portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Friday, November 04, 2022

David Byrne :: Newsletter

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This is far from exhaustive, or even completely representative - but here’s a playlist of passionate, innovative and rhythmic Arabic music from all over. It includes music from Iran, Lebanon, Sengal, Italy (!), France, Turkey and more! Most are from the past 10 years. Tucked in amongst the love songs and dance songs are a few recent Iranian/Persian protest songs that have become viral during the recent women’s protests.

The song Bella Ciao, performed by the Bolouri sisters is a beautiful and perennial protest anthem. Mostly associated with the anti fascist resistance in Italy, it has been used in India by the occupy movement, and now in Iran by the women’s movement there. It was composed for the resistance during World War II (taken from a thread under a Goran B video). It talks about a partisan that is going to defend his country from the invaders, so he asks the woman he loves "If I die as a partisan, bury me in the mountain under the shadow of a flower". So, he says, everyone that will see the flower will say "What a beautiful flower"; the flower of the partisan who died for freedom.

Here are the lyrics to another one of those songs- Baraye (there are both Farsi and English versions of this in the playlist)

"Baraye" By Shervin Hajipour

["Baraye" means "For" or "Because of" in Persian]

For dancing in the alleys

For the fear when kissing

For my sister, your sister, our sisters

For changing rusted minds

For the shame of poverty

For the regret of living an ordinary life

For the dumpster-diving children and their wishes

For this dictatorial economy

For this polluted air

For Valiasr and its worn-out trees

For Pirooz and the possibility of his extinction

For the innocent banned stray dogs

For the unstoppable tears

For the scene of repeating this moment

For the smiling faces

For students and their future

For this forced heaven

For the imprisoned elite students

For the Afghan kids

For all these “for”s that are beyond repetition

For all of these meaningless slogans

For the collapse of fake buildings

For the feeling of peace

For the sun after these long nights

For anxiety and sleeping pills

For men, homeland, prosperity

For the girl who wished to be a boy

For women, life, freedom

For freedom

For freedom

For freedom

(translated lyrics via Genius)

Hope you enjoy this playlist - I listened to it last night while going over the Brooklyn bridge and it’s now one of my favorites!

-David Byrne

Listen To November's Playlist!
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