Main, food, music, history, tech, money, flora-fauna

Jimi, ...the wind began to howl

: music, September 14 2020

Seriously, when you see a Huey helicopters, flying in the mountain jungle, there are just a couple of songs, you immediately start whistling, while getting the musical chills ("psychophysiological response to rewarding auditory and/or visual stimuli"). For me it is "All along the watchtower" first, "Fortunate son" second. And saying "All along the watchtower", I mean Jimi Hendrix's Tower. The original belongs to Bob Dylan from 1967. Hendrix made it better just one year later, also according to Dylan, who, on several occasions, complimented the cover-work of his colleague. Nobody really knows what the story is about, some analyst even say the lyrics are composed backwards, starting with the princess on top of the tower, watching the two riders closing in...
In my vision about the song, adjusted to our modern century, it might be the lonely man, hiding behind a cheerful smile (joker), scared and fed-up with everything. He is talking to his best friend (thief), who was successful in life, but is paying the prise of his ruthlessness.

There must be some kind of way outta here
Said the joker to the thief
There's too much confusion
Sharing his desperation about the future, so simple and straight. Just a few words draw the emotional abyss in his heart. Joker lacks huge life experience, always a man of integrity, but constantly disappointed how other abuse his kindness. His friend went through a lot more and probably has seen both sides of the medal, reminds him, they are larger than life:
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke
But, uh, but you and I, we've been through that
And this is not our fate
Or maybe Joker and Thief are the callsigns of two marines, standing guard and killing time with some life stories...waiting to get back home...if they get back home. The Iraqi desert blows dust over the camp, while the sun sets in the distance. The third verse completely switches the perspective, and honestly, I have zero clue what might it mean. Maybe a woman, waiting for Joker to come home, but the riders are bringing the bad news.
Yes, Dylan wrote the song after a motorcycle crash, probably expressing his own feelings and some private drama is lurking behind. As for me, it is entirely the voice and the soul of Jimi Hendrix.

Pink Floyd - Have a Cigar - or how things never change

: music, September 03 2020

It has been exactly 45 years since Roger Waters wrote "Have a Cigar", released in Pink Floyd's "Wish you were here"-mega-super-ultra-undying album. And it hits blunt. Even today. No, you are not going to find the music here - you are smart people - google it! As I am writing this, and for the past few days, I cannot stop thinking how contemporary the text is. Clearly, Waters is satirising the big music industry businessmen. But the feeling is more for a WallStreet-predators.

The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think, Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?
...Yeaaah, you did amazing job, but we don't even care to get to know you (not that it matters...), as long as the money-train stops frequently at our station. And it is not even made-up. David Gilmour, 17 years later, said in an interview:
We did have people who would say to us "Which one's Pink" and stuff like that. There were an awful lot of people who thought Pink Floyd was the name of the lead singer ...

To me, this song is still the most striking one, shoulder-to-shoulder with "Welcome to the Machine". The whole album has only 5 songs and the cover continues the narrative with "the greed" and people, obsessed with money due to the lack of any other talent.