Mother do you think they’ll drop the bomb Mother do you think they’ll like the song Mother do you think they’ll try to break my balls Ooooh aah, Mother should I build a wall Mother should I run for president Mother should I trust the government Mother will they put me in the firing line Ooooh aah, is it just a waste of time Hush now baby don’t you cry Mama’s gonna make all of your Nightmares come true Mama’s gonna put all of her fears into you Mama’s gonna keep you right here Under her wing She won’t let you fly but she might let you sing Mama will keep baby cosy and warm Ooooh Babe Ooooh Babe Ooooh Babe Of course Mama’s gonna help build the wall
Mother do think she’s good enough for me Mother do think she’s dangerous to me Mother will she tear your little boy apart Oooh aah, mother will she break my heart Hush now baby, baby don’t you cry Mama’s gonna check out all your girl friends for you Mama won’t let anyone dirty get through Mama’s gonna wait up till you come in Mama will always find out where You’ve been Mamma’s gonna keep baby healthy and clean Ooooh Babe Ooooh Babe Ooooh Babe You’ll always be a baby to me Mother, did it need to be so high.
Come Rain Or Come Shine (Harold Arlen & Johnny Mercer 1945) – Norah Jones with Wynton Marsalis
I’m gonna love you, like no one loves you Come rain or come shine High as a mountain, deep as a river Come rain or come shine
I guess when you met me It was just one of those things But don’t ever bet me ‘Cause I’m gonna be true if you let me
You gonna love me, like no one love me Come rain or come shine Happy together, unhappy together Wouldn’t it be fine
Days may be cloudy or sunny We’re in or we are out of the money, yeah But I’m with you always I’m with you rain or shine
You gonna love me, like nobody’s loved me Come rain or come shine Happy together, unhappy together Wouldn’t it be fine
Days may be cloudy or sunny We’re in or we are out of the money, yeah I’m with you always I’m with you rain or shine
Singin’ in the Rain – Gene Kelly (1952)
I’m singing in the rain Just singin’ in the rain What a glorious feeling I’m happy again
I’m laughing at clouds So dark up above The sun’s in my heart And I’m ready for love
Let the stormy clouds chase Everyone from the place Come on with the rain I have a smile on my face
I walk down the lane With a happy refrain Just singin’ Singin’ in the rain
Dancing in the rain I’m happy again I’m singin’ and dancin’ in the rain I’m dancin’ and singin’ in the rain
A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall – Bob Dylan (1963)
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? Oh, where have you been, my darling young one? I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son? Oh, what did you see, my darling young one? I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’ I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’ I saw a white ladder all covered with water I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son? And what did you hear, my darling young one? I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’ Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’ Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’ Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’ Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son? Who did you meet, my darling young one? I met a young child beside a dead pony I met a white man who walked a black dog I met a young woman whose body was burning I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow I met one man who was wounded in love I met another man who was wounded with hatred And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son? Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one? I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’ I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest Where the people are many and their hands are all empty Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten Where black is the color, where none is the number And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’ But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’ And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
Rain – The Beatles (1966)
If the rain comes They run and hide their heads They might as well be dead If the rain comes If the rain comes
When the sun shines They slip into the shade (when the sun shines down) And sip their lemonade (when the sun shines down) When the sun shines When the sun shines
Rain I don’t mind Shine The weather’s fine
I can show you That when it starts to rain (when the rain comes down) Everything’s the same (when the rain comes down) I can show you I can show you
Rain I don’t mind Shine The weather’s fine
Can you hear me? That when it rains and shines (when it rains and shines) It’s just a state of mind (when it rains and shines) Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
The Rain, the Park & Other Things – The Cowsills (1967)
I saw her sitting in the rain Raindrops falling on her She didn’t seem to care She sat there and smiled at me
Then I knew (I knew, I knew, I knew, I knew) She could make me happy (happy, happy, she could make me very happy) Flowers in her hair Flowers everywhere (everywehre)
Oh I don’t know just why, she simply caught my eye (I love the flower girl) She seemed so sweet and kind, she crept into my mind (To my mind, to my mind)
I knew I had to say hello (hello, hello) She smiled up at me And she took my hand And we walked through the park alone
And I knew (I knew, I knew, I knew, I knew) She had made me happy (happy, happy, she had made me very happy) Flowers in her hair Flowers everywhere
Oh, I don’t know just why, she simply caught my eye (I love the flower girl) She seemed so sweet and kind, she crept into my mind (To my mind, to my mind)
Suddenly, the sun broke through (see the sun) I turned around, she was gone (Where did she go?) And all I had left was one little flower in my hand
But I knew (I knew, I knew, I knew, I knew) She had made me happy (happy, happy, she had made me very happy) Flowers in her hair Flowers everywhere
Was she reality or just a dream to me? (I love the flower girl) Her love showed me the way to find a sunny day (Sunny day, sunny day)
Was she reality or just a dream to me? (I love the flower girl)
I Wish It Would Rain – The Temptations (1967)
Hmm-mm-hmm (oh)
Sunshine, blue skies, please go away My girl has found another, and gone away With her went my future, my life is filled with gloom So day after day, I stay locked up in my room
I know to you it might sound strange But I wish it would rain (Oh, how I wish that it would rain) Oh yeah, yeah, yeah
‘Cause so badly I wanna go outside (Such a lovely day) But everyone knows that a man ain’t supposed to cry Listen, I got to cry, ‘cause crying Eases the pain, oh yeah
People, this hurt I feel inside Words, they, could never explain I just wish it would rain (Oh, how I wish that it would rain) Oh let it rain, rain, rain, rain (Oh, how I wish that it would rain) Oo, baby
Let it rain (rain, rain) Oh yeah, let it rain
Day in day out, my tear-stained face Pressed against the window pane My eyes search the skies, desperately for rain ‘Cause rain drops will hide my teardrops And no one will ever know That I’m crying (crying) crying (crying) When I go outside
To the world outside My tears I refuse to explain Oo, I wish it would rain (How I wish that it would rain) Oo, baby
Let it rain, let it rain I need rain to disguise The tears in my eyes
Oh, let it rain Oh, yeah, yeah, listen I’m a man and I’ve got my pride ‘Til it rains I’m gonna stay inside Let it rain
Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head – B. J. Thomas (1970)
Raindrops are falling on my head And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed Nothing seems to fit Those raindrops are falling on my head, they keep falling
So I just did me some talking to the sun And I said I didn’t like the way he got things done Sleeping on the job Those raindrops are falling on my head, they keep falling
But there’s one thing I know The blues they send to meet me Won’t defeat me, it won’t be long Till happiness steps up to greet me
Raindrops keep falling on my head But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turning red Crying’s not for me ‘Cause I’m never gonna stop the rain by complaining Because I’m free Nothing’s worrying me
It won’t be long till happiness steps up to greet me
Raindrops keep falling on my head But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turning red Crying’s not for me ‘Cause I’m never gonna stop the rain by complaining Because I’m free Nothing’s worrying me
Have You Ever Seen the Rain? (Creedence Clearwater Revival 1971) – Rod Stewart
Someone told me long ago There’s a calm before the storm I know, it’s been comin’ for some time When it’s over, so they say It’ll rain a sunny day I know, shinin’ down like water
I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain Comin’ down on a sunny day?
Yesterday and days before Sun is cold and rain is hard I know, been that way for all my time ‘Til forever on it goes Through the circle, fast and slow I know, it can’t stop, I wonder
I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain Comin’ down on a sunny day?
Yeah I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain Comin’ down on a sunny day?
The Rain Song – Led Zeppelin (1973)
It is the springtime of my loving The second season I am to know You are the sunlight in my growing So little warmth I’ve felt before It isn’t hard to feel me glowing I watched the fire that grew so low, oh
It is the summer of my smiles Flee from me, keepers of the gloom Speak to me only with your eyes It is to you, I give this tune Ain’t so hard to recognize, oh These things are clear to all from time to time, ooh
Oh, oh
Oh Talk, talk, talk, talk Hey, I felt the coldness of my winter I never thought it would ever go I cursed the gloom that set upon us, ‘pon us, ‘pon us But I know that I love you so Oh, but I know That I love you so
These are the seasons of emotion And like the wind, they rise and fall This is the wonder of devotion I see the torch We all must hold This is the mystery of the quotient, quotient Upon us all, upon us all, a little rain must fall Just a little rain, oh, yeah Oh, ooh, yeah-yeah-yeah
It’s Raining Men – The Weather Girls (1982)
Hi! (Hi!) We’re your Weather Girls (Uh, huh) And have we got news for you (You better listen!) Get ready, all you lonely girls And leave those umbrellas at home (Alright!)
Humidity is rising Barometer’s getting low According to all sources The street’s the place to go
‘Cause tonight, for the first time Just about half-past ten For the first time in history It’s gonna start raining men
It’s raining men! Hallelujah! It’s raining men! Amen! I’m gonna go out to run and let myself get Absolutely soaking wet!
It’s raining men! Hallelujah! It’s raining men! Every specimen! Tall, blonde, dark and lean Rough and tough and strong and mean
God bless Mother Nature She’s a single woman too She took off to heaven And she did what she had to do She taught every angel And rearranged the sky So that each and every woman Could find her perfect guy
I feel stormy weather Moving in, about to begin Hear the thunder Don’t you lose your head Rip off the roof and stay in bed (Rip off the roof and stay in bed)
God bless Mother Nature She’s a single woman too She took off to heaven And she did what she had to do She taught every angel She rearranged the sky So that each and every woman Could find her perfect guy
It’s raining men, yeah!
Humidity is rising Barometer’s getting low According to all sources The street’s the place to go
‘Cause tonight for the first time Just about half-past ten For the first time in history It’s gonna start raining men
It’s raining men! Hallelujah! It’s raining men! Amen! It’s raining men! Hallelujah! It’s raining men! Amen! It’s raining men! Hallelujah! It’s raining men! Amen! It’s raining men! Hallelujah! It’s raining men! Amen! Tall, blonde, dark and lean Rough and tough and strong and mean
Here Comes the Rain Again – Eurythmics (1983)
Here comes the rain again Falling on my head like a memory Falling on my head like a new emotion I want to walk in the open wind I want to talk like lovers do Want to dive into your ocean Is it raining with you?
So, baby, talk to me Like lovers do Walk with me Like lovers do Talk to me Like lovers do
Here comes the rain again Raining in my head like a tragedy Tearing me apart like a new emotion (ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh) I want to breathe in the open wind I want to kiss like lovers do Want to dive into your ocean Is it raining with you?
So, baby, talk to me Like lovers do Walk with me Like lovers do Talk to me Like lovers do
So, baby, talk to me Like lovers do
Ooh Ooh, yeah Here it comes again Ooh-ooh Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Here it comes the rain again Falling on my head like a memory Falling on my head like a new emotion (Here it comes again, here it comes again, oh-ah) I want to walk in the open wind I want to talk like lovers do Want dive into your ocean Is it raining with you?
Ooh, here it comes again Here comes the rain again (I said) Falling on my head like a memory Falling on my head like a new emotion (ooh, ooh, yeah) I want to walk in the open wind (ooh, ooh) I want to talk like lovers do I want to dive into your ocean Is it raining with you?
