I discovered these guys almost ten years ago outside Staoueli, Algeria, where I was spending a few weeks as an assistant trainer at a campaign training school for women political candidates. The NGO I worked for at the time ran these incredibly cool schools that still help female political party members run for office. Even though it was almost 11pm, it was finally cool enough to be outside, so dozens of families with young kids wandered around the open-air market eating ice cream. The kids chased each other into and out of various stalls; parents tried to stop them but were too tired. A pretty universal scene. One of my colleagues, a lanky Romanian woman who was approximately nine feet tall, pulled me into a hut filled with CDs and the proprietor had this song playing on his beat-up Sony boom box. I bought the album immediately. I have absolutely no idea what the words mean but I sing vigorous phonetic approximations whenever this song comes on my music mixes. I still don’t know what the lyrics mean but I do know that they play a type of very old Algerian spiritual music called Gnawa.
This song always puts me in a fantastic mood, and brings back wonderful memories of being somewhere sunny, hot, and interesting.
I’m taking some liberties with this post, Tune-Up fans, but stay with me. This pretty little song, though American, tells the very cool story of the involvement of about 2,800 Americans who went to Spain in the late 1930s to help the Spanish fight against Francisco Franco. That group of volunteers was called the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. The story of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade is pretty moving. The Brigade, formed in 1937, was part of a larger group of tens of thousands of volunteers from the international leftist community, and suffered heavy losses during the Spanish Civil War.
And what day is it today? It is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. (“Ohhhh.” See?)
More information about this song (and the album it comes from) is here. More information about the Abraham Lincoln Brigade can be found here, and here is an interesting and nuanced overview of US involvement in the war.
Hej, Sverige! It’s two-for-one day at The Daily Tune-Up! This fun indie band is from Stockholm, Sweden, and the first half of this track has been going through my head all week. I love the driving energy of this song, which makes it good for a mid-week pick, and also explains why it’s been in heavy rotation on my running playlist. The lyrics are amusing, memorable, and fun to belt out when you’re commuting to and from work. And it also sounds like a song that would be used in a slick TV ad to sell shoes or beer or cardigans or something – so now you can feel even cooler having heard it here first. You’re welcome.
The second half of this track sounds like what the protagonist in the song would listen to the morning after the adventures in this song take place. I really like it when artists complete the thought, as it were – when the music switches gears to give you a glimpse into the next part of the story the lyrics portrayed. It’s like the end of the movie “The Graduate,” when the camera just keeps rolling after the young lovers made a break for it. It sounds like real life. There’s always a next stage.
Something wakes up, stirs, and evolves in this piece. It starts so simply but builds to a massive and complicated climax before resolving back to the six-note lilt with which it began. It’s so hopeful throughout. It feels like running your fingers over an angora blanket. (Now is probably a good time to mention that your Yankette has mild synesthesia, which is when the senses get a little jumbled and, in this case, sounds have colors and textures.) The beginning especially sounds like a convergence of Aaron Copland and Steve Reich, both of whom I love. Yoko Kanno is a modern Japanese composer from Sendai, Japan.
She is mostly known for her soundtracks to anime films and video games. This is my favorite piece of hers. I have been looking everywhere for the words. Intrepid readers, if any of you can find them, I would really appreciate it.
I learned last night that a friend, fellow international relations scholar, and net benefit to humanity, Alex Petersen, was killed in a Taliban attack at a café in Kabul. I didn’t know Alex very well. We met a few times and were connected by our membership in Young Professionals in Foreign Policy and our mutual friends. I didn’t have to know him well personally to have been awed by him intellectually and professionally. Alex had devoted his life to the study of international relations in all its forms, and threw himself into it with ravenous abandon. That the world could lose someone so young, so accomplished, and so focused on the betterment of humanity is beyond heartbreaking. When I found out about his murder, I heard this piece in my head. It is a Russian Orthodox version of the Lord’s Prayer.
More about Alex Petersen here, courtesy of Josh Rogin.
Well, I attacked Tuesday…and it attacked back. I anticipate many long nights at the office this week. Every time I’m at the office late, especially during the winter months when it gets dark early, I think of this song. Stay late at work too many times in a row, and yeah, you do begin to wonder whether you have a special relationship with that elevator that comes before all the others to take you home, or at least to street level. Evidently, others have had this thought, too. Here is a song about it from the band Stars, a wonderful group from Montreal, Canada. (None of those “but Canada is America’s hat – it’s not world music” comments.)
