Balearic Breakfast | Episode 210 | The Last Exodus...
- by The Lioncub
- Feb 4
- 18 min read
Updated: Feb 7
Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 210th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on February 04th 2025.
About this episode. – Following Marianne Faithfull’s passing, and shortly after returning from vacation, Colleen launched the request line last Saturday, February 1st 2025. As we shall see later in the Listening experience part of this post, today’s episode was a moving musical experience, allowing the listener to experience what the last exodus might feel like. Enhanced by the passing of Family members’ loved ones, today’s musical trip was a deep dive into sorrow and strangeness, allowing us all to find in the music an airy and floating path to the next realm…
"This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now up on my Mixcloud and includes tributes to the late Marianne Faithfull, music from Wally Badarou (I’m hosting a event with him in London on the 19th February - reserve your free tickets on the @classicalbumsundays website), some Loft classics (London Loft party on the 9th March and our website at loftparty.org is going live soon!), italo, soul, dub and more. Thank you to the Balearicans who joined me on the live stream this morning - it was great chatting with all of you.
I’m streaming remotely next week and have an interview and mix from @gregwilson who is not only a DJ and producer extraordinaire but a great music journalist and has also edited James Hamilton’s Disco Pages. We also have a mix from British born Ibiza based DJ @SAM and we chat about her new comp Suenos de Ibiza. Until then, kick back and enjoy the music…"
By the way, we also learned today that Colleen spent some time in the studio lately, working on a very special remix which she can't wait to share with us, so stay tuned 😊
Listen back to the 210th episode of Balearic Breakfast:
THE PLAYLIST
(1986) Marianne Faithfull – The Hawk (El Gavilan)
(2005) Richard Hawley – The Ocean
(1997) Bob Marley – Exodus (Bill Laswell Ambient Translation)
(1995) Marianne Faithfull – Love in the Afternoon
(NOL) Cymande – Coltrane (Crooked Man Remix)
(1984) Wally Badarou – Mambo
(1983) Marianne Faithfull – The Blue Millionaire
(1983) Al Jarreau – I Keep Callin’
(1976) Flowers – For Real
(1984) World Premiere – Share the Night
(2021) 122 North – Drive
(1980) Marianne Faithfull – Broken English (Special 12” Single)
(2025) Pellegrino & Zodyaco – Mario
(1992) Mission Control – Outta Limits
(2025) Electric Wire Hustle – If These Are the Last Days (Eliphino Remix)
(1992) Liquid Variety – The Edge (New Dimensions)
(1986) Enzo Avitabile – Black Out
(2024) Surya Botofasina (ft Radha Botofasina) – Your Soul Is Perfect (Supreme Uniter)
THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE
Destiny lies there, where we, in our humility, accept receiving it... (The Lioncub)
Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just round the corner.
All is well.
Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.
One brief moment and all will be as it was before.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!
Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918
As I started working on this post, I saw this picture on Luke Una's Instagram... Of course, it brought tears to my eyes. Death is just another part of life as they say. I wish it didn't Hurt That Much though... Whenever I hear The Hawk, I always have Richie Haven's version in mind, but also Kris Kristofferson's music video (he initially composed the song)... The Hawk is about transmission, about hope, about letting things go and moving forward... What else can we do in the face of adversity... There's a lot of it in our world today, violence almost everywhere, death on every side of our stories, less and less joy... We got to have peace one day soon... And The Hawk brings that hope, even if it does so with an unbearable amount of sadness...
Today's episode is exactly about that peculiar mood The Hawk presented: a long, somewhat uncertain and worried yet constant march in an undisclosed space towards a heavenly destination... All the songs have that incredible eerie feeling, letting you go, unaware, to a place you know nothing about. This feeling is perfectly represented in the first 44 minutes of the show, where the ambience is calm, yet uncertain as with Richard Hawley's The Ocean which seems to be about "returning to a place of familiarity and comfort with someone you’ve shared a wealth of experiences and feelings with". Colleen's ability to pick up the songs dealing with the same subject (even if on separate intellectual levels) is just mindblowing. I mean, starting the show with these two purely sets the message clear: yes, you'll lose me one day, but you'll have to keep moving on, and you'll remember the places where we were happy. I'll always be there, with you. After all, we don't know if the man in the song speaks to a real woman... it may just be his imagination.... you see me coming, don't you...?