Here comes the rain again Falling on my head like a memory Falling on my head like a new emotion
Purple Rain – Prince and The Revolution (1984)
I never meant to cause you any sorrow I never meant to cause you any pain I only wanted to one time to see you laughing I only wanted to see you Laughing in the purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain Purple rain, purple rain Purple rain, purple rain I only wanted to see you Bathing in the purple rain
I never wanted to be your weekend lover I only wanted to be some kind of friend (hey) Baby, I could never steal you from another It’s such a shame our friendship had to end
Purple rain, purple rain Purple rain, purple rain Purple rain, purple rain I only wanted to see you Underneath the purple rain
Honey, I know, I know I know times are changing It’s time we all reach out For something new, that means you too
You say you want a leader But you can’t seem to make up your mind I think you better close it And let me guide you to the purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain Purple rain, purple rain If you know what I’m singing about up here C’mon, raise your hand
Purple rain, purple rain I only want to see you Only want to see you In the purple rain
Red Rain – Peter Gabriel (1986)
Red rain is coming down Red rain Red rain is pouring down Pouring down all over me
I am standing up at the water’s edge in my dream I cannot make a single sound as you scream It can’t be that cold, the ground is still warm to touch Hey, we touch This place is so quiet, sensing that storm
Red rain is coming down Red rain Red rain is pouring down Pouring down all over me
Well I’ve seen them buried in a sheltered place in this town They tell you that this rain can sting and look down There is no blood around, see no sign of pain Hey, no pain Seeing no red now, see no rain
Red rain is coming down Red rain Red rain is pouring down Pouring down all over me
Red rain Oh-oh, putting the pressure on much harder now To return again and again (Red rain), just let the red rain splash you (Red rain), let the rain fall on your skin (Red rain), I come to you, defenses down With the trust of a child
Red rain coming down Red rain Red rain is pouring down Pouring down all over me
And I can’t watch anymore No more denial It’s so hard to lay down in all of this
Red rain coming down Red rain Red rain is pouring down I’m bathing in
Red rain coming down Red rain is pouring down Oh! rain is coming down all over me I’m begging you
Red rain coming down Red rain coming down Red rain coming down Red rain coming down Over me in the red, red sea Over me, over me Red rain
Rain – Madonna (1992)
I feel it…
It’s coming…
Rain Feel it on my finger tips Hear it on my window pane Your love’s coming down like Rain Wash away my sorrow Take away my pain Your love’s coming down like Rain
When your lips are burning mine And you take the time to tell me how you feel When you listen to my words And I know you’ve heard, I know it’s real Rain is what the thunder brings For the first time I can hear my heart sing Call me a fool but I know I’m not I’m gonna stand out here on the mountain top ‘Til I feel your
Rain Feel it on my finger tips Hear it on my window pane Your love’s coming down like Rain Wash away my sorrow Take away my pain Your love’s coming down like Rain
When you looked into my eyes And you said goodbye could you see my tears? When I turned the other way Did you hear me say I’d wait for all the dark clouds bursting in a perfect sky? You promised me when you said goodbye That you’d return when the storm was done And now I’ll wait for the light, I’ll wait for the sun ‘Til I feel your
Rain Feel it on my finger tips Hear it on my window pane Your love’s coming down like Rain Wash away my sorrow Take away my pain Your love’s coming down like…
Here comes the sun! Here comes the sun And I say, never go away
Waiting is the hardest thing (It’s strange) I tell myself that if I believe in you (I feel like I’ve known you before) In dream of you (And I want to understand you) With all my heart and all my soul (More and more and more) That by sheer force of will (When I’m with you) I will raise you from the ground (I feel like a magical child) And without a sound, you’ll appear (Everything strange) And surrender to me, to love (Everything wild)
Rain is what the thunder brings For the first time I can hear my heart sing Call me a fool but I know I’m not I’m gonna stand out here on the mountain top ‘Til I feel your
Rain I feel it, it’s coming Your love’s coming down like Rain I feel it, it’s coming Your love’s coming down like
Rain Feel it on my finger tips Hear it on my window pane Your love’s coming down like Rain Wash away my sorrow Take away my pain Your love’s coming down like
Rain I feel it, it’s coming Your love’s coming down like
Rain I feel it, it’s coming Your love’s coming down like Rain
I’ll stand out on the mountain top Until I hear you call My name
Rain
Only Happy When It Rains – Garbage (1995)
Letras
I’m only happy when it rains I’m only happy when it’s complicated And though I know you can’t appreciate it I’m only happy when it rains
You know I love it when the news is bad Why it feels so good to feel so sad? I’m only happy when it rains
Pour your misery down Pour your misery down on me Pour your misery down Pour your misery down on me
I’m only happy when it rains I feel good when things are goin’ wrong I only listen to the sad, sad songs I’m only happy when it rains
I only smile in the dark My only comfort is the night gone black I didn’t accidentally tell you that I’m only happy when it rains You’ll get the message by the time I’m through When I complain about me and you I’m only happy when it rains
Pour your misery down (Pour your misery down) Pour your misery down on me Pour your misery down (Pour your misery down) Pour your misery down on me Pour your misery down (Pour your misery down) Pour your misery down on me
Pour your misery down You can keep me company As long as you don’t care
I’m only happy when it rains You wanna hear about my new obsession? I’m riding high upon a deep depression I’m only happy when it rains
Pour some misery down on me I’m only happy when it rains Pour some misery down on me I’m only happy when it rains Pour some misery down on me I’m only happy when it rains Pour some misery down on me
I’m only happy when it rains Pour some misery down on me Pour some misery down on me Pour some misery down on me Pour some misery down on me
Pour some misery down on me Pour some misery down on me
Kiss the Rain – Billie Myers (1997)
Hello Can you hear me? Am I getting through to you? Hello Is it late there? Is there laughter on the line? Are you sure you’re there alone? ‘Cause I’m Trying to explain Something’s wrong You just don’t sound the same
Why don’t you Why don’t you Go outside Go outside
Kiss the rain Whenever you need me Kiss the rain Whenever I’m gone too long If your lips feel lonely and thirsty Kiss the rain And wait for the dawn Keep in mind We’re under the same sky And the night’s As empty for me as for you If you feel You can’t wait ‘til morning Kiss the rain Kiss the rain Kiss the rain
Hello Do you miss me? I hear you say you do But not the way I’m missing you What’s new? How’s the weather? Is it stormy where you are? You sound so close but it feels like you’re so far Oh, would it mean anything If you knew What I’m left imagining In my mind In my mind Would you go Would you go
Kiss the rain
As you fall Over me Think of me Think of me Think of me Only me Kiss the rain Whenever you need me Kiss the rain Whenever I’m gone too long If your lips Feel hungry and tempted Kiss the rain And wait for the dawn Keep in mind We’re under the same sky And the night’s As empty for me as for you If you feel you can’t wait ‘til morning Kiss the rain Kiss the rain Kiss the rain Kiss the rain
Hello Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
After The Rain Has Fallen – Sting (1999)
The palace guards are all sleeping Their fires burn into the night There’s a threat of rain on the dark horizon And all that’s left is a quarter moon of light He climbs up through the darkness No weapon but his surprise The greatest thief in the high Sahara Enters the room where a sleeping princess lies All your money, your pretty necklace This is my work on such a night There’s a storm coming over the mountain I’ll be gone long before the morning After the rain has fallen After the tears have washed your eyes You find that I’ve taken nothing, that Love can’t replace in the blink of an eye He was as gentle as the night wind As no lover had been before And the rings she wore for her bride groom Slipped from her fingers and fell to the floor Take me with you, take me with you Before my lonely life is set I’ve been promised to another To a man I’ve never even met After the rain has fallen After the tears have washed your eyes You’ll find that I’ve taken nothing, that Love can’t replace in the blink of an eye After the thunder’s spoken, and After the lightning bolt’s been hurled After the dream is broken, there’ll Still be love in the world She said take me to another life Take me for a pirate’s wife Take me where the wind blows Take me where the red wine flows Take me to the danger Take me to the life of crime Take me to the stars Take me to the moon while we still have time After the rain has fallen After the tears have washed your eyes You’ll find that I’ve taken nothing, that Love can’t replace in the blink of an eye After the thunder’s spoken, and After the lightning bolt’s been hurled After the dream is broken, there’ll Still be love in the world
Rain Is a Good Thing – Luke Bryan (2009)
My daddy spent his life lookin’ up at the sky He’d cuss kick the dust, sayin’ son it’s way too dry It clouds up in the city, the weather man complains But where I come from, rain is a good thing
Rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey Whiskey makes my baby, feel a little frisky Back roads are boggin’ up, my buddies pile up in my truck We hunt our hunnies down, we take ‘em into town Start washin’ all our worries down the drain Rain is a good thing
Ain’t nothin’ like a kiss out back in the barn Ringin’ out our soakin’ clothes, ridin’ out a thunderstorm When tin roof gets to talkin’; that’s the best love we made Yea where I come from, rain is a good thing
Rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey Whiskey makes my baby, feel a little frisky Back roads are boggin’ up, my buddies pile up in my truck We hunt our hunnies down, we take ‘em into town Start washin’ all our worries down the drain Rain is a good thing
Farmer Johnson does a little dance Creeks on the rise, roll up your pants Country girls, they wanna cuddle Kids out playin’ in a big mud puddle
Rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey Whiskey makes my baby Back roads are boggin’ up, my buddies pile up in my truck We hunt our hunnies down, we take ‘em into town Start washin’ all our worries down the drain Rain is a good thing
Rain is a good thing, rain is a good thing, rain is a good thing
Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain) – Gary Allan (2012)
I saw you standing in the middle of the thunder and lightning I know you’re feeling like you just can’t win, but you’re trying It’s hard to keep on keepin’ on, when you’re being pushed around Don’t even know which way is up, you just keep spinning down, ‘round, down
Every storm runs, runs out of rain Just like every dark night turns into day Every heartache will fade away Just like every storm runs, runs out of rain
So hold your head up and tell yourself that there’s something more And walk out that door Go find a new rose, don’t be afraid of the thorns ‘Cause we all have thorns Just put your feet up to the edge, put your face in the wind And when you fall back down, keep on rememberin’
Every storm runs, runs out of rain Just like every dark night turns into day Every heartache will fade away Just like every storm runs, runs out of rain
It’s gonna run out of pain It’s gonna run out of sting It’s gonna leave you alone It’s gonna set you free Set you free
Every storm runs, runs out of rain Just like every dark night turns into day Every heartache will fade away Just like every storm runs, runs out of rain
It’s gonna set you free, It’s gonna run out of pain, It’s gonna set you free
Rain – The Script (2017)
Woke up this morning, can’t shake the thunder from last night You left with no warning and took the summer from my life I gave you my everything, now my world it don’t seem right Can we just go back to being us again?
