Pete Seeger - The Essential (Vanguard, 1978, vinyl rip)

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Pete Seeger is the sort of person who has become the stuff of legend for all the best reasons. As a musicologist, he's been a passionate archivist of folk songs of all sorts from around the world for most of his life, and thousands of people (perhaps millions) would not have heard songs such as "Goodnight Irene," "This Land Is Your Land" and "Wimoweh" (aka "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") had he not championed them. As a songwriter, any man with "If I Had a Hammer," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "I Come and Stand at Every Door" and "Turn, Turn Turn" in his catalog (among many, many others) has created a truly impressive repertoire. As a musician, it's hard to count how many people picked up the guitar or banjo from his example, and he's always been a pithy and compelling player. And as an activist, Seeger has bravely put his ideals of peace, justice and equality ahead of his career in a manner few musicians of any stature have ever dared or even imagined.

"The Essential" is an odd compilation. Pete Seeger usually recorded for Folkways and Columbia, but this collection, recorded between 1950 and 1974, comes from Vanguard's vaults. Many of the songs, including "The Bells of Rhymney," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?," and "Wimoweh," have long been associated with either Seeger or his group, the Weavers. He's also frequently performed numbers like "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies," "I Shall Not Be Moved," and "Oh What a Beautiful City." But other essentials like "The Hammer Song" and "Turn, Turn, Turn" - perhaps his most essential songs - haven't been included.

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Pete Seeger - The Essential (Vanguard, 1978, vinyl rip)

(192 kbps, front cover included)

Bertolt Brecht - Flüchtlingsgespräche (Berliner Ensemble, LITERA 1970)

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This is the classic Berliner Ensemble recording of Bertolt Brecht's "Flüchtlingsgespräche" ("Conversations in Exile")

Side 1:

I. Über Pässe / Über die Ebenbürtigkeit von Bier und Zigarre / Über die Ordnungsliebe

II. Über niedrigen Materialismus / Über das Überhandnehmen bedeutender Menschen

III. Schwierigkeiten der großen Männer / Ob der Wieheißterdochgleich ein Vermögen besitzt

IV. Trauriges Schicksal großer Ideen / Die Zivilbevölkerung ein Problem

Side 2:

V. Die Schweiz, berühmt durch Freiheitsliebe und Käse / Vorbildliche Erziehung in Deutschland / Die Amerikaner / Frankreich oder der Patriotismus / Über Verwurzelung / Dänemark oder der Humor / Über die Hegelsche Dialektik

VI. Ziffel erklärt seinen Unwillen gegen alle Tugenden

VII. Kalles Schlußwort / Eine ungenaue Bewegung

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Bertolt Brecht - Flüchtlingsgespräche (Berliner Ensemble, LITERA 1970)

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(192 kbps, cover included)

You will find the original liner notes in the comment section.

Hanns Eisler - Lieder und Kantaten im Exil - Songs and Cantatas in Exile

These previously little known songs and cantatas from exile are oetic and musical commentaries on exile. They are unique testimonies to the way Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler in particual,who had to leave theri homeland on account of their political beliefs, reacted as Communist and anti-Fascist artists to the new situation facing them and Germany after Hitler came to power on January 30, 1933 - the poet in countless little poems, the composer in many miniatures of vocal chamber music.

Eisler continued in established genres while in exil e- the functinal mass song (e.g. "Eineheitsfrontlied"), film and stage music (e.g. "Die Rundköpfe und die Spitzköpfe"), choral and orchestal works (e. g. "Gegen den Krieg") - but the songs and cantatas represent a new element in his creative work, emerging only after 1937 and in particular between 1942 and 1944.

We´re glad Verde called our attention to the 111 birthday of Hanns Eisler, which we like to clebrate with this posting.

Hanns Eisler - Lieder und Kantaten im Exil - Songs and Cantatas in Exile (cd 1)

Hanns Eisler - Lieder und Kantaten im Exil - Songs and Cantatas in Exile (cd 2)

(192 kbps, front cover inlcuded)

Fela Kuti - Why Black Man Dey Suffer (1970)

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"Why Black Man Dey Suffer" was recorded in 1970, but went unreleased at the time — EMI, Fela's label, felt it was too controversial given its political overtones. It was finally brought out in France in 1986 by Decca's Afrodesia imprint.

"Why Black Men Dey Suffer" (with its B-side "Ikoyi Mentality Versus Mushin Mentality") is more classic Fela Kuti, with its pulsating grooves, lengthy instrumental build ups, honking horn riffs and the leader's booming baritone.

