From: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org (basia-digest) To: basia-digest@smoe.org Subject: basia-digest V3 #283 Reply-To: basia@smoe.org Sender: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "basia-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. basia-digest Saturday, December 12 1998 Volume 03 : Number 283 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: basia-digest V3 #282 [Ray Navarra ] Re: basia-digest V3 #282 ["Leslie Brown" ] Re: basia-digest V3 #282 [Gorskiceap@aol.com] RE: basia-digest V3 #282 ["Ashoke S. Talukdar" ] Re: The big Q ["Becky Witter" ] meaning of "The Waters [tom@inetnebr.com, kelly&jordan ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 14:22:19 +0100 (CET) From: Ray Navarra Subject: Re: basia-digest V3 #282 Hey all, Tomasz wrote: > The truth is (or was) even worse: yet--I guess--four, five years > ago very little people knew thare is such a person like Basia, > singing beautiful songs. I am not too old :-D but since my > high school times so many had changed in listening to the music > by Polish youths... --you know--disco, techno and so on. Noo, I wouldn't agree. It depends on who you'd ask; there were many young people who used to listen to Polish Radio 3 which promoted Basia quite heavily, since its main presenter, Marek Niedzwiecki is a huge Basia fan. He also used to have a TV program where he played the videos; I had recorded all Basia videos from "LWNY" and "TSI" from this program. And I remember that Cruising For Bruising was a quite big hit on Radio 3 hitlist. > my house. This is very hard to understand for me that Basia's > music in Poland is so unknown..! Maybe--I try to look in the > optimistic way--it changes slowly... Poles don't hate Basia--they > don't know her!!! This is true now, because she didn't release anything for quite along time and Radio 3lost its leading role to stations like Radio Zet; what's more, young people don't listen to the radio anymore, they watch the TV, like Viva - which obviously doesn't play Basia. (I only spotted her video once on Onyx - that was New Day For You - and Viva 2 plays Half A Minute, credited to Matt Bianco) > NAME THE 5 MOST ENJOYABLE MUSIC DISKS YOU HAVE HEARD IN 1998? > Simple question. > CD, Vinal, tape, old or new. 1. Air: Moon Safari - the best album of the year... nothing to add. 2. Madonna: Ray of Light (album) - it was a 1998 release, right? 3. Pet Shop Boys: West End Girls 7" single (rather old :) but the b-side, A Man Could Get Arrested is awesome) 4. Suzanne Vega: Days of Open Hand (I used to have this album on the pirate tape... but the CD quality is what does wonders) 5. George Michael: Ladies and Gentlemen Andrew (or not?) wrote: > records, so that's what she does in concert. Right after that came "Dzien Sie > Budzie", maybe something for the home audiences to look forward to. I love It's "Dzien Sie Budzi" which means "Day Wakes Up". Sorry. Leslie wrote: > >I tried to load it directly on Radio Zet website... but their server is > >even slower than Xoom. > Scary but true. I couldn't even get the Polish interview until it was > sent to me in text by a wonderfully kind soul. :) And I'm in Poland... and it's STILL so slow. > >Did any of Basia's singles reach UK top 40? > I don't know, but she isn't doing jack in the US. Grrr. And, again - did any of Basia's singles reach US top 40? I don't recall her having a really big hit there... but anyway, US top 40 is a pile of s**t, based on airplay... > BTW: Am I the only PSB fan here? > I like 'em well enough. I'm definitely going to check out this > 'Bilingual'-I've heard so many good things about it. It's a very good album; if you wish to, email me privately and I'll tell you more. It's the most Basia-sounding album PSB ever had :) > Another Six Degrees of Basia fun fact: Howard Greenhalgh directed the > video for 'Go West' (Ray, you probably already know that). He also Of course... Howard GReenhalgh did all the videos from Very PSB CD - Can You Forgive Her?, Go West, I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing, Liberation and YEsterday, When I Was Mad. In fact I only learned about him doing Yearning yesterday and I was like "Maaan! He did Basia's video too!" He also worked with Mike Oldfield, Suzanne Vega and Snap!. Ashoke wrote: > 5. Suzanne Vega, Sessions at W54th Street What is that album, Ashoke? (-) Ray [::: Ray, obviously: go to :: Regrets promo MP3 already available! :::] [::: members.xoom.com/obvious :: Check also for Discovering preview... :::] [::: Quite