Friday, October 29, 2004
through five rose colored lenses
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glistening by the numbers: FIVE
Dorothy Masuka - "Five Bells"
41: Here it is! Hallelujah! Excellent. This is my kind of song, definitely, if, uh, if you can't tell by the lurid display of blessed excitement. No, seriously. It may even sit there for a while but still, can't beat that crazy periodocity. My stuff.
Avi: There's some really great subtle shifts in the drumming that totally drives the song and keeps it from being too repetitive. A good song for headphones so you can pick out all the cool little variations buried in the mix.
Lee: I'm not familiar with her work, but it's an interesting blend of jazz, doo-wop r&b and african music. Trying to look up the year for this...it sounds like mid 60's. The background vocals are what make it for me. I like the hypnotic groove and chant, but the drummer can't decide which of the two beats he knows to play, so he switches back and forth randomly. This song drove my wife nuts.
David: This leaves me cold, really. I can't quite get a handle on it, I suppose.
Rosecrans: I can't help but hate this song -- the intro is the same series of tones as my doorbell, which doesn't actually work when you press the button downstairs, but it does respond to the radios used by the limo company across the street.
If this was my doorbell, I'd be awful happy.
I posted SEVERAL tracks by Masuka back in March, now that my audience is a tetch larger than it was back then, I'm happy to bring her back onto center stage.
Buy "Hamba Notsokolo", Masuka's greatest hits collection, from Seattle Washington Zimbabwe music mailorder storefront Dandemutande.
They carry an interesting variety of Zimbabwe tunage; go cop that.
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Read Masuka's bio.
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Read this '99 interview with Masuka.
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Odea Matthews - "Five Long Years for One Man"
Odea Matthews was the focus of one of my very first posts here at th' Hut: a selection of prison music. Her version of the country/blues standard "The Moon Is Rising" was even remixed by Gardner Linn by mashing it up with "Milkshake" (yes, it's okay to be nostalgiac about March now). One wonders if Gardner will have the wherewithal to blend this one with "Drop It Like It's Hot".
Odea is working a sewing machine in the stir, letting the bobbin keep time for the music. This is that ORIGINAL gangstress shit; the sad lament of a woman who let herself get pimped by a true love sung from behind prison walls. That's realer than real.
Buy "Angola Prison Worksongs" direct from Arhoolie Records.
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Listen to "The Other Side of the Wall" an internet radio station that offers "all incarceration, all the time."
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Read the obit for Eddie Boyd, the Chicago bluesman who wrote "Five Long Years".
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Tofu Mailbag
The saga of George W. Pussy continues; David Boyd drops us a letter:
I've got the song on my own site and a little bird tells me my song may be mentioned in next week's Village Voice as well.
Blogs in Germany, Italy, and Holland seem to have picked up "George W. Pussy" too. It is even reachable at the Centre for Political Song at Glasgow Caledonian University, at http://polsong.gcal.ac.uk/news.html ! (three entries below their entry on "Mosh") I feel like a Ph.D. (Well I am a Yale B.A., like Bush and Kerry, and a U. of Michigan Law School J.D., I suppose.)
As mentioned, am working on video for the song: the "George W. Pussy" video may feature Bush running around in a green flight suit, the word "aWol" prominently printed on a sign he's wearing. May shoot Friday. (Later than I intended, believe me, but that's life...)
While Eminem's "Mosh" may deserve some coverage--and you'll never hear me use the word "jealous"!!!--, I think "GWP" says similar things but in a funkier, more succinct and less foul-mouthed manner...for me, "Pussy" just means "cat", of course. (And what's this about "shouting out to al-Qaida?" Absurd and self-defeating. People'll be accusing Eminem of treason.)
To my amusement, by the way, the Google ad I was running to expose the song to Middul America has just been censored after running fine for several days.
It read: "George W. Pussie, da song 'I'm Rick James, Bush!' A funky rap! Download a free 'October surprise'!"
I had to spell it "pussie" originally cos the system wouldn't allow "pussy" for the reason of it being "Unacceptable Content".
Instead it was removed due to "inappropriate language".
Here is my reply which you may find fun:
Dear Google:
I see my ad for my song "George W. Pussy" has been disapproved. If you listened to the song you'd know it's about cat stuff, that's all, since I have meowing sounds in the song. And there was no problem for days with my spelling it "Pussie" in the ad title, now you complain.