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Fela Kuti - Why Black Man Dey Suffer (1970)

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(192 kbps, front cover included)

Fela Kuti - No Bread (1982)

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The Fela Kuti album "No Bread" was released in Nigeria in 1982 on Soundwork Shop Records with the catalogue number SWS1003.

Tracks:
1. No Buredi (No Bread)
2. Unnecessary Begging

Fela Kuti - No Bread (1982)
(192 kbps, front cover included

Erich Kästner - Muttersohn im Vaterland

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Erich Kästner (February 23, 1899 - July 29, 1974) was one of the most famous German authors, screenplay writers, and satirists of the 20th century. His popularity in Germany is primarily due to his humorous and perceptive children's literature and his often satirical poetry.
Kästner was a pacifist and was opposed to the Nazi regime in Germany. Unlike many of his fellow authors critical of the dictatorship, Kästner did not emigrate. The Gestapo interrogated Kästner several times, and the writers' guild excluded him. Fanatic mobs burnt Kästner's books as "contrary to the German spirit" during the book burnings of 1933.

"Muttersohn im Vaterland" is a literary and musical voyage through the time, life and dreams of Erich Kästner.
With it´s well selected collection of the satirists poems, notes and fragments of novels this lecture by Ulrich Ritter leads us authentic and in a high tempo through Erich Kästner´s world.

Erich Kästner - Muttersohn im Vaterland (fresh link)
(192 kbps, ca. 88 MB)

Bertolt Brecht - Lehrgedicht von der Natur der Menschen (Helene Weigel, Ekkehard Schall, LITERA 1967)

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These readings of Brecht´s "Lehrgedicht von der Natur der Menschen" were recorded at the 150. birthday of Karl Marx, May 5, 1968.

The poems were read by Helene Weigel and Eckehard Schall.

Tracks:
1. Vorbemerkung
2. Aus dem ersten Gesang „Über die Schwierigkeit, die es bereitet, sich in der Natur der Gesellschaft zurechtzufinden“
3. Der zweite Gesang„Das Manifest“
4. Aus dem vierten Gesang „Über die ungeheuerlich gesteigerte Barbarisierung der Gesellschaft“

You will find the original cover text in the comment section.

Bertolt Brecht - Lehrgedicht von der Natur der Menschen (LITERA 1967)

(192 kbps, cover included)

Paul Robeson - Ol´ Man River

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Paul Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an African-American actor of film and stage, professional athlete, writer, multi-lingual orator, lawyer, and basso profondo concert singer who was also noted for his wide-ranging social justice activism.

A forerunner of the civil rights movement, Robeson was a trades union activist, peace activist, Phi Beta Kappa Society laureate, and a recipient of the Spingarn Medal and Stalin Peace Prize. Robeson achieved worldwide fame and recognition during his life for his artistic accomplishments, and his outspoken, radical beliefs which largely clashed with the colonial powers of Western Europe and the Jim Crow climate of pre-civil rights America.

Paul Robeson was the first major concert star to popularize the performance of spirituals and was the first black actor of the 20th century to portray William Shakespeare's Othello on Broadway. His run in the 1943-45 Othello production still holds the record for the longest running Shakespeare play on Broadway. In line with Robeson's vocal dissatisfaction with movie stereotypes, his roles in both the American and British film industry were some of the first parts ever created that displayed dignity and respect for the African American film actor, paving the way for the likes of Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte.

Here´s the compilation "Ol´ Man River", released in 1987 on Conifer Records.

Paul Robeson - Ol´ Man River

(192 kbps, front cover included)

Die Dreigroschenoper Berlin 1930 (Bertolt Brecht)

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"Die Dreigroschenoper" took all of Germany by storm soon after its premiere in 1928 until 1933 when it was banned by the Nazis, along with Weill and the entire Berlin entertainment scene.

Of course we all know that eventually the rest of the world was hooked on the tuneful ballad of "Mack The Knife" or "Mackie Messer", which in America took on a life of its own in the versions popularized by Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra and (in a departure from the usual performance by a male singer) Ella Fitzgerald.