Pet Shop Boys: members.xoom.com/quite_psb :::] [::: Current number one: Robbie Williams "No regrets" :::] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 06:39:15 PST From: "Leslie Brown" Subject: Re: basia-digest V3 #282 >And, again - did any of Basia's singles reach US top 40? I don't recall >her having a really big hit there... I'm going strictly by memory, but Time and Tide got to about 25-30 and Cruising for Bruising got to around the teens range. Of course this is the Bilboard charts, I have a Dick Clark cuntdown that says New Day For You was number one on his charts- I think he went by the Radio & Records AC chart. Weird. Cruising for Bruising was a big deal here in the States, though, at it's time. LWNY went gold in 3 weeks. but anyway, US top 40 is a pile of >s**t, based on airplay... Ain't that the truth!!!!! >doing Yearning yesterday and I was like "Maaan! He did Basia's video too!" >He also worked with Mike Oldfield, Suzanne Vega and Snap!. And I remember when Yearning was out his video for 'Black Hole Sun' was also playing. Talk about contrast! - --Leslie ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 09:52:31 EST From: Gorskiceap@aol.com Subject: Re: basia-digest V3 #282 In a message dated 11/12/98 07:26:35 Central Standard Time, ray@prioris.im.pw.edu.pl writes: << Andrew (or not?) wrote: > records, so that's what she does in concert. Right after that came "Dzien Sie > Budzie", maybe something for the home audiences to look forward to. I love It's "Dzien Sie Budzi" which means "Day Wakes Up". Sorry. >> That was me - sorry about the extra "e", but I don't speak Polish, so these mistakes will happen. Nonetheless, my interpretation (based on Tomasz' translation) was metaphorical. I hear the passion and assertive tone in this song and think it might be about more than people waking up in the morning along with the day. Sometimes I think that when artists sing songs with a political or semi-political message, they couch it in symbolism. A good song often can be heard on several different levels, and I guess that's just how "Dzien Sie Budzi" strikes me. Even if Bash didn't mean it to be taken that way! ~MG ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 12:27:57 -0500 From: "Ashoke S. Talukdar" Subject: RE: basia-digest V3 #282 > Ashoke wrote: > > > 5. Suzanne Vega, Sessions at W54th Street And Ray asked: > What is that album, Ashoke? > The W54th Street Studios is a venue for relatively small audiences. I guess it's NYC, upper west side. Anyway, Suzanne sang there - this collection (officially released in Japan!!!), contains a version of "Gypsy" with her on the guitar ONLY, and several other songs ranging from SV to NOOD. Great buy. You can order it from Amazon.com here in the US. I am sure that CDJapan will also carry it. You can also read my review of the album at Amazon.com. Regards, Ashoke. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 19:41:07 +0100 From: "Tomasz Radzinski" Subject: Odp: Mass reply >BTW: Am I the only PSB fan here? > >I like 'em well enough. I'm definitely going to check out this >'Bilingual'-I've heard so many good things about it. No--that's impossible!! First some of my friends say (when I'm saying--"Basia's the best"): "Don't exagerate, this music is too ambicious, only a few people are listening to her" etc. and then I find this mailing list concerning Basia and meet here wonderful people. Second, when I'm listening to any of PSB record I hear something different: "This music has no ambition, is too easy, how can you like them?!" and then I read--you, Leslie, like it! Wow, that's.. hard to express. Simply: I'm very glad. That's all. And that's it!!! Tomasz ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 16:15:08 +0000 From: "Becky Witter" Subject: Re: The big Q Mine are... Ben Folds Five, "Whatever and Ever Amen" CD K's Choice, "Cocoon Crash" CD Leah Andreone, "Alchemy" CD Madonna, "Ray of Light" CD Sheryl Crow, "Globe Sessions" CD tom@inetnebr.com wrote: > NAME THE 5 MOST ENJOYABLE MUSIC DISKS YOU HAVE HEARD IN 1998? > Simple question. > CD, Vinal, tape, old or new. