The Three Bells

The Browns were a family of musicians - Jim Ed Brown, Maxine Brown and Bonnie Brown who were small time country music singers performing at rural venues until 1950's. Then The Three Bells happened which became a no. 1 hit and resulted in them appearing on the Ed Sullivan show and made them international. 

Based on a 1945 French song "Les trois cloches" by Jean Villard and Marc Herrand, it chronicles the life of this fello Jimmy Brown - the three most important moments in his life - Birth, Marriage and Death. It's a lovely little song, with the "bomm bomm bomm" ringing in your head long after the song stops playing. There's minimal instrumentation used which sort of adds to the religious mystical effect of this song. 

It was put to good use in The Sopranos. It appeared in two episodes early in the sixth season. Yeah I know, that's where I'm discovering all these really nice songs. 

Lyrics

There's a village
Hiidden deep in the valley
Among the pine trees half forlorn
And there on a sunny morning
Little Jimmy Brown was born.

(boom, boom, boom, boom...)

All the chapel bells are ringing
In the little valley town
And the song that they were singing
Was for baby Jimmy Brown
And the little congregation
Prayed for guidance from above:
"Lead us not into temptation
Bless this hour of meditation

Guide him with eternal love"

There's a village
Hidden deep in the valley
Beneath the mountains high above
And there, 20 years thereafter,
Jimmy was to meet his love.

(boom, boom, boom, boom...)

All the chapel bells were ringing
'Twas a great day in his life
'Cause the songs that they were singing
Were for Jimmy and his wife
Then the little congregation
Prayed for guidance from above:
"Lead us not into temptation
Bless, O Lord, this celebration
May their lives be filled with love."

From the village,
Hidden deep in the valley
One rainy morning dark and gray
A soul winged its way to heaven.
Jimmy Brown had passed away.

(boom, boom, boom, boom....)

Just a lonely bell was ringing
In the little valley town
'Twas farewell that it was singing
To our good old Jimmy Brown
(Little Jimmy Brown)
And the little congregation
Prayed for guidance from above:
"Lead us not into temptation
May his soul find this salvation
Of a great eternal love"

This song is still the best song by The Browns, who split up and went on to pursue solo careers. Jim Ed Brown hosts radio shows playing country music and is an active member of Grand Ole Opry this weekly country music radio program which has been around since 1925!

Download the song @ mediafire

The Browns - The Three Bells (Les Trois Cloches) / 320kbps CBR MP3 / 6.46MB
http://www.mediafire.com/?9eabe2mxx1j

(The pic of The Browns with Elvis was taken at the Trio Club in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, December 15, 1956.)

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind carries me across the sky.

- Ojibwe saying

From The Sopranos, Season 6, Episode 3 - Mayham

Our Father in Heaven

The Lord's prayer has fascinated me ever since i came across it in a small prayer hall with a painting of a child looking into the skies. 

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.
[For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.]

And today, I came across a "different" version of it in an episode of the Sopranos (6th season, 2nd episode - Join the Club) written by Jacques Prévert, a French poet and screenwriter. He says, 

Our Father who art in heaven
Stay there
And we'll stay here on earth
Which is sometimes so pretty

Here's the whole poem

Pater noster
Our Father who art in heaven
Stay there
And we'll stay here on earth
Which is sometimes so pretty
With its mysteries of New York
And its mysteries of Paris
At least as good as that of the Trinity
With its little canal at Ourcq
Its great wall of China
Its river at Morlaix
Its candy canes
With its Pacific Ocean
And its two basins in the Tuileries
With its good children and bad people
With all the wonders of the world
Which are here
Simply on the earth
Offered to everyone
Strewn about
Wondering at the wonder of themselves
And daring not avow it
As a naked pretty girl dares not show herself
With the world's outrageous misfortunes
Which are legion
With legionaries
With torturers
With the masters of this world
The masters with their priests their traitors and their troops
With the seasons
With the years
With the pretty girls and with the old bastards
With the straw of misery rotting in the steel of cannons.


And here's a poem that i stumbled onto as i was looking up Jacques Prévert. Incidentally, he wrote the screenplay for The Children of Paradise (1945).

Alicante
Une orange sur la table
Ta robe sur le tapis
Et toi dans mon lit
Doux présent du présent
Fraîcheur de la nuit
Chaleur de ma vie.

Translation
An orange on the table
Your dress on the carpet
And you on my bed
A delicate present of the present
The coolness of night
The warmth of my life.

Wonderful, aint it?

There's more where these came from - 

http://www.otago.ac.nz/DeepSouth/vol3no1/campbell.html

http://xtream.online.fr/Prevert/indexeng.html

If I Were a Carpenter

New found love. This appeared at the end credits of The Sopranos 61st  episode (9th episode, 5th season) - Unidentified Black Males.

Bobby Darin's cover of Tim Hardin's hit, If I Were a Carpenter.

It's simple. And beautiful. 