In any case, the tone is perfectly set here. And there's more to come. Colleen's delicate mixing helps us see the path, gently leading us to Bob Marley's Exodus (btw, thanks to davstod for recomenting David Rodigan's biography!). If you're not walking towards heaven with us right now you'll never do it again in your entire life, this I can tell you. As Bob Marley shared it in his own words "After the shooting, me never want to just think about shooting,” Marley told Vivien Goldman of Sounds. “So me just ease up me mind and go in a different bag. What me stand for me always stand for. Jah [God] is my strength.”
"The album is Marley’s most political and religious work but it also features beautiful, vivacious and downright funky and sexy jams. As a committed Rastafarian, Marley would often quote from The Bible, so it was no surprise that he chose to name his album after The Old Testament’s second book which portrays the exodus of the Israelites. However, there is another reason for the title choice as ‘Exodus’ also portrays a man experiencing his own personal exodus" (Classic Album Sundays).
If you listen closely to today's episode, you will undoubtedly share with me the feelings I felt, and the following song in Colleen's mix, Marianne Faithfull's Love in the Afternoon keeps the pace to an unmatched perfection... We clearly feel the "marching force", we still have the lost feeling, we're searching for something, is this path the right one, is a secret love affair meaning to last... At this point of the show, we could almost refer here to those of us believing secretly in god without speaking about it openly... Once again, you see me coming, don't you...? After all, what do you think about when transitioning to the next realm?... These thoughts are so aligned with Marianne Faithfull's dark-sounding, and oh so lost album, A secret Life...
With Cymande's Coltrane, an open-hearted tribute to the Jazz Saxophonist, and generally speaking to music, the message is now plain to see. Think about what I Just wrote earlier, and also to a few of older posts where I explained how Colleen constructs the show, you might feel we reached here a transitioning point as Wally Badarou's Mambo starts... Think about it and try to see why... 😉 With Marianne Faithfull's The Blue Millionaire, a strange song, undefined, the music still keeps us moving forward...
The "marching feeling" that accompanies us throughout the show can be explained by Colleen's choice to put Marianne Faithfull's songs along with the other songs she selected for this episode, creating a beautiful musical unity with Colleen always taking great care of the cohesivity of the whole mix. There's an intention here... (even if unconscious) confirmed by the first hour's last two tracks which are I Keep Callin’ and Flowers' For Real and also by the fact that a song like Broken English has been inspired by Terrorism, and you know how much, according to some of these extremists, these barbarian acts are supposedly linked to Faith... Another way of seeing today's theme, don't you think?...
The second hour of today's episode is also all bout this journey, with Colleen's mixing being perfect and transmitting the phases of the journey like it was a painting... I mean, listen to what she does during the mini mix (Outta Limits / If These Are the Last Days (Eliphino Remix) / The Edge (New Dimensions) / Black Out), it's astounding and this one wins the Wow Moment of today's episode! We were all on our knees while listening to it, perfection on our marching journey!
Do I need to say more as the last song comes onto your mental screen? Your Soul Is Perfect...
“The question of our individual purpose as we traverse on Earth is often one we are scared to meet. The intention of this song is to acknowledge the truth about us all- we are beautiful for the beings that we are, with a Light that can never be extinguished. Having courage to be content and happy is no small feat when mental health is involved… The Supreme Uniter is not only a nod to this, but to Meghan Stabile as she dances to this one from stars back to down to us. All of this is only possible due to Magnificent Shakti of Swamini Turiyasangitananda.” (Surya Botofasina)
COLLEEN'S PRESENTATION
Marianne Faithfull with El Galivan, arranged and accompanied by Mark Isham. And she recorded this song in 1985 for the film Trouble in Mind, directed by Alan Rudolph. And it's a beautiful song, and I'm kind of picturing her as an El Galivan, or a hawk. And I have this image of her flying off into the sunset as she transitions into the next realm after a life filled with beauty, joy, and a lot of pain and suffering as well. She was an incredibly resilient person, having been on top of the world in the 1960s with a successful recording career, acting in several films. She was also a style icon and Mick Jagger's girlfriend.
But her life soon spiraled out of control when she became addicted to heroin. And she also ended up homeless and also tragically without custody of her son. But after a successful comeback in the late 1970s, she found a new voice, both literally as she suffered from a severe bout of laryngitis and her voice changed forever. But she also found a new voice figuratively, and that she found and wrote songs that suited her next stage of life. Torch songs, chanson, also she kind of dipped into the kind of whole new wave sound. And she also acted on television and did about 20 films.