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 18:57:27 -0600 From: tom@inetnebr.com, kelly&jordan Subject: meaning of "The Waters To all, Please give me your thoughts of the meaning of "The Waters of March." I feel the central theme is one of hope and the feeling of anticipation of wonderful things to come that often occurs during the first whispers of spring. Agree, disagree, who cares, etc.... Richard from Ohio Richard, What a great song. David Burne said it is mantra like. Basia's verion can really tickle the spine, shivers, ya know, especially when the first background voices kick in, from then on it's hard for me to turn away from the speakers. I listened to it at work today on one of our larger systems and it a great recording, alot of instrument weight, her voice and her pronuciations and phonetics are beautiful A&E or one of those channels did a special about a year ago. the special is a REDHOT&RIO production. On this special is the video/film of Jombin and the women (?) who originally sang it with him. They are sort of drunk or stoned smoking cigarettes around a Microphone (U87). It's very cool, they just kind of bob around, laugh, and sing. Or was it redhot&rio?. Hmmm. Anybody seen this TV special? Imagine a 1990's style high speed edited video of all the images suggested, over 100. Wow. The one after "a wing" worries me. haha. have a nice evening everyone. irie mon tom ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1998 02:36:32 +0100 From: "Ben van Maaren" Subject: Re: meaning of "The Waters >Please give me your thoughts of the meaning of "The Waters of March." I >feel >the central theme is one of hope and the feeling of anticipation of >wonderful >things to come that often occurs during the first whispers of spring. >Agree, >disagree, who cares, etc.... > >Richard from Ohio > > > >Richard, >What a great song. David Burne said it is mantra like. Basia's verion can >really tickle the spine, shivers, ya know, especially when the first >background voices kick in, from then on it's hard for me to turn away from >the speakers. I listened to it at work today on one of our larger systems >and it a great recording, alot of instrument weight, her voice and her >pronuciations and phonetics are beautiful >A&E or one of those channels did a special about a year ago. the special is >a REDHOT&RIO production. On this special is the video/film of Jombin and the >women (?) who originally sang it with him. They are sort of drunk or stoned >smoking cigarettes around a Microphone (U87). It's very cool, they just kind >of bob around, laugh, and sing. Or was it redhot&rio?. Hmmm. Anybody seen >this TV special? > >irie mon >tom > > I saw that special on the Performance Channel over here in Holland about six months ago. There was first this hourlong programme on the history and influence of the bossa nova, followed by the Jobim special. Wonderful stuff; turned my set waaaaay up, much to the annoyance of my housemates. Pity I didn't tape it, though. Perhaps they'll repeat it. Anyway, those women were in fact all the women who used to be the back vocals to him, but I believe there were some family members among them as well. I'm not sure if they were "on" something, but it looked weird enough. I was under the impression that they were being extremely sensual. Hard to say really, because there were no subtitles to translate the lyrics. I'd like to lay my hands on those lyrics; shouldn't be too hard to translate them with the aid of a Portuguese dictionary. A couple of days ago I read someone on this list has them; I wouldn't mind taking a look at them. You'll have to be a bit patient, though; I am unable to start on it until the 2nd week of January, I'm afraid. Have a deadline on the 4th of January... Now about my feelings about WoM and its theme. I can only relate to Basia's version, and to the one I saw Jobim perform, and to another one by Cibo Matto (I totally agree with you, Leslie; they're a weird bunch, but their "Viva La Woman!" ranks numero uno on my list this year, tied with Clear Horizon...). It's a lovely song, that's for sure. To me, it means the end of winter, the first rite of spring. Nature awakens from its hibernation, streams start to swell, buds starts to appear on plants, everything's becoming ebullient and comes to life again. And the stillness of winter makes way for the liveliness of spring, which accounts for the myriad of images described in the song. And, indeed, hope. Hope *spring*s eternal, right? To me, it all comes down to this one sentence: "It's the promise of life." Well, that's my impression of the Basia version. The other two versions, being sung in Portuguese (Brazilian), made, as said, a more sensuous impression on me, like an amant pouring out a torrent of words to demonstrate and describe his feelings for his loved one. Oh, I don't know. What do you think? Benn ------------------------------ End of basia-digest V3 #283 ***************************