The first time I heard Tim O'Brien sing Megna's, it reminded me of growing up in our little New Jersey town on the cliffs above the Hudson River--and of
Pete the Peddler... Pete would stop his truck every few blocks, just about every other day, fully loaded with all sorts of fruits and vegetables, and he would sign out, "Pee-Chez, Pee-Chez" (peaches), "Tow-MAT-Tows!"..., nineteen cents a pound!" "Wa-tah-mel-OHN-ays!" He had a big open bed truck with the boxes of produce displayed at an angle on the back. The scale hung from a hook. The women would yell down their order from the windows, throw the money down in a paper bag, and he sometimes leave it on their stoop... or more often they'd come and get it and listen to neighborhood gossip. He would tip his wide-brimmed fedora as they paid and said good-bye. On a recent trip to Italy I was happy to see that Fruit and Vegetable trucks are still a common thing there. I miss them here. This video of Tim O'Brien singing his song "Megna's" tells a similar tale about a fruit and veggie truck. Enjoy. --Jerry Finzi
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Mi Votu E Mi Rivotu (I Turn and Turn)
performed by Manunura This is one of the most beautiful love songs of Sicilian folk music. Famously known after the rendition by Sicilian singer Rosa Balistreri, she claimed to have heard this song sing for the first time inside the prison of Palermo, and has attributed to a prisoner the composition. In reality the lyrics of this song are very old and arise in many traditional Sicilian songs. It appeared in the collection that Lionardo Vigo Calanna, Marquis of Gallodoro, published in 1870 under the title "Raccolta Amplissima di Canti Siciliani", produced after a 20-year-long work of research and collection. English lyrics: I turn and turn again sighing I spend whole nights awake I admire your beauty and see the whole night pass until dawn Because of you now I no longer sleep My aching heart has no more peace Do you know when I'll leave you? When my life ends and I'll die O dove, walking along the seashore, stop that I must ask you a couple words stop so I can take a plume off your wings to write letters to my love. I write you letters, two, three But never a reply from you I receive Have you not paper to write or you cannot write? I turn and turn again sighing I spend whole nights without sleeping |
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