Theodore Bikel - Sings Jewish Folk Songs (1958)

A talented folksinger and actor, Theodore Bikel carved out his place in the modern entertainment industry as a renaissance man. For over 50 years, Bikel left his mark on film, the stage, and the arts, from his supporting role in The African Queen in 1951 to his appearance at the 1960 Newport Folk Festival to his appointment to the National Council for the Arts in 1977. Although he was born in Austria, he lived in Israel, England, and the United States and spoke five languages. Bikel recorded for Elektra, Columbia, and Reprise, published Folksongs & Footnotes, and served as a vice president of the American Jewish Congress.               

Bikel was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1924, but his family fled to Palestine in 1938, where they became British subjects. Bikel wanted to study language and become a teacher, so he worked at a communal farm to help pay expenses. Drawn to the theater, however, he left the farm in 1943 to study at the Hamimah Theater in Tel Aviv. Later, Bikel and four other actors formed the Tel Aviv Chamber Theater. In 1946, he left Israel to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. While in England, he also began to take a serious interest in folk music and learn the guitar. In 1947, Bikel's acting skills were noticed by Sir Laurence Olivier, leading to a part in the London production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
By the early '50s, Bikel began to play Russian officers and German sailors in English and American films and in 1955, he moved to New York City. The move also coincided with the beginning of a career in folk music. He signed with Elektra Records in the mid-'50s and recorded Israeli Folk Songs in 1955. He became a co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival and performed at the event in 1960. Bikel's repertoire proved uniquely eclectic, including songs from Russia, Eastern Europe, and Israel. He played hundreds of dates in United States, from the Rainbow & Stars in New York to the Boarding House in San Francisco, and traveled broadly, performing in New Zealand, Australia, and throughout Europe.
  Over the next 40 years, Bikel continued his dual career in film and folk music. He received parts in The Russians Are Coming in 1966, See You in the Morning in 1989, and Shadow Conspiracy in 1997. He recorded "Songs of the Earth" for Elektra in 1967, "A New Day" on Reprise in 1970, and "A Taste of Passover" for Rounder in 1998. Bikel also involved himself in a number of political activities. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Bikel to the National Council for the Arts, a position he retained until 1982. He also served with the Associated Actors and Artistes of America, Americans for the Arts, and the American Jewish Congress. In 1992, Bikel received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Hartford.

Tracklist:
                           

A1	Der Rebe Elimelech
A2	De Yontevdike Teyg
A3	Sha Shtil
A4	Di Ban
A5	Kum AherDo Filozof
A6	Di Mezinke
A7	A Sundenyu
A8	Achtsig Er Un Zibetsik Zi
B1	Di Name Iz Gegangen
B2	Margaritkelech
B3	Mu Asapru
B4	Lomir Zich Iberbeten
B5	Homentashn
B6	A Chazn Oyf Shabes
B7	Reyzl
B8	Tumbalalayka

Theodore Bikel - Sings Jewish Folk Songs (1958)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Poesie & Musik - Francois Villon (1976)

"Poesie und Musik" was a trio ensemble consisting of Orlando Valentini, Andreas Vollenweider and René Bardet. Between 1974 and 1983 this ensemble was publishing inspiring records that combined poetry and music based on texts by Francois Villon, Heinrich Heine, the indian Chief Seattle and Pablo Neruada.

François Villon, pseudonym of François de Montcorbier or François des Loges, (born 1431, Paris—died after 1463), was one of the greatest French lyric poets. He was known for his life of criminal excess, spending much time in prison or in banishment from medieval Paris. His chief works include Le Lais (Le Petit Testament), Le Grand Testament, and various ballades, chansons, and rondeaux.

Perhaps the most deeply moving of French lyric poets, Villon ranges in his verse from themes of drunkenness and prostitution to the unsentimental humility of a ballade-prayer to “Our Lady,” “Pour prier Nostre-Dame,” written at the request of his mother. He speaks, with marvelous directness, of love and death, reveals a deep compassion for all suffering humanity, and tells unforgettably of regret for the wasted past.

His work marks the end of an epoch, the waning of the Middle Ages, and it has commonly been read as the inspiration of a “lost child.” But as more becomes known about the poetic traditions and disciplines of his day, this interpretation seems inadequate. It is probably either too early or too late fully to understand Villon’s work, as one critic has suggested; but although the scholar must still face a variety of critical problems, enough is known about Villon’s life and times to mark him as a poet of genius, whose work is charged with meaning and great emotional force.


Tracklist:

A1 Waldschratt (1:25)
A2 Ballade für den Hausgebrauch im Winter (3:45)
A3 Bettelballade für meinen armen Bruder Jean Cotard (3:35)
A4 Ballade von der treulosen Cylaea (4:55)
A5 Ballade von den Vogelfreien (2:40)
A6 Liebesballade für ein Zigeunermadchen (7:45)

B1 Ballade, mit der Meister Villon seine Mitmenschen um Verzeihung bittet (4:10)
B2 Sommerballade von der armen Louise (4:40)
B3 Neue Ballade, gedichtet für Mira L´Ydolle (4:40)
B4 Notwendige Nachschrift, mein Begräbnis betreffend (5:15)
B5 Kleine Ballade von Ddem Mäuslein, das in Villons Zelle Junge bekam (6:45)


Poesie & Musik - Francois Villon (1976)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

The Voices of the Civil Rights Movement - Black American Freedom Songs 1960-1966

This double-CD reissue documents a central aspect of the cultural environment of the Civil Rights Movement, acknowledging songs as the language that focused people's energy. These 43 tracks are a series of musical images, of a people in coversation about their determination to be free. Many of the songs were recorded live in mass meetings held in churches, where people from different life experiences, predominantly black, with a few white supporters, came together in a common struggle. These freedom songs draw from spirituals, gospel, rhythm and blues, football chants, blues and calypso forms.

