Triumph and Disaster

Just a few days ago I published this quote by the great Indian Leader and pacifist Mahatma Gandhi:

Be the change you want to see in the world

Today (again by chance?) I stumble into this video on the same issue, titled
“We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For“

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At the end of this video there is a quote by the great anthropologist Margaret Mead:

Never doubt, that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world. In fact it is the only thing that ever has.

I first read this Mead quote in the mid 90´s on one of my first journeys to the USA. I loved eating “Ben & Jerry´s Ice Cream” and read it in one of their parlors in Georgetown Washington D.C. I still have some of their brochures about their concept of “caring capitalism“. The second proverb I remember from their shop is: “If it´s not fun, why do it?“. Very popular among me and my friends at that time. On one of my later journeys I visited the Ben & Jerry´s factory in Burlington, Vermont including a cemetery for Ice Cream Flavors no longer produced. Today Ben & Jerry´s is to and a brand of Unilever. A brand is not a mission. But that is a different story.

Ein Video passend zum Gandhi Zitat vor einigen Tagen. Das Zitat am Ende des Films “Never doubt, that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world. In fact it is the only thing that ever has”, ist von Margaret Mead. Das wiederum weiss ich durch einen Besuch in den Eiscreme Salons der beiden Vermonter Freaks Ben & Jerry. Ein spannendes Konzept, ihr “caring capitalism“, was sie leider nicht daran gehindert hat, das Ganze an Unilever zu verkaufen, wo die Vision der Gründer doch arg zu blosser Markenpolitik degeneriert.

If this two guys are still convinced, there must be some truth about it:
It still is a wonderful world.

Until I just discovered this video on youtube I was not aware that Shane McGowan and Nick Cave ever performed together. Here they celebrate the old Louis Armstrong Classic in a unique way.
I do not know why I was in London. I only remember that the venue was quite out of town and that I was on my own that night many years ago to see Shane McGowan and his new Band “The Popes”. The very second they started to perform the entire crowd wildly jumped up and down dancing Pogo. I was really afraid to get severely hurt. So in probably a funny and strange way I jumped myself to the sidelines of this concert hall.
I will never forget this evening. McGowan was completely drunk but in a unique way of dignity performing his songs. Traditional Irish ones mainly.
I lived quite close to alcoholics in former years. I can not stand to be to close to them today. But I love if they try to stay public and do not hide. Even if they have lost the fight against the bottle. You can see this very dignity in the video. Same dignity to be watched in the Interview with Edith Piaf in this blog on April 20th 2007.

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Ein Louis Armstrong Hit, in unbekannter Interpretation. Hatte keine Ahnung, dass Shane McGowan und Nick Cave je gemeinsam aufgetreten sind. Mc Gowan habe ich vor vielen Jahren life in London erlebt. Ein praktizierender Alkoholiker voller Würde. Ich glaube den Text kennt oder versteht jeder. Deshalb hier: keine lyrics.

Be the change you want to see in the world

Mahatma Gandhi

Here are my two favorite lovesongs in one entry. Marianne Faithful is first with “Crazy Love“. I could not find a suitable video on youtube so here is the audio: Marianne Faithfull: “Crazy Love“

Crazy Love

Hated by all and everywhere he goes
Blazing contempt for human life and lies
Murder as art and what he knows he knows
from life and fear in other people’s eyes

Crazy love is all around me
Love is crazy love is kind
But I know somehow you’ll find me
Love is crazy love is blind

She walks the boulevard without a care
Knowing too much but having come so far
Pretending life is just a game you play for nothing
Loving no-one and no-where

Crazy love is all around me
Love goes crazy given time
But I know somehow you’ll find me
Love is crazy love is blind

She looks as if expecting a surprise
Maybe an encounter that will change her life
Not knowing hot from cold or good for bad
If life is just a joke or if it makes her sad

Crazy love is all around me
Love is crazy love is kind
But I know somehow you’ll find me
Love is crazy love is blind

Crazy love is all around me
Love goes crazy given time
But I know somehow you’ll find me
Love is crazy love is blind

Many Love songs are about sadness when a love has ended. “Crazy Love” deals with the promising opening of love or even the anticipation of a coming love still in search for the lovers. Similar timing in “Dance me to the end of love” by Leonard Cohen about the  hope at the beginning of each love to reach and cross every limit. The “end of love” in this song can have so many different shades and meanings. Beside the traditional “till death us part“, it means “to the limits where our love ends” as well as “through these limitations at the current boundary of our love“.
There are many recordings of this song. I like this matured life version most:

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Dance Me To The End Of Love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic ’til I’m gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We’re both of us beneath our love, we’re both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I’m gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Nachdem Cohen und Faithfull gebührend eingeführt sind, hier meine beiden liebsten Songs zum Thema Liebe. Beide behandeln den Auftakt, die Option, die Verheissung des Zusammenkommens. Wobei das “to the end of love” bei Cohen unzählige Bedeutungen annehmen kann: von klassischen “bis dass der Tod Euch scheidet” über “bis wir das Potential unserer Liebe erschöpft ist und sie endet” bis zu “über die Begrenztheit dessen was wir uns vorstellen können hinaus“.
“Show me slowly what I only know the limits of!“

I already mentioned that beside Leonard Cohen from the male perspective it is Marianne Faithfull whom I trust most to phrase human encounters of love (and hate of course). Let me introduce Marianne with a song that at least at first view has nothing to do with this topic: “Times Square“. In her introduction she relates it to her experience as a drug addict. Something I am luckily unable to share. For me the lyrics of “Times Square” will never be completely understood but they induce an intense mood and feeling every time I hear them. That is what only excellent poetry can express and reach.

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In a tired part of the city
Waiting for some fast talk
Watch ‘Don’t walk’ to ‘Walk’
Easy when you’re dreaming
Standing in a circle,
Staring at the movies
laughing at the wrong time.

Alcohol could take me there.
I’d take a shot a minute
And be there by the hour.

Take a walk around Times Square
With a pistol in my suitcase
And my eyes on the TV.

In a car taking a back seat
Staring out the window
Thinking about danger.
Playing in a wrong court
Fighting — but I’m not free.
Talking on the telephone
Talking about you and me.

Jesus Christ could take me there
I’d fall down on my knees,
Have no questions to His answers.

Take a walk around Times Square
With a pistol in my suitcase
And my eyes on the TV.

And if I die gaining my senses
Wake up in a hotel
Staring at the ceiling.

Hier also Marianne Faithfull, neben Leonard Cohen meine beste ExpertIn für Liebe (und natürlich: Hass). Das leistet nur gute Lyrik: etwas ausdrücken, das man nie ganz erfasst oder klar versteht und doch als Wahrheit erspürt zwischen den Zeilen.