memorable and timeless".


Tracklist:

1 I Got Mine 3:37

2 Greasy Greens 4:34

3 I Got A Woman 'Way Cross Town 2:58

4 Travelin' Man 4:35

5 Ain't Nobody Home But Me 4:12

6 That's No Way To Do 2:26

7 In The Jailhouse Now 4:32

8 South Forest Boogie 3:57

9 Chicken 4:10

10 I'm Going To Walk Through The Streets Of The City 2:56

Pink Anderson ‎– Vol.2 - Medicine Show Man (1962)

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Gisela May - Brecht-Songs - Eisler - Dessau

Gisela May was, along with Helene Weigel and Lotte Lenya, one of the definitive postwar interpreters of the music composed for Bertolt Brecht by Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler and Paul Dessau. The husky simplicity of her voice particularly suited Eisler - who despised sentimentality and valued clarity of expression. The power of Brecht's poetry shines through her delivery of songs like the astonishing "O Falladah, die du hangest" - written from the angle of an exhausted horse lying helplessly on a busy street as a mob of desperate Depression-era Berliners carve up her living body for meat. 

This is not a comfortable image - but Brecht is showing us that economic injustice has uncomfortable consequences. Compare "O Falladah" with the "Song of the Invigorating Effects of Money" and the listener begins to understand that Brecht and Eisler deserve to be remembered not only as talented agitators for Marxist revolution but also as acute observers of human nature. One cannot say if the results of the famous Brecht-Eisler collaboration are timeless, but they certainly have a long shelf life.

Also noteworthy in this album are the "Song of the Moldau" and two anti-war hits  - "Song of the Woman and the Soldier" and "Song of a German Mother." Note also the contrast between Eisler's lively, jazz-influenced style and Dessau's sometimes plodding treatment of songs from Brecht's later plays, which constitute the second half of the CD.

Like other albums in Edel's "Berlin Classics" series, the Gisela May CD offers digitally-remastered analog recordings from the GDR (East German) recording industry. 



Tracklist:

Hanns Eisler (1898-1962):
1	Lied Eines Freundenmädchens
2	Lied Von Der Belebenden Wirkung Des Geldes
3	Kuppellied
4	Das Frühjahr
5	Mutter Beimlein
6	O Falladah, Die Du Hangest!
7	Ballade Von Der Judenhure Marie Sanders
8	Das Lied Von Der Moldau
9	Das Lied Vom Kleinen Wind
10	Das Lied Vom Kelch
11	Und Was Bekam Des Soldaten Weib
12	Ballade Vom Weib Und Dem Soldaten
13	Lied Einer Deutsches Mutter
	Paul Dessau (1894-1979):
14	Lied Der Mutter Courage
15	Lied Vom Fraternisieren
16	Salomon Song
17	Lied Von Der Grossen Kapitulation
18	Als Ich Nachher Von Dir Ging
19	Sieben Rosen Hat Der Strauch
20	Das Pferd
21	Der Rabe
22	Der Igel
23	Die Kellerassel
24	Lied Vom Achten Elefanten
25	Ballade Vom Forster Und Der Grafin
26	Kleines Lied
27	Grusches Lied Vier Generäle
28	Lied Einer Deutsches Mutter
29	An Meine Landsleute

Gisela May - Brecht-Songs - Eisler - Dessau
(320 kbps, cover art included, missing track now included)