#El condor pasa (If I Could)

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Simon & Garfunkel - El Condor Pasa (If I Could)

[alightinthelantern]

anyway I'm not arguing about this, I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail, yes I would, and I'd rather be a hammer than a nail, yes I would. if I only could, I surely would. like it is literally not up for debate, I'd rather sail away, like a swan that's here and gone. a man gets tied up to the ground, he gives the world its saddest sound, its saddest sound. couldn't be any easier to understand

[songspiral]

"El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" by Simon & Garfunkel

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

Bridge Over Troubled Water • El Condor Pasa (If I Could) • Cecilia • Keep the Customer Satisfied • So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright • The Boxer • Baby Driver • The Only Living Boy in New York • Why Don't You Write Me • Bye Bye Love • Song for the Asking

Spotify ♪ YouTube

[fortheturnstiles]

Spotify wrapped #69 😤😤😤

EL CONDOR PASA BABY!!!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[tweeterwilbury]

Id rather be eating oranges in a shower than be imprisioned in a tower🎶

[evildilf2]

For the playlist thing, cowboy_jules, thank you!! (Also you make a lot of banger posts and it's always a joy to see you on my dash ♡ॢ₍⸍⸌̣ʷ̣̫⸍̣⸌₎)

Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears - Lavender Country

Over the Jeans - The Fibonacci Fellas

West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys

Beers, Steers, & Queers - Revolting Cocks

Older Guys - The Flying Burrito Brothers

Yoü and I - Lady Gaga

Japanese Cowboy - Ween

Utah Carol - Marty Robbins

Let Me Turn You Out - Glen Meadmore

El Condor Pasa (If I Could) - Simon & Garfunkel

Sweat (1988 country version) - Oingo Boingo

AWW TY for the kind words! I tried making the playlist gay adjacent cowboy themed, hope u enjoy 🤠

[matamorose]

tag game: put your on repeat playlist on shuffle and post the first 10 songs (Thank you @cowboylines!!! 🫶)

the world ender - lord huron

I just want to see his face - the rolling stones

el condor pasa (if I could) - simon & garfunkel

murder of maria marten - shirley collins & albion country band

something very bad - hadouken!

black - pearl jam

idumea - sacred harp singers

roads - portishead

lockjaw - todd rungren

la danse de mardi gras - the balfa brothers

If you guys want to do it too! @adrianicsea @olipeaksforever @freakvampire @sadcowboygirl

[japonyamesken]

"I'd rather be a forest than a street

Yes, I would

If I could

I surely would"

[girlreviews]

Review #172: Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon & Garfunkel

Simon & Garfunkel have always been hilarious to me. They are such massive goobers. Goobers with huge egos that dated/married/divorced beautiful women. Both insufferable in their individual specific ways. But also they make the most precious and beautiful music together. They know how good they are but lack self-awareness about literally anything else (like that they’re goobers). Everyone likes it though. You want to not like it because your Mom likes it, but you cannot deny its pull. You like it. It’s good. Have you met anyone that hates Simon & Garfunkel? I haven’t.

It really is good. It opens with the title track, which is a big, gorgeous vocal performance that keeps getting bigger. The accompanying music gets bigger too, without drowning out the vocals. The sentiment of the song is just so lovely too: I’m here for you, you’re my friend. It’s nice not to have an entire album of love songs.

Cecilia could be a love song, I suppose, but it’s really about a man who is desperate to reconcile with a cheating partner who sounds pretty toxic. I’d love to hear Cecilia’s side of the story. I really would. I think about this all the time. Especially because they are both such GOOBERS. It’s a really fun song though. When they do upbeat, they really go for it. See also: Keep The Customer Satisfied, Baby Driver (it has a sax solo, c’mon!).

These Goobers know how to put together a damn fine arrangement that makes some of their songs feel deeper: El Condor Pasa has a really Spanish feel to it with the guitar (duh) and some flutes. It’s a whole vibe, that matches the lyrics. Would I rather be a sparrow or a snail? A forest or a street? A hammer or a nail? These are the big unanswered questions in life, right? No, but it feels like it in this song because it’s mysterious and philosophical. This whole vibe thing is also successful in The Only Living Boy in New York. It sounds like what it’s about, and it’s so beautiful. But totally different to Bridge Over Troubled Water and El Condor Pasa. The slower more ballad-y songs on this album sound like a damn Bob Ross painting.

The Boxer is maybe (???) the most well-known song on this album, but that’s based in absolutely no fact whatsoever on my part. I have no idea. It just seems like most people know that one. Like it got more radio play or something. I like it a lot, but there’s low registering repetitive sound running through it that has always just sort of bugged me. Possibly because I just cannot identify what the instrument is? What is that sound? It could be a cello/double-bass, or some kind of horn, or honestly even a percussion type thing. But I don’t know what it is. Honestly it kind of sounds like a duck to me. I’ve even wondered if it’s a kazoo. I haven’t looked it up, but I could. But will I? I’ll just forget about it until the next time I hear it: Sometimes (often) the duck kazoo is all I can focus on instead of the rest of the song which is pretty fucking pretty.