Lyrics

If I were a carpenter
And you were a lady
Would you marry me anyway
Would you have my baby

If a tinker were my trade
Would you still find me
Carrying the pots I'd made
Following behind me

Save my love through loneliness
Save my love for sorrows
I've given you my onliness
Come give me your tomorrows

If I worked my hands in wood
Would you still love me
Answer me babe yes I would
I'll put you above me

If I were a miller
At a mill wheel grinding
Would you miss your colored blouse
Your soft shoe shining

If I were a carpenter
And you were a lady
Would you marry me anyway
Would you have my baby

Would you marry me anyway
And have my babyyyyyyyyyy

Download mp3 @ mediafire
Bobby Darin - If I Were A Carpenter / 229kbps V0(VBR) MP3 / 3.92MB
http://www.mediafire.com/?mz0mmgzendc

Watch Robert Plant do a live cover of this song for some mtv show on youchoob - http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=xVM7itZ-eGs

The Handcuff King

Houdini: The Handcuff King
Writer: Jason Lutes
Artist: Nick Bertozzi
Hardcover: 96 pages
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (March 27, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786839023
ISBN-13: 978-0786839025

We've all heard of the man. Houdini, today, is synonymous with magic and acts of daredevil stunts. There is something fascinating about him that draws people to read/write about him with a compulsion bordering on obsession. It is probably his ability to do superhuman acts. Or it is probably his romance with success that lasted a lifetime and more. His publicity stunts. His determination in and the dedication to whatever he took up that he was determined to be nothing short of a "king" in his field of expertise. His audacity to proclaim himself to be the greatest magician on earth. And proving himself right. 

If you were a rival of his, and made the mistake of declaring yourself a "Handcuff King", Houdini might show up at your performance and put you into a set of cuffs from which you couldn't escape, ending your career.

Houdini: The Handcuff King is a short graphic novel. It takes more time to read the introduction and the panel discussions in the end than to read the actual story. The authors explores the life of the man with a single episode in his life - Houdini leaps off a bridge into the freezing waters of Charles river, handcuffed and chained! Thru this death defying stunt we get to know a lot about his life and the times he lived in. His showmanship, his skill of the craft, the love he had for his wife and also about a world before the advent of radio, cinema, television, internet, a world of thrill and possibilities. 

image flicked from tsutpen.blogspot.com

In Houdini's times, there was not many forms of public entertainment. There was, as already stated above, no tv or movies. People had to go watch a play or a comedy show to get their regular dose of drama or laughs. Magicians were the main soource of thrills. Houdini realised this fully well, and capitalised on it. It is amazing to read about this short, stocky man who held thousands spellbound as he gave them "honest" delight. 

The Handcuff King is a fast paced read. The simple panels, the straightforward narrative, the expressions on the faces, everything works in this GN. The success of this little book is in making you hear the clock tick as Houdini takes the plunge. 

One or two interesting things that i learnt about Houdini:
1) Born Erik Weisz, he began calling himself Harry Houdini because he was a huge fan of Robert-Houdin, the French magician. He read his auto-bio and was totally impressed by him. But later, he lost his respect for him and went on to criticize him heavily for taking undue credit for other magicians' innovations. He even wrote a book titled - The Unmasking of Robert Houdin in 1908.

2) After the death of his mother, he spent a lot of time debunking spiritualists. He became a member of Scientific American, and went around attending seances in disguise to expose them.

3) He was close friends with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but Houdini's stance on spiritualism (of which Conan Doyle was a firm believer) proved to be the cause for a public rivalry.

Read the first ten pages at http://www.nickbertozzi.com/comics/houdini/houdini.htm

Download GN at http://rapidshare.com/files/65065767/Houdini_-_The_Handcuff_King__2007___Minutemen-DTs_.cbz - 35617 KB

Fascinated by the man, I was reading the Wiki article top to bottom and discovered an interesting piece of trivia!

X's father owned a traveling show with Harry Houdini called the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company, which performed on stage and sold patent medicine on the side. According to X, he acquired the nickname "______" at about six months of age. Harry Houdini happened to be present one day when the young X took a tumble down a long flight of stairs without injury. After the infant sat up and shook off his experience, Houdini remarked, "That was a real _______!" According to X, in those days, the word _______ was used to refer to a spill or a fall that had the potential to produce injury. Thereafter, it was X's father who began to use the nickname to refer to the youngster.
Who's X and what is the nickname that he's known by??

Anyway, do read the novel and the whole wiki article! 

Woke up this mornin'

And watched a few episodes of The Sopranos.

Been doin this for weeks now. Always wanted to watch this TV show, never had an opportunity. 

Finally got down to downloading it and have finished seeing four seasons. I'd definitely agree with all those who say this is probably the best tv series made till date. The Sopranos team has taken the basic set up of a gangster family and a mob boss and explored it to the fullest! Anyway this is not about the show itself but about its soundtracks. 

They'd some really cool colleciton of soundtracks! But my fav is the title track - Woke up this morning by Alabama 3. 

The Lyrics

You woke up this morning
Got yourself a gun,
Mama always said you'd be
The Chosen One.

She said: You're one in a million
You've got to burn to shine,
But you were born under a bad sign,
With a blue moon in your eyes.

You woke up this morning
All the love has gone,
Your Papa never told you
About right and wrong.

