Some things take so long
But how do I explain
When not too many people
Can see we’re all the same
And because of all their tears
Their eyes can’t hope to see
The beauty that surrounds them
Isn’t it a pity

Isn’t it a pity
Isn’t is a shame
How we break each other’s hearts
And cause each other pain
How we take each other’s love
Without thinking anymore
Forgetting to give back
Isn’t it a pity

Forgetting to give back
Isn’t it a pity
Forgetting to give back
Now, isn’t it a pity

― George Harrison

Hey you, out there on your own
Sitting naked by the phone
Would you touch me?
Hey you, with you ear against the wall
Waiting for someone to call out
Would you touch me?
Hey you, would you help me to carry the stone?
Open your heart, I’m coming home.

But it was only fantasy.
The wall was too high,
As you can see.
No matter how he tried,
He could not break free.
And the worms ate into his brain.

Hey you, out there on the road
always doing what you’re told,
Can you help me?
Hey you, out there beyond the wall,
Breaking bottles in the hall,
Can you help me?
Hey you, don’t tell me there’s no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall.

― Pink Floyd

Watch out now, take care
Beware of the thoughts that linger
Winding up inside your head
The hopelessness around you
In the dead of night

Beware of sadness
It can hit you
It can hurt you
Make you sore and what is more
That is not what you are here for

Watch out now, take care
Beware of soft shoe shufflers
Dancing down the sidewalks
As each unconscious sufferer
Wanders aimlessly
Beware of maya

Watch out now, take care
Beware of greedy leaders
They take you where you should not go
While weeping atlas cedars
They just want to grow, grow and grow
Beware of darkness (beware of darkness)

― George Harrison

Lost in thought and lost in time
While the seeds of life and the seeds of change were planted

Outside the rain fell dark and slow
While I pondered on this dangerous but irresistible pasttime
I took a heavenly ride through our silence
I knew the moment had arrived
For killing the past and coming back to life

I took a heavenly ride trough our silence
I knew the waiting had begun
And headed straight into the shining sun

― Pink Floyd

I don’t know why nobody told you
how to unfold your love
I don’t know how someone controlled you
they bought and sold you

I look at the world and I notice it’s turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps

I don’t know how you were diverted
you were perverted too
I don’t know how you were inverted
no one alerted you

I look at you all see the love there that’s sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at you all
Still my guitar gently weeps

― George Harrison, for The Beatles

You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re not forgotten

A bleeding heart torn apart
Left on an icy grave
In the room where they once lay
Face to face
Nothing could get in their way
But now the memories of the man are haunting her days
And the craving never fades
She’s still dreaming of a man
Long forgiven, but not forgotten

You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re not forgotten

Still alone, staring on
Wishing her life goodbye
As she goes searching for the man
Long forgiven, but not forgotten

You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re forgiven not forgotten
You’re not forgotten
You’re not forgotten
No, You’re not forgotten

― The Corrs

Sometimes everything is wrong. Now it’s time to sing along
When your day is night alone, (hold on, hold on)
If you feel like letting go, (hold on)
When you think you’ve had too much of this life, well hang on

‘Cause everybody hurts. Take comfort in your friends
Everybody hurts. Don’t throw your hand. Oh, no. Don’t throw your hand
If you feel like you’re alone, no, no, no, you are not alone

If you’re on your own in this life, the days and nights are long,
When you think you’ve had too much of this life to hang on

Well, everybody hurts sometimes,
Everybody cries. And everybody hurts sometimes
And everybody hurts sometimes. So, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on
Everybody hurts. You are not alone

R.E.M.

I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running round my brain
I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign
But it’s my destiny to be the king of pain

There’s a little black spot on the sun today
That’s my soul up there
It’s the same old thing as yesterday
That’s my soul up there
There’s a black hat caught in a high tree top
That’s my soul up there
There’s a flag pole rag and the wind wont stop
That’s my soul up there

I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running round my brain
I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign
But it’s my destiny to be the king of pain

There’s a fossil that’s trapped in a high cliff wall
That’s my soul up there
There’s a dead salmon frozen in a waterfall
That’s my soul up there
There’s a blue whale beached by a springtides ebb
That’s my soul up there
There’s a butterfly trapped in a spider’s web
That’s my soul up there

I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running round my brain
I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign
But it’s my destiny to be the king of pain

There’s a king on a throne with his eyes torn out
There’s a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt
There’s a rich man sleeping on a golden bed
There’s a skeleton choking on a crust of bread

