. Roger Waters talks about the technologies used in the presentation of Wall, which will tour in American baseball stadiums in 2012. See Rolling Stone’s article.
Thanks, BDazzling, for Waters’s interview, in which he also spoke about Ça Ira.
Ça Ira | Roger Waters — based on early French Revolution — Mr. Waters described Ça Ira as rock theatre. Not really a rock opera, he mentioned.
^ Sorry. I couldn't find the lyrics for this clip, but the word freedom is apparent. And so is the staging reflective of moments of the occupy movement, minus those gawd awful spray cans.
LYRICS. Mother do you think they'll drop the bomb ? Mother do you think they'll like this song ? Mother do you think they'll try to break my balls ? Ooooh, mother should I build a wall ? Mother should I run for president ? Mother should I trust the government ? Mother will they put me in the firing line ? Oooh is it just a waste of time ?
Hush now baby, baby don't you cry. Mama's gonna make all of your nightmares come true. Mama's gonna put all of her fears into you. Mama's gonna keep you right here under her wing. She won't let you fly but she might let you sing. Mama will keep baby cosy and warm. Ooooh Babe, Ooooh Babe, Ooooh Babe, Of course Mama's gonna help build the wall !
Mother do you think she's good enough, for me? Mother do you think she's dangerous, to me? Mama will they tear little boy apart? Oooh, mother will she break my heart?
Hush now baby, baby don't you cry. Mama's gonna check out all your girlfriends for you. Mama won't let anyone dirty get through. Mama's gonna wait up untill you get in. Mama will always find out where you've been. Mama's gonna keep baby healthy and clean. Ooooh Babe, Ooooh Babe, Ooooh Babe, You'll always be a baby to me !
Mother, did it need to be so high ?
Art will be the last bastion when all else fades away. ~ Timothy White (b 1952), American rock music journalist _________________
/\/\/\ That version of Mother is beautiful. Funnily enough, in the special features of the Berlin Wall DVD, Waters talks about how difficult O'Connor was to deal with, and says something to the effect that he needed her to stay an extra day and she "for reasons only she could possibly understand" demanded $2,000 dollars and then left. There was apparently a technical difficulty during her live performance, so on the DVD they ended up splicing in her rehearsal performance.
Oh well.
This is also quite beautiful.
"Arrogance is experiential and environmental in cause. Human experience can make and unmake arrogance. Ours is about to get unmade."
Music can touch on strings you might not know you had. It can provide meaning, but it can also create moments which can't be defined. Moments which go to your core, that touch some sort of primal instinct, and that put you in a trancelike condition.
Music can confuse you. But it can also make you feel happy, uplifted or enriched. And maybe even more whole. Mari Boine's music has this effect. You can't leave a meeting with Mari and her music untouched. That is, if you dare to let her get close. Her music is actually simple. It is in the meeting between the songs, her voice and the musicians in the band that it gains strength. And in the interaction with the listener, because you must meet Mari's music with an open mind. If you don't give of yourself, you might not discover the wealth she has to offer. Because Mari is exceptional. She is an artist who is difficult to categorize.
Perhaps she's a Sámi artist, perhaps shes a practitioner of world music. Perhaps she makes music in the borderline between Sámi, other folk music, jazz and rock. Perhaps she's the sum of all this. Or perhaps she's just herself. A musician, singer and artist who's making her own mark. Who has gone down a road where she hasn't always seen the destination. And who is still travelling. A route she has gained confidence and a clear sense of who she is and what she stands for. But the road is long. There are still surprises and challenges lurking ahead.
She made her debut as an artist in the early 80s. She was angry, and had every reason to be. There were many people, many circumstances keeping her down. Christianity, oppression of the Sámi language and culture, the big men down south. In This is how I was convinced from 1982 she writes: I laughed with those who made fun of the Sámi/ even though I felt I hurt myself the most/Because its your own language which gives you strength At first she sang in Norwegian and English. Eventually in Sámi. It's a good language to sing, its so rich in vocals, she says.
Her anger, political statements, and 1989 breakthrough, both at home and abroad, with Gula Gula made her a well-known person. A person one listened to. Many people now saw her as a spokesperson for the Sámi people and the Sámi cause. Not Mari. I can't represent a whole people. But I can tell my story as a Sámi, and in that way tell part of the Sámi peoples story. In my songs I can depict the pain of oppression, the struggle to regain self-respect, but also the joy of growing up in a culture which has such a close bond with nature. I havent always been so politically active. My commitment came with the music, she says.
Mari grew up in an environment where the Sámi language was accepted. Where it was OK to sing psalms, but not to joik. In the strict læstadian milieu joik was viewed as the devils work. I am not Christian today, she says. But I have a holistic religion. I think this religion is gaining ground world wide. In my prayers I look to the forces in nature, such as the sun god Beaivi, the thunder god, wind god and the Sámi goddesses. I am not familiar with the old rituals as the transmission from the elder generation to the younger was broken by Christian missionaries. But my music has opened up a spirituality which gives me meaning, but that I cant always express in words.
"Vuolgge mu mielde Bassivárrái" (Come With Me To The Sacred Mountain) is a dream of freedom from Western civilization's oppression of minorities. Mari Boine portrays a woman who tries to escape from the darkness, the bleak conditions of the Sami people after the Norwegian colonization.
Thanks to Bruce Dazzling, who wrote:...Waters talks about how difficult O'Connor was to deal with, and says something to the effect that he needed her to stay an extra day and she "for reasons only she could possibly understand" demanded $2,000 dollars and then left. There was apparently a technical difficulty during her live performance, so on the DVD they ended up splicing in her rehearsal performance.