‘Cause when I’m sitting in the bar All the lovers with umbrellas always pass me by It’s like I’m living in the dark And my heart’s turned cold since you left my life And no matter where I go Girl, I know if I’m alone, there’ll be no blue sky I don’t know what I’m doing wrong
‘Cause baby, when you’re gone All it does is rain, rain, rain down on me Each drop is pain, pain, pain when you leave It’s such a shame we fucked it up, you and me ‘Cause baby, when you’re gone All it does is rain
And it feels like, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh And it feels like, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh ‘Cause baby, when you’re gone All it does is rain
Yeah, tried to find shelter here in the arms of someone new But I’d rather be there under the covers just with you, oh ‘Cause you were my everything Now I don’t know what to do Oh, I’m caught up in the storm
‘Cause baby, when you’re gone All it does is rain, rain, rain down on me Each drop is pain, pain, pain when you leave It’s such a shame we fucked it up, you and me ‘Cause baby, when you’re gone All it does is rain
And it feels like, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh And it feels like, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh ‘Cause baby, when you’re gone All it does is rain
‘Cause when I’m sitting in the bar All the lovers with umbrellas always pass me by It’s like I’m living in the dark And my heart’s turned cold since you left my life And no matter where I go I know if I’m alone, there’ll be no blue sky I don’t know what I’m doing wrong
Baby, when you’re gone All it does is rain, rain, rain down on me Each drop is pain, pain, pain when you leave It’s such a shame we fucked it up, you and me ‘Cause baby, when you’re gone All it does is rain
And it feels like, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh And it feels like, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh ‘Cause baby, when you’re gone All it does is rain
Autumn in New York Why does it seem so inviting? Autumn in New York It spells the thrill of first-nighting Glittering crowds And shimmering clouds In canyons of steel They’re making me feel I’m home
It’s autumn in New York That brings the promise of new love Autumn in New York Is often mingled with pain Dreamers with empty hands May sigh for exotic lands It’s autumn in New York It’s good to live it again
It’s autumn in New York That brings the promise of new love Autumn in New York Is often mingled with pain Lovers that bless the dark On benches in Central Park It’s autumn in New York It’s good to live it again
I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song I’m twenty-two now, but I won’t be for long Time hurries on And the leaves that are green turn to brown And they wither with the wind And they crumble in your hand
Once my heart was filled with the love of a girl I held her close, but she faded in the night Like a poem I meant to write And the leaves that are green turn to brown And they wither with the wind And they crumble in your hand
I threw a pebble in a brook And watched the ripples run away And they never made a sound And the leaves that are green turn to brown And they wither with the wind And they crumble in your hand
Hello, hello, hello, hello Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye, good-bye That’s all there is And the leaves that are green turn to brown
Oh, je voudais tant que tu te souviennes Des jours heureux où nous étions amis En ce temps-là la vie était plus belle Et le soleil plus brûlant qu’aujourd’hui
Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle Tu vois, je n’ai pas oublié Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle Les souvenirs et les regrets aussi
Et le vent du Nord les emporte Dans la nuit froide de l’oubli Tu vois, je n’ai pas oublié La chanson que tu me chantais
C’est une chanson qui nous ressemble Toi tu m’aimais, et je t’aimais Nous vivions tous les deux ensemble Toi qui m’aimais, moi qui t’aimais
Mais la vie sépare ceux qui s’aiment Tout doucement, sans faire de bruit Et la mer efface sur le sable Les pas des amants désunis
La, la, la, la La, la, la, la La, la, la, la La, la, la, la La, la, la, la La, la, la, la La, la, la, la La, la, la, la
Mais la vie sépare ceux qui s’aiment Tout doucement, sans faire de bruit Et la mer efface sur le sable Les pas des amants désunis
Autumn leaves under frozen souls Hungry hands turning soft and old My hero cried as we stood out there in the cold Like these autumn leaves I don’t have nothing to hold
Handsome smile wearing handsome shoes Too young to say, though I swear he knew And I hear him singing while he sits there in his chair While these autumn leaves float around everywhere
And I look at you and I see me Making noise so restlessly But now it’s quiet and I can hear you singing «My little fish don’t cry, my little fish don’t cry»
Autumn leaves are fading now That smile I lost, well I’ve found somehow ‘Cause you still live on in my father’s eyes These autumn leaves, all these autumn leaves All these autumn leaves are yours tonight
The streets are always wet with rain After a summer shower when I saw you standin’ In the garden in the garden wet with rain
You wiped the teardrops from your eye in sorrow As we watched the petals fall down to the ground And as I sat beside you I felt the Great sadness that day in the garden
And then one day you came back home You were a creature all in rapture You had the key to your soul And you did open that day you came back to the garden
The olden summer breeze was blowin’ on your face The light of God was shinin’ on your countenance divine And you were a violet colour as you Sat beside your father and your mother in the garden
The summer breeze was blowin’ on your face Within your violet you treasure your summery words And as the shiver from my neck down to my spine Ignited me in daylight and nature in the garden
And you went into a trance Your childlike vision became so fine And we heard the bells inside the church We loved so much And felt the presence of the youth of Eternal summers in the garden
And as it touched your cheeks so lightly Born again you were and blushed and we touched each other lightly And we felt the presence of the Christ
And I turned to you and I said No Guru, no method, no teacher Just you and I and nature And the father in the garden
No Guru, no method, no teacher Just you and I and nature And the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost In the garden wet with rain No Guru, no method, no teacher Just you and I and nature and the holy ghost In the garden, in the garden, wet with rain No Guru, no method, no teacher Just you and I and nature And the Father in the garden
Women in jazzstill face many barriers to success – new research
There are are relatively few female musicians in jazz. Recordings led by women formed only one-fifth of the top 50 albums NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll over 2017 to 2019, and this seems to be a long-term trend: a survey of British jazz musicians in 2004 suggested 14% were female.
Rather than there being explicit barriers to entry, scholarly attention has focused on gender differences in preferences and socialisation: men seeing concerts as a male space, and male musicians more likely to be encouraged to continue following early experience of playing with others – particularly in terms of learning improvisation and taking a solo from a young age.
It’s a cliché that music is a meritocracy, in which success is seen to arise from a combination of talent and effort. If women are not present in jazz, it is often assumed to be because they cannot play well enough, play the wrong instruments, or simply prefer other musical genres and the cultures around them.
It is likely, though, that some female musicians find the professional environment hostile. In recent years, we’ve seen extensive reporting about sexist assumptions in the jazz industry, as well as accounts of sexual harassment. Clearly, changes are still needed on the industry side. But what about the audiences? Are they helping to shape the sexism that is being reported in jazz?
Interrogating the numbers
Our new research paper combines analysis of John Chilton’s Who’s Who of British Jazz, an archive of career histories from 2004, with data on the recordings made by each of these musicians drawn from the continually updated Lord Discography. We also examine jazz audiences via the government’s 2016 Taking Part survey of cultural participation.
Chilton gives a rich picture of the history of British jazz careers — there is no better single source giving such detail on career histories for a large number of jazz musicians. Careers are generally lifelong, and so we would not expect dramatic shifts to have taken place among the community of professional musicians since his book was published. Taking Part gives more contemporary information on the jazz audience.
Among audiences, the government survey data showed that more men than women report attending jazz concerts, and that the gap is larger for jazz than for rock. By comparison, women are more likely to attend classical concerts than men. Female jazz performers therefore face primarily male audiences, and rely on them to buy recordings too.
For musicians, our analysis suggests that men tended to play with men, and women – represented in yellow in the network diagram below – also tend to play with men. Although there have been celebrated female-led initiatives and female-only bands, women are still dependent on men for their careers. Our longer-run perspective also supports findings from analysis of female representation in jazz festivals published in December 2020.
Part of this lack of women reflects the history of the genre. The world of pre-second world war jazz was overwhelmingly male. It was a time when it was near-taboo for women to play professionally in nightclubs and dance halls, at least outside female-only bands. In earlier decades, many jazz musicians honed their trade in the armed forces. The expansion of jazz tuition by universities made a difference: jazz programmes run by universities were more open to women than informal or military training routes, providing access to networks and credentials.
Instrument choice and audience preferences
There is also some evidence that women are pigeonholed as vocalists: 60% of the female musicians in our dataset are vocalists compared with 2% of male musicians. Moreover, the female musicians in our dataset play slightly fewer instruments on average than the male musicians. Our analysis finds that this lower versatility is in turn associated with making fewer records. Learning fewer instruments in the first place may therefore be one of the reasons for the recording gender gap.
On the recordings side, we see a clear and consistent gap between male and female musicians in the numbers of records made, even when taking training, instrument choice and period of birth into account. This suggests that women face structural constraints in getting recorded, whether due to having shorter careers, or a tendency for male musicians to be selected in preference.
Our triple focus on audiences, collaborations and recordings gives us a new perspective on gender inequalities – one which encourages us to think afresh about how things could be different. Jazz audiences tend to be older and predominantly male. Ultimately, they fund the festivals and recordings which provide opportunities to female artists: their musical preferences and preferred concert experiences matter, and festival programmers have to take them into account.
Assumptions about what the audience wants tend to reproduce the male-dominated world of jazz. Audiences can play a part in challenging these assumptions. They can do this by being open to different live music experiences, and most importantly, by supporting and investing in talented female jazz musicians.
Inroads finally seem possible in what traditionally has been a man’s musical world
The Piacenza Jazz Club in Italy is home to a music school. So when acclaimed pianist and singer Dena DeRose had down time before a recent show there, she perused the books in the teaching studio. Pulling from the shelf one jazz biography after another, she couldn’t find a single one about a woman instrumentalist.
“Some of them were written in the 1990s, and they were still not up to date,” said DeRose. “Women are still not written about in history books. You can count on one hand — Mary Lou Williams or Melba Liston — and they’re not even mentioned.”
For DeRose, who heads the vocal jazz department at the KUG Jazz Institute/University for Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria, the book problem encapsulates the continuing challenge for female musicians in an industry dominated by men. It’s also why she was happy to accept Harvard music senior lecturer Yosvany Terry’s invitation last fall to do a residency as part of a year “Celebrating Women in Jazz.” Part of the Learning From Performers Program, the program culminates this week with a visit from award-winning singer and musician Cassandra Wilson, who as a master in residence will be a speaker and performer next week with the Harvard Jazz Bands.
“Women are not celebrated enough, and they are contributing incredibly,” said Terry, who has gigged with DeRose and Wilson. “When you look back in history, there was not only racism for many of these women, but the male-dominated society was even more of a factor. It was rare to find female jazz musicians touring regularly. For women to play an instrument [in bands] is very hard. They have to really work hard to prove they are good musicians, and then face sexism such as ‘Oh, she sounds like a man.’ No, she sounds like an accomplished musician.”
Terry said that, historically, women who pursued careers as jazz musicians were often isolated. Families discouraged their daughters from being part of a music scene laden with sexism, alcohol, and drugs.
As a case in point, there’s the great trombonist Melba Liston, who played in Dizzy Gillespie’s big band with the likes of saxophonists John Coltrane and Paul Gonsalves, and pianist John Lewis. In Linda Dahl’s book “Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen,” Liston, who died in 1999, told the author: “I just had to prove myself, just like Jackie Robinson.”
“It’s not what they intend to do — the brothers would not hurt for nothing. They would give me money, they would take care of me, or anything. But they wouldn’t let me have the job,” Liston told Dahl.
Diana Gerberich hasn’t experienced that kind of sexism in her 21 years, but the baritone saxophonist does appreciate her unique place as the only female member of the Harvard Monday Jazz Band.
“It’s true there still aren’t many women in jazz, but on stage the gender barriers fall away,” said Gerberich, a junior who is concentrating in anthropology. “I’m glad I’m able to be an example and a representative for women in jazz. I also hope to inspire other women who feel like they’re out of place and to show it’s possible to cut through boundaries, enjoy jazz and not worry about gender differences.”
Gerberich, who grew up in Wilbraham, Mass., idolizing Ella Fitzgerald as well as Gerry Mulligan, fell in love with the sax at an early age, saying the brass instrument matched her vivacious personality.
“It tends to be a more prominent instrument in jazz. I’m Italian. I have a very loud voice, and I have a lot of energy,” she said.
Though she originally played classical saxophone, she joined her elementary school jazz band at age 11, drawn to the energy with fellow musicians and the audience.
“In jazz you really get a visual of the audience engaging with the music. For other styles of music, there is less audience interaction,” said Gerberich, who was one of two women in the 2013 National Association for Music Education’s All-National Jazz Band. “I love the personal touch that comes through jazz and the unique style that each musician contributes.”
Talents like Gerberich make Ingrid Monson, the Quincy Jones Professor of African-American Music and African and African American Studies, hopeful for the future, and she ticked off names of prominent contemporaries such as Esperanza Spalding, Patricia Barber, Diana Krall, and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, who received a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music at age 11.
“I think we’re at a cultural turning point,” said Monson, pointing to a progressive shift in society that she hopes will create more opportunities for women in music. “I’ve been fascinated by the Black Lives Matter movement, which was founded by queer black women. Its mission statement includes transgender people, and you see in the movement people taking that seriously. Also, Beyonce’s “Lemonade” video album brought women and girls to the center of the future of social justice. There are more people speaking up, and this is happening in jazz too.”
Monson, who will interview Wilson on Wednesday at the Leverett House Library Theatre, said many women in jazz still feel “caught between their love of jazz and the way their gender is often considered out of place within it.”
“Many cultural signs work against you. There’s a way in which a man playing a saxophone is cool or more manly. With women, it’s the opposite effect,” she said. “The ethos is if you have enough talent you’re going to be fine, but it takes a certain type of woman to do this.”
One of the interesting things about the rise and rise of jazz education is that it has increasingly had to walk a tightrope between the real world of jazz and jazz as taught in the classroom. A key educational objective is helping young musicians achieve a high standard of professional competence. By the 1980s, educators such as David Baker, Jamey Aebersold and Jerry Coker had written exhaustive textbooks to aid students achieve this end, breaking down the methodology and techniques of jazz improvisation into a series of modules based on quantifiable and analysable aspects of bop. They became the basis for what Gary Burton has described as the means by which students learned ‘how harmony works and what the grammar of this music is in order to play better’.