The version of "Die Dreigroschenoper" (or "Threepenny Opera") on this digitally remastered CD was recorded in Berlin in December 1930 under the Ultraphon (and later, Telefunken) label. The first ever recording of what later became Weill's most popular score features highlights of the original 1928 production and - with only one exception - the original cast, including Weill's wife, the actress Lotte Lenya , who in an alteration of the original performance sings both the roles of Jenny and Polly. The role is sung in a child-like high soprano , exemplifying Weill's "roaring twenties" song style.
Another alteration is the spoken text that Brecht later wrote to introduce each highlight.
While the very whistleable tunes were a product of Weill's musical imagination, the character of Mack, the knife (or Macheath) goes back to 1728 - to John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera".
This iconoclastic "ballad opera," in wittily depicting the low-life of the criminal world, poked fun at (the then fashionable) Italian opera seria - bringing it down and with it the mighty house of Handel. Weill and Brecht's high-art adaptation 200 years later transported Macheath to the low-life of thieves, whores and hooligans of 1920s Berlin - musically attacking the pompous grandeur of Wagner-like music-theatre while unsettling the bourgeoisie and the self-appointed arbiters of German culture. French versions of some of the songs likewise recorded in 1930 are also included.
The CD, which celebrates Teldec's Telefunken Legacy, also includes other songs from the period, notably two selections from Weill and Brecht's true opera, written for opera singers, "AUFSTIEG UND FALL DER STADT MAHAGONNY" ("The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny"). The work is an anti-capitalist satire about men stranded in an American desert who decide to build themselves a city of pleasure founded on the guiding philosophy of "every man for himself" - inevitably leading to corruption, chaos and self-destruction. Musically, it is a potpourri of operetta, ragtime and pop.
This newly remastered CD is a delightful celebration of a musical genre created by legendary musicmakers from a bygone era, and even only for the experience of hearing what the composer himself actually heard in his day, worth having in one's collection. It is handsomely packaged in digipak / booklet form containing the complete lyrics of the songs (in three languages) and loaded with information, pictures and drawings from the period that can only enhance one's enjoyment of the music.

Fresh link:
Die Dreigroschenoper Berlin 1930 (Bertolt Brecht)
(192 kbps)

Kurt Weill & Bert Brecht - Rise And Fall Of the City Of Mahagonny (re-up)

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In the 1920´s Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht worked togehter on the "song-play" "Mahagonny", based on poems taken from Brecht´s "Hauspostille". They interrupted adapting the song-play into a "Mahagonny" opera in May 1928 so that they could concentrate on a new version of the classical "Beggar´s Opera", which enjoyed its premiere performance as "The Threepenny Opera" in autumn 1928 in Berlin. The piece took the rest of Europa by storm and Brecht and Weill were alredy working on their next project - The "Mahagonny" opera.

This opera tells the story of three criminals (Leokadja Begbick, Trinity Moses and Fatty) creating the city of Mahagonny. Drinking, gambling, prize-fights and similar activities are the sole occupation of the inhabitants, and money rules. The implications for a society organized on such a value system is the overarching theme of the opera, which explores scenarios of greed, gluttony, lust, and a justice system in which a murderer can buy his way to freedom, but inability to pay a bill results in conviction and a death sentence.
There are only two main characters, Jenny, a prostitute, and Jim Mahoney, a lumberjack. Mahagonny is threatened by a hurricane at the end of Act 1, which despite much anticipation & causing much distress simply bypasses the city. In Act 2 following the hurricane nothing is forbidden and various scenes of debauchery occur. Jenny and Jim try to leave but Jim cannot pay his debts and is arrested. Another character arraigned for murder, bribes his way out of it, but Jim has no money and is condemned to death for not paying for his whisky. The opera ends with discontent destroying the city, which burns as the inhabitants march away.
The music uses a number of styles, including rag-time, jazz and formal counterpoint, notably in the "Alabama Song" (covered by The Doors and later David Bowie).
The lyrics for the "Alabama Song" and another song, the "Benares Song" are in English (albeit specifically idiosyncratic English) and are performed in that language even when the opera is performed in its original German language.

This opera enjoyed its premiere performance in 1930 as "The Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny". This event became one of the greatest theatre scandals in the history of the Weimarer Republic. Organized groups of Nazi troublemakers attended the performance and caused such tumultuous scenes that the performance could only be completed with the greatest of effort. The reaction of the right-wing press also made it clear that "Mahagonny" was not only considered an opera but also a political issue. Weill left Germany in 1933.

Fresh links:
Kurt Weill & Bert Brecht - Rise And Fall Of the City Of Mahagonny pt 1
Kurt Weill & Bert Brecht - Rise And Fall Of the City Of Mahagonny pt 2
(192 kbps, cover art included)