"The Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: Black American Freedom Songs 1960-1966" documents the importance of songs in the Civil Rights Movement. The first disc features songs from mass meetings, where a singer or core of singers leads the people in the singing of the songs, while the second focuses on ensemble works by the SNCC Freedom Singers and other groups.

Chances are that unless you were involved in the Civil Rights Movement you will not especially recognize many of these songs, with "This Little Light of Mine," "Go Tell It On the Mountain," and "We Shall Overcome" being the obvious exceptions. But you will be surprised at some of the popular songs that were appropriate for the cause, such as "Calypso Freedom," based on Harry Belafonte's "The Banana Boat Song," and "Get Your Rights, Jack," based on the Ray Charles hit "Hit the Road, Jack." For me the song that stood out was "In the Mississippi River," written by Marshall Jones after the disappearance of three Civil Rights workers in Mississippi during the summer of 1964. As local rivers were dragged in search of the men, many other bodies were discovered, a chilling fact that certainly needs to be more than a historic footnote to that tragic event. There is also a lengthy segment from a sermon by Rev. Lawrence Campbell, which illustrates the song-sermons that were an integral part of the movement and its traditions. The result is a historical document of immense value.

Folkways Records was founded by Moses Asch and Marian Distler in 1948 to document music and spoken word from around the world. The Smithsonian Institution acquired Folkways from the Asch estate and has succeeded in preserving the best of the label's 2,200 albums. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has continued this grand tradition. Their releases are superb, especially in terms of providing the historical context by which we can best appreciate these songs from another place and another time.
.

The Voices Of The Civil Rights Movement pt.1

The Voices Of The Civil Rights Movement pt. 2

Egon Erwin Kisch - Erinnerungen an den rasenden Reporter

On March 31, 1948, Egon Erwin Kisch, a german-speaking Czech journalist and novelist, died in Prague, Czech Republic.

Egon Erwin Kisch was "der rasende Reporter" ("the raging reporter"), a journalist whose interest in marginalized parts of society and the world outside Europe endeared him to a large number of readers. He became a figurehead in the fight against fascism. Later generations of journalists regarded his documentaries as exemplary and pioneering. He is admired to this day for the high literary quality of his journalitic work.

Kisch was born into a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and began his journalistic career as a reporter for a local German language newspaper in 1906. His early work is characterised by an interest in crime and the lives of the poor of Prague, taking Jan Neruda, Emile Zola and Charles Dickens's Sketches by Boz as his models. He deserted from the army in World War I in October 1918 as the war came to an end and played a leading role in the left-wing revolution in Vienna in November of that year. Although the revolution failed, in 1919, Kisch joined the Communist party, a political allegiance he maintained for the rest of his life.
Between 1921 and 1930 Kisch, though a citizen of Czechoslovakia, lived primarily in Berlin, where his work found a new and appreciative audience. In books of collected journalism such as "Der rasende Reporter" (1924), he cultivated the image of a witty, gritty, daring reporter always on the move, a cigarette clamped doggedly between his lips. His work and his public persona found an echo in the artistic movement of "Neue Sachlichkeit", a major strand in the culture of the Weimar Republic.
On February 28 1933, the day after the Reichstag Fire, Kisch was one of many prominent opponents of Nazism to be arrested. He was briefly imprisoned in Spandau, but as a Czechoslovakian citizen, was expelled from Germany. His works were banned and burnt in Germany, but he continued to write for the Czech and émigré German press, bearing witness to the horrors of the Nazi takeover.
In 1937 and 1938, Kisch took part in Spanish Civil War. He travelled across the country speaking in the Republican cause and his reports from the front line were widely published.

Following the "Munich Agreement" of 1938 and the subsequent Nazi occupation of Bohemia six months later, Kisch was unable to return to the country of his birth. Once war broke out, Paris, which he had made his main home since 1933, also became too dangerous for an outspoken Jewish communist whose native land no longer existed. In late 1939, Kisch and his wife Gisela, sailed for New York where, once again, he was initially denied entry. He eventually landed at Ellis Island on December 28, but as he only had a transit visa moved onto Mexico in 1940.
He remained in Mexico for the next five years, one of a circle of European communist refugees, notable among them Anna Seghers and Ludwig Renn.

Kisch died two years after his return to Prague, shortly after the Communist party seized complete power. There are contradictory reports of his attitude - as a German-speaking Jew - to the party in this period as it began to develop the anti-semitism which culminated in the "Prague Trials" of 1952 and supported the expulsion of most of Czechoslovakia's ethnic Germans.
To remember his great work, here is "Erinnerungen an den rasenden Reporter", a wonderful feature in german language about Egon Erwin Kisch.

Egon Erwin Kisch - Erinnerungen an den rasenden Reporter
(192 kbps, front cover included)

VA - Songs For Desert Refugees - A Compilation In Aid Of The Refugees From Northern Mali

Mali is one of the musical power-houses of Africa, but today it's a country in chaos, and its ancient culture is under threat. In the desert north, the rebels of the MNLA have been ousted by Islamist groups, adding to the crisis in which hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled to neighbouring states, at a time of acute food shortage across the region. This benefit album aims to raise money for refugee projects, but also provides a rousing new compilation of desert blues, with unreleased or rare tracks from Tuareg musicians from Mali, Niger and Algeria. It starts, appropriately, with a slinky, rhythmic and previous unreleased song from Saharan superstars Tinariwen, and there are contributions from younger Malian bands Tamikrest, Amanar and the hypnotic Tartit. But many of the best tracks are from across the border in Niger, with an engaging, rhythmic contribution from Etran Finatawa, and a remarkable 13-minute live work-out from Bombino, proving why he is the desert's new guitar hero.

