Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 166th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud and Twitch TV socials on March 12th 2024.
About this show. – At Last! After Colleen's travelling, after celebrating the Loft and International Women's Day, the Balearic Breakfast Family had its first free request line for itself and requested over 50 songs on Colleen's socials (Facebook and Instagram). Oh Incredible Joy!!
When launching the request line, Colleen wrote: "Good morning! For the first time in 2024 the Balearic Breakfast Request Line is open to all suggestions as this week the show is not themed in any way. Please suggest the artist name and song title in the comments below and let your imagination run wild. I look forward to sharing some of your requests in this Tuesday’s program which streams live on my Mixcloud Live and Twitch TV."
I love this show. Maybe I'm just too philosophical about it, sorry! But, once again, something hapenned. Lately, I spent some time thinking about what « reality » meant. Like, we know everything changes, "Everything must change" if we paraphrase the song, both things and people! This kind of thinking may be helpful if you’re very sensitive, like if you connect very quickly and "quite heavily" with people. Thinking about my past experiences, I remembered that we really never know anything, and we really know no one...
Today's show had songs whose lyrics and tonalities brought that theme up. Life had a master plan (laughs!), but still, that was such a pleasant surprise! The main Idea I developed was that people change, and they change daily, by little steps we might not even perceive; some of them wear masks, and some make mistakes which unfold their nature to our surprised eyes and souls. The same goes for life; one day, anything goes, and the second day, you’re asking yourself if you made a mistake somewhere.
For those of us who are very sensitive, these changes might confuse us and leave us stunned to the point where we no longer know how to behave. Seeing eyes without faces is disturbing, especially when places and life keep on changing! What are we living? The main question is here. Obviously, putting names, defining people, and trying to keep track of places we live in is not the best solution as we might always get lost to a certain degree. So, to me, we should acknowledge that we are living a kind of dream, a kind of parallel reality we’re a part of (I just realized something...).
Now, with that being said, the other question is how to cope with that; well… here are my late-night thoughts about the subject: «Whatever happens, failure is just a word if you step back. Do things for yourself. Hold on to your own dreams, make them true, and live within them if it makes you feel good. Nothing counts but your peace of mind. Sail on… ».
And Remember, Just Be Balearic...
Listen Back to the 166th episode of Balearic Breakfast:
PLAYLIST
(1996) Bim Sherman – Bewildered
(1997) Lhasa De Sela – El Desierto
(1978) Deodato – Love Island
(1987) Sananda Maitreya – Sign Your Name (Lee Scratch Perry Remix)
(2010) Kings Go Forth – High on Your Love
(2023) Rodrigo y Gabriela – The Eye that Catches the Dream
(2024) Ronnie Lion – Hombre Peligroso
(1999) Thievery Corporation – It Takes a Thief
(1984) Robert Sandrini – Occhi Su Di Me
(1974) Batsumi – Lishonile
(1977) Bill Withers & Studio Rio – Lovely Day
(1978) Eddy Grant – Walking on Sunshine
(1979) Ivan Neville – Dance Your Blues Away
(1977) Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King – I Don’t Know If It's Right
(2022) Dave Lee & Omar – Starlight
(1977) John Gibbs & The U.S. Steel Orchestra – Trinidad
(1977) King Errisson – Well, Have A Nice Day
(2003) Ernest St Laurent – Clumsy Lobster
(1993) Brian Transeau – Relativity (Carl Craig's Urban Affair Dub)
(1976) Bellamy Brothers – Let Your Love Flow
THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE
Before we delve into the listening experience, I wanted to stress that this show, maybe more than any of the previous ones, showed its soul philosophically and Musically. Philosophically because, as I'll show you, the first hour has that uncertain, impetuous, dynamic flow, showcasing the possibilities our Balearic World has to offer and how much you don't have to stay locked when difficulties arise or when you meet eyes without faces, because, somehow, your own dream should allow you to find a way out. Secondly, and musically, we clearly have the duality you're now aware of, the first part being more reflective and the second part being more danceable. All in all, it's a great, great episode!
Starting the show with "Bewildered", a 1936 popular song composed by Teddy Powell and Leonard Whitcup, and sung by many artists such as James Brown, Mickey & Sylvia, The Ink Spots, and many others; the message, here covered by Bim Sherman, is straight and clear: I thought I reached happiness but now I'm confused. We keep this lingering feeling in the second track, "El Desierto" by Lhasa De Sela (the majority of the tracks from the album were composed by Yves Derosiers; more about this just here). By the way, this song should make you think of another tune, yes... the "Cheyenne" theme from "Once upon a Time in the West"! Same tonality, very close rhythm and that same lost feeling! When you take the time to read the lyrics, once again, the message is plain to see "I've come to the desert to laugh at your love / As the desert's more tender and the thorn kisses better. / I've come to this middle of nowhere to shout / That you never deserved what I wanted to give so badly. / I've come running, getting over you / Kiss me little bird, don't get frightened hummingbird / I've come on fire to the desert to burn / Because the soul is set alight when it stops loving". Pretty tough, huh?