She also wrote an autobiography in the mid-1990s. And when it came out, I interviewed her for a radio show I was hosting at the time. And we did an interview at her friend's apartment. I think it was on Fifth Avenue. It was very posh, very flash. But she was delightful. And I was just absolutely mesmerized as a young 20-something-year-old woman. What a life. Thank you to Rick Shearman and David Puzzi for that request. And we'll have some more Marianne later in the show.
Good morning, Balearicans. I'm Colleen Cosmo Murphy, hosting your weekly Balearic Breakfast. And greetings to all over on my MixCloud Live. It's great to be back hosting the show live from the record room, although we had a great two weeks off in Lanzarote, which is just such a weird and wonderful place. You have the artwork of Cesar Manrique, like in roundabouts. And it's dotted around the island, this volcanic, rocky, black-sanded island that sometimes looks like a moonscape. It's like 80 miles, I think, west of the Western Sahara. It's just really different. And I absolutely love it. And thank you to our special guests, Phil Meissen and Tiger Balm and our Balearic Breakfast family members, Christine DeSouza and David Stoddard, for the mixes they contributed while I was away. I know you all love them. I'm away again next week, so I have Greg Wilson and Sam from Ibiza taking over the reins while I stream remotely. But on today's show, we have mainly your requests and some new tunes.
And this next one is quite a poignant one for me, as it's a song and an album I listened to over and over again when my father was dying about 15 years ago. And he lived near the ocean in North Carolina. And every day I would drive his truck to the hospital and I would play this song. Matt Raistrick requested this from the classic album, Cole's Corner, released 20 years ago. This is Sheffield's Richard Hawley with The Ocean.
A request from Christine D'Souza for Love in the Afternoon. From Marianne Faithfull's 1995 LP, A Secret Life, which mainly featured songs she had written or co-written rather than covers. And it was a collaboration with American composer Angelo Battalamenti after his work on Twin Peaks. And it was influenced more by Faithfull's passion for classical music. And it was released just after her biography came out. And that's when I had the chance to meet and interview her. And you got the sense that the book was both a relief, but also a weight and that now her personal life was public, which is why I love the name of the album, A Secret Life. And we'll have some more Marianne Faithfull later in the show.
Now, this Thursday would have been the 80th birthday of Bob Marley. And it's not an exaggeration to say that he single handedly brought reggae to new heights around the world. I remember when I was a teenager and in university, everybody had the Legend compilation, including myself. It was just one of those records you have like Dark Side of the Moon or What's Going On. And it's really incredible how Marley globally popularized Jamaican music and sent many people digging deeper into the sounds from that island. We heard Bill Laswell's fabulous ambient translation of Bob Marley's Exodus from the 1997 LP Dreams of Freedom, which featured ambient dub reworks of Marley's songs. And that must have been a lot of fun in the studio and sending that one out to A.J. Elliott.
And ahead of that, a request from Matt Raystrick for Richard Hawley's The Ocean. And I'm sending that out to my late father, Roger Murphy, who was a boat captain, a scuba diver and an amazing swimmer and just absolutely loved the ocean. And he gave me my love for the ocean as well.
Now, some of you may have seen the recent documentary Getting It Back, the story of Cymande, the British funk band that had been had a lot more success, actually, in America, switched around with their debut album, which featured some great tracks, including Bra and Dove. Well, they are back with a new album and it's great. It's called Renascence and it's really a spiritual and sonic successor to their 70s output. And it also features guests Celeste and Jazzy B. Ana Sancho in Barcelona asked for a cut from the new LP, but I was just sent a new remix by Crooked Man and it's an advanced copy as well. So I wanted to share it with you. So I hope you don't mind, Ana, that I'm taking some creative license. Here is Simon Bay with the Crooked Man remix of Coltrane.
