Autumn Leaves - Eva Cassidy



A friend's blog featured the late Eva Cassidy's 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' from the album Songbird. I'm one of Eva's fans and really appreciate her magical voice that touches my soul everytime I play her recordings. Below is one of my favorite songs from the 1997 live album 'Live @ Blues Alley'




Eva Cassidy
1951-1996

Click here to know more about this wonderful artist.

(Original French lyrics by Jacques Prvert,
English lyrics by Johnny Mercer,
Music by Joseph Kosma)

The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sun-burned hands I used to hold

Since you went away the days grow long
And soon Ill hear old winters song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall

Rudy Djoharnaen
Singapore

With You I'm Born Again
Billy Preston & Syreeta
Written by David Shire and Carol Connors

I present to you now two Motown Legends. The late Billy Preston and Syreeta. The song was released in 1979 and entered the Billboard Top 40 the week of 1980. Motown Records produced many great talents like The Supremes, The Temptations, Jackson 5, Marthe Reeves, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye etc, since their first step into the music industry in 1959. Good job Gordy!







Come bring me your softness
Comfort me through all this madness
Woman, don't you know, with you I'm born again

Come give me your sweetness
Now there's you, there is no weakness
Lying safe within your arms, I'm born again

I was half, not whole
In step with none
Reaching through this world
In need of one

Come show me your kindness
In your arms I know I'll find this
Woman, don't you know, with you I'm born again
Lying safe with you I'm born again

Come bring me your softness
Comfort me through all this madness
Woman, don't you know, with you I'm born again

Come give me your sweetness
Now there's you, there is no weakness
Lying safe within your arms, I'm born again
Woman, don't you know, with you I'm born again

I was half, not whole
In step with none
Reaching through this world
In need of one

Come show me your kindness
In your arms I know I'll find this
Woman, don't you know, with you I'm born again
Lying safe with you I'm born again

Manhã de Carnaval (Morning of a Carnival)

From 1959's Black Orpheus soundtrack, a beautiful song composed by Luiz Bonfa (1922-2001). The guy's excellent and unique in his guitar playing which combines melody, rhythm, and bass simultaneously, thus, making his guitar sound like an orchestra.

"As a composer and as a guitarist, Bonfá played a pivotal role in bridging the incumbent samba-canção style with the innovations of the bossa nova movement." (Wikipedia)



Manhã tão bonita manhã,
Na vida uma nova canção,
Cantando só teus olhos,
teu riso, e tuas mãos,
Pois há de haver um dia,
em que virás.

Das cordas, do meu violão
que só teu amor procurou
Vem uma voz,
falar dos beijos,
perdidos nos lábios teus.

Canta o meu coração,
alegria voltou, tão feliz,
na manhã deste amor.

Here's the English translation by the youtuber Paul Sonnenberg. Though some of us are aware that any translation may do no justice to the original Brazilian portuguese, I personally think that his is among the closest. Other adaptations include 'A Day In A Life of A Fool' by Jack Jones. The evergreen Malay singer Ahmad Daud did a Malay rendition in the early 60s.

Morning of the Carnaval
Click here to watch his video.

The dawn of this beautiful day
Has brought me a new song to play
A song about your eyes
Your hands, your laugh, your smile
Sung in the hope that I
Might draw you near

The chords from my lonely guitar
Have called you to me from afar
This voice soft and low
Wants only to know
Your kiss
The touch of your lips

Hear the song of my heart
Full of joy at the start
Of this first happy day of our love!

Malay Version here.

Sing Along peeps!

Rudy Djoharnaen
Singapore

Ne Me Quitte Pas



Jacques Brel, 1959

Some of us may not understand the language. Well, I don't :). Click here for an English rendition.

Ne me quitte pas
Il faut oublier
Tout peut s'oublier
Qui s'enfuit deja
Oublier le temps
Des malentendus
Et le temps perdu
A savoir comment
Oublier ces heures
Qui tuaient parfois
A coups de pourquoi
Le coeur du bonheur
Ne me quitte pas

Moi je t'offrirai
Des perles de pluie
Venues de pays
Où il ne pleut pas
Je creuserai la terre
Jusqu'apres ma mort
Pour couvrir ton corps
D'or et de lumière
Je ferai un domaine
Où l'amour sera roi
Où l'amour sera loi
Où tu seras reine
Ne me quitte pas

Ne me quitte pas
Je t'inventerai
Des mots insensés
Que tu comprendras
Je te parlerai
De ces amants là
Qui ont vu deux fois
Leurs coeurs s'embraser
Je te racont'rai
L'histoire de ce roi
Mort de n'avoir pas
Pu te rencontrer
Ne me quitte pas

On a vu souvent
Rejaillir le feu
De l'ancien volcan
Qu'on croyait trop vieux
Il est paraît-il
Des terres brûlées
Donnant plus de blé
Qu'un meilleur avril
Et quand vient le soir
Pour qu'un ciel flamboie
Le rouge et le noir
Ne s'épousent-ils pas
Ne me quitte pas

Ne me quitte pas
Je ne vais plus pleurer
Je ne vais plus parler
Je me cacherai là
À te regarder
Danser et sourire
Et à t'écouter
Chanter et puis rire
Laisse-moi devenir
L'ombre de ton ombre
L'ombre de ta main
L'ombre de ton chien
Ne me quitte pas

Rudy Djoharnaen
Singapore

Love.



I just love Pink Martini.
Let's Never Stop falling In love
It's the season of love this year
A few friends talking about love
the charm the feeling
the look of love
the love story
the love movies
the love songs
love letters in the sand
all about love
love and love again...

Click here for the Malay version.

"If you fail to love again, then you have failed to live forever"From Love Again art exhibition by Harman and Suhirman
http://justloveagain.blogspot.com

I listened to this song in back in 1998. I was searching through the oldies rack for Frank Sinatra when Dame Shirley Bassey's compilation CD caught my eye. I had no idea who this singer is until I saw the double O 7'Goldfinger' title as part of the featured tracks. So she's the one who recorded it. Cool voice. A broadway style that gripped my soul.

Bought the CD, forgot about Sinatra (sorry Frank..:) and enjoyed it. I mostly liked 'Yesterday When I was Young'. Roy Clark and Dusty Springfield did wonderful renditions of their own too. I enjoyed the melody and only recently I that I began to understand the lyrics (thanks to the conference book..:)) A reminiscense of past youth. Very meaningful. To summerize it; Never waste your young age before you get old or you'll regret it. Always think about your life, and it's direction.

Enjoy the song ya.



Yesterday When I Was Young
Written by: Charles Aznavour
English translation by: Herbert Kretzmer

Yesterday when I was young
The taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game
The way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame
The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned
I always built, alas, on weak and shifting sand
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of day
And only now I see how the years ran away

Yesterday when I was young
So many lovely songs were waiting to be sung
So many wayward pleasures lay in store for me
And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see
I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out
I never stopped to think what life was all about
And every conversation I can now recall
Concerned itself with me, and nothing else at all

Yesterday the moon was blue
And every crazy day brought something new to do
I used my magic age as if it were a wand
And never saw the waste and emptiness beyond

The game of love I played with arrogance and pride
And every flame I lit too quickly, quickly died
The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away
And only I am left on stage to end the play
There are so many songs in me that won't be sung

I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue
The time has come for me to pay for
yesterday when I was young...


Rudy Djoharnaen
Singapore