MUSIC

On the way home today it started to snow like it does in the movies. One second, a gray sky, the next, massive snowflakes falling down so heavily that I had to wrap my scarf around my face and squint -- like at Whistler on one of those nasty rides up the Red chair.

Bono does quite well, I think, at singing Pavarotti's part -- especially the 'l'amore' part. He inherited part of his father's tenor genes/skills apparently.

Miss Sarajevo by U2 (The Passengers)

Dici che il fiume
trova la via al mare
E come il fiume
giungerai a me
Oltre i confini
e le terre assetate
Dici che come fiume
come fiume
L'amore giunger
L'amore
E non so pi pregare
E nell'amore non so pi sperare
E quell'amore non so pi aspettare

English translation:
You say that the river
finds the way to the sea
And as the river
you'll come to me
Beyond the borders
and the thirsty lands
You say that as river
As river
Love will come
Love
And I cannot pray anymore
And I cannot hope in love anymore
And I cannot wait for love anymore

From Stylus:
From Pavarotti’s very first line “Dici che il fiume” this song goes somewhere else entirely. All the traces of Eno’s milk-washed U2 production, the rhythm section’s understated performance and even Bono’s 'beauty pageant in a warzone’ lyrics take second place to the man they call “Maiale Della Pasta”. I don’t know (or probably care) if Pavarotti is the greatest living Tenor or if this is a merely passable performance or an Opera house roof raiser, these few lines are enough for me.

Just like a million and one other songs “Miss Sarajevo” uses a vocal line to lift the song, but unlike the epic solos or vocal firework explosions of Buckley, Carey or Anas-bloody-stasia this still soars without frighteningly OTT wailing. Where the edited single edit version moves straight from Bono to Pavarotti with almost no pause, the full Original Soundtracks version leads us to him with a brief instrumental lull.

Trailing from Bono’s carefully juxtaposed lyrics comes the usual but still warmly received U2 sound of lapping waves of treated sounds, a chiming Edge guitar line, an unobtrusive rhythm and Eno’s melodic icing sugar plucked notes. Shivering Deserter’s Songs-strings climb before and glide through the performance following the vocal, while Eno happily plays with his little whirly gig box in the background.

I used to know what he was actually singing about, I tracked it down pre-babelfish software and recall being completely underwhelmed by the lyric as it was something about “children”, “rivers”, “hope” and “love”. Typical song bullshit stuff like that anyway. I seem to have genuinely forgotten it, or blocked it out and I don’t care or want to know. Whatever it is can’t be as powerful or as eloquent as the relief in the relaxing freefall of a vocalist’s performance that I don’t need the right side of my head to be aware of or get involved in the appreciation of. Not understanding more than two words of Italian means that Pavarotti’s verse contains all the magic that wordlessness brings. Like one of those looks, the laughter or lust in the barely perceivable movement in someone’s eyes or face this is a brainless, expressive and physical hit of pleasure. An intuitively emotional moment in a purposefully political song.