But you're looking good, baby,
I believe you're feeling fine, (shame about it),
Born under a bad sign
With a blue moon in your eyes.

You woke up this morning
The world turned upside down,
Thing's ain't been the same
Since the Blues walked into town.

But you're one in a million
You've got that shotgun shine.
Born under a bad sign,
With a blue moon in your eyes.

When you woke up this morning everything you had was
gone. By half past ten your head was going ding-dong.
Ringing like a bell from your head down to your toes,
like a voice telling you there was something you should
know. Last night you were flying but today you're so low
- ain't it times like these that make you wonder if
you'll ever know the meaning of things as they appear to
the others; wives, mothers, fathers, sisters and
brothers. Don't you wish you didn't function, wish you
didn't think beyond the next paycheck and the next little
drink' Well you do so make up your mind to go on, 'cos
when you woke up this morning everything you had was gone.

When you woke up this morning,
When you woke up this morning,
When you woke up this morning,
Mama said you'd be the Chosen One.

When you woke up this morning,
When you woke up this morning,
When you woke up this morning,
You got yourself a gun.

Download mp3

Woke up this morning - Alabama 3 - http://www.zshare.net/audio/2472260ad77c71/

Woke up this mornin (chosen one mix) Alabama 3 - http://rapidshare.com/files/3224648/A_3_-_Woke_Up_This_Morning___Chosen_One_Mix__.rar

The English Patient

The desert inspires a mixture of awe and fear with its expansive nothingness. The sun scorches into our hearts and minds the story of The English Patient. The music score transports us to a far of time and place. The non linear narrative has the magical grip on us inspite of its 40 plus time transitions. 

I loved this movie. The picturisation was wonderful. Juliet Binoche deserved that oscar just for the serenity in her eyes and that kindness in her smile. Naveen Andrews' Kip is one of the best portrayals on Indians in English cinema that i've come across. 

Apart from the last scene there were two that i'll carry with me for sometime.

1) The lamps lit all around the church leading towards the bunk at the backyard and the "viewing" of the paintings - very romantic! 2) The run in the rain. That put a smile on my face. It will, on yours too. 

Herodotus, apart from being a historian was a master storyteller. 

Dil Ki Daastaan

Jaal (1952)
Starring - Dev Anand, Geeta Bali
Direction - Guru Dutt
Music - SD Burman
Lyrics - Sahir Ludhianvi

Singer - Hemant Kumar

Discovered this wonderful song only recently, and fell in love with it instantly. "Come, listen to the story of my heart", croons Hemant Kumar as Dev Anand pretends to strum a guitar. Geeta Bali looks at him longingly, but a restrained doubt is visible in her eyes. Framed against the night sky, the trees sway in tune to this melodious number. The humming and the simple music evocates the mood of the Goan fisherfolk community. 

But the credit for the success of this song goes to Hemant Kumar and the lyricist, Sahir Ludhianvi. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said that it is the voice of Hemant that's given this song its eternal life. 

Check out the video of this song on youchoob - http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=WRfVXUk9kFw

The lyrics in Hindi

Download, Listen to the song here - http://www.radioreloaded.com/tracks/?17974

Transliteration In English

Ha, ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha 

Yeh raat yeh chaandni phir kahaan, sun jaa dil ki daastaan -2

Hm hm hm, hm hm hm

Hey pedo ki shaakhon pe

Pedo ki shaakhon pe soyi soyi chaandni, pedo ki shaakhon pe

Tere khayaalon mein khoyi khoyi chaandni

Aur thodi der mein thak ke laut jaayegi

Raat yeh bahar ki phir kabhi na aayegi

Do ek pal aur hai yeh samaa, sun ja dil ki daastaan

Hm hm hm, hm hm hm

Hey lehron ke hontho pe

Lehron ke hontho pe dheema dheema raag hai, lehron ke hontho pe

Bheegi hawaaon mein thandi thandhi aag hai

Is haseen aag mein tu bhi jalke dekhle

Zindagi ke geet ki dhun badal ke dekhle

Khulne de ab dhadkano ki zubaan, sun ja dil ki daastaan

Hey jaati bahaare hain 

Jaati bahaare hain uthti jawaaniyan, jaati bahaare hain

Taaron ke chaaon mein pehle kahaaniyaan

(Ek baar chal diye gar tujhe pukaarke

Lautkar na aayenge qaafilen bahaar ke) -2

Aaja abhi zindagi hai jawaan, sun ja dil ki daastaan

Yeh raat yeh chaandni phir kahaan, sun jaa dil ki daastaan

Daastaan, daastaan

The information about the movie was borrowed from here. It also has an interesting review, songs info and excerpts from the reviews published in 1952.

Beginings

Routine stuff - Entertainment, Music, Movies, Books, Comics, Internet etc. You know, Pop Culture!

This is a record of stuff i like (and dislike) about the world around me. Views and opinions expressed here are most definitely mine (I might sometimes borrow from elsewhere), atleast momentarily, till i change my mind. Oh, and I don't care for yours. If you heard me say I did, I was probably trying to get into your pants.