Ain't Much F*ckin' with Jorge Ben

[Flomotion]

Does anybody know if the Jorge Ben Live in Japan collection ever came out on wax? It has a version of "Oba, la Vem Ela" on it that absolutely slays me.

I'd really love to hear that version - one of my favourite songs ever. Any chance of an MP3 hook up of that track?
ENJOY!

Twenty two people got there before me but I got it. A beautiful stripped down killer version - none of the lushness of the better known one but what a song. Thank you, mate.

 

[JoeMojo]

Spent a while listening to La Tabua de Esmerelda, and as the final track comes on, the lady confesses that she's been listening to track 12, Cinco Minutos, on repeat in the car of late. Hot damn does she have good taste!

LOVE that Track! love JORGE ben!

i need to find negro lindo. anyone got one for me?
Ahh shit, I have a couple extra copies but they're in the storage locker... I'll see if I can dig one out next time I'm on the mainland. Although I'm in Atlanta right now at random...

 

[Jonny_Paycheck]

When these Jorge Ben threads come up, I'm always curious: How many of the people in this thread speak Portuguese? My guess would be "not many." And in most other cases I don't really think about it, because non-fluent dudes who start threads on, you know, Turkish crunk or whatever, usually just say "Shit is dope!", maybe post a snippet, and keep it moving. But Jorge Ben appreciation always seems to run much much deeper, with his records having serious, central resonace--like, some Stevie-level shit--with a lot of people, most of whom I have to assume do not actually understand the words that he is saying.

Now, myself, I don't need to speak the language to know that "shit is dope!" (or heavy! or joyous! or crazy! etc.), and I'm very capable of very real love based purely on sonics, but if I don't understand the language in which a record is sung, then that record is always going to hit a wall with regard to how much it really means to me. And I've always assumed that this was the case for most other folks, too, but Jorge Ben seems to be a remarkably consistent exception. Why is that?

I've tried to run Jorge Ben lyrics (all available on his website) through translators, and suffice to say he is on some too-deep-for-Babelfish type schitt.

However, it has helped me understand enough of what the songs are about - at their core - for me to feel it on a greater level than the language barrier might have otherwise allowed.

 

[Reynaldo]

I kind of like not knowing what he's saying; I can give my own meaning to the words and believe it's more profound or playful than what he's actually saying. I usually skip "Brother" on A Tabua... because, compared to the rest of the record, it feels like he's imposing on me. Or maybe it's me imposing on the music and denying him his own voice--like: "Go back to being unintelligible now so I can stay in my dream world."

 

[tonyphrone]

this thread put me on to Africa Brasil

Is La Tabua de Esmeralda on that level?

 

[On_the_Red_Clay]

I think James hit the nail on the head (what's new

) when he suggested Jorge Ben is "on some Stevie-type shit". He is in the same league as Stevie, Curtis, etc in that he manages to convey something universal in his music.

b/w

Breakshelf, lets press up some 45s of that live version - Gorgeous.

 

[The_Hook_Up]

I kind of like not knowing what he's saying

I feel this way about most non-English LPs...that way I can treat the voice as just another instrument and if the lyrics are corny, it wont get in the way in my enjoying them, like on "Ponta de Lanca Africano", I would prefer that I not know he is singing "Kick the ball, kick the ball" and singing about soccer...

 

[SoulOnIce]

like on "Ponta de Lanca Africano", I would prefer that I not know he is singing "Kick the ball, kick the ball" and singing about soccer...

And conversely, I'm thrilled to have just learned that!

 

[rkwpark]

Does anybody know if the Jorge Ben Live in Japan collection ever came out on wax? It has a version of "Oba, la Vem Ela" on it that absolutely slays me.

I'd really love to hear that version - one of my favourite songs ever. Any chance of an MP3 hook up of that track?
ENJOY!

is this live w/ trio mocoto?

 

[leisurebandit]

"Brother" on A Tabua...

that's the only song on there that gets on my nerves

I've noticed that Ben's lyrics tend to be pretty simple compared to a lot of the MPB I listen to, hence easier to understand w/o being fluent. Also, Ben's website has (or used to have) almost all his lyrics posted up, and if I'm lacking lyric inserts or whatever, I'll go in and print out the lyrics to an entire record and sometimes read along while I'm listening, which makes it a lot easier for me to understand as I'm not fluent (I actually do this with a lot of the big MPB figures)

 

[onetet]

"Brother" on A Tabua...

that's the only song on there that gets on my nerves

As with the Os Mutantes Technicolor album, hearing the songs sung in English (and, in the case of Mutantes, w/o the genius of Rogerio Duprat) stripped them of some of their special meaning for me.

 

[Skip Drinkwater]

I agree with Rey on the language barrier thing.

