Blog playlist: best songs in other languages

Allegedly here are other things to do on a Sunday afternoon, but I can't quite see why anyone would choose not to spend it lying on the sofa (or outside when the weather is nice), reading and listening to Huey Morgan followed by Jarvis Cocker on 6 Music.

Assuming that's what all of you were doing on Sunday, all of you have already heard the magnificent Les Cactus by Jacques Dutronc (thank you, Jarvis). But have you seen Michael Jackson dancing to it? (Um, sort of?)



I think you need the lyrics translated as well:

The whole world is a cactus
It is impossible to sit down
In life, there all there is is cacti
I know it because I'm pricking myself
Ow, ow ow, ouch, ow ow ow

In their hearts there are cacti
In their wallets there are cacti
In their feet there are cacti
In their jackets there are cacti
ow, ow, ow, ouch, ouch, ouch, ow

To defend myself from their cacti
I've put cacti too
In my bed, I've put cacti
In my underpants, I've put cacti
ow, ow, ow, ouch, ow ow ow

In their smiles there are cacti
In their stomachs there are cacti
In their hellos there are cacti
In their cacti there are cacti
ow, ow, ow, ouch, ow

The whole world is a cactus
It is impossible to sit down
In life, all there is is cacti
I know it because I'm pricking myself
ow, ow, ow, ouch, ow ow ow

Blog playlist time! Great songs in foreign languages please. Translated lyrics optional. It's a huge category so maybe try to restrict yourselves to ones that are undeservedly underplayed.

Music Monday on a Tuesday. Perhaps I should call this Music Weekly? Or Music Sometimes? Or just Music?

Ever since I got back from holiday (lovely, thanks) I have been enjoying Radio 3's Genius of Mozart, in which they are playing only Mozart for 12 days. It's absolutely wonderful, and it strikes me that Mozart is exactly what I think of when I think of classical music. It's a bit like a child's drawing of a house - despite the vast amount of different shapes and sizes that homes can have, if you ask a kid to draw a house they will go for the basic square house, pitched roof with a chimney, door in the middle and windows on either side model. I can and do love anything from Bach to Britten, but Mozart seems for me to be the template from which all other classical music derives. Even the stuff written before him.

Irritatingly, my office internet is too slow right now for me to put on a YouTube clip. I'll come back and do it later.

LATER: Here we go. One of my favourite pieces. Guaranteed to get me welling up:



Meanwhile, while we were on holiday, my sister and I played a game: which three dead musicians / singers would you like to be able to see perform live? We never managed to come up with the definitive list of three but Mozart was one of them. Sis suggested Bob Marley; I had visions of Vegas-era Elvis; we both would love to have seen Ella Fitzgerald; but we agreed that the Beatles would be inaudible because of the screaming. Over to you, commenters.

Music Monday

A change in direction for Music Monday tonight as I have just been having my string quartet rehearsal. One of my not-so-secret no-so-talents is that I play the cello, and our quartet rehearses two or three times a month, depending on our impossible schedules (first violin has just started a new job with network rail, viola is getting married next week etc.) Anyway, it turns out that my parents were right: if I just stuck at it and did enough practice, playing the cello *would* bring me lifelong joy. (Of course I don't practice any more. Let's not go crazy.)

I love playing in the quartet. It's completely different from anything else that I do. It's non-verbal for a start, which is a relief after a day spent writing, and unlike most of my leisure activities, I am participating rather than observing (TV / cinema / theatre / other music / art etc). It's collaborative, which makes a welcome change from the solitude of my work. It's creative, but in a responsive way; I'm not in charge of composing the music, just interpreting it as well as I can so that it will sound beautiful. Or if I can't manage beautiful, nice. Or if I can't manage nice, at least I can try to get most of the notes in the right place. Even if they are the wrong notes. Suffice to say we aren't planning any performances any time soon, but it does bring me a huge amount of pleasure from my limited ability.

Anyway, here's a new piece we started today - the first movement of Schubert's 'Rosamunde' quartet in A minor.



Imagine being a quarter of that! Amazing feeling, right?

Music Monday on a Tuesday: Live Special

Last night I was getting ready for my string quartet rehearsal, going over that tricky tenor clef bit in the second variation of the Haydn. One of the violinists arrived. Then the other violinist arrived. And then we waited. And waited. And eventually called our viola player, who'd forgotten the gig and answered the phone from the middle of a meeting in the pub he lives above. So no quartet for us.

We decamped to the pub, at which point violinist number 1 (and useful emergency paramedic) got a text from a friend who was heading to a gig in Dalston, and did we want to join her? As it happens Dalston is a short hop from where we rehearse (aka my front room) so we piled in the car (a brilliantly-named Seat Ibiza Chill) and off we went.

The bar - Pangea Project in not so much Dalston, more orthodox Jewish heartland Stamford Hill - was minute and loud and serving vegetarian fake chicken sandwiches. On stage were ELKS, who describe themselves on their MySpace page as Rock / Melodramatic Popular Song / Blues, and who I'd describe as Jon Spencer Blues Explosion with Seasick Steve beards and shouty vocals. I like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, am beard-neutral, and I don't like shouty vocals, so I was most of the way but not quite there. Had a dance, but felt a bit jealous that the drummer was wearing earplugs.

Sidled over to the bar and picked up a flyer that made my night. I quote in full and without comment, because what comment could possibly be needed?

Until the Bird of the Soul Takes Flight from the Cage of the Body to Consort with the Nightingales of the Everlasting Garden... is the name of the acoustic duo opening tonight and setting the tone for storytelling folk songs. Three Beards follow with banjo and accordion textural sounds, and Belarussian rock and roller Sasha Ilyukevich headlines at 10.30pm with his incomparable brew of punk, folk and blues combining the literate worldliness of Boris Grebenshikov and the emotional depth of Blood On The Tracks-era Bob Dylan.

Drank a tonic water. Admired the haircuts. Went home.

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion:



Here's that Haydn: