RATO'S MUSIC ~ VOLUME 74

VIRGINIA LEE: "Internationalee Yours"

Original released on LP Gallotone GALP 1228

(SOUTH AFRICA, 1961 June 19)

VIRGINIA LEE: "Cabaret Dubonnet"

Original released on LP Gallotone GALP 1272

(SOUTH AFRICA, 1958)

VIRGINIA LEE: HER "EARLY RECORDINGS"

Esta compilação (dos anos 1961, 1963 e 1964) reúne algumas das primeiras gravações de Virginia Lee, cantora sul-africana que começou a sua carreira como artista convidada em albuns de Archie Silansky ou Dan Hill. Como peculiaridade assinala-se a sua capacidade em cantar em diversos dialectos, muitas vezes sem sequer os conhecer. Nesta coletânea podemos ouvi-la cantar em 8 diversas línguas, mas ao longo dos anos chegou às dezasseis! Refira-se "A Noiva" e especialmente "Coimbra" (uma fantástica versão em ritmo de cha cha cha), nas quais canta em português (ou será "africanês"?).

The Freewheelin'

Original Released on LP Columbia 8786 (mono)

(US, 1963 May 27)

Not yet twenty-two at the time of this albums release, Dylan is growing at a swift, experience-hungry rate. In these performances, there is already a marked change from his first album ("Bob Dylan," Columbia CL 1779/CS 8579), and there will surely be many further dimensions of Dylan to come. What makes this collection particularly arresting that it consists in large part of Dylan's own compositions The resurgence of topical folk songs has become a pervasive part of the folk movement among city singers, but few of the young bards so far have demonstrated a knowledge of the difference between well-intentioned pamphleteering and the creation of a valid musical experience. Dylan has. As the highly critical editors of Little Sandy Review have noted, «...right now, he is certainly our finest contemporary folk song writer. Nobody else really even comes close.»

... The first of Dylan's songs in this set is "Blowin' in the Wind". In 1962, Dylan said of the song's background: «I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and they know it's wrong. I'm only 21 years old and I know that there's been too many wars...You people over 21 should know better.» All that he prefers to add by way of commentary now is: «The first way to answer these questions in the song is by asking them. But lots of people have to first find the wind.»

... This album, in sum, is the protean Bob Dylan as of the time of the recording. By the next recording, there will be more new songs and insights and experiences. Dylan can't stop searching and looking and reflecting upon what he sees and hears. «Anything I can sing,» he observes, «I call a song. Anything I can't sing, I call a poem. Anything I can't sing or anything that's too long to be a poem, I call a novel. But my novels don't have the usual story lines. They're about my feelings at a certain place at a certain time.»

... It is this continuing explosion of a total individual, a young man growing free rather than absurd, that makes Bob Dylan so powerful and so personal and so important a singer. As you can hear in these performances. (Nat Hentoff)

MARIANNE's "My Songs of the Sixties"

Once upon a time there was a sweet loving girl called Marianne... No woman from the 1960s lost her youth as thoroughly as Marianne Faithfull. And by youth, I mean her innocence, not her looks. Long after that decade ended, she wrote in a song, "Where did it go to ... my youth?" She answered herself only last year with lyrics that begin, «I drink and I take drugs/I love sex and move around a lot». And no citizen of the '60s drank, took drugs and had sex with Faithfull's public abandon. This Rato Records's collection (shared once more 'cause of many requests), in three parts, reunites 75 great songs that Marianne recorded during the sixties, before her personal life went into decline, and her career went into a tailspin.

LUCILLE STARR: "The French Song"

Original Released on LP A&M LAM 2007 
(US, 1964)

1964 has been a particularly good year for Lucille Starr. She was presented with her first gold record by Quality Records Limited, in her native land, Canada, for the equivalent of a million sales of "The French Song". The same recording was also Lucille's first big hit in the U.S. most recently, it was the year she recorded a collection of some of her very favorite songs in her first album. After listening to this marvelously talented artist, we know you'll agree with us that this is only the first spark of a future magnificent glow - THAT IS LUCILLE STARR!

RATO'S MUSIC ~ VOLUME 73

MEMORIES FROM THE PAST ~ JANUARY 1965

A música é a única máquina do tempo inventada até hoje pelo homem. Ao ouvirmos de novo uma canção, mesmo que entretanto se tenham passado muitos anos, somos inevitàvelmente transportados ao passado, recordando pessoas, lugares ou até acontecimentos que fizeram parte do nosso  mundo quando pela primeira vez tivemos acesso a essa canção. Quer escutando-a através da rádio quer pondo-a a tocar nos nossos gira-discos caseiros.

Esta nova colecção de Rato Records é um convite para todos quantos queiram embarcar nessa máquina do tempo muito especial e voltar atrás umas dezenas de anos. Neste caso, e porque gosto de números redondos, proponho-vos uma viagem com a duração de 60 anos. Todos os meses será disponibilizado aqui um novo CD com os temas mais em voga nessa altura. Vamos começar entâo por Janeiro de 1965, com os votos de uma excelente viagem, sem enjôos ou outros contratempos a bordo.

RATO'S MUSIC ~ VOLUME 72