#that was adapted into song by chilean musicians

[chikinan]

"the most instantly recognizable latino songs are gasolina, atrévete and la camisa negra" wrong. The most recognizable songs for latinos are:

-La lambada

-El pueblo unido

-Beethoven's Turkish March

[marcussour]

One of my favourite things is finding out the stories and evolution behind songs that go through different iterations.

Case in point for today, I was listening to a version of “Just a Gigolo | I ain’t got nobody” by chilean jazz band “Ángel Parra Trío” with my mom. Now, my mom loves the David Lee Roth version of the same song, which is probably the more well known one (also, fun fact, this is one of my go-to karaoke songs)

Thing is, I knew that both versions are covers of the song popularized by Louis Prima in the 50′s. But here’s the thing, I thought that that version was the original one; but what I found today was that actually, the original song its an austrian tango from 1928 called “Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo“, with lyrics written by Julius Brammer in 1924, and music by Leonello Casucci. Here’s a modern rendition of the original song, by german jazz act Max Raabe and the Palast Orchestra:

The other thing is that, I think the song its pretty self explanatory in it’s lyrics regarding the loneliness and nostalgia experienced by a male gigolo. But what I had no idea was that the original song had a political background and another meaning, since the song had a spoken part before the music comes in, where it chronicles the story of an austrian veteran from WW1 that, unable to find a job in post-war Vienna, has to get by working as a hired dancer (there was a thing in the 20′s-30′s called “taxi dancers” that were basically paid dancing companions that charged per song and often faced social discrimination, in many instances due to the fact that there were many establishments were taxi dancers were a cover for sex work). 

Now, this particular historical context got lost because, when the song was translated to english by lyricist Irving Caesar after it’s rights were bought by record company Chappel & Co. (that nowadays belongs to Universal), they got rid of the first spoken verses that provided the context and located the song in 1920′s Vienna. Though I do have to say that Bing Crosby’s version from 1931 retained the spoken part that provided context, but it changed it from a postwar tale told in Vienna, to now being a tale told to an USamerican in a cafe in Paris by the titular gigolo).

The other fun thing I discovered was that the modern version, the one that was popularized by Louis Prima, its actually a medley of two songs, “Just a Gigolo” and “I Ain’t Got Nobody”. Most people (myself included before today) thought that it was one song, but it turned out that Prima’s version from 1956 combines both songs, with the second one, “I Ain’t Got Nobody” being an even older song. Even though the copyright was registered in 1914, it’s one of those cases where many people claimed to be the creators: the 1914 copyright (under the title “I Ain’t Got Nobody that Cares About Me”) names Charles Warfield as composer, David Young as the lyricist and Marie Lucas as the arranger, and Warfield also had claimed to have composed it before 1914; but there’s also another copyright from 1916, under the title “I Ain’t Got Nobody” that atributes the song to Spencer Williams, Davy Peyton and Roger Graham. There’s also two copyright fillings made in 1911, under the title “I Ain’t Got Nobody” by musicians Clarence E. Brandon Sr. and Billy Smythe.

Last thing I have to add is that, as expected from such old songs, there’s a ton of versions in many different languages: there are covers by Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt, Thelonius Monk, Connie Francis, Marlene Dietrich (which was used in the 1978 film “Just a Gigolo” that adapted the original tale of the song -but moved the action from Vienna to Berlin- and had David Bowie as the titular gigolo), just to name a few. But my favourite discovery was the fact that there’s a Village People version, which its not only fun, but it features the band in winter versions of their signature outfits in the video:

[hello-robin-goodfellow]

Soft Tag Game.

Nobody indicated me. So i’m doing it aniway.

RULES:

*Write 11 facts about you

*Answer the questions of who indicated the TAG to you

*Indicate 05 or more Tumblr friends (blogs) to answer the TAG

*Make 11 questions to who you indicate.

PART 01 - THE 11 FACTS ABOUT ME:

01. My favorite activity is sleeping.

02. Sometimes i like to look at my horoscope to see what gets right and what gets wrong about my personality. I’m a Taurus.

03. About animals: I have a huge phobia of frogs. And i once raised a brown stick insect as a pet, because i watched Pixar’s A Bug’s Life a lot.

04. My favorite colors are: silver, black, blue, green, lilac purple, violet and orange.

05. I enjoy listen to classical music, and i love to watch/watching ópera and ballet. One of my first fanfics was a (terribly writen) two chapter sequel story to Giácomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. My favorite ópera is Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore. My favorite ballet is Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

06. I sometimes dream/wish to have a Youtube channel to post AMVs and review books, movies and TV shows.

07. I started writing because i once haved the dream of become a screen writer for telenovelas (the latin equivalent os soap operas).