For beginners, this album can serve as an introduction to the incredible music of northern Mali, the cultural center of the Tuareg people. For people who already know this music, it's an introduction to new artists you may not have heard of before.

All proceeds from the sale of this album will be donated to TAMOUDR´R and ETAR, two NGOs working with refugees in northern Mali. If you want to support them, please make a donation to the associations via www.tamoudre.org/desertrefugees .

Tracklist:

	1.	Tinariwen - Amous Idraout Assouf d'Alwa   04:27
	2.	Tamikrest - Warktifed   03:50
	3.	Ibrahim Djo experience - Blues du Désert [part 1]   04:32
	4.	Faris & Terakaft - Derhan Alkher   04:13
	5.	Nabil Baly Othmani - Teswa Ténéré [desert version]   05:52
	6.	Amanar - Ténéré   05:39
	7.	Tadalat - Taghdart   04:55
	8.	Etran Finatawa - Gourma   06:35
	9.	Terakaft - Nak Essanagh   04:34
	10.	Toumast - Aïtma   04:14
	11.	Bombino - Tigrawahi Tikma [live version]   13:01
	12.	Tartit - Tihou Beyatene   05:02

VA - Songs For Desert Refugees - A Compilation In Aid Of The Refugees From Northern Mali
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Charly Garcia - Parte de la Religión

Charly Garcia is one of the most talented and influential figures of Argentine and Latin rock. He composed many generational hymns and was always obsessed with expanding the boundaries of pop music and the musician's role itself.               

"Parte de la Religión", released in 1987, was an album recorded almost entirely by García himself. An exception can be found in "Rap de las Hormigas," on which the Brazilian group Os Paralams do Succeso took part. The record was clearly a masterpiece and showed Prince's influence. Songs like "No Voy en Tren," "Buscando un Símbolo de Paz," and "En la Ruta del Tentempié" became Top Ten hits.    


    
Charly Garcia - Parte de la Religión     
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Sun Ra - Featuring Pharoah Sanders & Black Harold (1964)

In 1964, Sun Ra asked the young tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders to join him, while Arkestra mainstay John Gilmore was busy working with Paul Bley, Andrew Hill, and Art Blakey. Before the recording's original release in 1976, Sun Ra stated: "It should be very interesting to the world to show what the pre-Coltrane Pharoah Sanders was like." Also appearing on "Featuring Pharoah Sanders & Black Harold" is the little-heard flautist, Black Harold (Harold Murray), who takes the lead on the track "The Voice of Pan," continuing into "Dawn over Israel." Bassist Alan Silva (ESP 1091) also does some fine bass work on the release.

"Featuring Pharoah Sanders & Black Harold" is notable not only for its unique lineup, but also for the first known recording of the composition "The Shadow World," here titled "The World Shadow," which was featured on later Arkestra albums.

The music is vital, as much a testament to the times, as it is to Sun Ra's approach. An innovator who was not constricted by form, the music flowed as he and the band saw fit. He not only assimilated various musical genres, he juxtaposed composition and invention to add impact to the development of the music.

Tracks:
Gods on a Safari (Ra)
The World Shadow (Ra)
Rocket Number 9(Ra)
The Voice of Pan (Ra)
Dawn over Israel  (Ra)
Space Mates (Ra)


Sun Ra - Featuring Pharoah Sanders &  Black Harold (1964)
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Harry Belafonte - Calypso (1956)

This is the album that made Harry Belafonte's career. Up to this point, calypso had only been a part of Belafonte's focus in his recordings of folk music styles. But with this landmark album, calypso not only became tattooed to Belafonte permanently; it had a revolutionary effect on folk music in the 1950s and '60s.

The album consists of songs from Trinidad, mostly written by West Indian songwriter Irving Burgie
(aka Lord Burgess). Burgie´s two most successful songs are included -- "Day O" and "Jamaica Farewell" (which were both hit singles for Belafonte) -- as are the evocative ballads "I Do Adore Her" and "Come Back Liza" and what could be the first feminist folk song, "Man Smart (Woman Smarter)."

"Calypso" became the first million-selling album by a single artist, spending an incredible 31 weeks at the top of the Billboard album charts, remaining on the charts for 99 weeks. It triggered a veritable tidal wave of imitators, parodists, and artists wishing to capitalize on its success. Years later, it remains a record of inestimable influence, inspiring many folksingers and groups to perform, most notably the Kingston Trio, which was named for the Jamaican capital. For a decade, just about every folksinger and folk group featured in their repertoire at least one song that was of West Indian origin or one that had a calypso beat. They all can be attributed to this one remarkable album. Despite the success of "Calypso", Belafonte refused to be typecast. Resisting the impulse to record an immediate follow-up album, Belafonte instead spaced his calypso albums apart, releasing them at five-year intervals in 1961, 1966, and 1971.                

Harry Belafonte - Calypso (1956)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Georges Brassens - La Chasse Aux Papillons

George Brassens, (born October 22, 1921, Sète, France - died October 30, 1981, Sète) was a French singer and songwriter. One of the most-celebrated French chansonniers (cabaret singers) of the 20th century, Brassens held a unique place in the affections of the French public and, during a career of nearly 30 years, sold more than 20 million records.

Brassens’s songs, which won the poetry prize of the Académie Française in 1967, belonged to a tradition reaching back to the medieval jongleurs (professional storytellers and entertainers). They combined bawdy humour, tenderness, and contempt for the self-importance of bigots and authority figures.