If you read the news yesterday, you probably saw the following stories:
– Half the population of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, have fled their homes. North of Bangui, an armed Christian militia has surrounded the city of Bozoum, raising fears of a massacre of the city’s Muslim residents. France and the African Union, with the help of U.S. military transport, has sent more than 5,000 troops to bolster an international peacekeeping mission, but so far, efforts have failed to stop the violence.
– An eight-hour firefight between government forces and the Mai Mai Kata Katanga in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, killed at least 26 people. The Mai Mai Kata Katanga are fighting for independence.
– Nigerian gunmen stormed the city of Shonong, in Plateau state, killing at least 30. Violence in Plateau has been going on for years, fueled by land disputes between Muslim Fulani herdsmen and mainly Christian Berom farmers.
– The government of South Sudan appears to be close to recapturing the city of Bor, but peace talks, being held in Ethiopia, continue without a breakthrough.
You know this song. It’s a cover of Phil Collins by the Senegalese band, Touré Kunda. Not to knock Phil Collins, but this version flat-out knocks the wind out of me. It’ll leave it at that.
Aaaahh I love this song. I love this song so much. This is in the top ten list of personal theme songs. The song’s chorus, “Ça plane pour moi,” very roughly translates into “This is working out great.” It’s possible it’s ironic. Actually, wait – it’s French. It’s highly probable it’s ironic. It sounds so upbeat in the face of so many annoying (and strange – again, it’s French) things happening to the guy – “it’s not today that the sky will fall on my head.” Damn right, Monsieur Français! This is a very good song for the day after a big night. (Editor’s note: If you really tied one on last night, perhaps wait until those ibuprofen have taken effect before pressing play on this one. It might make that headache just a touch worse.) It is also a great way to kick out the old and bring in the new. Oh hey there, 2014! Ça plane pour moi!
French lyrics followed by English translation – both the best I could do – below.
—
Wham! Bam! mon chat Splash
Git sur mon lit a bouffé
sa langue en buvant tout mon whisky
quant à moi peu dormi, vidé, brimé
J’ai dû dormir dans la gouttière
Ou j’ai eu un flash
Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo!
En quatre couleurs
Allez hop! un matin
Une louloute est venue chez-moi
Poupée de cellophane, cheveux chinois
un sparadrap, une gueule de bois
a bu ma bière dans un grand verre en caoutchouc
Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo!
Comme un indien dans son igloo
Ça plane pour moi! Ça plane pour moi!
Ça plane pour moi moi moi moi moi
Ça plane pour moi
Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo!
Ça plane pour moi
Allez hop! la nana quel panard!
Quelle vibration!
de s’envoyer sur le paillasson
Limée, ruinée, vidée, comblée
You are the King of the divan!
Qu’elle me dit en passant
Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo!
I am the King of the divan
Ça plane pour moi! Ça plane pour moi!
Ça plane pour moi moi moi moi moi
Ça plane pour moi
Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo!
Ça plane pour moi
Allez hop! t’occupe t’inquiète
touche pas ma planète
It’s not today
Que le ciel me tombera sur la tete
et que la colle me manquera
Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo!
Ca plane pour moi
Allez hop! ma nana s’est tirée
S’est barrée enfin c’est marre a tout casse
L’evier, le bar me laissant seul
Comme un grand connard
Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo!
Le pied dans le plat
Ça plane pour moi! Ça plane pour moi!
Ça plane pour moi moi moi moi moi
Ça plane pour moi
Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo!
Ça plane pour moi
Wham! Bam! my cat Splash lies on my bed with his tongue puffed out from drinking all my whisky. As for me, not enough sleep, drained, persecuted, I had to sleep in the gutter where I had a vision Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo! in four colors
Let’s go! One morning a darling came to my home, a cellophane puppet with Chinese hair, a band-aid, a hangover, drank my beer in a large rubber glass Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo! like an Indian in his igloo
This works for me, this works for me This works for me me me me me This work for me Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo! This works for me
Let’s go! That chick, what a gas! what a vibration! to be sent to the mat filed, ruined, drained, filled You are the King of the divan! she says to me in passing Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo! I am the King of the divan
This works for me, this works for me This works for me me me me me This work for me Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo! This works for me
Let’s go! Don’t mind, don’t worry It doesn’t affect me It’s not today that the sky will fall on my head and the glue will fail me Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo! This life’s for me
Let’s go! my chick has gone away, flew away, finally had enough, to break the sink, the bar, leaving me alone like a complete jerk Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo! I’ve put my foot in it
This works for me, this works for me This works for me me me me me This work for me Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo! This works for me
The Daily Tune-Up 