Spadecaller
This comical video presentation by Spadecaller accompaines the Yiddush song originally composed by lyricist Jacob Jacobs and Sholom Secunda in 1932. In 1937, Sammy Cahn heard a performance of the song, sung in Yiddish by African American performers Johnnie and George at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and on seeing the response, got his employer to buy the rights so he (together with Saul Chaplin) could rewrite the song with English language lyrics. He then convinced The Andrews Sisters to perform the song (recorded November 24, 1937), and it became a major hit.
updated 16 years ago
LYRICS:
In the early morning rain with a dollar in my hand
And an aching in my heart and my pockets full of sand
I'm a long way from home and I miss my loved one so
In the early morning rain with nowhere to go.
Cut on runway number nine, big 707 set to go
I'm stuck here on the ground, where the cold winds blow
The liquor tasted good and the women all were fast
There she goes, my friend, she's rolling down at last.
Hear the mighty engines roar, see the silver bird on high
She's away and westward bound, far above the clouds she'll fly
Where the morning rain don't fall and the sun always shines
She'll be flying over my home in about three hours time.
This old airport's got me down, it's no earthly good to me
Because I'm stuck here on the ground, cold and drunks as I might be
You can't hop a jet plane like you can a freight train
So I'd best be on my way in the early morning rain.
A Spadecaller Vdeo featuring artwork by Matthew Schwartz in accompaniment with Leonard Cohen's song, Sisters of Mercy.
"Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone.
They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can't go on.
And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me this song.
Oh I hope you run into them, you who've been travelling so long.
Yes you who must leave everything that you cannot control.
It begins with your family, but soon it comes around to your soul.
Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned:
When you're not feeling holy, your loneliness says that you've sinned.
Well they lay down beside me, I made my confession to them.
They touched both my eyes and I touched the dew on their hem.
If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn
They will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem.
When I left they were sleeping, I hope you run into them soon.
Don't turn on the lights, you can read their address by the moon.
And you won't make me jealous if I hear that they sweetened your night:
We weren't lovers like that and besides it would still be all right,
We weren't lovers like that and besides it would still be all right."
A Spadecaller video featuring artwork by Matthew Schwartz in accompaniment with Leonard Cohen's song, Who By Fire.
"And who by fire, who by water,
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
Who in your merry merry month of may,
Who by very slow decay,
And who shall I say is calling?
And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
And who by avalanche, who by powder,
Who for his greed, who for his hunger,
And who shall I say is calling?
And who by brave assent, who by accident,
Who in solitude, who in this mirror,
Who by his lady's command, who by his own hand,
Who in mortal chains, who in power,
And who shall I say is calling?"
A Spadecaller video featuring the visual arts of Matthew Schwartz in accompaniment with Leonard Cohen's song, Democracy:
"It's coming through a hole in the air,
From those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
That this ain't exactly real,
Or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
From the sirens night and day,
From the fires of the homeless,
From the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming through a crack in the wall
On a visionary flood of alcohol
From the staggering account
Of the Sermon on the Mount
Which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
On the dock of the bay,
From the brave, the bold, the battered
Heart of Chevrolet
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
The holy places where the races meet
From the homicidal bitchin'
That goes down in every kitchen
To determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
Where the women kneel to pray
For the grace of God in the desert here
And the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.
It's coming to America first,
The cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
And the machinery for change
And it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
And it's here the lonely say
That the heart has got to open
In a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
The river's going to weep,
And the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
Beneath the lunar sway,
Imperial, mysterious,
In amorous array
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on
I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
Getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
That Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
This little wild bouquet
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A."
A Spadecaller video featuring the visual arts of Matthew Schwartz in accompaniment with Leonard Cohen's song, Joan of Arc.
"Now the flames they followed Joan of arc
As she came riding through the dark;
No moon to keep her armour bright,
No man to get her through this very smoky night.
She said, I'm tired of the war,
I want the kind of work I had before,
A wedding dress or something white
To wear upon my swollen appetite.
Well, I'm glad to hear you talk this way,
You know I've watched you riding every day
And something in me yearns to win
Such a cold and lonesome heroine.
And who are you? she sternly spoke
To the one beneath the smoke.
Why, I'm fire, he replied,
And I love your solitude, I love your pride.
Then fire, make your body cold,
I'm going to give you mine to hold,
Saying this she climbed inside
To be his one, to be his only bride.
And deep into his fiery heart
He took the dust of Joan of arc,
And high above the wedding guests
He hung the ashes of her wedding dress.
It was deep into his fiery heart
He took the dust of Joan of arc,
And then she clearly understood
If he was fire, oh then she must be wood.
I saw her wince, I saw her cry,
I saw the glory in her eye.
Myself I long for love and light,
But must it come so cruel, and oh so bright?"