 

 After arriving in Paris in 1940, Brassens worked in the Renault car factory and was conscripted for war work in Germany. While off duty back in France, Brassens deserted and was given refuge by his aunt’s neighbour, Jeanne Planche, to whom he dedicated many of his songs. In 1952 Brassens was discovered by Jacques Grello and made his debut in a nightclub owned by the singer Patachou. His warm voice and emphatic guitar accompaniment were heard at the Olympia, the Alhambra, and the Palais de Chaillot, but he was at his best in his regular appearances in the unpretentious surroundings of the Bobino music hall.

 

Brassens’s only motion picture role was in René Clair’s Porte des lilas (1957; also released as Gates of Paris). He also published poems and a novel, La Tour des miracles (1953; “The Tower of Miracles”).

This album was first published in 1954 as an EP with the title "N° 1 - Georges Brassens Chante Les Chansons Poétiques (... Et Souvent Gaillardes) De... Georges Brassens" and re-released on cd several times in the last years.

Tracklist:

1	La Chasse Aux Papillons	2:01
2	La Mauvaise Reputation	2:13
3	Le Parapluie	2:30
4	Le Gorille	3:18
5	Corne D'Auroch	2:52
6	Hecatombe	1:58
7	Le Fossoyeur	2:06
8	Le Petit Cheval	2:17

Georges Brassens - La Chasse Aux Papillons
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Heinrich Heine - Lyrik und Jazz (Gerd Westphal)

The German student movement of 1968 gave rise to a colorful flock of songsmiths, who early on discovered Heinrich Heine for their purposes. Looking at pieces critical of times past or present, a few verses from "Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen" became part of the scenery.

Many listeners were introduced to an entirely new Heine at the legendary song festivals at Burg Waldeck. Accompanied by guitar, folk duos sang musically rather unassuming "Erinnerungen aus Kräwinkels Schreckentagen" or songs of the "Wanderratten". "Die schlesischen Weber" without tears in their desperate eyes have been part and parcel of political folklore ever since. It seems as if the new embracing of Heine in this genre follows other societal trends, from agitation to spirituality. Of all the many groups who did so, the Swiss group "Poesie und Musik" (with members Rene Bardet, Andreas Vollenweider, Orlando Valentini) had the greatest success in 1974 with their recorded Heine program "Ich kann nicht mehr die Augen schliessen".
This music and poetry concept, however, was not a novel one; under the title "Lyrik und Jazz", the Attilla Zoller Quartet with Gert Westphal, the famous speaker who died in 2002, had already introduced a jazzed-up Heine.

Heinrich Heine - Lyrik und Jazz (Gerd Westphal)
(192 kbps, ca. 55 MB, front cover included)

Gil Scott-Heron - Real Eyes (1980)

In 1980, Gil Scott-Heron had a nice opportunity to promote his "Real Eyes" album when he became the opening act on Stevie Wonder's "Hotter Than July" tour. On his own, Scott-Heron usually played small clubs, but opening for Wonder gave him the chance to perform in front of thousands of Wonder fans in major stadiums and sports arenas. Many of Wonder's white fans seemed to be unfamiliar with Scott-Heron (who had never had a major pop hit), while a lot of Wonder's black fans at least knew him for "The Bottle" and "Angel Dust" even if they hadn't bought a lot of his albums. Opening for all those Wonder fans certainly didn't hurt Scott-Heron's career, but it didn't make him a superstar either.

While it's possible that some Wonder fans enjoyed Scott-Heron's opening sets enough to go out and purchase "Real Eyes", most of the people who acquired this LP were already confirmed Scott-Heron fans. Unfortunately, "Real Eyes" lacked a hit single, although the material is excellent nonetheless. As usual, Scott-Heron has a lot of sociopolitical things on his mind - "The Train From Washington" concludes that the working class can't depend on the U.S. government for anything, while "Not Needed" angrily points the finger at companies who consider longtime employees expendable.

And the album's less sociopolitical songs are equally memorable. "Your Daddy Loves You" is a touching ode to Scott-Heron's daughter Gia Louise (who was only a child in 1980), and the jazz-oriented "A Legend in His Own Mind" is a humorous, clever put-down of a wannabe "Casanova" who isn't nearly the ladies' man he brags about being. Scott-Heron's love of jazz serves him well on "A Legend in His Own Mind" and the smoky "Combinations," but make no mistake: "Real Eyes" is an R&B album more than anything.

Gil Scott-Heron - Real Eyes (1980)

(320 kbps, front cover included)

Bad Brains – Attitude • The ROIR Sessions (1982)

More than one writer has called the Bad Brains' incendiary 1982 debut the definitive hardcore album, which certainly testifies to its strengths while also overlooking how different the group was from the other bands on the nascent hardcore punk scene, as well as those who followed. 

As powerful and exciting as hardcore could be, many of the key groups in its first wave were made up of young players who embraced speed and impact because they lacked the experience or skill to give their performances nuance. Bad Brains, on the other hand, were mature musicians who had the chops and the imagination to play whatever they wanted; fast and loud wasn't the only option open to them, which is why they could use it as a tool rather than a blunt instrument. Dr. Know's guitar work showed a deep knowledge of hard rock riffage when he dropped a concise solo into the maelstrom of one of their songs, while bassist Darryl Jennifer and drummer Earl Hudson could actually groove in fifth gear, lacking the stiffness that was the curse of too many punk bands trying to break the sound barrier. 