Blue Millionaire from Marianne Faithfull's ninth studio album, A Child's Adventure, released in 1983 on Island Records. And it features some of the amazing talent that was featured on loads of records from that era on Island Records. Mikey Chung on guitar, Barry Reynolds, who also wrote and collaborated with Grace Jones when she was on Island, and also Wally Batteru, who co-wrote and produced that song and a few others on the album. And they were all, of course, part of the Compass Point All Stars, a group kind of put together, a session group kind of really put together by Chris Blackwell for the Compass Point Studios in Nassau in the Bahamas. So some people on the chat were saying, oh, that sounds like Talking Heads or Tom Tom Club. Yeah, because it's some of the same crew of musicians there. But that one was co-written and produced by Wally Badarou, who was the song before.
Now, perhaps when the previous song started, you may have thought it was Daydreaming by Massive Attack. Well, that's because they sampled it. We heard Mambo by French African musician, songwriter, producer and all-around amazing talent, Wally Badarou. And that's from his 1984 LP Echoes. And that also has Chief Inspector on it as well. That's a balearic classic. Badarou was also a de facto member of Level 42 all throughout the 1980s. He collaborated with and produced Marianne Faithfull, Fela Kuti and Salif Keita. And he was a central figure and part of the Island Records Compass Point All-Stars. He performed on records by Grace Jones, Talking Heads, Mick Jagger, Gwen Guthrie, Robert Palmer, Sly and Robbie, amongst many others. He also scored music for films, including Kiss of the Spider Woman and more recently, the award-winning documentary, Tahomee.
And he will be my special guest for our next Classic Album Sunday's event, being held at the KEF Music Lounge in London on Wednesday, the 19th of February. We will explore his illustrious career and we'll have an in-depth look and listen to Echoes. Tickets are free and they've just gone up on the Classic Album Sunday's website. So be quick. And for those on the chat on the Mixcloud Livestream right now, I have put the link into the comments. So there are limited tickets. So please be quick with that.
All right, let's slip into something smooth and soulful. And I'm loving this request from our friend Victor Olteanu in Romania. And funny as it's from the same early 80s era as the last two songs I just played, it's by the late American singer-songwriter Al Jarreau, who had a massive album in 1981, Breaking Away. And it spent two years on the Billboard album charts and it hit number one on the jazz and R&B charts. So how does one follow that up? Well, with another hit record. Two years later, he released Jarreau and it did rather well as it became his third consecutive number-one LP on the jazz charts and reached high numbers on the R&B and album charts, too. This is the last cut on the album. It's Al Jarreau with I Keep Calling.
Everyone on the chat's loving this one. Going back, World Premiere with Share the Night and it's some more smooth soul and it's kind of a studio assemblage like the Act Change, but this time put together by songwriter-producer Douglas Pittman under the name World Premiere. And they put out a couple of singles on EZ Street Records and we just heard Share the Night, co-produced by the late New York City DJ Jonathan Fearing and requested by Peter Jongenil. I had about a rare soul tune that I sadly used to only have on bootleg, but I sadly think the one I just played is on bootleg. I think it sounds worse. So sad. Sorry. But it's had the vinyl reissue. It's it doesn't sound wonderful, but it's such a great song. And it's called Flowers, which is really Richard Flowers. He only released two singles in 1976 on the label L.A. Expressio, and we heard the song for real. I just love that one. And starting it all off with Al Jarreau, I Keep Callin' as requested by Victor Olteanu.
All right, let's send some love to our friends in Canada. Our friend Karl Banitov in Montreal made this next request for Quebec Act 122 North, which was assembled by Danny Provencher, who is also in the band Under the Lights. 122 North released one EP called Night Drive back in 2021, and this is the original version of Drive on Balearic Breakfast.
Italian jazz funk producer Pellegrino and his band Zodiaco, they have a new album out and the whole thing is worth a listen. It's called Koine and Leonardo Lau requested that song, Mario. Absolutely love it. In fact, I don't think Pellegrino and Zodiaco put out a bad record. So head on over to their bandcamp and their latest is also out on vinyl as well.
Ahead of that, we heard the title track from Marianne Faithfull's 1979 comeback album, and I'm sending that one out to Gemma Bagnell and Artur in Paris, who also made additional Faithfull requests. And after reaching the depths that she probably never thought was imaginable, drug addiction, homelessness, Faithfull tried to stage a comeback in 1976 with an album called Dream in My Dreams, but it didn't really work out. And then Chris Blackwell signed her to Island Records and really encouraged her to forge a new sound, a more modern sound. He brought in people like Steve Winwood and kind of really transformed her career much in the way that he helped transform Bob Marley's career, who we played earlier, encouraging him to fuse more rock and pop sounds. In any case, it worked. Broken English was the album that redefined Faithfull as an edgy, contemporary chanteuse, and it's a great record.