08. I understand portuguese (my native language), spanish and english.

09. My favorite genres of fiction are: comedy, horror, musicals, fantasy (fairy tales) and sci fi.

10. My dream crossover is between Doug and The Simpsons.

11. My first geek passion as a kid were dinosaurs and greek mithology.

PART 02 - ANSWERING 21 QUESTIONS

01. The book that transformed your life?

 I think it was probably Voltaire’s Candide. This book is a tragicomic story about a ragtag bunch of misfits who were raised as rich priviliged people that believed that everything was alright in the world, and have their visions shaked when they lose everything, so they must get united and adapt to their new reality to get into a happy ending. The message i take of that story is: “Yes, the world is shitty. Out there are lots of people who will exploit and hurt you. So learn to count with your friends, be kind to one another, and keep living and moving on”.

02. The movie that changed your way of seeing the world?

 Walt Disney’s Fantasia. This experiment to give visuals to  classical music trough classical music formed my believe that we must keep blurring the lines between popular and erudite arts, and all art should be acessible to al people.

03. The music that makes part of the soundtrack of your life?

I tend to say that Mägo de Oz’s ‘Danza del Fuego’ is the song that would be the opening of a series about my life.

04. Define longing?

A word that sound better as the portuguese ‘saudade’.

05. If you got back in time, wich scene would you visit of your life?

I would go back to 2008, and say to my 10 year old self how to give some improvements to its writing. 

06. The place where your heart is.

The beaches. 

07. The travel of your life.

To the brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. 

08. An author that you have metted recently, and whose works you want to continue to read.

Probably Umberto Eco. I reded two books of him, and i got curious to know more of his work.

09. Coffee or tea?

Tea. Specially of mint. 

10. Who's your Doctor (if you don't watch Doctor Who, who's your favorite character from a TV series)? 

Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee), from seasons Seven to Eight, and Eight Doctor (Paul Mcgann), from the 1996 TV Movie.

11. If you could just throw everything away and live your dream, what would you do?

No idea, really. 

12. If you could choose to be a character from a book, TV series or movie, who you would be?

Probably the Doctor. He is a self regenariting (shape shifter) imortal alien who can travel to anywhere in time and space. How not to choose to be it?

13. What makes you don't like a story?

If everything is grimm dark and the characters are boring, i don’t have any will to continue reading or watching it. 

14. Do you like romance in stories? Why?

If i feel that the couple is health together and have good chemistry, even if is not the focus of the main plot, i find that it can be a nice way to humanize characters, showing how its lifes are outside of the intense action. 

15. Wich book did you hated having read?

Sons of Lilith: The Awakening by Elaine Velasco has a character who is a vampire that doesn’t want to give away killing humans to drink their blood, but them says he is in favour of life while massacring the people in a clandestine abortion clinic (which, i have to remember, can save several teenage girls victims of sexual abuse from dying of a risk pregnancy). I tought ‘What’? and ended up really hating this book because of that character.

16. Wich movie did you hated having watched?

 A brazilian movie Wolf at the Door. All the characters were assholes, and i left the movie felling really miserable.

17. Do you like anime/manga? Any favorite?

I love it. My favorite mangas are probably Legend of Kamui (Sanpei Shirato), Árion (Yoshikazu Yasuhiko) and Evil Crusher Maya (Masami Kurumada). My favorite animes are Saint Seiya, Tenkuu Senki Shurato, The Rose of Versailles and Ashita no Joe.

18. Who is the best villain you saw in a story?

Probably Claude Frollo, from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Before the recent fever of catholic priests involved on sex abuse scandals apearing on the TV news, Victor Hugo was already denouncing it with that creep.

19. If you could do an interview with any person, alive or dead, from our world, who would you choose and why?

Mary Shelley (british writer), Frida Kahlo (mexican painter) and Violeta Parra (chilean folclorist and musician). I consider them to be very complex people and fascinating artistic role models.

20. If you could meet and and befriend a writer, who would be?

My lady, Mary Shelley. 

21. Cats or dogs?

Cats. They kill rats for you and are more independent.

22. If you could choose any time period or society to live, wich it would be?

A utopic future with vaccins for every desease ever.

PART 03 - NOW I TAG YOU TO ANSWER MY 11 QUESTIONS:

I TAG: @anne-white-star @theimpossiblescheme @theroguefeminist @thedyingtimelady @deise-tb @graf-edel-weiss @princesssarisa @amalthea9

01. Did you haved a imaginary friend as a kid?

02. Describe your aesthetics.

03. Wich was your biggest fear as a child?

04. Wich is your favorite season: Summer, Autumn, Winter or Spring?

05. Kodomomuke, Shonen, Shoujo, Seinen or Josei?

06. Wich artist that you admired lefted you down when you learned how it/he/she was as a real life person?

07. Wich foreign language would you like to learn?

08. Do you watch tokusatsu? Any favorite?

09. Do you prefer dubbed or subtitled movies and TV shows?

10. Wich is you guilty pleasure movie?

11. Wich fictional character was your inspirational childhood heroe?