Like most hardcore acts, Bad Brains sang at length about the injustices and frustrations they saw in their daily lives, but as African-Americans and Rastafarians, their outlook on oppression and a broken society came from a place the white suburban teenagers who were the backbone of most hardcore bands had never experienced. Their rage was more purposeful, and their embrace of "Positive Mental Attitude" was emblematic of a survival instinct and a desire for a larger justice rather than simply shouting for its own sake, and the depth of H.R.'s fevered howl was the right instrument to articulate this. Bad Brains had the gift to write anthems rather than just rants, and though their detours into reggae weren't always as immediately satisfying as their punk rock, their ability to shift from one rhythmic extreme to another with confidence and ease demonstrated the depth of their relationship with time. Bad Brains' only real flaw is the low-budget production and engineering, which documents the deep-focus ferocity of the performances but doesn't make it easy to focus on the details (an advantage their second LP, the Ric Ocasek-produced Rock for Light, has over the debut), which was even more of a problem in its original cassette-only release. Still, if the audio is not all it could be, the songs and the performances are dazzling and inspiring in their fury, and Bad Brains remains the gold standard of American hardcore, a warp-speed cry of rage and hope.


Tracklist:

1 Sailin' On 1:56
2 Don't Need It 1:07
3 Attitude 1:19
4 The Regulator 1:08
5 Banned In D.C. 2:10
6 Jah Calling 2:33
7 Supertouch / !!!!Fit 2:31
8 Leaving Babylon 4:12
9 Fearless Vampire Killers 1:07
10 I 2:05
11 Big Take Over 2:57
12 Pay To Cum 1:25
13 Right Brigade 2:26
14 I Luv I Jah 6:23
15 Intro 0:17

Bad Brains - Attitude - The ROIR Sessions (1982)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Víctor Jara - El Derecho De Vivir En Paz (1971)

Chileans are voting today in a referendum on whether to adopt a progressive new constitution that would enact broad institutional reforms, transforming a market-driven society into one that is more welfare-based.

"El derecho de vivir en paz" ("The right to live in peace") is an album by Víctor Jara released in 1971.

The title song from this album,"El derecho de vivir en paz" (The right to live in peace), was originally dedicated to the Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh, as the United States waged war in Vietnam. After the Pinochet regime took power in Chile, Victor Jara was subsequently tortured and murdered. 

In the wake of Jara’s death, “El Derecho de Vivir en Paz” has since served as a chilling memento for the Chilean people. 

The song was widely sung by protesters during the 2019 Chilean protests including by a people's ensemble of almost a thousand guitarists. Subsequently to lend their support to the protesters, Chilean musicians living around the world released their own version on Facebook. Another rendition of the song was released by a Chilean all-stars ensemble with artists including Francisca Valenzuela, Mon Laferte and Gepe to show their support for the Chilean resistance.


Tracklist:

"El derecho de vivir en paz" [The right to live in peace] – 4:34
"Abre la ventana" [Open your window] – 3:55
"La partida" [The departure] – 3:26
"El niño yuntero" [Boy of the Yoke] (Miguel Hernández, Jara) – 3:44
"Vamos por ancho camino" [Making our way via broad avenues] (Jara, Celso Garrido Lecca) – 3:17
"A la molina no voy más" [I won't go back to the mill] (popular Peruvian song) – 3:13
"A Cuba" [To Cuba] – 3:59
"Las casitas del barrio alto" [lit. Uptown neighbourhood, adap. of Little Boxes] (Malvina Reynolds, Jara) – 2:30
"Con el alma llena de banderas" [Our hearts are full of banners] – 4:00
"Ni chicha ni limoná" [Nor fish nor fowl] – 3:23
"Plegaria a un labrador" [Prayer to a laborer] – 3:16
"B.R.P." [Brigada Ramona Parra] (Jara, Víctor Rojas, Lecca) – 3:14

Víctor Jara -  El Derecho De Vivir En Paz (1971)

(256 kbps, cover art included)

Felt - Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty (1982)

Felt's first album, 1982's "Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty", is skeletal and mysterious, equally influenced by the intellectual New York City scene of the '70s and the gloomy psychedelia of the '60s while laying out in very clear terms the vision of the band's frontman, Lawrence. The songs are built around the dueling guitar interplay of Lawrence and the very skilled Maurice Deebank, whose silvery filigrees dart around Lawrence's strums like flashes of baroque lightning. 

The two guitarists build intricate structures of sound that jangle like bells, cut like knives, and are buffered perfectly by Gary Ainge's muffled tom-toms and Nick Gilbert's simple basslines. 

The instrumentals that make up a chunk of the album are majestic and strange, with the guitars twinning together in epic cathedrals of sound, the drums thundering, and the bass wandering about below. They are lovely moments of atmosphere between the songs that feature Lawrence's pain-wrecked, buried-in-the-mix vocals. He's not the assured vocalist that he became later, but his barely audible vocals fit the subdued mood and cloudy melancholic drama just right. Most of the songs are structureless and loose, with the band repeating chords and parts while Lawrence mutters bitter poetry under his breath, but occasionally a clear melody escapes ("Cathedral") or the band works up a head of steam that Lawrence matches with some strong vocal work (the almost poppy "I Worship the Sun").

Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty is an auspicious debut that's very much a band effort, with each member pulling his weight and turning in exciting, expressive performances. The record showed Felt standing pretty much alone as sonic innovators and as a band that could break one's heart with an arpeggio, a sad melody, or a well-turned phrase.

Tracklist:

Evergreen Dazed
Fortune
Birdmen
Cathedral
I Worship The Sun
Templeroy

Felt - Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty (1982)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Reinhard Mey - Starportrait (1977)

The German liedermacher Reinhard Mey rose to prominence in France and Germany as one of the most well-known and beloved singer/songwriters of his generation. He was born in Berlin on December 21, 1942, and learned how to play the piano and guitar at an early age. His first foray onto the stage came when he joined a skiffle group, Les Trois Affamés. His group was invited to play a liedermacher festival at Burg Waldeck in 1965, and the gig eventually led to Les Trois Affamés' first record deal. Mey released his first solo album in 1967, and he dropped out of university in order to pursue music. It was a career that would span well over four decades; Mey released over 20 albums in the 40 years following his debut, gaining audiences throughout Germany, France, and Holland.