And Broken English is also our Classic Album Sunday's album of the month for our online album club, which is open to Classic Album Sunday's Patreon members. And the album club this month will be held on Tuesday, the 25th of February on Zoom. And if you want to find out more about it, head over to the Classic Album Sunday's website and rest in paradise, Marianne Faithfull.
OK, this next one is an old Loft classic and one of the records that I heard my friend David Mancuso play quite a bit when I started going to the Loft in 1992. The Loft anniversary is coming up on the 14th of February and we will be doing a Loft special as we do every year on Balearic Breakfast in a couple of weeks. And the London Loft will be launching our new website this month as well and be at Loftparty.org and it will feature a complete interview with David that has never before been published in its entirety. And of course, we also have our next Loft Party in London on the 9th of March. If you would like to join our mailing list, you'll be able to do so on the new website, but you can also message me on the socials until then. This was requested by Ben Oliver, who loves the introduction by Timothy Leary. This is Mission Control with the Shelter Mix of Outta Limits.
Oh, caught me unawares. I love that one. Kevin Fleming requested it a few weeks ago and I just thought I got to get this on vinyl. So I did. And that's what you just heard. It's by Neapolitan saxophonist and songwriter Enzo Avitabile, who collaborated with Pino Daniele, James Brown, Afrika Bambaataa, Randy Crawford, Tina Turner, amongst others. And we just heard the club mix of his 1986 single Blackout, the original of which is on his LP SOS Brothers. And you can file that with Pino Daniele, I Know I'm On My Way, or Stop Bajon by Tulio Piscopo. I think it has that same kind of feel on that one.
Ahead of that, another Loft classic, also from 1992. I was just I just bought it recently, actually just found a new copy. Liquid Variety, who is JT Irish, Joey Campbell and Joey Gold with The Edge (New Dimensions). It came out in Kaleidoscope and it followed their single The Best Part of the Trip. So I think you know what they're talking about over there. And I just love that one. And again, in a couple of weeks, we'll be doing our Loft anniversary special here on Balearic Breakfast and our London Loft parties on the 9th of March. If you want to join us, you can message me.
And we started before that with New Zealand's Electric Wire Hustle, who have released three albums and the original of the song we heard, If These Are the Last Days, can be found on their 2014 LP, Love Can Prevail. We heard the Elefino remix of If These Are the Last Days, quite a relevant title for these challenging times and requested by our friend Barry Zare in Washington, D.C.
And I'll be in Washington, D.C. next week, playing at 618 D.C. next Friday on Valentine's Day, the 14th of February. Admittedly, it will be a bit strange to be there at this time, but I'm looking forward to meeting some listeners like Barry and some old friends. And also, I think it's my first gig since New Year's Eve, so I'm ready for you. I'm ready to play. I'm coming over and I'm ready to play some records and really looking forward to that.
So as I said, I will be in the States. I'll be streaming next week remotely. So I have two guest mixes. I have one from Greg Wilson. I'll also be talking with him about James Hamilton, who is the late British disco and soul DJ who had a column in Record Mirror from 1975 to 82. And Greg has just edited James Hamilton's disco pages and compiles all of his columns from the Record Mirror. So that will be really interesting. And we also have an interview and mix with DJ S/a/m from Ibiza, and she has a new compilation coming out called Sueños de Ibiza. And I thought you would like a mix like that as well. Well, this is Colleen Cosmo Murphy signing off another edition of Balearic Breakfast.
But before I go, I'm going to leave you with a beautiful request by Rick Van Veen in the Netherlands. It's by keyboardist and composer Surya Botafossina, who was taught in the tradition of Alice Coltrane by Swamini Turiya Sangitananda herself on her ashram in California, which is where he grew up. He also recently toured with Andre 3000. So you may have seen him on stage. Botafossina creates deep listening, spiritual jazz and meditative sounds and is devoted to one love, family and music. I guess that's what we're devoted to here on Balearic Breakfast as well. And this song is from the album Ashram Sun, released last year as a follow up to his acclaimed debut, Everyone's Children. And this one features Radja Botafossina. It's a beautiful, beautiful song and it's called Your Soul is Perfect, Supreme Uniter.
Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you next week.
Comments