Sacrilidge, Satisfaction, Social revolution, the Sixties and Fado
I was stumbling around the internet trying to quiet the hunger of my musical addiction when I came across a strange version of the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction," by Carlos Bastos. Carlos Bastos is a Portuguese Fado singer who in the sixties began to combine the traditional melancholic sounds of Fado with the ephemeral rhythms and lyrics of pop. His album, "All That Fado" , is a collection of covers from the likes of Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. At first glance, the idea seems kind of gimmicky, a attempt to make a quick buck of the backs of musical giants. But listening to songs like "Satisfaction" covered by Bastos, one starts to build an appreciation for this peculiar bridge between 60's pop and Fado. Bastos takes the Stones classic and wrings every drop of desperation out of the tune, creating something original and much more nefarious. Bastos received a bit of a mixed response from the general public. From the guardians of Fado the reaction was a bit stronger. To hear Fado sung in English was akin to sacrilege and he was denounced as a musical heretic.
Satisfaction from J. Sprig on Vimeo.
Ultimately music acts on it's audience through the the basic physics of sound, moving the air an arousing sensations in our bodies.
Very simply, sound is the vibration of any substance. The substance can be air, water, wood, or any other material. When these substances vibrate, or rapidly move back and forth, they produce sound that our ears gather and these vibrations allow us to interpret them. Physiologically music works the same way it does on me as it does on another person. But emotionally we have very different responses. A song can have one affect on me and a completely different affect on someone else. Sometimes a song can meaning beyond it's tones.
"Grândola, Vila Morena" is a Portuguese song by Zeca Afonso, that tells the story of fraternity and brotherhood shared among the people of Grândola, a town in the Alentejo. Salazar, and his "Estado Novo" regime considered the song to be Communist, and banned it from being played or broadcast. On April 25, 1974, at 12:20 a.m. the song was broadcast on Portuguese radio as a signal to start the revolution that peacefully overthrew the regime; it thus became commonly associated with the Carnation Revolution and the beginning of democratic rule in Portugal.
Dostoevksi said that taking a new step is what people fear most. Usually the first steps toward any revolutionary change are forced. There must be an accompanying frustration, sense of defeat, and complete failure to see a future, that letting go of the past and chancing the future becomes the only option. Other times change comes from the combination of generations brushing up against each other in an awkward cultural tango of clashing social attitudes and sometimes just a bit of insanity is all it takes. Being that We Hate Tourism Tours was born from a combination of all of the above, we always admire and salute those kindred spirits with which we share the same rebellious DNA.
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