 

[kitchenknight]

I think that some of the language thing is that it just becomes LESS* relevent than the overall feeling of the music. I'm not saying the lyrical content is unimportant; but, in the way that people listen to Gregorian chanting because it has a soulful feel to them, you can listen to Jorge Ben and be moved without knowing portugese.

I guess I just had to say that, as I don't think i really broke any new ground

 

[faux_rillz]

but, in the way that people listen to Gregorian chanting because it has a soulful feel to them, you can listen to Jorge Ben and be moved without knowing portugese.

^^^^^^ENIGMA FAN REVEALED

 

[kitchenknight]

but, in the way that people listen to Gregorian chanting because it has a soulful feel to them, you can listen to Jorge Ben and be moved without knowing portugese.

^^^^^^ENIGMA FAN REVEALED
Last week, I get in the car with a camerman, and NO SHIT, he's got the chanting rollin' in the CD player.

"Yeah...I like to listen to this in the morning to help me wake up."

 

[high_c]

On the topic of language and Jorge I remeber I asked my brazilian ex-coworker to translate some o mr ben's lyrics:

"So 'Balanca Pema' really just means 'shake your ass?' That's it? I was sure he was sayin something a little more profound than that."

And whatever that jam on Tabua is something "e Vorcer" or something he was just talking about going to the beach and lookin at bitches.

Fortunately lyrics have never been that important to me anyway. the voice is just another instrument.
So who cares what he's saying; talkin about booty shaking has never sounded so beautiful.

 

[james]

but, in the way that people listen to Gregorian chanting because it has a soulful feel to them, you can listen to Jorge Ben and be moved without knowing portugese.

^^^^^^ENIGMA FAN REVEALED
Last week, I get in the car with a camerman, and NO SHIT, he's got the chanting rollin' in the CD player.

"Yeah...I like to listen to this in the morning to help me wake up."

You laugh, but next year, the first wave of children conceived to "Sadeness, Part 1" will turn eighteen. Subwoofers will thud tentatively from bookshelves, pelvises will unfurl like molting butterflies, and the streets will run clear with Zima. Brace yourself.

But no, I absolutely understand that you can be moved by Jorge Ben without knowing Portuguese, it's just interesting to me that so very many people are moved as significantly and as consistently as they are. This is not dudes who don't speak any Spanish getting choked up when they hear "Guantanamera"; this is dudes who don't speak any Portuguese but are nonetheless deep enough into Jorge's catalog to prefer certain albums and certain periods and certain versions over others, and who feel enough personal resonance, enough real impact on their lives, to put him in the pantheon along with whoever they consider the all-time luminaries of their native tongue. And I'm not sure I could feel that way about anything that I knew I was willfully ignoring a significant aspect of. I mean, words-plus-music-(minus-words) is kind of a big deal to me.

 

[BreakSelf]

Last week, I get in the car with a camerman, and NO SHIT, he's got the chanting rollin' in the CD player.

"Yeah...I like to listen to this in the morning to help me wake up."

Sorta like how I listen to death metal to fall asleep.

 

[JRoot]

But no, I absolutely understand that you can be moved by Jorge Ben without knowing Portuguese, it's just interesting to me that so very many people are moved as significantly and as consistently as they are. This is not dudes who don't speak any Spanish getting choked up when they hear "Guantanamera"; this is dudes who don't speak any Portuguese but are nonetheless deep enough into Jorge's catalog to prefer certain albums and certain periods and certain versions over others, and who feel enough personal resonance, enough real impact on their lives, to put him in the pantheon along with whoever they consider the all-time luminaries of their native tongue. And I'm not sure I could feel that way about anything that I knew I was willfully ignoring a significant aspect of. I mean, words-plus-music-(minus-words) is kind of a big deal to me.

As usual, I find myself agreeing most --if not all the way-- with the man james. One of the things I miss most about living in Chicago is getting together with james on a regular-enough-to-be-real basis over some naan and getting asked, "So what are you listening to lately? What's good?" This is not in some "Hey dude, what's good?" kind of faux-question greeting that you don't really want to know the answer to, but rather in a what kind of music moves you lately, and do you think it would move me, too? kind of way. At least that's how it always came across. And being on the level with the man james is, to quote Edie Brickell, "the best way to be."

And then he comes along with this type of ish, and you know you are nowhere near his level:

You laugh, but next year, the first wave of children conceived to "Sadeness, Part 1" will turn eighteen. Subwoofers will thud tentatively from bookshelves, pelvises will unfurl like molting butterflies, and the streets will run clear with Zima. Brace yourself.

I own no Jorge Ben records and have listened to none of his music.

Thank you,
JRoot

 

[spelunk]

Give me a year in this accelerated Portugese class I'm in and I'll translate some Jorge Ben lyrics for everyone.

I've always found that Ben's music, like most Brazillian music for me, is music I have to let grow on me, because really understanding it, both lyrically and musically, means understanding a different orientation towards rhythm and music.