Mey writes both sensitive and humorous songs, with subject matter taken mostly from his everyday life and surroundings. His themes include life on the road, his hobbies (e.g., flying), childhood memories, his family life and surroundings, and occasionally politics. Many of his songs are humorous and demonstrate Mey's extraordinary linguistic versatility. Mey's songs are characterized most by their expressiveness of language and their penetrating melodies.
Mey's politics tend to be moderate to left-leaning. He speaks out in particular for freedom and non-violence, and not only in his songs (for example, he participated in a demonstration at the beginning of 2003 against the coming war in Iraq). Strongly influenced by the French chanson, Mey's political songs were relatively scarce among his works at the beginning, but they have increased in quantity over time, such that there is usually at least one song on each new album that concerns itself with politics. His 2004 album, Nanga Parbat, for example, includes "Alles OK in Guantanamo Bay", a song critical of the U.S. detention facility on the island of Cuba.

The compilation "Starportrait" was released in 1977 as a double album, featuring recordings from 1968 to 1975.

 Tracklist, LP 1:

1.	Ich wollte wie Orpheus singen	2:19
2.	Die drei Musketiere	2:15
3.	Rouge ou noir	2:55
4.	Das Lied von der Spieluhr	3:35
5.	Trilogie auf Frau Pohl	5:19
6.	Ich denk' es war ein gutes Jahr	3:46
7.	Irgendwann, irgendwo	2:19
8.	Aus meinem Tagebuch	3:00
9.	Du, meine Freundin	2:52
10.	Ich bin aus jenem Holze geschnitzt	3:10
11.	Der Mörder ist immer der Gärtner	4:49
12.	Komm, gieß' mein Glas noch einmal ein	4:10

Tracklist, LP 2:

1.	Annabelle, ach Annabelle	4:03
2.	Schade, daß Du gehen mußt	4:22
3.	Die heiße Schlacht am kalten Büffet	3:16
4.	Mann aus Alemannia	5:30
5.	Herbstgewitter über Dächern	3:13
6.	Gute Nacht, Freunde	2:51
7.	Über den Wolken	3:45
8.	Wie vor Jahr und Tag	4:36
9.	Ich bin Klempner von Beruf	3:25
10.	Es gibt keine Maikäfer mehr	4:12
11.	Wie ein Baum, den man fällt	3:43
12.	Es schneit in meinen Gedanken	3:33

Reinhard Mey - Starportrait (1977)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

The Replacements - Hootenanny (1983)

"Hootenanny" is the place where the Replacements began to branch out from the breakneck punk that characterized their first two records -- which isn't quite the same thing as growing up, however. The brilliant thing about "Hootenanny" is that it teeters at the brink of maturity but never makes the dive into that deep pool. Paul Westerberg nevertheless dips a toe into those murky waters with "Color Me Impressed," as good an angst-ridden rocker as he would ever write, and the heartbroken "Within Your Reach," which presented a break from the Replacements' past in its slower tempo, driven by a stiff yet sad drum loop, and its vulnerability. Not long after this, Westerberg's vulnerability would become central to the 'Mats, although here he's keeping it way in check, but "Hootenanny" has something better to offer than a collection of soul-searching ballads: it offers the manic, reckless spirit so key to the Replacements' legend. All the myths of the Replacements at their peak speak to how it seemed like anything could happen at one of their shows, how Bob Stinson could blow out his amplifiers, how Westerberg would stumble through impromptu kitsch covers, how it could seem like the band would never make it to the end of the show. 

Well, "Hootenanny" is the only record of theirs where it seems like they may not make it to the end of the album, so ragged and reckless it is. It lurches to life with the folk piss-take "Hootenanny" before spinning out of control with "Run It," a piece of faux-core harder and funnier than anything on Stink. Hootenanny continues to bounce from extreme to extreme, stopping for a Beatles parody on "Mr. Whirly" and the instrumental "Buck Hill" before Westerberg reads out personal ads on "Lovelines." Almost all of the album's 12 songs could be seen as slight on their own merits, but the whole is greater than its individual parts, not just in how it is a breathless good time, but how this album offers a messy break from American punk traditions, ushering in an era of irony and self-deprecation that came to define much of American underground rock in the next decade. Nowhere is the Replacements' influence clearer than on "Hootenanny", and although they made better records, no other one captures what the band was all about better than this. (amg)


Tracklist:

Hootenanny 1:51
Run It 1:10
Color Me Impressed 2:26
Willpower 4:22
Take Me Down To The Hospital 3:47
Mr. Whirly 1:52
Within Your Reach 4:25
Buck Hill 2:07
Lovelines 2:00
You Lose 1:44
Hayday 2:10
Treatment Bound 3:12

The Replacements - Hootenanny (1983)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Víctor Jara - 1974 - Manifiesto - Chile September 1973 (Canciones Póstumas)

Victor Jara was murdered 52 years ago, September 16, 1973, during a military coup in Chile.

Victor Jara was not, unlike thousands of other Chileans, one of General Pinochet’s ‘disappeared’. Indeed, Jara’s body — once the dictator’s secret police had finished with him — actually turned up, dumped outside Santiago’s Metropolitan Cemetery. He had been killed a few days after the assassination of President Allende by the Pinochet-led junta; Jara’s ‘crime’ had been one of visibility.

The son of peasants from southern Chile, Jara was a multi-talented man who had worked in theatre before fully turning his attentions to songwriting. Taking as his theme an earthy socialism, his career strove to put music at the heart of political change. ‘My guitar is a worker/Singing and smelling of spring,’ he sings in ‘Manifiesto’, written and recorded in 1973, the year of his death. ‘It is not for killers.’

