newhappygathering - Tumblr blog

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https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2024/06/24/aquarium-drunkard-2024-mid-year-review/

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https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2024/06/20/blue-eyed-soul-you-aint-no-weight/

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Odetta, Photo by Herb Snitzer, 1990

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https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2024/06/17/anastasia-coope-darning-woman/

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https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2024/06/12/funk-tide-tokyo-jazz-funk-from-electric-bird-1978-87/

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Françoise Hardy - If You Listen (1972)

Adieu to the incomparable Françoise Hardy, who passed away this week after a long battle with cancer. Her records always sound so good — but if I had to pick one song, it'd be the perfectly melancholy "If You Listen." One of the great what-ifs of music (for me, anyway) is if Françoise and Nick Drake had actually been able to collaborate. Alas, shy Nick blew it.

“He had read how enthusiastic I was about one of his albums,” Hardy told Uncut. “And so he came to the studio where I was recording in London, and he sat in the corner, almost hidden, and he never said one word. I was so full of admiration for his work, so I didn’t dare to say anything, and he didn’t dare to say anything [laughs].”

"If You Listen," with its beautiful acoustic guitar and lush strings, feels about as close to a Hardy/Drake team-up as we'll get — it sits comfortably next to similarly styled numbers on Five Leaves Left. I'm not sure what's going on in this surrealistic promo video for the tune, but Françoise's ever-luminous presence rises above the wackiness.

[newhappygathering]

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/studies-on-twilight-phenomena-after-krakatoa/

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https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2024/05/01/congo-funk-sound-madness-from-the-shores-of-the-mighty-congo-river-kinshasa-brazzaville-1969-1982/

[newhappygathering]

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2024/04/30/group-listening-walks/

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"These, the Giant said to himself, are the sons and daughters of gods and kings. They are the inheritors of the silver tree amongst whose branches rest all the melodies of the world. And now without a pot to piss in."

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https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2024/04/10/amen-dunes-round-the-world/

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The English flower garden - William Robinson - 1893 - via Internet Archive

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Trees, 1885-1900

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https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2024/04/01/rail-band-s-t/

[newhappygathering]

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2024/04/01/hiroshi-kamayatsu-have-you-smoked-gauloise/