Jazz music that preceded the emergence of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie receded in importance as this music was deemed irrelevant to students seeking to enter a contemporary music scene. Today, to all intents and purposes, jazz history begins with bebop.
This is a shame, and it loses sight of the fact that the jazz that preceded it was far from trivial. As the inevitable canon formation took place, what emerged was a gendered construction biased towards the male of the species – Wynton Marsalis, for example, endorses this ‘patriarchal continuum’. Although he expresses a deep respect for women as individuals and performers, he emphasises the role of men as carriers of the jazz tradition. Some academics have argued this is part of a contemporary anti-feminist backlash. Who knows? Far more likely is that jazz writing and histories that began emerging in the late 1930s and 40s were by male writers (with the notable exception of Helen Oakley Dance) and tended to be constructed around the ‘great man’ theory of [jazz] history. However, it’s clear that a significant slice of interesting jazz history has gone missing – take the aforementioned Helen Oakley Dance, for example. How many know that she was responsible for introducing pianist Teddy Wilson to Benny Goodman, then a rising star in the jazz firmament? Goodman formed the Benny Goodman Trio with Wilson in 1935, by presenting an interracial group in venues throughout the USA – and if you think American society today has its racial problems, just imagine what it was like back then.
If Goodman was stung by racist comments in the press, he didn’t show it. In 1936 he formed the Benny Goodman Quartet with the addition of Lionel Hampton. Helen Oakley, as she was then, played a powerful role in breaking down segregation. When she helped coordinate Benny Goodman’s landmark 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert, a major event that saw jazz enter a citadel of American culture, she arranged for a contingent of musicians from the orchestras of Count Basie and Duke Ellington to perform with Goodman and his musicians on the Carnegie Hall stage. It was a big statement towards breaking down racial barriers in apartheid America.
Going back a bit further in jazz history, trumpeter Joe ‘King’ Oliver moved to Chicago in 1918, but it wasn’t until 1922 he and his Creole Jazz band became an overnight sensation at Chicago’s Royal Gardens. Pianist in the band was Lil Hardin, who had studied at Fisk University, and when Oliver sent to New Orleans for a young Louis Armstrong, history was made. Their incredible duets became the talk of the town, while Lil and Louis became an item with talk of wedding bells in the air. In 1924, word of Armstrong’s prodigious talent reached New York and Fletcher Henderson, leader of the top black band in New York, sent for him. It’s fair to say Armstrong impressed, the country boy quickly making a name for himself while becoming very popular with the ladies. Word reached Lil. In 1925 she sent a telegram, something along the lines of ‘you get back to Chicago or you’re out of the door’. Louis replied: ‘I’LL BE THERE!’.
Lil was also an entrepreneur, forming a band to feature her husband, whom she billed as ‘The World’s Greatest Trumpet Player’; she was also behind a contract with the OKeh label. Billed as Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five (the band only existed in the recording studio), the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings are recognised as a foundation stone of jazz, Armstrong convincingly demonstrating jazz as a soloist’s art and influencing the whole history of the music. But what if Lil had chosen to break things off with Louis and he remained in New York living it up? Jazz might have taken a quite different turn.
Another forgotten name from this period was Leora Henderson. She was a trumpeter, arranger, music copyist, had a good business head and was married to Fletcher Henderson. She was the glue that kept the Henderson Orchestra together; her husband was so laid back he was almost horizontal, and after a road accident in 1928 became even more so. It fell to Leora to call rehearsals, hustle for work, organise tours, ‘extract’ and copy individual parts from her husband’s scores. She was the power behind the throne.
If a trumpeter was late for a gig (alcohol was the drug of choice in pre-bop America) Leora stood in: Herman Autrey, who played with Henderson before being featured with Fats Waller; he said she was a better trumpeter than Russell Smith, then regarded a top NYC trumpeter. She is thought to have deputised, uncredited, on several Henderson recordings. The period 1928-34 coincided with Henderson’s most productive period as an arranger, but in 1934 he was forced to disband the Orchestra, and within months a clarinet player called Benny Goodman bought 18 of his arrangements for his own, newly-formed band. Within a year Goodman made a breakthrough to American youth, recognised as the beginning of the Swing Era (or Big Band Era). Goodman commissioned more arrangements, but always gave credit to Henderson for his success. Henderson’s writing style introduced a relaxed ‘swing’ style that provided the blueprint for an era. But if Leora hadn’t kept Fletcher’s show on the road from 1928, jazz history might have been very different.
One of the biggest stars in jazz you never heard of was pianist Hazel Scott. With perfect pitch, she was playing the piano two-handed at the age of three. Her family thought they were witnessing a miracle. At eight she was studying at Juilliard, where the school’s founder chanced on Scott practicing; “I am in the presence of a genius” he’s on record as saying. At age 13, her mother – a musician and friend of Billie Holiday and Lester Young – got her an intermission job at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC. Her first job was to follow the Count Basie Orchestra. Stage fright or not, she brought the house down. She was on her way. When Cafe Society opened in 1938, Scott became the headliner at age 19 – there’s a photo of Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Scott, Duke Ellington and fellow teenage prodigy Mel Powell gathered around her at the piano.
By now, thanks to Billie Holiday’s encouragement, she was singing too – and very good at it. President Roosevelt’s wife Eleanor, the First Lady, ‘dropped in’ to see her perform and invited her to join her afterwards for supper. Friend to the biggest names in jazz she was just 22 years old and regarded as New York’s Queen of Jazz. She married Congressman Adam Powell, Jr, toured the USA in the 1940s to rave reviews, all the while fighting against discrimination.
The first African American woman to have her own TV show, she was hauled in front of the notorious House of Un-American Activities in 1950. Facing down the now-discredited Senator Joseph McCarthy, who accused her of communist sympathies, she defended herself eloquently, but it destroyed her career. Her TV show was cancelled, concert and nightclubs closed their doors and she moved to Paris. When she returned to the US she had slipped into obscurity, dying in 1981 at the age of 61 from cancer.
Una Mae Carlise was a pianist, singer and another pioneer – she was the first black woman to be credited as the composer of a song on the Billboard chart, and the first to host her own regular nationally broadcast radio show, while also writing for major stars such as Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee.
By comparison, pianist Jutta Hipp came from a different planet. Born in 1925, she taught herself jazz piano growing up in Nazi Germany, where she studied for an art degree. When the war was over, she supported herself as a professional jazz pianist, working with the top German jazzers of the time, Emil and Albert Mangelsdorff, Joki Freund and Hans Koller. In 1955 she moved to New York and was the first woman instrumentalist to record for the Blue Note label. An object of awe in the clubs (she was a strikingly beautiful redhead) she was dubbed the ‘Frauleinwunder’ but she only enjoyed 15 minutes of fame; after three albums for Blue Note, she became difficult to work with, left jazz, turned to drink and in 1958 found work as a seamstress. She died a recluse in 2003, aged 78.
The multi-talented Valaida Snow also experienced life under the Nazis, but in her case, it was from inside a prison. An excellent trumpeter, she played a dozen instruments, sang, danced, did arrangements for her big band and others, and appeared in Hollywood films.
Dubbed ‘Little Louis’ and ‘Queen of the Trumpet’ by none other than WC Handy, as an African American woman top billing in New York and Chicago somehow eluded her, she made no recordings in the US, but moved to Europe where she did and found the stardom she craved. In Denmark when World War II broke out, she was arrested, imprisoned and became ill but by way of prisoner exchange in 1942 she got back to the States. Her health never really recovered and she died in 1956, age 52; but what a life!
Every self-respecting jazz fan has heard of Billie Holiday, but Billie Rogers? From a musical family she had perfect pitch, learned piano, organ, accordion, double bass and soprano sax and, from age eight, trumpet, which became her first instrument. She played in a family band and was discovered by Woody Herman working in a bar in Los Angeles in 1941. He hired her on the spot. Until then Herman had a polite band with a hit ‘Woodchopper’s Ball’.
When Rogers joined, she beefed up the trumpet section, sang and would come down from the horn section as a featured soloist in her own right. She was soon a major draw for the band, featuring on Herman’s now legendary ‘Dancing in The Dawn’. There’s not too much of her on record, this was the AFM recording ban, but there are broadcasts and V Discs that show how she transformed Herman’s band. She left Herman in 1943, but his 1944 band showed her influence with a roaring trumpet section led by Pete Candoli that sent the jazz world on their collective ear. Until Laurie Frink in the 1980s and 1990s, Billie Rogers was the only female to have ever held down a regular chair in the trumpet section of a major US big band. Fair to say there’s a lot more evidence to dispel the great man theory of the jazz canon, but one thing’s sure – jazz history does indeed need revisiting.
We’re often taught to think of jazz’s history as a cavalcade of great men and their bands, but from its beginnings the music was often in the hands of women. Listen to some of the greatest.
Young, female instrumentalists have been establishing a firmer footing in jazz, taking some of the music’s boldest creative steps and organizing for change on a structural level. But this isn’t an entirely new development.
While we’re often taught to think of jazz’s history as a cavalcade of great men and their bands, from its beginnings in the early 20th century women played a range of important roles, including onstage. During World War II, right in the heart of the swing era, all-female bands became a sensation, filling the void left by men in the military. But in fact they were continuing a tradition that had begun in the vaudeville years and continued, albeit to a lesser degree, in jazz’s early decades.
Prevented from taking center stage, many female instrumentalists became composers, arrangers or artists’ managers. Buffeted by sexism from venue owners and record companies in the United States, they often went abroad to pursue careers in Europe or even Asia. As was also true of their male counterparts, the African-American women who helped blaze some of jazz’s earliest trails had to innovate their way around additional roadblocks.
“These jazz women were pioneers, and huge proponents in disseminating jazz and making it a global art form,” said Hannah Grantham, a musicologist at the National Museum of African American History and Culture who studies the work of female jazz musicians and contributed notes to this list. “I don’t think they’ve been given enough credit for that, because of their willingness to go everywhere.”
The piano and organ were considered more socially acceptable instruments for young women to play, and few serious fans of jazz would be unfamiliar with the names Mary Lou Williams, Marian McPartland, Hazel Scott, Shirley Scott or Alice Coltrane. But the ranks of female jazz genius run much deeper than that. Here are 10 performers who made a big impression in their day, but are rarely as remembered as they should be in jazz’s popular history.
Lovie Austin, pianist (1887-1972)
Lil Hardin met her future husband Louis Armstrong in 1922, when he joined her as a member of King Oliver’s famed Creole Jazz Band. Hardin, who studied at Fisk University and had an entrepreneurial streak, helped bring Armstrong forward as a bandleader, serving as his first manager, pianist and frequent co-composer. After they split up around 1930, she found some success with her own big band, but stepped away from performing years later after determining that male promoters would never be willing to promote her on the same level as men.
Valaida Snow, trumpeter (1904-1956)
Valaida Snow’s career was a wildfire: a thing of great expanse and then rapid, wrenching exhaustion. She was a master of the trumpet but played a dozen other instruments, as well as singing, doing arrangements for orchestras, dancing, and appearing prominently in early Hollywood films. When the pioneering blues musician and composer W.C. Handy heard her play, he dubbed her “Queen of the Trumpet.” Denied a proper spotlight in Chicago and New York, Snow became a star abroad, touring for years in East Asia and Europe. She wound up stuck in Denmark during World War II, becoming ill while imprisoned there. She escaped in 1942 and spent the rest of her career back in the United States, although her health never recovered.