Compiled from several recording sessions held between 1968 and 1973, "Manifiesto" was originally brought out in 1974. 

Jara’s songs have aged well. With minimal ornamentation (some percussion here, some panpipes there), his voice conceals in its light tenor a conviction and humanity that is undiminished through time or language. While his songs are very much of their time and place, they are unlike much politically orientated music in their vivacity and emotion. Jara may place an overt faith and optimism in the people, but there is nothing formulaic or hectoring here. Rather, there is an intimacy that characterizes songs for both individuals and crowd. 

When Joan Turner Jara was exiled from Chile with her two daughters, she was carrying the last recordings of Victor, including his musical testament "Manifiesto", that gives the name to this album, released in 1974 in England by Logo Records, Transatlantic, XTRA 1143. This album probably is the strangest of all "original" Victor Jara releases, since Joan reads the English translation of some of the songs - before, after or overdubbung the original tunes.

Here´s the original 1974 version of this album, which was re-released with some changes in the following years, until Warner released a "final" version in 2001.


Tracklist:

01. Te Recuerdo Amanda (2:29,  includes reading theme translated by Joan Jara, during performance of the song by Victor Jara

02. Canto Libre (4:53)
03. Aqui Me Quedo (3:00,  Joan introduces the topic)
04. Angelita Huenuman (4:02)
05. Ni Chicha Ni Limona (3:21)
06. La Plegaria A Un Labrador (3:50, Joan introduces the topic)
07. Introduction to "Cuando Voy Al Trabajo", translated by Joan Jara
08. Cuando Voy Al Trabajo (4:33)
09. El Derecho A Vivir En Paz (4:31)
10. Introduction to "Vientos Del Pueblo", translated by Joan Jara
11. Vientos Del Pueblo (3:09)
12. Manifiesto (5;45)
13. Reading "Manifiesto" translated by Joan Jara
14. La Partida (3:27) Instrumental
15. Chile Stadium (Estadio Chile) (3:52, reading English singer's posthumous text by the poet Adrian Mitchell

All lyrics are sung in Spanish. Joan Jara, Victor Jara's widow, translated the Spanish lyrics of tracks 1, 6, 8, 11 and 12 and recorded them. These are dubbed onto the start of the respective tracks.

Víctor Jara - 1974 - Manifiesto - Chile September 1973 (Canciones Póstumas)

(224 kbps, cover art included)

The Twinkle Brothers - Miss Labba Labba

It seems as though the Twinkle Brothers have been around since the beginning of time, or at least the beginning of reggae.
Led by Norman Grant, the Twinkles began in the early '60s as a trio featuring Grant and his two brothers singing in the slick trio style similar to that of the Melodians and the Mighty Diamonds. In the early '70s, the group hooked up with the influential producer and arranger Bunny Lee, a union that produced a number of reggae hits including "We Can Do It Too" and "Miss Laba Laba." In 1975, the Twinkles released their best and most widely known record, Rasta Pon Top, a rasta-infused, roots-heavy demi-masterpiece that included soul and gospel vocal stylings within the deep grooves.

Although hardcore reggae audiences were the principal fans of the Twinkle Brothers, Grant and company were consistently releasing chart-topping records. As much as this brought great success to the band, it also created a significant amount of friction, as Grant began seeing himself more as a solo act and less as a member of a trio.

The album Miss Labba Labba was released in 1977 on the Roots Music International label.

Tracklist:                           

A1	Miss Labba Labba	3:21
A2	It's Not What You Know	4:46
A3	Different Strokes	3:21
A4	Feeling Irie	3:14
A5	Too Late	3:45
B1	There Is No Peace	3:10
B2	Self Praise	3:08
B3	Jah Army	3:28
B4	Love, Sweet Love	3:14
B5	Down Came The Rain	4:48
B6	Do Your Own Thing	3:56

The Twinkle Brothers - Miss Labba Labba
(320 kbps, cover art included)

The Vietnam Veterans - The Days Of Pearly Spencer (1988)

Thanks to a friend bringing back "The Vietnam Veterans" to my attention (by the way, greetings to all pudels out there!), here´s another band that was really on heavy rotation on my record player through the 80s and 90s.

"The Vietnam Veterans" were a six-person french band, playing a very unique and fantastic psychedelic music style.

"Souls must have been sold for a performance like this", the "Bucketfull Of Brains" magazine once wrote about the Veterans great live album called "Green Peas".


The Vietnam Veterans - The Days Of Pearly Spencer
192 kbps

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Moonshot (1972)

For her seventh album, 1971's "She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina", Buffy Sainte-Marie and her producer, Jack Nitzsche, worked in five recording studios in New York, Los Angeles, and London, and came up with a varied collection ranging from her characteristic folk protest to rock featuring Neil Young and Crazy Horse as a backup band.

For her eighth album, 1972's "Moon Shot", she stuck to one city, Nashville, working with producer/arranger/bassist Norbert Putnam and some of the same studio musicians who appeared on Young's then-recently released country-rock LP "Harvest". But as the advance single of Mickey Newbury and Townes Van Zandt's "Mister Can't You See" (which was well on its way to becoming Sainte-Marie's first Top 40 hit when the LP appeared) indicated, "Moon Shot" is, for the most part, a collection of pop/rock arrangements.

