Wednesday, November 27, 2019

None More Nara

I was reading a review of Throbbing Gristle's Greatest Hits, and was struck by this: "[they] suffered endless persecution from the British government because of their wild ideas." Oh really? Pardon my mirth. The idea of this privileged bunch of middle-class nuisances toying with the "shocking" edge of the avant-garde being endlessly persecuted by anybody but music lovers is laughable - and not in a funny way. And if they really wanted a "wild idea", how about this? Write a fucking song. But no; the Throbs were/are too busy deconstructing and being ironic and polemical on our asses to debase themselves to show-biz levels of professionalism.

 Which brings me to Nara Leão. There's a fantastic story behind this album - about real persecution - that I'm too lazy to paraphrase, and it's too long to copy-paste. Being the in-demand swell that you are, you probably don't have the time to read it, but you can at least listen to the album. It's not Throbbing Gristle, but hey ...
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8 comments:

  1. Farquhar Throckmorton IIINovember 27, 2019 at 1:15 PM



    Here's the article.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Farquhar Throckmorton IIINovember 27, 2019 at 7:06 PM



    And here's the music.





    (There's another link in the piece I linked to - but my version is programmed differently)

    ReplyDelete
  3. pmacNovember 27, 2019 at 9:43 PM

    Merci Senor! I am familiar with the issues musicians had in Brazil in the 60s, but only have a fleeting familiarity with Leao. Looking forward to this curing that problem. Happy Thanksgiving from the un-United States.

    ReplyDelete
  4. MrDaveNovember 28, 2019 at 12:04 AM

    Any flat mate of Caetano and Gilberto is a flat mate of mine! Somehow Naro unlike most of the other Bahian bohos slipped beneath my radar so thank you much for the introduction.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Crab DevilNovember 28, 2019 at 1:24 AM

    Thank you very much (for both the article and the album).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Farquhar Throckmorton IIINovember 28, 2019 at 5:59 AM

    The original double album, as the article notes, has one album "unplugged", very stripped down, and the second album sweetened with subtle arrangements. My version has the tracks shuffled so a "solo" track is followed by an ensemble piece, and to my ears it's a better listen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jack Kerouac's CatNovember 28, 2019 at 9:36 AM

      Your version is sublime.

      Thank You, Mr. Throckmorton!

      Delete
    2. Farquhar Throckmorton IIINovember 28, 2019 at 12:38 PM

      That's well of you, M. Cat, but to be fair it's Nara Leão's music that's sublime. She sure is some hot tamale, as they say over there in Viva Espagna!

      Delete

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