Peggy Gilbert, saxophonist (1905-2007)
As a grade-school student in Sioux City, Iowa, Peggy Gilbert quickly became accustomed to cutting against the grain. The daughter of classical musicians, she was told in high school that the saxophone was unsuitable for a young woman — but she taught herself anyway. A year after graduating she started her first band, the Melody Girls. In 1938, outraged at an article in DownBeat magazine headlined “Why Women Musicians Are Inferior,” she penned a retort that the magazine published in full. “A woman has to be a thousand times more talented, has to have a thousand times more initiative even to be recognized as the peer of the least successful man,” she wrote. Talent and initiative were two things Gilbert possessed. She went on to lead ensembles for decades, on the vaudeville circuit and the Los Angeles scene, eventually becoming an official with the musicians’ union there. She continued to perform well into her 90s, and died at 102.
Una Mae Carlisle, pianist (1915-1956)
Just like better-remembered contemporaries such as Fats Waller and Louis Jordan, Una Mae Carlisle made jazz that was also R&B and also pop — before the Billboard charts had effectively codified those genres. She was publicly known best as a singer, but she played virtuosic stride piano and composed prolifically too. Part black and part Native American, Carlisle was a pioneer in various ways, as Ms. Grantham pointed out. Carlisle was the first black woman to be credited as the composer of a song on the Billboard charts, and the first African-American to host her own regular, nationally broadcast radio show. She wrote for stars like Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee, and recorded her own hit singles, often with famous jazz musicians as her accompanists, before illness tragically shortened her career.
Ginger Smock, violinist (1920-1995)
A blazing player whose personality was as big and effusive as her talents, Dorothy Donegan piled her mastery of classical, stride, boogie-woogie and modern jazz piano into boisterous, often ribald performances. An old-school performer at heart, she could amaze and amuse an audience in equal measure. Donegan’s career was book ended by illustrious performances: In 1943, with dreams of becoming a professional classical pianist, she became the first black instrumentalist to give a concert at Orchestra Hall in Chicago. Time magazine covered it, and it set her on a path to renown, although a career in classical music was off-limits because of both her gender and her race. Fifty years later, she performed at the White House for President Bill Clinton. For all her accomplishments, Donegan made it clear in interviews that she felt sexism had prevented her from joining her male contemporaries in the music’s pantheon.
Jutta Hipp, pianist (1925-2003)
Hailing from Leipzig, Germany, Jutta Hipp taught herself jazz as a child growing up in the Third Reich, secretly listening to international radio broadcasts. She was forced to flee her hometown at age 21, after the war left it in ruin; she supported herself by becoming a professional jazz pianist. Hipp eventually became the first woman bandleader to record for Blue Note Records, whose proprietors were German expatriates. But with true stardom escaping her, she eventually abandoned her career as a professional musician for the stability of job working with seamstresses, although she never totally gave up playing.
Clora Bryant, trumpeter (1927-2019)
A self-proclaimed “trumpetiste,” Clora Bryant was part of the first generation of bebop musicians innovating in Los Angeles clubs, and she joined a handful of all-female ensembles in the years during and after World War II. Bryant became a featured soloist in the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, the most famous ensemble of its kind, then joined the Queens of Rhythm. Through the esteemed trombonist Melba Liston she met Dizzy Gillespie, who became her mentor. And as her career went on, she mentored countless musicians herself as a respected elder on the L.A. scene.
Bertha Hope Booker, pianist (1936-)
Bertha Hope’s career bloomed alongside that of her husband Elmo Hope, whose economic hard-bop style was not altogether different from hers. They released a joint album together in 1961, but after his untimely death she focused on raising their children, performing intermittently around the New York area and remaining close with many musicians on the scene. Years later, she remarried, to the bassist Walter Booker; since then she has recorded a handful of albums and become a respected elder among younger New York musicians, including the bassist Mimi Jones, who recently made a documentary about her mentor titled “Seeking Hope.”
Der Körper ist niemals stumm. Wenn Menschen zusammenkommen, reden sie miteinander – sogar wenn sie nicht sprechen. Die vorgereckte Brust ist ebenso eine Botschaft wie die kleine Veränderung der Sitzhaltung, die geöffnete Handfläche, aber auch die Farbe der Krawatte oder das dezente Parfüm.
Mimik, Gestik, Haltung und Bewegung, die räumliche Beziehung, Berührungen und die Kleidung sind wichtige Mittel der nonverbalen Kommunikation – eine uralte Form der zwischenmenschlichen Verständigung. Auf diese Weise klären wir untereinander, ob wir uns sympathisch sind und ob wir uns vertrauen können.
Der Körper verrät unsere wirklichen Gefühle, wer wir sind und was wir eigentlich wollen. Die nonverbalen Botschaften sind oft unbewusst und gerade deshalb so machtvoll. Ohne Körpersprache sind die täglichen sozialen Beziehungen gar nicht denkbar.
Wissenschaftler haben herausgefunden, dass 95 Prozent des ersten Eindrucks von einem Menschen bestimmt werden von Aussehen, Kleidung, Haltung, Gestik und Mimik, Sprechgeschwindigkeit, Stimmlage, Betonung und Dialekt – und nur fünf Prozent davon, was jemand mit Worten sagt.
Und die Einschätzung der Person geschieht in weniger als einer Sekunde. Weil wir das körperliche Verhalten schwerer kontrollieren und beherrschen können als die verbalen Aussagen, gilt die Körpersprache als wahrer und echter.
Aber lauern da nicht viele Missverständnisse? Stimmt unser Eindruck? Sind unsere Botschaften eindeutig und werden wir verstanden? Die Wissenschaft geht davon aus, dass bestimmte Basis-Gefühle wie Angst, Furcht, Glück, Trauer, Überraschung und Abscheu bei allen Menschen bestimmte nonverbale Ausdrucksformen hervorrufen.
So gilt beispielsweise das Stirnrunzeln in so gut wie allen menschlichen Kulturen als Zeichen von Ärger. Das Lächeln wird weltweit als positives Signal und Sympathiezeichen eingesetzt. Auch die Deutung solcher Signale ist universell, sie werden überall verstanden.
Es gibt aber auch viele Körpersignale, die sich kulturell entwickelt haben und so missverständlich sind wie die verschiedenen Wortsprachen. So kann eine für uns gewöhnliche Haltung in anderen Teilen der Welt Empörung hervorrufen. Zum Beispiel ist das Übereinanderschlagen der Beine für viele Araber und Asiaten eine Beleidigung, weil so die Sohlen von Füßen und Schuhen sichtbar werden – und die gelten in manchen Kulturkreisen als unrein.
Gruppen von Menschen, Gesellschaften und Kulturen entwickeln ein eigenes System von nonverbalen Botschaften, einen eigenen Code. Nur wenn man diesen Code kennt, kann man ihn richtig verstehen und benutzen.
Es gibt also Körpersignale, die wir alle verstehen und anwenden und solche, die kultur- oder regionalspezifisch sind. Hilfreich ist es in jedem Fall, die Möglichkeiten der Körpersprache gut zu kennen, sie lesen und einsetzen zu lernen.
Der Blick der Augen hinterlässt einen intensiven Eindruck, nicht nur beim Flirten. Wenn wir angeblickt werden, fühlen wir uns beachtet. Blickzuwendung kann Aufmerksamkeit, Zuneigung oder Freundlichkeit bedeuten. Den Blickkontakt zu meiden signalisiert dagegen oft Desinteresse, Gleichgültigkeit oder auch Scham. Und ein zu langes Anstarren wird meist als aufdringlich und aggressiv empfunden.
Die Augenbewegung ist ein wichtiger Bestandteil der sogenannten Mimik, dem Begriff für die Ausdrucksbewegungen des Gesichts. An der Mimik können wir die seelischen Vorgänge in einem Menschen am besten ablesen. Pokerspieler versuchen deshalb, durch starren Gesichtsausdruck zu verhindern, dass ihr Gesicht verrät, wie gut oder schlecht ihre Karten sind.
Wissenschaftler dagegen versuchen, auch den besten Lügnern im Gesicht zu lesen. Kalifornische Forscher haben die kleinen, unbewussten Muskelbewegungen bei Mimikveränderungen intensiv untersucht. Damit wollen sie eine eindeutige Beziehung zwischen der Bewegung der Gesichtsmuskeln und den zugrunde liegenden Gefühlen der Menschen herausfinden.
Eine Faust mit nach oben gestrecktem Daumen wird in vielen Teilen der Welt als Zeichen der Zustimmung verstanden. Aber in manchen Gegenden ist es eine Geste der Obszönität: in Sardinien zum Beispiel, in Teilen von Westafrika, Kolumbien und Nahost.
So ist es mit vielen der bewusst geformten Handzeichen. Sie sind ein Bestandteil der Kommunikation einer bestimmten Kultur und können auch nur dort richtig verstanden werden.
Diese bewussten Gesten machen jedoch nur einen Teil der Gestik aus, die die Gesamtheit unserer Handbewegungen bezeichnet.
Häufiger und vielfältiger bewegen sich die Hände, während wir sprechen. Diese Gesten sind meist unbewusst. Sie verstärken und begleiten die verbale Rede. Auch Menschen, die glauben, ihre Hände ruhig zu halten, unterstreichen ihre Worte durch Handbewegungen.
Sogar am Telefon gestikulieren wir. Forscher haben herausgefunden, dass im Gehirn die Zentren für Sprache und Handbewegungen im selben Bereich angesiedelt sind und vermuten daher die fast zwangsläufige Verbindung von Wort und Hand.
Wer sicher steht, hat einen ausgeprägten Realitätssinn, sagt der Volksmund. Und eine gerade Haltung zeige einen aufrechten Charakter. Die Körperhaltung soll demnach Aufschluss über die Wesenszüge des Menschen geben.
So weit geht die wissenschaftliche Theorie nicht, aber einen Zusammenhang zwischen der seelischen und der körperlichen Lage stellt auch sie fest. Wenn wir trauern, sind wir zusammengesunken, die Schultern hängen herab und wir wirken kraftlos und verschlossen.
Eine offene Haltung im Brust- und Halsbereich dagegen signalisiert Furchtlosigkeit und Selbstbewusstsein. Ähnliches gilt für Bewegungen. Wer sich im Gespräch vorbeugt, zeigt Aufmerksamkeit. Wer verkrampft an der Kleidung fummelt und nur auf der Stuhlkante sitzt, gilt als unsicher.
Auch der Gang des Menschen spiegelt die emotionale Befindlichkeit. Versuche haben ergeben, dass wir erkennen, ob die Person, die vor uns läuft, männlich oder weiblich ist, und auch, ob sie fröhlich oder traurig daherkommt.
Körperhaltungen können auch antrainiert sein und gezielt eingesetzt werden, um eine bestimmte Wirkung zu erzielen. So reckt ein Mann seine Brust, um stark und selbstbewusst zu erscheinen. Eine Frau schlägt die Beine übereinander, weil sie anmutig wirken will und ein Jugendlicher hängt lässig auf dem Stuhl, um seinen Protest auszudrücken.
«Störe meine Kreise nicht!» So soll Archimedes den anrückenden Römern zugerufen haben und daraufhin erschlagen worden sein. Die Anwesenheit und Nähe eines anderen Menschen bis hin zum Körperkontakt besitzen eine direkte und starke Wirkung. Eine Ohrfeige oder ein Kuss sind körperliche Botschaften, die jeder versteht.
Für die richtige Distanz zu anderen Menschen haben wir ein feines Gespür und instinktiv nehmen wir in einem Raum den Platz ein, der für uns angenehm ist. Wenn wir zu Nähe gezwungen werden, wie zum Beispiel im Fahrstuhl, versuchen wir, die anderen zu ignorieren, und vermeiden jeden Blickkontakt.
Das Distanzempfinden ist kulturell geprägt. In Japan etwa gilt ein größerer Abstand als angenehm als in Europa. Ein Japaner könnte daher einen Europäer im Gespräch als aufdringlich empfinden, wenn dieser immer etwas näher kommen möchte, als es dem Japaner lieb ist. Der Europäer hält dagegen möglicherweise den Japaner für distanziert, wenn dieser immer etwas zurückweicht.
