Love Spins at 78rpm: a Valentine Bouquet of Songs
.10) Corcovado , Carlos Jobim, Stan Getz, and Astrud Gilberto. My wife once briefly fooled me into thinking that Astrud Gilberto was an Engineering Major. For the ten seconds or so I believed her, I was very depressed. We will always have Lester to thank for what Stan Getz did on this magical album.
11) La Vie En Rose , Edith Piaf. This is not the very best song here, but perhaps the most intense one. Hereâs something I wrote about it years ago: âI do not want to know the meaning of the lyrics, for they will inevitably be too definite and down-to-earth, bounded by dictionary meanings, and worse, upon knowing the words I might detect hints and connotations of the merely human, of foibles and motives and half-baked ideas. No, it is better to be the ignorant American here, to have only seen Paris in movies and to fancy French as the very Language of Romance, and in this state to experience the swell, the sigh, and even the soaring flight of Piaf and orchestra. Amid such music, the title is enough, for I do know that âvieâ means life, which calls to mind that âLa Vita Nuova,â Danteâs collection of love sonnets, means âthe new life.â Love of the Beloved, after all, beckons us toward a higher life, one that is all the more glorious for just beginning or being as yet just out of reach. It is a life wherein the world becomes new and full of hitherto unnoticed delightsâa âfairylandâ as âStars Fell on Alabamaâ puts it, made of what was only everyday yesterday. The Loverâs eyes having been opened to the presence of the Beloved, they are able to see much else besides.â
If I ever recreate any of my houses (perhaps an improved version) I will try to take a screenshot and post it here. ♥