Yet, we're in for a ride, as I told you in the introduction of this post; the first part of the show is a question of possibilities. It shows how much you decide about your destiny, and the calm "Love Island" perfectly showcases that. Love Island sees the participation of members of "Earth Wind & Fire" and also of John Benson, if you didn't know! When this song was playing, the Balearic Breakfast Family was having a ball as Matt Raistrick and Kay McMahon celebrated their birthdays!
The next song, "Sign Your Name (Lee Scratch Perry Remix)", made me see a river's flow, with all of its watering ramifications losing themselves, but ultimately joining back and plunging into the sea... This edit is stunning as it perfectly depicts the dream I was talking about in the intro, and, funnily enough, speaking about his song, Terence Trent once said... "It came from a dream where Sade asked me to write a song for her. It was inspired by a dream and seeing Sade perform at Live Aid in the mid-'80s."
Another song, another break, going from worried minds to Happy places, Colleen played "High on your love", followed by another more calm piece in the name of "The Eye that Catches the Dream", also having its own rhythmical twists and sonic surprises ("We wanted to do something different. We wanted to bring a cinematic quality and lots of action to this music to make it as exciting as possible")! The feeling here is very strong as the listener is quite lost, with no unity; we're digging deep into all corners of the musical space, this kaleidoscope showcasing how everything changes, always, and how you should try to protect yourself from things, places, people that really, in the end, you don't know... Interestingly enough, Rodrigo and Gabriela explained in an interview: "We then realized that these nine titles told in exact order the story of our discovery of the precepts of Advaita. From that point on, we didn't change the basis of these songs anymore, and what you hear in the album is the music as we created it." Even more interestingly, Gabriela went on, saying: "Advaita Vedanta is a Hindu practice which, Quintero explains, “is mainly about this life being an illusion. There’s just one ultimate reality, and we can’t process that reality because it’s beyond the mind and the brain.” Its central tenet, ‘nondualism’, holds that the Self – the deepest part of us, our true nature – is our connection to that oneness, that ultimate reality. Everything else is a construct of the mind...
A worried musical universe then opens its doors to us with Colleen playing "Hombre Peligroso" (meaning dangerous man in English), "It Takes a Thief", & "Occhi Su Di Me". If you didn't know, the original "Eyes without a Face" track is based on the 1959 French horror movie "Les Yeux Sans Visage" which tells the sad story of a plastic surgeon involved in a near-fatal auto accident which horribly disfigures the once beautiful face of his beloved daughter. Along with his assistant, he abducts young women so that he may surgically remove their facial features and graft their beauty onto that of his daughter's grotesque countenance... The song is quite philosophical, too, as it asks about both the reality of the loving and of the loved one...
Well, isn’t the face a stage up on which the actor performs?
Around which we build and or find ourselves on stage?
Then, if you are just eyes, what are you?
Just observers?
Are they eyes truly the windows of the soul?
Or are they prison window we peer from?
A place we stay and watch our life spin around us?
“When you look at some faces, you can see the turbulence of the infinite beginning to gather to the surface. This moment can open in a gaze from a stranger, or in a conversation with someone you know well. Suddenly, without their intending it or being conscious of it, their gaze lasts for only a second. In that slightest interim, something more than the person looks out.”― John O'Donohue,
Pursuing the uncertain and worried road, and ending the first part of the show, Colleen then plays the incredible "Lishonile" (find out more about the album it is taken from here).
The second part of this 166th episode of Balearic Breakfast is much more musically stable and much happier, letting the listener feel that doubtful times have ended! Eddy Grant's Walking on Sunshine is still, to this very day, a Loft Classic and was played by David Mancuso many times when he hosted parties – The 1981 live version is to die for... (Click here for more information about the forthcoming CAS event with Eddy Grant)!
Keeping the rhythm steady throughout her presentation, Colleen first plays Ivan Neville's "Dance Your Blues Away", followed by "I Don’t Know If It's Right". Dave Lee & Omar's "Starlight", dedicated to a member of the Balearic Breakfast Family, brings an emotional moment. Then, John Gibbs & The U.S. Steel Orchestra's "Trinidad" (which has been featured earlier in the show) and King Errisson's "Well, Have A Nice Day" bring an emotional moment. Colleen is so perfect when she does our beloved "little mixes"; plunging into music with her is really something to experience...
The very last part of the show starts with "Clumsy Lobster", followed by "Relativity (Carl Craig's Urban Affair Dub)", Colleen ending the show with the great "Let Your Love Flow".