Auch bei Berührungen sind kulturelle Unterschiede festzustellen. In den westlichen Ländern haben sich Berührungen zwischen Freunden und Bekannten, Umarmungen und Küssen auf Wange oder Mund weitgehend durchgesetzt. Dennoch ist Europa eine Region, in der der Körperkontakt im Vergleich zu anderen Kulturen eher selten ist.
Im Karneval sieht man ganze Gruppen von verkleideten Marsmenschen, Clowns, Hexen – oder auch Cola-Dosen. Durch das gleiche Kostüm zeigen die Menschen ihre Zugehörigkeit zu einem Verein.
Im Alltag ist dies nicht anders. Jede Gemeinschaft oder Gesellschaft hat einen Kleidungs-Code. Vor einem Vorstellungsgespräch überlegen wir sorgfältig, was wir anziehen. Wir wissen, wie wir Trauer durch unsere Kleidung zeigen oder wie wir durch ausgefallene Accessoires im Freundeskreis beeindrucken können.
Auch wer sich den gängigen Kleidernormen nicht anpassen will, sendet eine deutliche Botschaft. Täglich entscheiden wir bewusst oder unbewusst darüber, wie wir durch unsere äußere Erscheinung wirken wollen: indem wir uns schminken, Rock oder Hose anziehen, durch die Wahl der Krawatten-Farbe und den Schmuck, den wir anlegen.
Die Kleidungs-Codes unterscheiden sich stark in den verschiedenen Kulturen – besonders die Ansichten darüber, wie viel nackte Haut in der Öffentlichkeit präsentiert werden darf. Auch werden unterschiedliche Teile des Körpers tabuisiert. In vielen europäischen Ländern zeigen sich Frauen mit unverhüllten Haaren in der Öffentlichkeit, was in islamisch geprägten Ländern undenkbar ist.
Dagegen ist es bei einigen afrikanischen und südamerikanischen Völkern bis heute üblich, dass weder Frauen noch Männer im Alltagsleben ihren Oberkörper bedecken – zum Beispiel bei den Himba in Namibia, den Nyangatom und den Hamar in Äthiopien und den Huaorani in Ecuador –, was wiederum in westlichen Ländern einen Skandal verursachen würde.
Kleidung und Schmuck sind also Ausdrucksformen der Körpersprache, die wie kein anderes Mittel den kulturellen Gepflogenheiten folgen.
Manche Menschen haben die Körpersprache zu ihrem Beruf gemacht. Die Pantomime ist eine sehr alte darstellende Kunst, bei der die Handlung und der Charakter nur durch Mimik, Gestik und Bewegung ausgedrückt werden. Bereits um 400 vor Christus ist die Pantomime als Kunstform in Griechenland nachgewiesen.
Auch der Clown-Künstler verzichtet meist auf Worte. Da er die Menschen zum Lachen bringen will, setzt er Körpersprache meist übertrieben ein, etwa indem er Grimassen schneidet oder stolpert. Charlie Chaplin war einer der berühmtesten wortlosen Darsteller des vergangenen Jahrhunderts.
Eine weitere besondere Form der Körpersprache ist der Tanz. Bewegung ist ihre Form des Ausdrucks. Die Geheimnisse der nonverbalen Kommunikation beherrschen diese Profis perfekt.
Wie unser Körper spricht und warum wir nichts davon wissen
Wenn wir uns unterhalten, wählen wir unsere Worte genau. Wir versuchen, alles, was wir sagen, passend zu formulieren: nett, aggressiv oder ärgerlich. Doch etwas an uns spricht viel lauter – ohne dass es unser Gegenüber versteht: unser Körper.
Marietta und Ole sitzen sich in der Mittagspause gegenüber. Sie reden über den Unterricht und was sie von der Lehrerin halten. Marietta stützt ihren rechten Ellbogen auf den Tisch vor sich. Sie lächelt. Ole nickt. Er freut sich schon auf die nächste Stunde. Oberflächlich sprechen die beiden nur über die Schule. Wer aber genauer hinsieht, erkennt eine zweite Sprache: die Sprache des Körpers. Auch Ole hat seinen Ellbogen auf den Tisch aufgestellt, aber seinen linken. Er lächelt ebenfalls und sein Oberkörper ist Marietta zugewandt. Die beiden sitzen nebeneinander auf der grauen Holzbank. Es sieht fast so aus, als würde Marietta in einen imaginären Spiegel blicken. Denn Ole spiegelt Mariettas Körperhaltung in vielen Punkten. Was das mit dem Gespräch zu tun hat? Mit dem Inhalt wenig, aber auf einer anderen, der nonverbalen Ebene, sprechen die beiden auch miteinander. Sie sagen: «Hey, ich find’ dich nett. Du bist mir sympathisch.»
Unbewusste Botschaften
Körpersprache ist nicht nur etwas, das wir sehen können. Der Mensch hat fünf Sinne: Hören, Sehen, Schmecken, Riechen und Fühlen. Mit diesen Sinnen nimmt er die Körpersprache seines Gegenübers wahr. Alles, was nonverbal ist, also ohne Worte läuft, zählt zur Körpersprache. Die Kommunikation zwischen zwei Menschen läuft in drei Ebenen ab. Die anscheinend offensichtlichste ist die verbale Ebene. Das, was inhaltlich gesprochen wird. Die tonale Ebene meint das Wie: Wie sage ich etwas. Auf der nonverbalen Ebene spricht dann unser Körper in Mimik, Gestik, Körperhaltung, Kleidung und vielem mehr. «Diese drei Ebenen müssen als Einheit funktionieren», erklärt Meike Fabian. Sie ist die stellvertretende Leiterin der Akademie für Darstellende Kunst in Regensburg und schult ihre Schüler unter anderem auch in der Wahrnehmung der Körpersprache. «Körpersprache geht schon los bei Dingen, die ich selbst beeinflussen kann, also meinen Schmuck, meine Kleidung, mein Make-Up», zählt Meike Fabian auf. «Meine Haltung, meine Mimik und Gestik kann ich auch noch etwas beeinflussen. Das ist aber schon schwerer.» Dinge, die von innen kommen, wie Atmung oder Körpergeruch sind demnach ebenfalls Teil der Körpersprache.
Erster Eindruck entscheidet
Aber auch Eigenschaften, die nicht in meiner Hand liegen, zählen zur Körpersprache. Zum Beispiel: Bin ich ein Mann oder eine Frau. Bin ich dick oder dünn. Durch diese Dinge schließe der Gegenüber sofort auf die Lebenserfahrung eines Menschen. «Jeder erzählt seine Geschichte, schon lange bevor er den Mund aufgemacht hat», bringt es Meike Fabian auf den Punkt.
Das bestätigt auch Andrea Nitzsche. Sie ist Diplom-Sozialpädagogin und Trainerin für Körpersprache. Der erste Eindruck entsteht innerhalb von Sekunden, in denen wir jemanden wahrnehmen. «Das ist unser Instinkt, der immer noch vorhanden ist. Es war früher besonders wichtig, sofort zu wissen, ob der Mensch gegenüber eine Bedrohung ist oder nicht.
Vorurteil auf. Natürlich könne uns unser Körper verraten, wenn wir gerade schwindeln, aber es reiche eben nicht nur ein Zeichen wie die Hand am Mund aus. Ein weiteres Zeichen dafür könne laut Andrea Nitzsche zum Beispiel ein eingefrorenes Lächeln sein. «Hier lächelt nur der Mund. Das hat ein bisschen was von Zähne zeigen. Bei einem echten Lächeln sieht man das auch an den Augen. Sie strahlen dann richtig», erklärt die Expertin. Nervöse Stressflecken oder auch ein hektisches Stolpern beim Sprechen können ebenfalls darauf hindeuten – müssen es aber nicht.
Den Körper programmieren
Wer nervös ist, neige übrigens auch zu Schattenbewegungen. Es kann sein, dass sich jemand gern die Haare aus dem Gesicht streicht, obwohl sie gar nicht stören. Diese Bewegung gibt demjenigen Sicherheit in einer Situation, in der er sich gerade überfordert fühlt. Das kann bei Referaten in der Schule oder auch beim ersten Date sein. Andrea Nitzsche hat für solche Situationen einen besonderen Tipp: «Mehr ausatmen als einatmen kann helfen, etwas ruhiger zu werden.» Ansonsten helfe es, seinen Körper positiv zu programmieren. «Das geht. Ich muss von dem überzeugt sein, was ich gerade mache. Dann wirkt auch mein Körper souveräner», erklärt Andrea Nitzsche. Will ich also dieses Referat für eine gute Note halten und will ich das für mich selbst, strahlt auch mein Körper mehr Souveränität aus, als wenn ich mir sage: «Hilft ja nicht, da muss ich durch.»
Für besonders Nervöse hat Andrea Nitzsche noch einen Geheimtipp: «Wer seine Lieblingsklamotten anzieht, fühlt sich schon viel wohler. Auch das wirkt auf mein Gegenüber. Außerdem hilft es, sich am Morgen schon seine Lieblingssongs vorzusingen und sich zu sagen: Jetzt geht’s mir gut. Was ich heute mache, ist etwas, wofür es sich lohnt.»
Wer etwas aufmerksam ist und auch darauf schaut, was seine Mitmenschen sagen, obwohl sie eigentlich nichts sagen, versteht seinen Gegenüber oft besser. Das kann auch bei Streitereien helfen. Aber keine Angst: Völlig durchschaubar werden wir deshalb nicht für andere: Körpersprache wirkt genauso wie Wortsprache und Stimmlage nur als Gesamtpaket. Gedankenlesen können auch Körpersprache-Experten nicht.
So wirkt deine Körpersprache auf andere
Selbstbewusst
Wie viel Platz wir brauchen, also wie viel Anspruch wir auf unser Territorium haben, zeigt wie selbstsicher wir sind.
Hier nimmt Marietta viel Platz ein durch die weit auseinanderstehenden Beine, ihren offenen Oberkörper und ihre Hände, die sie in die Hüfte gestemmt hat.
Schüchtern
Hier ist das Gegenteil zu sehen. Marietta braucht so wenig Platz wie sie nur kann. Sie verschränkt ihre Arme vorm Körper genauso wie ihre Beine. Außerdem hat sie ihren Kopf leicht eingezogen.
Misstrauisch
Verschränkte Arme, vom anderen abgewandter Oberkörper, hochgezogene Augenbrauen
Die Emotion steckt im Detail und benötigt einen geübten Blick, um decodiert zu werden: Gefühle drücken sich oft in Mimik und Gestik aus. Forschern gibt diese wortlose Sprache Rätsel auf.
Das Lächeln, das die Mundwinkel umspielt, der leicht zurückgeneigte Kopf, die sich unmerklich aufrichtende Haltung des Oberkörpers – es handelt sich um die typischen Ausdrücke von Stolz. Auch Scham entfaltet sich innerhalb von nur vier bis fünf Sekunden, in denen eine Reihe von kleinsten Gesten aufeinanderfolgt: der Blick wird abgelenkt, ein Lachen geht in ein Lächeln und wieder in kontrolliertes Lachen über, der Kopf neigt sich nach unten, die Hände fassen unwillkürlich ins Gesicht.
Für Gestikforscher sind solche Körperreaktionen leicht entschlüsselbar. Die Fragen, die sich an das menschliche Gestikrepertoire anschließen, sind indes mannigfaltig und beschäftigen Neurowissenschaftler, Anthropologen und Linguisten gleichermaßen. Wie entsteht gestische Bedeutung? Wie setzen sich verschiedene Gesten zusammen, um eine Emotion abzubilden? Welche Bedeutung haben Gesten für Alltagskonversationen? Welche Gesten sind erlernt, welche gehören zum Grundrepertoire menschlicher Affekte? Sind sie universell oder unterscheiden sich bestimmte Gesten innerhalb der Kulturen?