"'Dance Me to the End Of Love' ... it's curious how songs begin because the origin of the song, every song, has a kind of grain or seed that somebody hands you or the world hands you and that's why the process is so mysterious about writing a song. But that came from just hearing or reading or knowing that in the death camps, beside the crematoria, in certain of the death camps, a string quartet was pressed into performance while this horror was going on, those were the people whose fate was this horror also. And they would be playing classical music while their fellow prisoners were being killed and burnt. So, that music, "Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin," meaning the beauty there of being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation. But, it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved, so that the song — it's not important that anybody knows the genesis of it, because if the language comes from that passionate resource, it will be able to embrace all passionate activity." ~ Leonard Cohen
Featuring the artwork of Matthew Schwartz.
LYRICS:
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
(LYRICS) "Blowin' In The Wind"
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can really see the sky?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
New York tendaberry, blue berry
A rush on rum, of brush and drum
And the past is a blue note, inside me
I ran away in the morning
New York tendaberry, blue berry
Rugs and drapes and drugs and capes
Sweet kids in hunger slums
Firecrackers break and they cross
And they dust and they skate
And the night comes
I ran away in the morning
Now I'm back, unpacked
Sidewalk and pigeon
You look like a city
But you feel like religion to me
New York tendabery, true berry
I lost my eyes, In east wind skies
Here where I've cried, where I've tried
Where God and the tendaberry rise
Where quakers and revolutionaries
Join for life, for precious years
Join for life, through silver tears
New York tendaberry.
LYRICS BELOW:
If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one
Drying in the color of the evening sun
Tomorrow's rain will wash the stains away
But something in our minds will always stay
Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetime's argument
That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could
For all those born beneath an angry star
Lest we forget how fragile we are
On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star
Like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are
How fragile we are
On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star
Like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are
How fragile we are
How fragile we are
How fragile we are
Avinu Malkeynu ("Our Father, Our King") is a Jewish prayer recited during Rosh Hashanah (the New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).
the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "The Lord's Prayer" - with the artwork of Matthew Schwartz
"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."
Matthew 5:9
Lyrics of "Nothing Else Matters":
So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
and nothing else matters
Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say
and nothing else matters
Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
and nothing else matters
never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
but I know
So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
and nothing else matters
never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
but I know
Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say
Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us, something new
Open mind for a different view
and nothing else matters
never cared for what they say
never cared for games they play
never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
and I know
So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
No, nothing else matters
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Otto Klemperer
The Philharmonia Chorus
Philharmonia Orchestra
Raymond Wolansky
Wilhelm Pitz
Kurt Wehofschitz
Art: Matthew Schwartz
CHORUS OF PRISONERS
Oh what joy, in the open air
Freely to breathe again!
Up here alone is life!
The dungeon is a grave.
FIRST PRISONER
We shall with all our faith
Trust in the help of God!
Hope whispers softly in my ears!
We shall be free, we shall find peace.
ALL THE OTHERS
Oh Heaven! Salvation! Happiness!
Oh Freedom! Will you be given us?
CHOR DER GEFANGENEN
O Welche Lust, in Freier Luft
Den Atem leicht zu heben!
Nur hier, nur hier ist Leben!
Der Kerker eine Gruft.
ERSTER GEFANGENER
Wir wollen mit Vertrauen
Auf Gottes Hilfe bauen!
Die Hoffnung flüstert sanft mir zu:
Wir werden frei, wir finden Ruh
ALLE ANDEREN
O Himmel! Rettung! Welch ein Glück!
O Freiheit! Kehrst du zurück?
Thousands of legitimate voting citizens in Florida have been shocked by this reckless use of political power. The Florida GOP is profiling voters to purge their votes in November.
A Spadecaller Video
At Foxconn, one major manufacturer of Apple's iPhone, iMac, iPad and iPod touch, an alarming wave of suicides had finally caught the media's attention. Unfortunately, the claims date back to 2010, when 13 workers at a factory run by Apple supplier Foxconn committed suicide.
All jumped to their deaths from factory rooftops after claiming that the company ran military-style production lines on which employees were forced to work overtime for low wages. Living in dorms with up to twenty four workers in each room with barred windows and then working long hours each day makes life for these young people unbearable. These conditions have virtually created labor camps run by foreign plantation owners. They are indeed, the slaves of Apple.
Though Apple has been on notice for 5 years as the target of a campaign by USAS' Hong Kong partner Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), genuine changes have not taken place. Despite persistent efforts by SACOM to get Apple to stop the abuses at Foxconn, Apple's former CEOs Jobs and their current CEO, Tim Cook, had falsely denied the problem until recently.
Since January, 13 young workers at Apple's supplier factory in Shenzhen, China have committed suicide, and just a few days ago, a young worker died from exhaustion. Why? Working 36 hours nonstop without overtime pay, earning poverty wages, facing humiliation by company managers and being denied independent union representation.
