I'm not an avid Vinyl collector, not a true music aficionado who owns hundreds of Records, neatly and alphabetically stored at room temperature. At a social gathering I wouldn't claim out loud that the only way to listen to Coltrane's A Love Supreme is through a Record Player. Who knows, maybe with age I'll become that guy. Please not! I do own a few of my favorite albums on Vinyl, and I do love going through crates of old Records at second hand stores, looking for bargains and overwhelmed by the expectation of finding something precious. The one Record I've always wanted to get my hands on, the one that's always been on my distant horizon of crate searching is Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles. So to spoil the prosaic suspense. Quick drum roll. And yes I found it!
Saturday I walked into Shaun and Kezia's place, a shop where all the cool Joburg kids (and also kids like me who are trying to be cool) hang out called Deer Hunter. The shop is well situated in the heart of Greenside and is home to some of the best second hand treasures. Vintage dresses, action figures, bass guitars, you name it and maybe one day you'll walk in and there it is, proudly displayed waiting for you. Like I always do, I went straight to the crates and started digging. With a shopkeepers grin Shaun called me to have a look at some stuff that had just received. And there it was, immaculate and still unpriced. I got Sgt. Pepper's, Abbey Road and few others. Good times!
So now I've moved on to my next crate quest: Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys. It makes sense.

And by the way, if you're curious to find out who eventually made it to this classic cover.

1. Sri Yukteswar Gigi (Guru) 2. Aleister Crowley (Dabbler in sex, drugs and magic) 3. Mae West (Actress) 4. Lenny Bruce (Comic) 5. Karlheinz Stockhausen (Composer) 6. W.C. Fields (Comic) 7. Carl Gustav Jung (Psychologist) 8. Edgar Allen Poe (Writer) 9. Fred Astaire (Actor) 10. Richard Merkin (Artist) 11. The Varga Girl (by Artist Alberto Vargas) 12. Leo Gorcey (Painted out because he requested a fee) 13. Huntz Hall (Actor one of the Bowery Boys) 14. Simon Rodia (Creator of Watts Towers) 15. Bob Dylan (Musician) 16. Aubrey Beardsley (Illustrator) 17. Sir Robert Peel (Politician) 18. Aldous Huxley (Writer) 19. Dylan Thomas (Poet) 20. Terry Southern (Writer) 21. Dion (di Mucci) (Singer) 22. Tony Curtis (Actor) 23. Wallace Berman (Artist) 24. Tommy Handley (Comic) 25. Marilyn Monroe (Actress) 26. William Burroughs (Writer) 27. Sri Mahavatara Babaji (Guru) 28. Stan Laurel (Comic) 29. Richard Lindner (Artist) 30. Oliver Hardy (Comic) 31. Karl Marx (Philosopher/Socialist) 32. H.G. Wells (Writer) 33. Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (Guru) 34. Anonymous (Wax hairdresser's dummy) 35. Stuart Sutcliffe (Artist/former Beatle) 36. Anonymous (Wax hairdresser's dummy) 37. Max Miller (Comic) 38. The Pretty Girl (By artist George Petty) 39. Marlon Brando (Actor) 40. Tom Mix (Actor) 41. Oscar Wilde (Writer) 42. Tyrone Power (Actor) 43. Larry Bell (Artist) 44. Dr. David Livingston (Missionary/Explorer) 45. Johnny Weissmuller (Swimmer/Actor) 46. Stephen Crane (Writer) 47. Issy Bonn (Comic) 48. George Bernard Shaw (Writer) 49. H.C. Westermann (Sculptor) 50. Albert Stubbins (Soccer player) 51. Sri lahiri Mahasaya (Guru) 52. Lewis Carrol (Writer) 53. T.E. Lawrence (Soldier, aka Lawrence of Arabia) 54. Sonny Liston (Boxer) 55. The Pretty Girl (by artist George Petty) 56. Wax model of George Harrison 57. Wax model of John Lennon 58. Shirley Temple (Child Actress) 59. Wax model of Ringo Starr 60. Wax model of Paul McCartney 61. Albert Einstein (Physicist) 62. John Lennon (holding a french horn) 63. Ringo Starr (holding a trumpet) 64. Paul McCartney (holding a cor anglais) 65. George Harrison (holding a flute) 66. Bobby Breen (Singer) 67. Marlene Dietrich (Actress) 68. Mohandas Ghandi (Painted out at the request of EMI) 69. Legionaire from the order of the Buffalos 70. Diana Dors (Actress) 71. Shirley Temple (Child Actress) 72. Cloth grandmother-figure by Jann Haworth 73. Cloth figure of Shirley Temple by Haworth 74. Mexican candlestick 75. Television set 76. Stone figure of girl 77. Stone figure 78. Statue from John Lennon's house 79. Trophy 80. Four-armed Indian Doll 81. Drum skin (designed by Joe Ephgrave) 82. Hookah (Water tobacco-pipe) 83. Velvet snake 84. Japanese stone figure 85. Stone figure of Snow White 86. Garden gnome 87. Tuba