King of pain

There’s a red fox thorn by a huntsman’s pack
That’s my soul up there
There’s a black winged gull with a broken back
That’s my soul up there
There’s a little black spot on the sun today
It’s the same old thing as yesterday

I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running round my brain
I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign
But it’s my destiny to be the king of pain

King of pain
King of pain
King of pain
I’ll always be king of pain
I’ll always be king of pain
I’ll always be king of pain…

Police

I have made the big decision
I’m gonna try to nullify my life
‘Cause when the blood begins to flow
When it shoots up the dropper’s neck
When I’m closing in on death
And you can’t help me now, you guys
And all you sweet girls with all your sweet talk
You can all go take a walk
And I guess that I just don’t know
And I guess that I just don’t know

I wish that I was born a thousand years ago
I wish that I’d sail the darkened seas
On a great big clipper ship
Going from this land here to that
In a sailor’s suit and cap
Away from the big city
Where a man can not be free
Of all of the evils of this town
And of himself, and those around
Oh, and I guess that I just don’t know
Oh, and I guess that I just don’t know

Heroin, be the death of me
Heroin, it’s my wife and it’s my life
Because a mainer to my vein
Leads to a center in my head
And then I’m better off and dead
Because when the smack begins to flow
I really don’t care anymore
About all the Jim-Jim’s in this town
And all the politicians makin’ crazy sounds
And everybody puttin’ everybody else down
And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds

‘Cause when the smack begins to flow
Then I really don’t care anymore
Ah, when the heroin is in my blood
And that blood is in my head
Then thank God that I’m as good as dead
Then thank your God that I’m not aware
And thank God that I just don’t care
And I guess I just don’t know
And I guess I just don’t know

The Velvet Underground

I was gladly surprised when I was in FNAC one day and found a player which clearly stated in the box that it was able to play .ogg files (okay, ogg vorbis for the purists out there. but I’ll say .ogg from now on.) and better yet, even not counting this feature, it was actually the player with the best cost/benefit ratio on that store. It’s the Samsung U3.

I’ve been using it for about two months now, and I am enjoying it. You should take this with a grain of salt, since I didn’t have many requirements from a digital player except that it could play .ogg files, and I’m not an expert or music lover. I’m just an occasional listener. The reviews I have read about it tend to be good though, even regarding the sound quality.

One nice thing is it’s form factor. The player is very small, thin and light. I also like it’s very bright OLED screen, and the fact that it’s very simple to use in Linux. It just presents itself as a regular pen drive. It sports 2 GB of capacity, FM radio, sound recording, progressive “fast forward”…

The main drawback is it’s very sensitive touch buttons. They’re cool, but not very practical. You need to look at the device to see where to touch (but eventually you develop your muscle memory and just know where buttons are). You also need to use the player’s hold key a lot, otherwise buttons will activate all the time while the player is in your pocket.

Now, why this need of playing .ogg files? I have all my CDs encoded in ogg vorbis format, and didn’t want to reencode it all. I think ogg vorbis is a better format than mp3 since it’s newer (mp3 is already more than 10 years old. some advances in lossy audio compression must have been made since then!) and patent-unencumbered. Before you ask: no, I can’t hear the difference in quality between .ogg and .mp3… It’s more the decision of an engineer who preferred to go with the newer, shinier system.

I’m very bad at classifying or describing music, so I will just give a flat list and then comment on some of the entries:

• Acoustic Affinités
• Antarhes
• DoF
• Drunksouls
• HYPE
• JT Bruce
• Looper
• Trafic de Blues
• X-RAY POP

Some of the above are free as in beer, some are free as in speech.

Of these, HYPE is currently among my favorite rock bands (both free and non-free). And I really like the sound of Acoustic Affinités and Trafic de Blues. Despite sounding too electronic to my ears, I enjoy Looper (especially the “The Strangest Girl” song). DoF (I only have the “A Year in Waiting” album) is great to listen to while hacking/programming.

From the website itself:

“Jamendo is a new model for artists to promote, publish, and be paid for their music.

On jamendo, the artists distribute their music under Creative Commons licenses. In a nutshell, they allow you to download, remix and share their music freely. It’s a “Some rights reserved” agreement, perfectly suited for the new century.”

Unfortunately, most of the music available is electronic, which is not my kind of music. But I found some real good blues and rock bands there. Most are French. I’ll comment about them in the near future.