While the economic crisis has pushed hundreds of electronics suppliers out of business, Apple has yielded record profits on the backs of its young Chinese workers. Under the direct pressure of Apple and other buyers, its supplier Foxconn has not been paying production line workers enough to even meet basic needs, compelling workers to labor up to 100 hours of overtime a month, close to three times the maximum 36 hours permitted by Chinese labor law.
Furthermore, Foxconn, responding to heavy public scrutiny, recently manipulated consumers to believe that it raised the wages of its workers out of its own benevolence, although it was actually in light of an anticipated raise in the government's minimum wage.
This week, Apple released its newest edition of the iPhone, selling for $200 a piece, but this price doesn't include the short lives of those lost who were being paid pennies per phone. At least Apple CEO Tim Cook now believes suicides are bad for Apple's business and these deaths certainly affect the working morale at Foxconn.
What is their solution? They draped fishing nets around the dormitories to catch suicide jumpers - and they brag about a paltry raise of minimum wage. The abuse and suffering at the labor camps in China will continue until Americans and other consumers around the world boycott Apple products.
Lyrics:
You better love loving and you better behave
You better love loving and you better behave
Woman in chains, woman in chains
Calls her man the great white hope
Says she's fine, she'll always cope, ooh
Woman in chains, woman in chains
Well, I feel lying and waiting is a poor man's deal (A poor man's deal)
And I feel hopelessly weighed down by your eyes of steel
(Your eyes of steel)
Well, It's a world gone crazy keeps woman in chains, woh woh woh
Woman in chains, woman in chains
Trades her soul as skin and bones
(You better love loving and you better behave)
Sells the only thing she owns
(You better love loving and you better behave) ooh ooh
Woman in chains (the sun and the moon), woman in chains
Men of stone, men of stone, hey baby, no no no, ooh
Well, I feel deep in your heart there are wounds time can't heal
(The time can't heal)
And I feel somebody somewhere is trying to breathe
Well, you know what I mean
It's a world gone crazy keeps woman in chains
It's under my skin but out of my hands
I'll tear it apart (somebody somewhere is trying)
But I won't understand (to breathe)
I will not accept the greatness of man
It's a world gone crazy keeps woman in chains
Gone crazy keeps woman in chains
So free her, so free her, so free her
So free her, so free her (the sun and the moon)
So free (the wind and the rain) her, so free her
So free her, so free her, so free her, so free her
So free her, so free her (the sun and the moon)
So free (the wind and the rain) her, so free her
Lyrics / Swedish:
Det är nu som livet är mitt
Jag har fått en stund här på jorden
Och min längtan har fört mig hit
Det jag saknat och det jag fått
Det är ändå vägen jag valt
Min förtröstan långt bortom orden
Som har visat en liten bit
Av den himmel jag aldrig nått
Jag vill känna att jag lever
All den tid jag har
Ska jag leva som jag vill
Jag vill känna att jag lever
Veta att jag räcker till
Jag har aldrig glömt vem jag var
Jag har bara låtit det sova
Kanske hade jag inget val
Bara viljan att finnas kvar
Jag vill leva lycklig för att jag är jag
Kunna vara stark och fri
Se hur natten går mot dag
Jag är här och mitt liv är bara mitt
Och den himmel jag trodde fanns
Ska jag hitta där nånstans
Jag vill känna att jag levt mitt liv
Nederlands:
Vanaf nu is mn leven van mij
Ik heb naar zon korte tijd op aarde
En mijn verlangen heeft me hier gebracht
Alles wat mij ontbrak en dat ik vergaarde
En toch is het de weg die ik verkoos
Mijn vertrouwen was eindeloos
Dat mij een klein stukje toonde
Van de hemel die ik nooit vond
Ik wil voelen dat ik leef
Al mijn dagen lang
Ik wil leven zoals ik wil
Ik wil voelen dat ik leef
Wetend dat ik goed genoeg was
Ik ben nooit mijzelf verloren
Het sliep al die tijd in mij
Misschien had ik nooit 'n keuze
Behalve dan de wil om te leven
Het enige dat ik wil is gelukkig zijn
Zijn wie ik ben
Sterk zijn en vrij
De dag uit de nacht zien opkomen
Ik ben hier
en mijn leven is alleen van mij
En de hemel waar ik van overtuigd was
Blijkt ergens daar te zijn
Ik wil voelen
dat ik mn leven heb geleefd!
Holy mother, where are you?
Tonight I feel broken in two
I've seen the stars fall from the sky
Holy mother, can't keep from crying
Oh I need your help this time
Get me through this lonely night
Tell me please which way to turn
To find myself again
Holy mother, hear my prayer
Somehow I know you're still there
Send me please some peace of mind
Take away this pain
I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait any longer
I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait for you
Holy mother, hear my cry
I've cursed your name a thousand times
I've felt the anger running through my soul
All I need is a hand to hold
Oh I feel the end has come
No longer my legs will run
You know I would rather be
In your arms tonight
When my hands no longer play
My voice is still, I fade away
Holy mother, then I'll be
Lying in, safe within your arms