For a really soft, folky, gentle record made by two goobers, I would also definitively state that it’s somehow full of straight bangers. I could elaborate further on that but I’d suggest you listen to it yourself and you’ll see what I mean.

ETA: it’s a damn BASS HARMONICA. I honestly wasn’t that far off with the kazoo. Also, The Boxer took over 100 hours to record. This blew my mind.

[allerod]

3, 9, 29, 99

3. From Now On We Are Enemies by Fall Out Boy

I'm just the man on the balcony Singing, "Nobody will ever remember me" Rejoice, rejoice and fall to your knees

9. Repeat After Me by KONGOS

But it’s so hard to sign my own surrender So hard to do what I’ve intended So hard to leave what I've defended So hard to separate what's blended

29. El Condor Pasa (If I Could) by Simon & Garfunkel

I'd rather be a forest than a street

99. Дверь в параллельный мир by Электрофорез

Я видел то, что не стоит видеть И страшно смотреть Здесь происходит то, чему Не надо сбываться

[radfemmovierecs]

Wild Review

Welcome back! Happy December 1st! For my second review, I’ve chosen the film Wild. It’s based on a memoir of the same name, written by Cheryl Strayed. I didn’t know this when I first watched the film, and this was a rare instance where I actually watched a movie adaptation before I read the book it was based on. I think my favorite thing about this being an adaptation though is that Cheryl Strayed actually did walk off into the wilderness with no training whatsoever and walk the Pacific Crest Trail. She had help along the way, but she walked all those miles alone. Women are amazing. Anyway, onto the review. 

Although the source material was written by a woman and the film was not directed by one, I would still say that the film is a faithful adaptation of the book. I thought the way they split the story into two timelines mimicked the way the book wrote the timelines very well; it was easy to follow and it didn’t leave out huge amounts of details. Obviously a book like this, written in first person and primarily recounting one character’s internal thoughts is hard to adapt to the screen without huge amounts of narration (which I’m not personally a huge fan of) but the film did not do this, and I found that the narration they did include did not immediately yank me out of the world of the story, which was nice. 

There wasn’t anything standout about the technical aspects of this film, in a good or bad way, I thought all the camera work, post work, etc, were fine. For the acting though, I do have to give a HUGE shoutout to Reese Witherspoon, because her performance in this film was absolutely phenomenal. As was the rest of the cast (including Laura Dern! That was exciting). One technical aspect that did stand out though, was the music. There is a song used throughout the film, the whole thing finally in the credits, called “El Condor Pasa (If I Could)” sung by Simon and Garfunkel. (I think their version is a cover?) And it’s absolutely the perfect song to encapsulate the way this movie makes me feel. It’s slow, not at all rushed, and it sounds like what I would imagine nature would sound like if it was a song. The lyrics are also very powerful, capturing the journey and emotions of the main character very well, even though they are not necessarily literal. 

And speaking of emotions, the EMOTIONS that this film invokes. If you’re a woman I swear you NEED to watch this movie. It’s simultaneously a film about grief and its stages, and overcoming pain and hardship, which are things everyone can relate to, but there’s something that feels so viscerally female in it. I’m not sure if it’s just because the main character’s a woman, I think it’s a little bit more than that. Women are constantly told throughout our lives that we cannot do things, or people will scoff and say “good luck” whenever we express any desire to do something that may be difficult, especially physically. In a lot of media, when women decide to do these things anyway, they take on a very spiteful attitude, which can be inspiring and fun to watch, but sometimes it gets a little old. This movie does not do that, the main character decides to do the hard things anyway, because she has to, and she does them for herself, and only for herself, to overcome her struggles. 

Like I mentioned before, this film was not directed by a woman, and it did not have very many women in the main credits at all actually. But despite not having many women involved in the making of this film, including the director, it still manages to feel like one that was. I attribute this to the source material, as the film is based on a memoir written by a woman, as well as the costume designer being a woman. Often I find when watching a film that I can tell if the costume designer was a woman or not based on the designs. A really good example of this is the difference in the costumes of the Amazonian (Amazon?) warriors in the film Wonder Woman vs. the film Justice League. Imagine though, if a film actually had women in most if not all positions when making a film, if it can be as good as this one with only two in prominent roles, how good a movie could be with all of them? One day. 

