When I was planning this week's post, I had only three bullet points, one of which was a book. As I did my customary research, I was quite excited to discover deeper connections between what I was planning to talk about than I'd realised. Hopefully you will enjoy this little journey we're going on together.
First of all, I want to talk about the song Bremen from PigPen Theatre Co. I am a sucker for musicals, folk songs, and other narrative songs of their ilk, so this is very much in my wheelhouse[^1]. PigPen Theatre Co. are quite an interesting group, that do original interpretations of folktales alongside puppetry and movement. The music video that accompanies this song is a great example of some really cool puppetry, although the story is quite confusing as it's completely separate from the song itself.
Although they've done a number of albums with very different concepts, Bremen remains by far their most popular song (what can I say, I'm apparently basic). The Wikipedia page provides the reason for this: Bremen was featured as "the weather" on Welcome to Night Vale on #54. This was a really fun discovery that sent me back listening to WTNV, a podcast that I dabbled in many years ago. Cecil Baldwin, radio host, takes us through the local news, announcements, traffic updates and more from a weird town in the desert where "every conspiracy theory is true". Each episode ends with the weather, which is actually always a song from an independent artist[^2].
Back to the song -- this is the lynchpin of the album (of the same name), and I love the soft sounds of the banjo and guitar interplaying that opens the track, echoed in the harmonising voices. Later on, the rhythmic guitar and drums give a sense of urgency to the track, and to the story itself. I love all those folky songs blended together, and if you enjoy this song I'd really recommend the rest of the album :)
From the first lyrics, I get transported in to this lovely story about animals, with dogs and hens and donkeys and cat. I never listened to the lyrics particularly hard, but the vibe and story has always reminded me of Os Saltimbancos, a children's musical I listened to an enormous amount, especially as a kid on road trips. Same animals as the main characters, same story of going on a trip... Well you'll never believe it, but when I looked up both of them to do research, it turns out they're both based on the same folktale! So that explains a lot.
The two are based on the 'Town Musicians of Bremen' folktale, which I'll summarise for you: A dog, donkey, hen, and cat all decide to run away from their masters, as they fear mistreatment. They decide to aim for Bremen, where they wish to become town musicians (saltimbanco translates to the sense of "street musician"). Along the way, they see a lit cottage, which has been occupied by robbers. Working together, standing on each other's backs, they scare away the robbers, and find a new and safe place to live (they never arrive in Bremen). Apparently this is a fairly global story, with versions known coming from most parts of Europe as well as South East Asia. On my quest to learn about the tale, I learned a lot about the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, which is an official classification system of folktales. It's quite a fun and weird little page, and I find it fascinating to imagine study folklore as my job!
Os Saltimbancos tells broadly the same story, but Chico Buarque modified it a little to make the allegory. In the first song, Bicharia, we are introduced to each of the animals, as well as the Baron -- the animals' new enemy. He lazes around all day, in control of everything, while the animals have to break themselves working. In O Jumento, which I will recommend as one of the most fun songs off of the album, the donkey complains about how he was to spend all day carrying things and working, and even though he works himself to the bone, he's still called lazy by the masters. It is very impressive, the balance between a fun song for children to sing (lovely bit of patter! very well written for children too, with the fun of remembering and listening all the different things he's carrying), while also (hopefully) having a pretty obvious allegory. História de Uma Gata features the cat singing about how she is given all the best things, but is never allowed outside and is completely reliant on the master ... so one day when she's thrown out, she has nothing.
I'll pull back the curtain for you, and say [translated from the PR Wikipedia Page], 'the story is translated into a political allegory, where the donkey represents the rural workers/peasants, the chicken the working class, the dog the military, and the cat, the artists [I would argue she represents women]. The Baron, enemy of the animals, is a personification of the elite, of the "holders of the means of production."' As well as enjoying listening to the album at home, I remember learning about the story at school in Brasil, and the discussions we had about the representations, what the story means, and what we can take away from it.
I've talked about Chico Buarque a number of times previously on this blog, most notable in connection with his political activism through music. This is a rather different but I think also rather fantastic example of his activism through music. He made messages accessible to be understood, and it's been so enduring that I was still talking about it and listening as a kid, 40 years later. It's very good propaganda (in the historical, neutral sense) helping people to understand his ideology through easy-to-understand stories. I think especially children, but people in general, find abstract stories and big numbers hard to understand. Lindsay Ellis discussed this in her recent video[^3], what she calls the 'vulgarity of numbers'. In contrast, a story where each animal tells you their story directly, through a lens that makes sense to children, is digestible and memorable.