Es braucht nicht nur Interdisziplinarität, sondern auch ein ganzes Arsenal an Geisteskraft, diesen Fragen nachzugehen, und so kamen jetzt über 300 Wissenschaftler der „Internationalen Gesellschaft für Gestikforschung“ (ISGS) zu einer einwöchigen Konferenz an der Europa-Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder zusammen. Unterteilt in mehrere Themenkomplexe (Zeichensprache, Kunst und Film, Neurobiologie oder Kognitionswissenschaft) widmeten sich insgesamt knapp 200 Vorträge den neuesten Ergebnissen der Gestikforschung. „Nach dieser Konferenz wird es schwierig für die Linguisten zu behaupten, dass Sprache nur aus Wörtern besteht. Vielmehr sind komplexe Körpergesten am Prozess der Bedeutungsproduktion mit beteiligt“, resümiert Cornelia Müller, Professorin für Angewandte Sprachwissenschaft an der Viadrina und Herausgeberin der Zeitschrift „Gesture“.
Seitdem zum ersten Mal in den frühen 80er Jahren eine Gruppe von Berliner Wissenschaftlern Gesten auch von einem linguistischen Standpunkt aus untersucht, und im Jahr 2000 die Freie Universität Berlin unter der Leitung von Müller das „Berlin Gesture Project“ ins Leben gerufen hatte, hat die Gestikforschung als interdisziplinäres Paradigma par excellence sämtliche Fachbereiche affiziert. Laut Müller hat sich Deutschland international als besonders prominenter Standort für Gestikforschung etabliert. Entsprechend hoch war die Fördersumme der Volkswagen-Stiftung, die das mehrjährig angelegte Projekt „Towards a Grammar of Gesture: Evolution, Brain and Linguistic Structures“ (ToGoG) an der Viadrina mit fast einer Million Euro fördert.
Den Erfolg all dieser Unternehmen sieht Müller nicht zuletzt darin begründet, dass Gesten einerseits ein universales Phänomen sind, also für alle Menschen gleichermaßen Relevanz besitzen. Andererseits seien Gesten auch abhängig von kulturellen Neuentwicklungen, die es zu untersuchen gelte. „Jüngere Kulturtechniken wie das Telefonieren mit dem Handy gehen innerhalb relativ kurzer Zeit in unser Gestenrepertoire über und schaffen neue Codes“, erklärt Müller. Sie hält ihre Faust ans Ohr, Daumen und kleinen Finger abgespreizt, ein Mobiltelefon imitierend – eine Geste, die vor einem Jahrhundert noch unverständlich gewesen wäre.
Zu den Aufgaben der Gestikforschung zählt heute, nicht mehr nur einzelne Gesten auf ihre Bedeutung zu befragen, sondern auch die Wechselwirkung zwischen Sprechakt, Gestik und individueller Körperdisposition zu analysieren. So untersuchten Mary Copple, Mone Welsche und Cornelia Müller vom Exzellenzcluster „Languages of Emotion“ der Freien Universität Berlin das Phänomen der Alexithymie, die sogenannte Gefühlsblindheit: Menschen mit Alexithymie haben Schwierigkeiten, Gefühle adäquat zu beschreiben. „Etwa zehn Prozent der deutschen Bevölkerung ist alexithymisch“, so Copple. „Mithilfe der Gestikforschung wollten wir herausfinden, ob diese Menschen bestimmte Gefühle tatsächlich nicht empfinden, oder ob es sich um ein kognitives Problem handelt, sie zu artikulieren.“ 50 Stunden Videomaterial mit Interviews von 100 Versuchsteilnehmern – die Hälfte davon alexithymisch – sollte Aufschluss über das Auftreten sogenannter Posture-Gesture-Mergers (PGMs) geben, die spontan und intuitiv erfolgende Verschmelzung von Körperbewegung und Gestik beim Sprechen. „PGMs sind nicht intentional erlernbar sondern unmittelbare Ausdrücke einer Persönlichkeit, die sich in einem Gesprächsmoment besonders engagiert“, sagte Copple. So beugten sich beispielsweise manche Menschen plötzlich nach vorne, wenn sie etwas ausriefen, oder fielen in sich zusammen, wenn sie verunsichert würden.
Die Analyse des Videomaterials ergab, dass Menschen mit Alexithymie deutlich weniger PGMs produzierten – auffälligerweise jedoch nur dann, wenn sie zu ihren Gefühlen oder emotional besetzen Themen befragt wurden. Sollten sie Fragen aus einem Intelligenztest beantworten, zeigten sie eine normal hohe Anzahl von PGMs. „Das weist darauf hin, dass alexithymische Menschen bei geistiger Arbeit entspannter sind und entsprechend mit einer größeren Selbstverständlichkeit intuitiv gestikulieren“, schlussfolgerte Copple. Bei Alexithymie handele es sich also wahrscheinlich eher um eine kognitive Unzulänglichkeit, Emotionen und deren Ausdruck intuitiv synchronisieren zu können. Daran knüpften sich auch Fragestellungen für zukünftige Forschung: „Wir wollen untersuchen, ob PGMs bei Männern und Frauen unterschiedlich auftreten.“
Die Art und Anzahl der Gesten hängt indes nicht nur vom einzelnen Sprecher ab. Vielmehr müsse auch der kulturelle und sprachliche Raum betrachtet werden, in dem sich jemand bewege, so Tasha Lewis vom Marianopolis College im kanadischen Montreal. Sie stellte die Ergebnisse ihrer Studie vor, in der sie sechs englische Muttersprachler in einem Sprachkurs in Barcelona beobachtet hatte um herauszufinden, ob sich ihre Gestik verändern würde. Der Erwerb des Spanischen bedeutete auch einen Wechsel der Sprachfamilie, denn Englisch ist eine germanische, Spanisch eine romanische Sprache, in der meist bei Aussprechen des Verbs gestikuliert wird. „Ältere Studien haben behauptet, man behalte sein muttersprachliches Gestikmuster bei Erwerb einer Fremdsprache bei“, so Lewis. Die Auswertung ihres Videomaterials hätte jedoch ergeben, dass die Teilnehmer im Verlaufe ihres Sprachkurses zunehmend der spanischen Satzstruktur gemäß ihre Gesten platziert hätten. „Dieses Ergebnis stützt die hohe Bedeutung des Lernens im fremden Land“, bilanzierte Lewis. „Die subtilen Aspekte der Kommunikation, wie Gestik, fördern den umfassenden Erwerb einer Fremdsprache.“
Die nächste Konferenz der ISGS findet 2011 in Lund (Schweden) statt. „Bis dahin wird eine weitere beachtliche Zahl an Publikationen zur Gestikforschung erschienen sein“, so Müller. Vielleicht, hofft sie, schlage sie auch Wellen außerhalb des universitären Rahmens. Nicht zuletzt für Schauspieler dürfte ein detailliertes Wissen über Geschichte und Funktionsweisen von Gesten außerordentlich interessant sein.
Die Körpersprache ist reich an versteckten Botschaften: Mit Armen und Beinen, Händen und Füßen geben Menschen so manches über sich preis. Ausladende Gesten und Selbstberührungen sind besonders viel sagend.
Team-Meeting: Ein Kollege kratzt sich am Kopf, ein anderer wippt beständig mit den Füßen, und eine Kollegin zwirbelt versonnen eine Haarsträhne um den Finger. Ob mit Händen oder Füßen: In den meisten Fällen laufen solche Bewegungen völlig unbewusst ab. Körpersprache gilt deshalb als echter, unverfälschter und verlässlicher als die gesprochene Sprache. Stimmt das? Und was verraten Gesten wirklich über das Gegenüber?
Lange hielt man die Körpersprache für bloßes Beiwerk. Dass sie einen Grundpfeiler der Kommunikation darstellt, erkannte als einer der Ersten der Psycholinguist David McNeill von der University of Chicago Anfang der 1990er Jahre. Für ihn waren Gesten »in Form gegossene Gedanken«. Wer genau auf sie achte, könne beinahe in die Köpfe hineinsehen, erklärt er in seinem Buch »Hand and Mind«.
Einstudierte Körpersprache hinkt hinterher
Noch bevor sie zu sprechen beginnen, teilen sich Babys mit Gesten mit. Typischerweise zeigen sie schon mit einem Jahr gezielt auf Dinge in ihrer Umgebung. Ob unsere Vorfahren Gesten benutzten, bevor sie sich mit Lauten ausdrückten, oder ob sich beide Formen der Kommunikation im Lauf der Evolution parallel entwickelt haben, ist noch unklar. Gewiss ist hingegen: Auch wenn wir uns längst verbal ausdrücken können, reden wir weiter mit Händen und Füßen. Und das sogar, wenn niemand zuschaut, denn die Bewegungen helfen beim Denken.
Wir betonen damit zum Beispiel, was uns wichtig ist. Etwa mit der Taktstockgeste, die Politiker häufig nutzen, wenn sie eine flammende Rede halten: Daumen und Zeigefinger formen dabei einen Ring, und wie ein Dirigent verleiht der Sprecher dem Gesagten mit dem Auf- und Abschnellen des unsichtbaren Stabs einen Beat. Sind solche Gesten einstudiert, erkennen wir das recht schnell. Sie wirken nicht spontan und hinken dem Gesagten leicht hinterher.
Südländer reden angeblich besonders viel mit den Händen. Doch das stimmt so nicht: Deutsche und Südeuropäer fuchteln beim Reden gleich viel. Der entscheidende Unterschied: »Südeuropäer neigen zu ausladenderen Gesten«, sagt Cornelia Müller von der Europa-Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder. Die Professorin für Sprachgebrauch und Multimodale Kommunikation hat die Gestik deutscher und spanischer Sprecher miteinander verglichen: »Nordeuropäer gestikulieren aus dem Handgelenk, Südeuropäer eher aus Schulter und Ellenbogen.« Deswegen spielen sich diese Gesten weiter weg vom Körper auf Kopfhöhe ab, während Deutsche eher verhalten vor der Brust gestikulieren.
Auch das Gegenüber beeinflusst die Gestik. Unbewusst verhalten wir uns zuweilen wie soziale Chamäleons: Wir lehnen uns nach vorne, wenn die andere Person das tut, oder schlagen wie sie die Beine übereinander. Passt sich jemand in seiner Gestik und Körperhaltung auffallend an, so deutet das auf Sympathie hin.
Die Körpersprache lässt aber auf mehr als das schließen. Gesten können verraten, was im Gegenüber gerade vorgeht. Ein Hinweis darauf, dass jemand angespannt, gestresst oder verlegen ist, sind spontane, unbewusste Selbstberührungen. Der Impuls, sich kurz an den Hals, das Kinn, die Nase oder Wange zu fassen, lässt sich nur schwer unterdrücken.
Selbstberührungen wirken beruhigend
Der Psychologe Martin Grunwald vom Haptik-Forschungslabor der Universität Leipzig hat untersucht, warum dieser Impuls vor allem in Stresssituationen auftritt. Er und sein Team gaben Versuchspersonen eine Gedächtnisaufgabe. Während diese sich anstrengten, das Gelernte im Kopf zu behalten, fassten sie sich häufiger ins Gesicht, und die im EEG vor und nach der unbewussten Berührung gemessenen Hirnströme unterschieden sich stark. »Wir erklären diese Veränderungen damit, dass der kurze Berührungsreiz jene Hirnaktivität verstärkt, die für eine Stabilisierung des emotionalen Zustands und eine Stabilisierung des Arbeitsgedächtnisses verantwortlich ist«, sagt Martin Grunwald. Das heißt: Spontane Selbstberührungen helfen offenbar, sich zu beruhigen und zu konzentrieren.
Gesten liefern also Anhaltspunkte zur momentanen Verfassung des Gegenübers. Aber offenbaren sie noch mehr über seine Person? Eine 2021 veröffentlichte Metaanalyse beschäftigte sich mit dieser Frage.
Die Forschungsgruppe um den Psychologen Simon Breil von der Universität Münster analysierte dafür 32 Studien zum Zusammenhang zwischen nonverbalen Signalen und der Persönlichkeit, erhoben mit Fragebogen zu den »Big Five«, den fünf zentralen Persönlichkeitsdimensionen. Zusätzlich erfassten manche Studien noch die Intelligenz. Zu den Merkmalen der Körpersprache zählten Handbewegungen, Haltung, die Breite des Stands und die Schrittlänge. Die große Frage: Spiegelt sich in ihnen der Charakter eines Menschen wider?
