Riccardo Venturi, 22-2-2019 07:21

Riccardo Venturi, 22-2-2019 05:57

Riccardo Venturi, 19-2-2019 15:58

A punk rock band originating from the island of Corfu in July 1994, formed by: Yorgos (vocals), Dimitris (el guitar), Doros (vocals, bass) and Alexis (vocals, drums); disbanded in 2002. ALT TC took part in a number of projects and issued 4 studio albums: this song is included in the 3d one, Ακόμα ζωντανός (“Still Alive”), released in 1998. “Hail, o Hail, Liberty!” (Χαίρε ω χαίρε λευτεριά) is an iconic verse from the Greek national anthem, the Ύμνος εις την Ελευθερίαν written in 1823 by Zante's poet Dionysios Solomos (1798-1857), first published 1825 in Missolungi including a translation in Italian verses by G. Grassetti and set to music in 1828 by Nikolaos Mantzaros; it was made Greece's national anthem in 1864 by King George I, and also the national anthem of Cyprus in 1966 (the only national anthem shared by two states in identical form). About twenty... (continua)

Riccardo Venturi, 18-2-2019 01:04

Riccardo Venturi, 15-2-2019 20:46

Riccardo Venturi, 13-2-2019 23:19

"Bentley on Biermann" (1968)

I know it's not particularly inspiring or poetic--; but it shows that a verse that functionally works, at least can be written.

Shame on you, Bernie Taupin, for throwing your original version away, which I'm sure would have been far better than this--;
But at the least, you could have used your condensed version for the advance-release single, while using the full version on the album--;
Just as had already been done with other epic pop or rock songs, such as Don McLean's 1971 "American Pie," and probably Led Zeppelin's 1971 "Stairway To Heaven."

Thank You--.

Mikael Wiehe wrote on his website the following comments about his song Nadja:

Vintern 1993 var Sarajevo belägrat av serbiska trupper. Jag skrev sången när en granat från belägrarnas artilleri hade slagit ner på en lekplats mitt bland de lekande barnen.

Första gången jag sjöng den var i Grieghallen i Bergen på en konsert med Björn Afzelius och Åge Aleksandersen till förmån för ett barnsjukhus i Montenegro.

När jag 1999 sjöng den på Emausrörelsens europakongress i Orleans i Frankrike blev jag jämförd med Leonard Cohen. Ja, musikalisk finns det nog vissa likheter… (Kommentar från "Sånger i tiden", 2001)

In the winter of 1993 Sarajevo was besieged by Serbian troups. I wrote the song when a shell from the besieger's artillery fell down in a play ground among the playing children.

The first time I sang it was in Grieghallen in Bergen at a concert with Björn Afzelius och Åge Aleksandersen... (continua)

Translated into English rhyming verse by Gilbert Murray from archive.org

Riccardo Venturi, 29-01-2019 23:42

Riccardo Venturi, 25-01-2019 11:21

Riccardo Venturi, 22-1-2019 10:53

Lyrics by Björn Afzelius and music by Jim Page.

Björn Afzelius wrote the following notes in his 95 Sånger (95 Songs) book:

"Jag satt en dag på stranden i Italien och läste Herald Tribune. På sidan sju redovisades ett förhörsprotokoll från Nicaragua. En Contrasoldat hade fått nog av sin egen verksamhet och frivilligt överlämnat sig till Sandanistregererigen i Managua. När jag läst artiklen frös jag som en hund i solskenet. Jag lämnade stranden och gick hem och skrev texten direkt ur tidningen. Offret i sången Ar bara två av de femtiotusen dodade nicaraguanska bönder, vilkas liv Ronald Reagan har på sin samvete - om han nu haft en sådant."

"One day I sat on the beach in Italy and read the Herald Tribune. On page seven was reported an interrogation minutes from Nicaragua. A Contra soldier had had enough of his own activities and freely surrendered himself to the Sandinista regime in Managua.... (continua)

Dimitri Petrenko, from his YouTube video.

Please be careful. Handle with care. This song is 40 years old. A song like this hasn't been written for a long time. It's 40 years old, but it might be well be 140 and have been translated into French and sung by Émile Zola while the striking miners' wives were seizing the greedy grocer fallen from the roof and snatched him his cock. This song states, through a survey of the entire history of Mankind, concepts that have been declared dead, and even worse than dead: failed. Its author, a Swedish-speaking Finn called Dan Berglund, disengaged completely and even sold his guitar, decided not to write and sing anything more. Instead, we repropose this outdated, 40 or 140 years old song, that is dead or, who knows, more alive than ever. And, when the song is over, if you don't stand up raising your fist, you have a heart of stone. Or you are dead. [RV]

Note.... (continua)

Dennis Criteser, De André in English, 2014

This famous poem written by Bertolt Brecht in mid-1953 but first published in 1959 in the West German newspaper Die Welt, is a critical comment on the uprising of 1953 in East Germany.

Riccardo Venturi, 4-1-2019 11:29

It is included in “Extras” because it's a poem, not a song; as far as I know, I am the only one who has “set to music” and sung a poem by Juan Rodolfo Wilcock (but I'd love being contradicted). I think the above mentioned page shows well which kind of relationship I have had with Juan Rodolfo Wilcock since my teenage years; the page also includes, in a ”little afterword” (even translated into French by Marco Valdo M.I.), another poem by the Argentine who wrote “in a sort of Italian” (as he used to say) hidden between the Roman nebulae and Lubriano, in the province of Viterbo. That poem, originating from some year in the 60's, is included in a bunch of poems called: “For the cat”, also including the following poem. Juan Rodolfo Wilcock must have had a son, and I have none. So to say, I have run the risk of having a couple of children, and, hearken!, from two... (continua)

Riccardo Venturi, 4-1-2019 08:37