It feels like a misnomer to say this week has been especially relevant politically, because what week hasn't been recently. But, well, there's been a lot of news. I've been reading a lot of Che Guevara as of late (I'm sure you're all terribly shocked to hear this), and I must say while his writing is illuminating, interesting, often funny... it's also often very depressing. I think especially the speeches and articles from the early 60s are sad to read, because they're so full of hope for how the world and especially Latin America will change in the following years. Of course, what ended up happening was that Cuba was completely cut off, the USA flexed its big bad muscles, and Brasil was thrown under military dictatorship for more than 20 years. But the seeds of change were there, and they still are.
This week, for instance, I've been following the Gen Z revolution in Nepal rather avidly. First of all, of course, I think seeing the power of the people when they are upset is very powerful and a very good reminder to people. Here in the UK, we live under a political system that is nominally democracy; that is, we have the right to vote everything 5 years for one of about 5 people, who will be one of 650 MPs, and thus have about 0.2% of a vote for who the prime minister is (and indeed, upon bills and so forth). We can also vote in local elections, for councils that will do absolutely nothing when your local allotments are being wrecked because the local Christian private school needs bigger sports fields (just a random example I thought up). My point is, we do have power, but we have very little. Of course, one can also protest, or indeed fill out petitions that will be rejected exactly 100% of the time. Through direct action, we can have much much more power, as this example shows us. As they say in Os Saltimbancos, "The first lesson of the day: the best friend of the [people] is the [people]." Of course, as Che Guevara would say, there are 'special conditions' that exist in every country. Nepal is a very different place to the UK, and I would not (and it would not make sense to) advocate the exact same course of events. Their constitution was ratified only 10 years ago, shortly after the end of the monarchy. They exist in a very different position of power geopolitically, etc etc. However, I do think it is important to remember that the people hold the power; the question, of course, is whether they use it. Where will it go?
The second reason why I find these current events so interesting is that I am very interested in tipping points. Only two weeks ago, former Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli's position looked very stable. This week, Sushila Karki [^4] was nominated via Discord as the first-ever female Head of Government, to head the interim government. That's a very big change. What exactly is it that tips that balance, that meant the prime minister resigned two days in to protests? I'm not quite sure right now. I've got more to read, I suppose :)
Will this all end up positive, or will they end up in the same place as before? There's a lot still to be seen. But as I said, the fact that this can happen at all, is of course still very interesting. People spend a lot of time saying there's nothing they can do about things. Perhaps that's not so true.
Alright, lets swing this back round to Chico Buarque and my song of the week. It's fully one that I've discussed before, but I'm bringing it back again. Apesar de Você is a timeless classic that really rallies me when I am feeling down, the same way that this news has. I love all the classic MPB and bossa nova sounds, with a lot of different instruments that you don't hear in European music. It feels light and fresh and joyful, hitting exactly the right tone.
There's a lot of really great lines, so I'm going to translate a few for you:
It's not quite the whole song, but hopefully it gives you a very good idea of the lyrics! Of course, translating song lyrics is like poetry, it never comes out quite so beautiful on the other side. But the meaning is there, at least.
I especially like how Buarque says that tomorrow must be another day. It doesn't matter what anyone does, they can't stop it from happening. It's that similar reminder, right, that everyone's power has bounds. One of my favourite pieces of art (which is in fact the cover of my song of the week playlist!) says 'YOU CAN BEGIN AGAIN'. It's very simple, but many of the best slogans are.
While I've been writing this post, I've been thinking about how I bring up Buarque and his contemporaries a lot, and how they are the iconic sound of protest music in Brasil in the 60s-80s. So, here's my question to you -- if you've read this post, I'd really enjoy it if you send a me a message (or email!) and say what musicians and songs do you think we'll look back on from this point in time as iconic songs? Not just because they were popular, but because they actually have a message, too. I'm struggling to think of very many, but perhaps that's just because I'm "in" it. Let me know!!
[1]: For other such songs off the top of my head: Deathbed by Relient K, The Ballad of Marion Zioncheck by Left at London
[2]:Friends of the blog may enjoy knowing that Revolution Lover by Left at London and True Trans Soul Rebel by Againt Me! have also been featured as the weather -- the full list can be found here, it's quite a fun way to find new stuff!
[3]: 'The Unforgiveable Sin of Ms Rachel'
[4]: Sushila Karki's husband was, interestingly, part of the group of the first ever plane hijackers in Nepal. The group's aims were to make enough money from the plane hijacking to finance efforts to reintroduce democracy in Nepal. Wow, I love plane hijacking for a good cause ;). She herself has had an impressive political career, and had previously been the first female Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. She is known for being strict and anti-corruption, as well as apolitical, which is what earned her the nomination.
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