During his interview posted above, Waters talked about a misunderstanding with David Gilmour. As the story goes, the men had had a creative disagreement wrt the finalization of a rhythm track. You can imagine the feelings that can arise during periods of creating, because, between the two of them, thousands of dollars or time constraints, or just the stress of creating some moments of perfection in a particular phrase, might've forced another musical issue. It's those unmentioned circumstances, like those wrt Roger's experience of Sinéad —or Sinéad's experience of Roger— that might tell the tale, really.
I remember listening to Leonard Bernstein, who had spoken prior to conducting the orchestra with Glenn Gould at the piano. There had been such a disagreement between Gould and Bernstein that Bernstein announced at some length (measuring every beated syllable as if to be definitively not misunderstood), in usual unrelenting grace to the concert audience before the piece was performed, the context of which went something like this: "I am in some disagreement with tempi Mr. Gould has pressed me to conduct." Whether tempi, or other expressions and nuances within the piece that had become challenges between both men, genuine strife between artists can be professed publicly, thereby maintaining the intellectual and musical integrity and musicianship both parties have worked tediously to reveal during many years of performance practice.
But, when it comes to Sinéad, I've another thought. Sinéad works musically in a world that's dominated by masculine forces who too many times are tasteless to begin with, and, if truth be known, relentlessly sexually abusive, probably; and there's Catholicism to which she is devoted. She's quoted on her wiki page:
I don't do anything in order to cause trouble. It just so happens that what I do naturally causes trouble. I'm proud to be a troublemaker. — NME - March 1991
I mean, she's taken on the whole world! So to speak. Well, then, I take a few deep breaths, and we move on to…
Fat Old Sun | Pink Floyd — 1970
LYRICS. When that fat old sun in the sky is falling, Summer evening birds are calling. Summer's thunder time of year, The sound of music in my ears. Distant bells, New mown grass smells so sweet. By the river holding hands, Roll me up and lay me down.
And if you sit, Don't make a sound. Pick your feet up off the ground. And if you hear as the warm night falls The silver sound from a time so strange, Sing to me, sing to me. When that fat old sun in the sky is falling, Summer evening birds are calling. Children's laughter in my ears, The last sunlight disappears.
And if you sit, Don't make a sound. Pick your feet up off the ground. And if you hear as the warm night falls The silver sound from a time so strange, Sing to me, sing to me. When that fat old sun in the sky is falling, Summer evening birds are calling. Children's laughter in my ears, The last sunlight disappears.
_________________ BD, if I listened to the Pink Floyd Echoes at the hour of slumber, it would be just like me to get up and write some notes in my music book. Not kidding !
Art will be the last bastion when all else fades away. ~ Timothy White (b 1952), American rock music journalist _________________
Thanks to Bruce Dazzling, who wrote:...Waters talks about how difficult O'Connor was to deal with, and says something to the effect that he needed her to stay an extra day and she "for reasons only she could possibly understand" demanded $2,000 dollars and then left. There was apparently a technical difficulty during her live performance, so on the DVD they ended up splicing in her rehearsal performance.
During his interview posted above, Waters talked about a misunderstanding with David Gilmour. As the story goes, the men had had a creative disagreement wrt the finalization of a rhythm track. You can imagine the feelings that can arise during periods of creating, because, between the two of them, thousands of dollars or time constraints, or just the stress of creating some moments of perfection in a particular phrase, might've forced another musical issue. It's those unmentioned circumstances, like those wrt Roger's experience of Sinéad —or Sinéad's experience of Roger— that might tell the tale, really.
I remember listening to Leonard Bernstein, who had spoken prior to conducting the orchestra with Glenn Gould at the piano. There had been such a disagreement between Gould and Bernstein that Bernstein announced at some length (measuring every beated syllable as if to be definitively not misunderstood), in usual unrelenting grace to the concert audience before the piece was performed, the context of which went something like this: "I am in some disagreement with tempi Mr. Gould has pressed me to conduct." Whether tempi, or other expressions and nuances within the piece that had become challenges between both men, genuine strife between artists can be professed publicly, thereby maintaining the intellectual and musical integrity and musicianship both parties have worked tediously to reveal during many years of performance practice.
But, when it comes to Sinéad, I've another thought. Sinéad works musically in a world that's dominated by masculine forces who too many times are tasteless to begin with, and, if truth be known, relentlessly sexually abusive, probably; and there's Catholicism to which she is devoted. She's quoted on her wiki page:
I don't do anything in order to cause trouble. It just so happens that what I do naturally causes trouble. I'm proud to be a troublemaker. — NME - March 1991
I mean, she's taken on the whole world! So to speak. Well, then, I take a few deep breaths, and we move on to…
I didn't intend to pile on Sinéad, I was just relating an interesting story as a reporter might relate an interesting story.
She'd get mad props from me even if the only thing she ever did was tear up the Pope's picture on SNL!
As for creative disagreements, I believe that the tension produced by such adversarial situations is often the lifeblood of great art. Look no further than Lennon and McCartney, who surely did their best work from 1967 - 1970, when their relationship was deteriorating towards the inevitable acrimonious breakup.
And Comfortably Numb is probably Pink Floyd's crowning achievement, and it was obviously fired in the crucible of the Waters/Gilmour tension.
On the other hand, however, Waters is also the perfect poster child for the artist as a single-minded, creative control freak, as indicated by his solo work, which, imo, is just as brilliant as the best of Floyd.
"Arrogance is experiential and environmental in cause. Human experience can make and unmake arrogance. Ours is about to get unmade."
awful spray cans. 
!