I’ve described this film as a faithful adaptation of its source material, and I stand by that, so maybe this is a nit picky thing, but I’m going to nit pick it anyway; her trail name. I vaguely recall that in the book it was much more comical and in the movie it’s much more…derogatory, for lack of a better word. In the book, it’s only a few lines that all the characters laugh about, as Cheryl recalls the kindness that others have bestowed upon her on her trip. (I’m tempted to call it a quest, because that what it seems like it is). It reminds me of when men cry that when women can claim to have a headache to get out of sex it’s privilege, when in reality women shouldn’t need to claim anything to not have sex with someone they don’t want to have sex with. The post office guy brings Cheryl a cup of coffee & a donut or something, and all the other guys tease her for it, nicknaming her “Queen of the PCT” when he only did that because he thinks she’s pretty (they also literally saw him creeping on her the night before when he said he’d only give her her package if she had a drink with him) and he also thinks she’s helpless. This also slightly differs from the book, as the man in the book who invited Cheryl for a drink is much creepier than the post office guy. It’s also more comical in the book, as she brings all three of the guys to have a drink with the guy (who’s name is Guy in the book funnily enough) since he’s so creepy. I digress, but being helped because a man thinks you’re pretty and helpless is not the gotcha these guys think it is. Makes it clearer this film was directed by a man, at least to me. 

The final point I noticed had strong themes related to radical feminism is the way nudity and sex are shown. Funnily enough, even the libfems that I know have spoken about how they dislike the amount of gratuitous female nudity in film and the way it is portrayed, and there have been numerous stories about how uncomfortable it’s made the actresses in said movies. The most notable examples I can think of in modern media are Game of Thrones and Euphoria. The way nudity and sex are portrayed in this film also makes it clearer to me that this film was directed by a man. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was inaccurate to the way it was written about in the book, but I almost always find that even if a film as nudity with women, it doesn’t have the same nudity with men. Nudity is also not equal between the sexes, since men can just be shirtless. One thing I will say about the nudity in this film though, is that it’s not all sexual. There are definitely some explicit sex scenes, but there is also a scene of the main character nude after showering in a completely unsexual way. The difference in the way the sex scenes are shot at the beginning of the film, when the main character is actively engaging in self-destructive sexual behavior, and the last sex scene of the film when the she has sex with a man she actually wants to have sex with, and without any infidelity, is noticeable. I have to give the director man credit for that I guess. 

Overall, this is another one of those films that just stuck with me, and from the moment I watched it for the first time after coming up with the idea for this blog, I knew I wanted to include it in the list. I watch this movie whenever I need a little female inspiration. In the credits, there were 5 out of 16 women’s names, and the film is currently available to rent or buy on Amazon, as well as available for purchase on DVD. Thanks for reading! 

[wookieeoftheyear]

I was tagged by @greenwhitehobo and @nebraskahoneybee Thank you! 😊

Rules: pick a song for every letter of your URL and tag that many people

Wide Awake - Parquet Courts

O.R.B. - ORB

Obstacle 1 - Interpol

Keasby Nights - Streetlight Manifesto

Inspire the Liars - Dance Gavin Dance

Everlong - Foo Fighters

Escape from Midwich Valley - Carpenter Brut

One - Metallica

Fallen Leaves - Billy Talent

Turtles all the Way Down - Sturgill Simpson

Hard Times - Paramore

Eat, Sleep, Wake - Bombay Bicycle Club

Your Love (Deja Vu) - Glass Animals

El Condor Pasa (If I Could) - Simon and Garfunkel

Arise - Chevelle

Rivers and Roads - The Head and the Heart

I love talking about and thinking about music so I’d love to see what y’all are listening to. Tagging some people with shorter usernames tho lol @quannaix @cour5t @dranamichelle @moss-wizard @gainsaf No pressure of course!

[canoeing-the-north]

Simon & Garfunkel - El Condor Pasa (If I Could) (Audio)

[littlegermanboy]

jo @sufjanista tagged me to assign a song title to each letter of my url this should be fun 😋

L: lover, lover, lover - leonard cohen

I: in dark trees - brian eno

T: the heavenly music corporation i - fripp & eno

T: thunder road - bruce springsteen

L: lay my love - eno & cale

E: EAT YOUR FRIENDS - jhariah & pinkshift

G: get out of my house - kate bush

E: el condor pasa (if i could) - simon & garfunkel

R: rongwrong - quiet sun

M: miss america - david byrne

A: andalucia - john cale

N: night scented stock - kate bush

B: blues in bob minor - robert wyatt

O: of all the things we've made - orchestral manoeuvres in the dark

Y: you're kind - paul simon

hmm i'll tag @sliceofdyke @graciouswings @dinerva @zoology @dykesbites and whoever else also wants to can say i tagged u 😋

[fortheturnstiles]

i'm still on that damn el condor pasa (if i could)