I Heard It Through The Bookvine

The Batlord · 12-29-2019, 09:49 AM

OMG that's the greatest trick I've ever heard!

Lisnaholic · 12-29-2019, 09:59 AM

The coming back after you're dead, or the changing from Hungarian Jew to Trinidadanian Negro ? Either one would be pretty impressive, but to pull off both at once

The Batlord · 12-29-2019, 10:32 AM

I guess it was a different time if he got away with black face for so long.

Lisnaholic · 12-29-2019, 11:14 AM

The Batlord · 12-29-2019, 11:25 AM

Is that what this thread is about? I was wondering why there were two book threads. And how can you hear a book unless it's an audiobook?

Lisnaholic · 12-29-2019, 11:33 AM

Rather unusually, I explained the idea of the thread in the OP. I naively imagined it would be full of other people's discoveries, although it has since turned into a journal in all but name.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

Sometimes a book that is not about music mentions a song or artist. When that happens to me, I briefly wonder what it sounds like, but don't usually follow up on it. Well, thanks to MB and Youtube, that's all gonna change from now on! I'm inviting people to post songs that are mentioned in the books they are reading. A little bit of info about the book and the scene would be interesting too.

I'm sure many of us read books about music, but I'd like the focus of this thread to be the songs mentioned in passing, preferably in non-music related books. I may be reading a biog of Justin Beiber, but I'm not going to mention his songs here. Instead I'm going to start with the following, which hopefully demonstrate how random this list of music could be.

The Batlord · 12-29-2019, 11:39 AM

Well the title's pretty confusing. Maybe you should ask the mods to change it to something like "Musical Books", and then you can post about those kids' books that play songs that drive their parents crazy.

Lisnaholic · 12-29-2019, 11:47 AM

But it's not really about Musical Books at all, Batlord. Actually you were much closer to the idea back on page 1 of this thread, when you started explaining about your thread reviewing the music mentioned in Hi-Fidelity: music you come across because of a chance mention in an otherwise unrelated book. I guess you never returned to your journal?

The Batlord · 12-29-2019, 12:06 PM

Sometimes to read my own jokes.

Lisnaholic · 05-15-2020, 04:50 PM

If you measure these things by number of people affected over quantity of time, then the slave trade out of Africa must be one of the cruellest things ever visited on a continent. Plenty of countries were guilty of slavery and so plenty of countries have descendants of slaves in their countries today.

One ethnic group we don't hear much about are the Sheedis. Victims of the Muslim trade in slaves, they are people of African descent who now live in southern Pakistan. Because of predjudice, poverty and lack of education, the Sheedis hang on to their history by a shoestring, but little threads of evidence trace them back to slaves taken from Zimbabwe, Tanzania and/or Mali. As author Alice Albinia explored Pakistan researching her book, Empires of the Indus , she visited the impoverished village of Tando Bago where she met some Sheedis keen to preserve their historical connection to Africa:-

Quote:

...Khuda Ganj played me the music of Ali Farka Touré, which has recently become popular with Sheedis because its rhythms are considered similar to those played by Pakistan's famous Sheedi musicians such as the late Bilawal Beljium.

Now you know as much as me about Bilawal Beljium and can judge his music for yourself:-

My Opinion: This is a pretty good track which I'd listen to again. I like the way the instruments compliment each other by sounding like opposites: the high-pitch complexity of the strings and the low, almost random thud of the drum. Youtube has other tracks from the same album: the 10-min Rag Malkauns, in which Bilawal really plays up a storm, is excellent, but the short Dance Tune of Sheedis was disappointing imo.

Search tip: Bilawal Beljium may turn up as Ustad Bilawal Belgium as well.

12-29-2019, 09:59 AM	#22 (permalink)
Lisnaholic ...here to hear... Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: He lives on Love Street Posts: 4,444	The coming back after you're dead, or the changing from Hungarian Jew to Trinidadanian Negro ? Either one would be pretty impressive, but to pull off both at once __________________ "Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

12-29-2019, 11:14 AM	#24 (permalink)
Lisnaholic ...here to hear... Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: He lives on Love Street Posts: 4,444	__________________ "Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

12-29-2019, 11:47 AM	#28 (permalink)
Lisnaholic ...here to hear... Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: He lives on Love Street Posts: 4,444	But it's not really about Musical Books at all, Batlord. Actually you were much closer to the idea back on page 1 of this thread, when you started explaining about your thread reviewing the music mentioned in Hi-Fidelity: music you come across because of a chance mention in an otherwise unrelated book. I guess you never returned to your journal? __________________ "Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953