Let me tell you of some of your own current ads:
1. With Google entry "bush", there is the ad:
"Bush, Dick and Colon T-Shirts - Rude T-Shirts at T-Shirt King www.T-ShirtKing.com" linking to a shirt comparing Colin Powell, a black man, to a bodily conduit of feces, the "colon";
2. With Google entry "pussy", there's the ad:
"Free Porn All Day Long Young teen, lesbian - every fetish. Live feeds, pics, vids - hardcore! www.penisdance.com"
I didn't click it, but if "young teen" is accurate, CONGRATULATIONS, YOU'RE SUPPORTING PEDOPHILIA!!!
DID YOU KNOW THIS IS ILLEGAL??!!
3. And at Google entry "young pussy", to see how pedophilic you are at Google, I'm not gonna even focus on the non-Google-ad entries you allow, e.g.: "Young PussyYoung Pussy. Fresh Wet Young Pussy All For You! Young Fresh Teens Go Fucking Wild! ... 18 Year Old Teen Sluts Fucking Like Real Whores! Young Pussy at Teen Body!", but there's the "penisdance.com" Google ad again--with "Preview Porn For Free" as the top line--, plus other ads such as:
"KaZaA of Teen Porn Steps explained how to get porn without paying for it. Totally Free kazaafreeporn.com".
Well well. Pot calling the kettle black, huh?
If you don't restore my ad immediately, despite whatever political pressures you've apparently knuckled under to, I'll be happy to consider contacting the news media and the ACLU, etc. not to mention agencies against child molestation, etc., immediately, about your double standards. Hope to hear soon,
Cordially,
David Boyle"
We'll see what happens. If Bush can give the finger to people and Cheney can tell "Leahy" to "F*** yourself", then the Pussy should be allowed to roam around Google with no problems, word.
I should limit nasty stuff I say about Sir Shady "my deadly rival MC", but I just saw the video for "Mosh" today...and isn't he like GRABBING HIS CROTCH A HUNDRED TIMES DURING THE VIDEO?? or did I just imagine that?
I mean, I call Arnold a "masturbator" during my song, it's horrible to see M-n-M doing things that are similar to that; in fact, I am seriously curious as to what Republican comment if any we may get on "Mosh" before Nov. 2. If I were Karl Rove, I'm sure I could say some really ugly things about M-Mathers III and the video.
I'll keep you posted of stuff. Am working on songs "Ralph Nader, Masturbader"; "Pussy Supreme" (about Scalia); etc.
I actually e-mailed some of this stuff on Saturday to John Peel (and Tim Westwood, big BBC rap guru), but if Peel hears it at all, it might only be in Heaven...
Thanks again for your kindness in posting my work, and feel free to contact back,
Cordially,
David Boyle
phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
P.S. Feel free to reproduce, tho I retain ownership and commercial rights to my e-mail (haw haw)!
That's our guy! First person to report a VV sighting wins a cookie.
Some related links:
Doyle's "Bushina Monologues"
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RIP John Peel
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The "Mosh" Video
I'm still not really feeling the song, but THE VIDEO! Whoa!
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Fernando Jimenez Manero writes us to say:
Dear Mr Tofu,
I know it's a little late but,if you are still interested, I have something to add to the "De los tres colores madre" issue. I must say that, despite being a native Spanish (and with many friends from Asturias) I can't make out completely the lyrics of the song. It could be a matter of the recording but I think the main reason is because it is not "properly" sung: it happens with other folk recordings I've heard, that the lyrics are partially lost or vaguely remembered, and substituted in appropiate places by a kind of yelling. Anyway, I *can* tell you that the first line can be translated as "Of the three colors, mother, the best one is the dark". "Madre" does not qualify to "colores"; instead, the song is directed to the mother of the singer (or to a mother). The word that I have translated as "dark" is "moreno", which can refer to the color of the hair (it would be brown or black) or of the skin (it would be -- in Asturias -- olive or just a deep tan). From the rest of the song, the other two colors are white and red ("blanco" and "colorado" in the song). Red is given, according to the song, by the sun, and white (this part I'm not sure of) by water. My guess is that the song talks about skin hues, showing a preference for the dark ones. The recording of the lyrics is incomplete, so maybe more details can be found in other recordings, if any. I'll ask around!
You learn multiple new things everyday!
