It's A Righteous Life We're Leading, Friends
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66- Stillness (1970)
One of my pet peeves is when someone doesn't acknowledge something that is blatantly obvious to those around him/her. The white elephant, as it were. Like there was this one time I was talking through the Mission here in San Francisco and this guy was walking down the street with a parrot on his shoulder. One of those guys. A little boy and his mother were in front of me and the boy was sort of wide-eyed and pointing at the bird, slowing down, hopefully to get a closer look. And this guy, this bird man, didn't even acknowledge the kid. He just kept on walking by, completely stone-faced. If you've got a bird on your shoulder, I'm sorry, but you've got to be prepared to do some kind of stop and chat.
That said, it's been a long time since I've posted and I acknowledge that and I feel I'm ready to get back and do this thing right. This track was meant to go up right after that last post about Lani Hall. She is the vocalist here and I love this album. It's a folk-rock record, with a more melancholy tone than anything else they ever did. It also contains a Caetano Veloso cover ("Lost in Paradise" from his third self-titled album, the white one), amidst the Joni Mitchell and Buffalo Springfield. So it's good to know that they were listening to what was happening back home. But more importantly, it's got this cut - "Righteous Life." A reflective little bit of folk-ified funk.
This tune, as well as the moody title cut, were written by Paula Stone. Having trouble finding out more about her, but she appears to have also written songs for Edu Lobo and Richie Havens. Enjoy!
Righteous Life
posted by Jonathan C. P. at 8:52 PM
8 Comments:
Welcome back! Good to have a new track from you!
nice to see/hear yer groovy ass back in action
hey, I discovered your blog while you were on "hiatus" and glad to see you're back. I feel like we have very similar tastes as this Sergio LP and the Lani LP are faves of mine as well and that Tony e Som Colorido track make me a bit jealous. check out my blog if you like:
www.soulspectrum.blogspot.com
allen
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Thanks for mentioning this excellent LP -- really the first of the Brasil '77 era. Just a note of clarification: Karen Philipp sings lead on "Righteous Life" -- as she does on all the US selections, while Gracinha Leporael, sings lead on the Brazilian tunes. Gracinha replaced Lani during the early stages of recording (which explains Lani's absence from the LP photos). Lani's participation appears limited to only "Stillness". The LP was recorded in mid-late 1970.
Well written article.
I know paula stone, you can contact me and i will put u in touch with her. recoveryrabbi_at_gmail_dot_com
I performed at an art festival today and met Paula Stone who sat in the audience. She lives in the Metro Detroit area. She told me she knew Joni when the latter lived in Detroit, and also her history of writing songs that Sergio Mendes and Richie Havens used. She's still in touch with Richie she said, and she no longer writes songs. She was sweet enough to play shaker egg during my set.
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