2008

Happy 2008!

Peace, love and music.

Dennis Wilson - River Song .mp3 from Pacific Ocean Blue (1977) via Sweet Billy Pilgrim

Photo: Les Repasseuses (1884) from Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Terry Lee Hale - New Song For Leaky Sparrow 200th

Already 200 posts since Leaky Sparrow started to fly in April 2006. That’s a lot of posts friends and I am the most surprised of all! Never had I imagined that I could find enough material to share with you, which means that music is still very much alive for me and that there are still good records to listen to and shows to watch. Let me take the opportunity of this “anniversary” to thank all of you for your visits, for your useful comments and for mentioning Leaky Sparrow on other websites and blogs. Also, big thanks to my contributors and co-writers: Lucky Girl, Bookerfatz2 & Sunday Worker – for their reports from Cologne, Seattle and, of course, Paris.

For this special occasion, Terry Lee Hale has allowed me to link Big Sigh from his latest album Shotgun Pillowcase (January 2007) that you can purchase here: Borderdreams, Amazon.
This is what Terry Lee says about it: “This song and also Devil Blues (featured on Terry Lee Hale Web) were written at exactly the same time and place and I remember it well. It was in the kitchen and springtime garden at Glitterhouse Records office (Beverungen, Germany) maybe in 1998 or something. I was touring at the time and had a couple days off and so was kindly being hosted by the record company. The original song was much more jaunty and happy, almost like skipping rope kinda music. Written by a much younger man for sure. This version (featured on Shotgun Pillowcase) has been heavily edited and shortened from that first original writing. To be remembered: when it comes to song writing, nothing is sacred!!”

Web: terryleehale.com
MySpace: myspace.com/terryleehale

Terry Lee Hale - Big Sigh .mp3 from Shotgun Pillowcase (2007)

Terry Lee Hale & Fingerbones in The Netherlands:
25/10/07 - "De Witte Bal" - Assen
26/10/07 - "Musiekpodium Bakkeveen" - Bakkeveen
27/10/07 - "Night Live Music Bar" - Volendam
28/10/07 - "Patronaat" - Harleem

Illustration: Claude Monet (1840-1926) La Pie (The Magpie). Between 1868 and 1869 - Paris, Musée d'Orsay.

The Summer Of Love On Arte

What is Arte? Arte is a French-German TV network, which facilities are located in Strasbourg (headquarters) and Baden-Baden, that aims to promote quality programming related to the world of arts and culture (en.wikipedia).
You all know that the “Summer of Love” is the summer of 1967. In July and August 2007 - 40 years later - Arte offers a very interesting retrospective of films and documentaries regarding that period (1966 to 1970…). You’ll find the complete program (in French or in German, sorry) here.
I have already seen many of the movies selected by Arte but I was happy to watch them again like Alice’s Restaurant, Barbarella, Gimme Shelter or Tommy. Besides, the more interesting for me were some original documentaries never shown before on TV (as far as I can remember) like Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, Ronald Nameth (USA/UK, 1967, 12mn), Turn Me On - 1967, Marc Huraux (FRA, 2007) with Artaud and Alan Ginsberg or Festival Express 1970, Bob Smeaton (GER, 2003) a train crossing Canada from East to West during five days – a moving Festival - where you’ll see Janis Joplin jamming with Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Rick Danko. Amazing.
The "Summer Of Love" period produced so many weird and fabulous pictures full of great music and you’re never tired to watch them again and again.

The Mamas And The Papas - California Dreaming .mp3
The Band - The Weight .mp3
The Grateful Dead - Not Fade Away .mp3 via Rock In My World

Janis Joplin - Summertime .mp3

Marathon Season

Busy week-end for me because of the Marathon of Paris that I partly ran… Yes, Leaky Sparrow likes to run too! April is marathon time. Yesterday morning, at the same moment than Paris, thousands of runners participated to the Marathon of Rotterdam (I was among them two years ago). Today, it’s Boston, the oldest one, next Sunday, London (I did it too twice also in 1997 and 2001). And it’s only few among many others. Keep on running!

Placebo - Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush) .mp3
Snow Patrol - Run .mp3
Lenny Kravitz vs. Run DMC ft Slash (of GnR) - My Adidas On The Run .mp3
Bob Marley - Running Away .mp3

Bonus: Stars Of Track And Field - Movies Of Antartica .mp3

i ii iii

April 4th, 2006 , Leaky Sparrow took his fragile wings and learned to fly... Thanks everyone for visiting this blog since one year, it helped me a lot. Come back anytime, you’re very welcome.

So, this is for you:
onochord documentary

And let’s have fun with my good old pal Daevid Allen and his friends from Gong:
Gong - The Pot Head Pixies .mp3
Gong - Est Ce Que Je Suis .mp3

Live Is A Carnival (Last Part)

This is almost the end, one more day and the Köln Carnival 2007 is over. Mardi Gras is tomorrow. After, everybody will place their costume in a drawer until November and their musical instrument will wait until the next party, who will come soon in no doubt.

The Band - Life Is A Carnival .mp3 (live Jersey City, 1973) via The 3rd Base Line
Mark Lanegan - Carnival .mp3 via Sweet Oblivion

Live Is A Carnival

It’s time for carnival now, time to be crazy, to wear strange costumes and drink beer. For me to drink lots of Kölsch – the local beverage - because here I am in Cologne (Köln) the place to be to celebrate Mardi Gras.
Everywhere music, sometime strange music, and singing.

Tori Amos - Carnival .mp3
Low - Carnival Queen .mp3 from Naked in the Afternoon – A Tribute to Jandek (Summersteps Records)
Natalie Merchant - Carnival .mp3 via no more radio