Sainte-Marie has not abandoned her primary political concern, the interests of Indians, but when she brings it up on this album, she has softened the message. "He's an Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo" is an upbeat love song that happens to involve Indians. "Native North American Child" is a celebration of Indian culture. And "Moonshot" is a playful reflection on the supposed wonders of Western science and technology that suggests "primitive" peoples actually may be far more advanced. Elsewhere, Sainte-Marie comes up with some appealing pop love songs, such as "You Know How to Turn On Those Lights" and the string-filled ballad "I Wanna Hold Your Hand Forever," worthy additions to the catalog of the songwriter who previously wrote "Until It's Time for You to Go." Sainte-Marie sings them in a gentle voice without the stridency and vibrato she sometimes uses, and Putnam and fellow arrangers Glen Spreen and Bill Pursell create lush settings for them. This is not the Buffy Sainte-Marie of her early political period, but the album demonstrates her versatility, and it works as an appealing pop effort.     

Tracklist:                                                       

A1	Not The Lovin' Kind
A2	You Know How To Turn On Those Lights
A3	I Wanna Hold Your Hand Forever
A4	He's An Indian Cowboy In The Rodeo
A5	Lay It Down
A6	Moonshot
B1	Native North American Child
B2	My Baby Left Me
B3	Sweet Memories
B4	Jeremiah
B5	Mister Can't You See

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Moonshot (1972)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Robert Wyatt - Nothing Can Stop Us (1982)

An enduring figure who came to prominence in the early days of the English art rock scene, Robert Wyatt has produced a significant body of work, both as the original drummer for art rockers Soft Machine and as a radical political singer/songwriter.

This compilation of early-'80s singles includes some of Wyatt's finest work. Aside from "Born Again Cretin" (whose vocals recall the Beach Boys at their most experimental), all of it's non-original material that Wyatt makes his own with his sad, haunting vocals.

You could hardly ask for a more diverse assortment of covers: Chic's "At Last I Am Free" (given an eerie treatment with especially mysterious, spacy keyboards), the a cappella gospel of "Stalin Wasn't Stallin'," political commentary with "Trade Union," the Billie Holiday standard "Strange Fruit," Ivor Cutler's "Grass," and a couple of songs in Spanish.

Tracks:
01. Born Again Cretin
02. At Last I Am Free
03. Caimanera
04. Grass
05. Stalin Wasn´t Stallin´
06. Red Flag
07. Strange Fruit
08. Arauco
09. Trade Union
10. Stalingrad

Robert Wyatt - Nothing Can Stop Us (1982)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Kurt Tucholsky - Chansons, Prosa, Briefe

Kurt Tucholsky (January 9, 1890 – December 21, 1935) was a German journalist, satirist and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser, Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel. Born in Berlin-Moabit, he moved in 1924 to Paris and in 1930 to Sweden.
Tucholsky was one of the most important journalists of the Weimar Republic. As a politically engaged journalist and temporary co-editor of the weekly magazine Die Weltbühne he proved himself to be a social critic in the tradition of Heinrich Heine.
He was simultaneously a satirist, an author of satirical political revues, a songwriter and a poet. He saw himself as a left-wing democrat and pacifist and warned against anti-democratic tendencies - above all in politics, the military and justice - and the threat of National Socialism. His fears were confirmed when the Nazis came to power in 1933: his books were burned and he lost his citizenship.

Here is a collection of chansons, prose and letters by Kurt Tucholsky, performed by artists like Gisela May, Günter Pfitzmann, Helen Vita, Hanne Wieder, Grete Weiser, Kate Kühl and Ernst Busch.

Kurt Tucholsky - Chansons, Prosa, Briefe
(192 kbsp, ca. 99 MB)

There´s an interesting blog out there that contains a selection of the works of Kurt Tucholsky (1890–1935), translated into English: http://kurttucholsky.blogspot.com/.

Ernst Busch - Canciones de las Brigadas Internacionales (Aurora)

On July 18, 1936, the Spanish Civil War began as a revolt by right-wing Spanish military officers in Spanish Morocco and spreads to mainland Spain. From the Canary Islands, General Francisco Franco broadcasts a message calling for all army officers to join the uprising and overthrow Spain’s leftist Republican government. Within three days, the rebels captured Morocco, much of northern Spain, and several key cities in the south. The Republicans succeeded in putting down the uprising in other areas, including Madrid, Spain’s capital. 

In spite of their own government's refusal to oppose Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco (until Hitler signed his infamous non-aggression pact with Stalin, he was actually seen as a bulwark against the Red hoards by far too many Western pundits) young men and women from around the world came to Spain on their own to fight for the Republican cause.

The International Brigade was composed of German, American, Canadian, and others from across Europe who came to fight the fascists. Since their own governments had refused to aid the Republicans, and in some instances had tried their best to prevent people from doing so, it wasn't very surprising that the returning soldiers at the end of the war were ignored in their own countries.

Some, like the Germans and the Italian, had to become refugees because they couldn't go home.

"Canciones de las Brigadas Internacionales" is another part of Ernst Busch´s recordings on the "Aurora" label between 1964 and 1974 for his wonderful "Chronicle of the first half of the 20st century in songs and ballads". It is the second collection in this series with ballads and hymns related to the fight of the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War.

Tracklist:

A1		Mamita Mia
A2		Himno De Riego / Himno Republicana
A3		Los Campesinos
A4		Suite
A5		Vorwärts, Internationale Brigade
B1		Nuestra Bandera
B2		In dem spanischen Land
B3		Ballade der XI. Brigade
C1		Canto Nocturno En Las Trincheras
C2		An der Sierra-Front
C3		Die Thälmann-Kolonne
D1		Wie könnten wir je vergessen das Land
D2		Lincoln-Bataillon
D3		Am Rio Jarama, Februar 1937

The tracks of side A are recorded in a continous flow, so they are merged in one track.

Ernst Busch - Canciones de las Brigadas Internacionales

(320 kbps, cover art included, vinyl rip)