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Rudiger Oppermann and Diana Rosa - Song to the Siren

from The Beckett Songbook, USA​-​Germany, (Work in Progress) by Diana Rosalind

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This is our take on the wonderful classic of haunting mystery penned by the maestro of words Larry Beckett and set to music by the lovely and tragic Tim Buckley. I have odd links to this tune and some of the people variously connected to it, who are also oddly linked to one another.

Will tell the whole story sometime, but meanwhile, enjoy this rather different rendition.

I think I am the only person to have recorded it with the correct lyrics in the final verse. Larry's original line "I'm as puzzled as the oyster" (which he later explained to me was about how the irritation of sand, a wound, turns into a pearl, the same way pain may become art) caused embarrassment to Tim Buckley when someone laughed at it the first time he played it for a TV recording. Tim then asked Larry if he could change the line to "I'm as puzzled as the newborn child" and Larry said OK.

I always hated that line instinctively, found it shmaltzy, and couldn't understand how it ended up in such a great lyric work. When I researched it, I was gratified to learn that it wasn't the original. I think the line about the oyster is infinitely more interesting and deep and as it is puzzling, it's great in the way it induces the same feeling in the listener who can't quite imagine what it could mean.

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from The Beckett Songbook, USA​-​Germany, (Work in Progress), track released September 12, 2005

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Diana Rosalind New Orleans, Louisiana

After being discovered by Bobby McFerrin as a young vocal improviser in San Francisco, I spent some years writing and performing with ensembles that remain important in the history of Bay Area arts, then did time tangling with the music biz in LA & NYC, followed by a decade in Europe, recording all the while, before coming "home" to NOLA. This is a partial musical record of that journey. ... more

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