And A Day in The Life, the last track on this amazing breakthrough record.

A_Day_In_The_Life.mp3

(download)

Click here to download:

A_Day_In_The_Life.mp3 (6.44 MB)

* The picture and the songs are courtesy of The Beatles

The title can be directly translated into The Duality Of The Being, and it's a poem by Mozambican Poet, Journalist and Lawyer Jorge Rebelo. It's one of those pieces that could've only been articulated by someone who's been patiently in the same place for awhile. He who in Mozambique is still labeled the Poet of the Revolution, is someone who's sat around long enough to watch the magic of change surface around him. Rebelo, like all of us, not only felt this change but went along with it. But something or someone from the early days stayed behind, inside him, like a voice, critical and always questioning. Is it the irritating voice of resistance or the wise voice of reason?

A Dualidade Do Ser

Costumo assistir, nunca falto a estas cerimónias
(quando me convidam).
A de ontem então foi empolgante:
Muito faustosa, muitas figuras,
ouvimos discursos laudatórios,
patrióticos, exalando saber e rectidão.
Adorei.

Mas outra parte de mim estava distante,
indiferente, alheio a tudo. Queixava-se:
“Vamos embora.
Estes ambientes pomposos incomodam-me,
Fico perdido
perco-me no ar morno dos salões
nos apertos frouxos das mãos
nos sorrisos pré-fabricados,
nunca sei qual a linguagem certa
as vénias que de mim se esperam.
- Ai as vénias! - diz ele.  Malaventurado
quem as inventou.
Porque, escuta bem:  as vénias não são só
a curvatura do corpo.
Também a alma - a tua alma - se curva.”

Não liguei.
Eu não arredei pé.
Até ao fim, hirto, solene
bati palmas, entoei-loas
orgulhoso por ser parteda ilustre nomenclatura.

Mas o outro em mim não se conforma.
Zanga-se:
“Irmão, que prazer encontras nestas feiras?
O que vens aqui buscar?
Vens adular o poder?
Eu não falo por parábolas
Digo as coisas como são, cruas e sem enfeites.
Muitas vezes incomodam
inquietam.
Mas calar?
Calar não é render-se, não é trair?
Quando os outros calam eu falo.
Quando escondem nomes eu cito.
Pergunto donde vem a opulência deste
e daquele.
Porque é que tão poucos têm tanto
E tantos têm tão pouco.
Foi por isto que lutaste?
Dizer a verdade é pecado?
Apontar os erros é crime?
Responde se és capaz.”

É incómodo este outro eu,
mas  não  sei  como  me  livrar  dele.

(E por estranho que pareça,
no fundo de mim − e não tão fundo −
venho alimentando esta esperança:
que um dia, muito em breve
ele se  livre de mim.
E liberto finalmente, possa então
realizar a missão
que a si mesmo se impôs:
ensinar a não calar, a não ter medo,
partilhar a emoção de fazer bem,
fazer acordar a consciência,
impulsionar a Viragem.