Die kurze Antwort: Ja. Den stärksten Zusammenhang fanden die Forschenden für das Merkmal Extraversion. Wer als extravertiert gilt, ist herzlich, gesellig, durchsetzungsfähig, aktiv, abenteuerlustig und fröhlich. Diese Kontaktfreudigkeit sieht man entsprechenden Zeitgenossen offenbar relativ leicht an. Neben einer ausdrucksstarken Mimik, einer lauten Stimme, einem gepflegten und modischen Äußeren wiesen auch eine entspannte, dem Gegenüber zugewandte Haltung und ausholende Gesten auf Extraversion hin.
»Nicht jeder, der gerade wild gestikuliert, ist extravertiert«, stellt Simon Breil klar. »Aber von allen Charaktermerkmalen, die wir uns angeschaut haben, schlug sich Extraversion am stärksten in der Gestik nieder. Wer geselliger ist und gerne auf andere zugeht, gestikuliert tendenziell mehr.« Zudem neigten extravertierte Menschen weniger dazu, sich kleinzumachen oder nervös herumzunesteln. Insgesamt nahmen sie mehr Raum ein und zeigten in der Regel eine entspannte und offene Körpersprache.
Für die anderen Charaktermerkmale fanden sich weniger Hinweise: Verträglichere Menschen machten im Schnitt etwas kleinere Schritte; gewissenhafte berührten sich etwas seltener am Körper und im Gesicht, hatten einen breiteren Stand und eine aufrechtere Haltung. Eine solche Haltung zeugte außerdem auch von Offenheit für neue Erfahrungen. Emotionale Labilität spiegelte sich ähnlich wie Introvertiertheit in einer steiferen Körperhaltung und nervösem Zappeln wider.
Die gefundenen Zusammenhänge waren allerdings nicht sehr groß. »Ja, es gibt Hinweise auf die Validität der Körpersprache im Hinblick auf die Persönlichkeitsdeutung. Die sind aber auf einem sehr, sehr niedrigen Niveau«, sagt Uwe Kanning. Er ist Professor für Wirtschaftspsychologie an der Hochschule Osnabrück und beschäftigt sich kritisch mit unwissenschaftlichen Methoden in der Personalauswahl. Ihm zufolge lässt sich nur ein kleiner Anteil der Persönlichkeitsunterschiede aus der Körpersprache vorhersagen.
»Wenn man einzelne körpersprachliche Merkmale betrachtet, bewegt sich das zwischen null und fünf Prozent. Die höchsten Zusammenhänge findet man für Extraversion. Für Intelligenz zum Beispiel gibt es gar keine«, berichtet Kanning. »Fügt man verschiedene körpersprachliche Merkmale zu einem Gesamtbild zusammen, steigt die Zahl wahrscheinlich maximal auf zehn Prozent«, schätzt er. Das heißt umgekehrt: 90 Prozent der Charakterunterschiede lassen sich nicht aus der Gestik herauslesen.
Die Bedeutung der Körpersprache wird überschätzt
An der Idee, dass sich das Innerste in der Gestik offenbart, ist also durchaus etwas dran – nur eben nicht so viel wie vermutet. »Menschen überschätzen die Bedeutung von Körpersprache«, sagt Simon Breil. »Gerade beim ersten Eindruck, wenn wir noch nichts über die Person wissen, verlassen wir uns stark darauf, etwa beim Dating oder im Bewerbungsprozess.«
Nicht nur was wir sagen, sondern auch das, was in unserer Mimik, im Blickkontakt, in Gestik und Körperbewegung mitschwingt, spiegelt unsere Persönlichkeit wider. Wie wir mithilfe unserer Körpersprache – nicht nur im Vorstellungsgespräch – nonverbale Signale senden und warum sich diese nur schwer steuern lassen, erläutert der Psychologe, Autor und Coach Markus Väth.
Herr Väth, wir kommunizieren, auch wenn wir gerade nichts sagen. Wie das?
Markus Väth: Jeder Mensch sendet neben dem, was er sprachlich mitteilt, bestimmte Signale. Wir sprechen zusätzlich zu inhaltlichen Äußerungen nonverbal mit unserem Körper – durch Mimik, Gestik, Körperhaltung und -bewegung.
Viele haben die Sorge, dass sich ihre Körpersprache – etwa in Vorstellungsgesprächen – negativ auf das Gesagte auswirkt, weil sie mit dem Fuß wippen oder die Arme verschränken. Beides gilt ja als No-Go, oder?
Markus Väth: Man sollte sich nicht zu viele Sorgen darüber machen, wie bestimmte Verhaltensweisen gedeutet werden könnten. Zuschreibungen wie „No-Go“ empfinde ich als problematisch. Da geistert viel Pseudowissen umher – im Internet, aber auch durch Personaler-Köpfe. Es ist schwierig, Körpersignale zu interpretieren, gerade wenn man dem Gesprächspartner das erste Mal gegenübersitzt. So müssen verschränkte Arme nicht zwangsläufig Zurückweisung signalisieren. Ich selbst etwa nehme diese Haltung ein, wenn ich intensiv nachdenke. Das hat nichts mit Abwehr zu tun. Sitzt ein Bewerber beispielsweise etwas schief da, ist das nicht zwingend mangelndem Respekt und Desinteresse geschuldet, sondern kann einfach nur bedeuten, dass das Hotelbett unbequem war.
Kann man auf seine Körpersprache überhaupt einwirken?
Markus Väth: Körpersprache lässt sich nur äußerst schwer trainieren. Und in Vorstellungsgesprächen schaltet der Stress einstudierte Körpersprache oft schlicht aus. Daher ist es schwierig, seine nonverbale Kommunikation bewusst zu beeinflussen.
Man kann sich also positiv wirkende Signale nicht antrainieren?
Markus Väth: Klar kann man versuchen, Gestik und Mimik gezielt einzusetzen – verbal auf den Gesprächspartner einzugehen und gleichzeitig all das Nichtgesagte, das nebenher mitschwingt, zu kontrollieren und zu steuern, erfordert jedoch jahrelanges konsequentes Üben. Sonst wirkt es schnell künstlich und wenig überzeugend. Es dauert, bis sich solche Verhaltensweisen einschleifen und in Situationen, in denen wir unter Druck stehen, abgerufen werden können.
Also darf die Mimik Ihrer Meinung nach auch mal entgleisen und das Lächeln verrutschen?
Markus Väth: Meiner Meinung nach ja. Ein eingefrorenes, angespanntes Passfotolächeln wirkt wenig authentisch. Da lächelt nur der Mund, die Augen jedoch nicht, das bleibt dem Gesprächspartner nicht verborgen und verwirrt eher. Ein Funke springt so nicht über.
Und wie verhält es sich mit nervösem Zappeln oder wildem Gestikulieren?
Markus Väth: Gesten unterstreichen ja im besten Fall das Gesagte. Nimmt das Herumfuchteln und Zappeln jedoch überhand, kann es helfen, die Bewegung zu kanalisieren. Zum Beispiel indem man einen Stift in den Händen hält.
Und was wollen Sie jungen Menschen sonst noch mitgeben, die vor ihrem ersten Vorstellungsgespräch stehen?
Markus Väth: Seid einfach, wie ihr seid. Viel wichtiger als einstudierte körpersprachliche Verhaltensweisen sind die Grundregeln der Höflichkeit. Ein Händedruck zur Begrüßung, dem Gegenüber dabei in die Augen schauen – das kann man in der Familie oder im Supermarkt üben – und sich auf einen kurzen Smalltalk einlassen ist die halbe Miete für einen gelungenen Gesprächsbeginn. Das beste Mittel, die Körpersprache zu verbessern, ist, voller Selbstvertrauen in das Gespräch zu gehen. Wenn man von seinen Fähigkeiten überzeugt ist, dann strahlt man auch leichter Souveränität aus.
The leaves of brown Came tumbling down, remember In September in the rain
The sun went out Just like a dying ember That September in the rain
To every word of love I heard you whisper The raindrops seemed to play A sweet refrain
Though spring is here, To me it’s still September That September in the rain
To every word of love I heard you whisper The raindrops seemed to play A sweet refrain
Though spring is here, To me it’s still September That September in the rain I said that September in the rain
September Of My Years – Frank Sinatra
One day you turn around, and it’s summer Next day you turn around, and it’s fall And the springs and the winters of a life time Whatever happened to them all
As a man who has always had the wandering ways Now I’m reaching back for yesterdays ‘Til a long forgotten love appears And I find that I’m sighing softly as I near September The warm September of my years
As a man who has never paused at wishing wells Now I’m watching children’s carousels And their laughter’s music to my ears And I find that I’m smiling gently as I near September The warm September of my years The golden, warm September of my years
Settembre – Peppino Gagliardi
Fra qualche giorno finirà l’estate E sulla spiaggia niente resterà Le ore passate saranno un ricordo Che noi porteremo lontano, io e te
L’estate se ne andrà insieme al sole L’amore se ne è andato già con lei Le prime gocce baciano la sabbia E stanno già bagnando gli occhi miei
Settembre poi verrà, ma senza sole E forse un altro amore nascerà Settembre poi verrà, ma non ti troverà E piangeranno solo gli occhi miei
Settembre poi verrà, ma non ti troverà E piangeranno solo gli occhi miei
E piangeranno solo gli occhi miei
E piangeranno solo gli occhi miei
September – Earth, Wind & Fire
Do you remember The 21st night of September? Love was changin’ the minds of pretenders While chasin’ the clouds away
Our hearts were ringin’ In the key that our souls were singin’ As we danced in the night, remember How the stars stole the night away, oh, yeah
Hey, hey, hey Ba-dee-ya, say, do you remember? Ba-dee-ya, dancin’ in September Ba-dee-ya, never was a cloudy day
My thoughts are with you Holdin’ hands with your heart to see you Only blue talk and love, remember How we knew love was here to stay
Now December Found the love that we shared in September Only blue talk and love, remember The true love we share today
Hey, hey, hey Ba-dee-ya, say, do you remember? Ba-dee-ya, dancin’ in September Ba-dee-ya, never was a cloudy day There was a Ba-dee-ya (dee-ya, dee-ya), say, do you remember? Ba-dee-ya (dee-ya, dee-ya), dancin’ in September Ba-dee-ya (dee-ya, dee-ya), golden dreams were shiny days
The bell was ringin’, oh, oh Our souls were singin’ Do you remember never a cloudy day? Yow
There was a Ba-dee-ya (dee-ya, dee-ya), say, do you remember? Ba-dee-ya (dee-ya, dee-ya), dancin’ in September Ba-dee-ya (dee-ya, dee-ya), never was a cloudy day And we’ll say Ba-dee-ya (dee-ya, dee-ya), say, do you remember? Ba-dee-ya (dee-ya, dee-ya), dancin’ in September Ba-dee-ya (dee ya, dee-ya), golden dreams were shiny days
Stay for just a while Stay and let me look at you It’s been so long, I hardly knew you Standing in the door
Stay with me a while I only wanna talk to you We’ve traveled halfway ‘round the world To find ourselves again
September morn We danced until the night Became a brand new day Two lovers playing scenes From some romantic play September morning Still can make me feel that way
Look at what you’ve done Why, you’ve become a grown-up girl I still can hear you crying In a corner of your room And look how far we’ve come So far from where we used to be But not so far that we’ve forgotten How it was before
September morn Do you remember How we danced that night away Two lovers playing scenes From some romantic play September morning Still can make me feel that way
September morn We danced until the night Became a brand new day Two lovers playing scenes From some romantic play September morning Still can make me feel that way
September morn We danced until the night Became a brand new day Two lovers playing scenes From some romantic play September morning Still can make me feel that way September morning Still can make me feel that way
Settembre – Alberto Fortis
Ahi settembre mi dirai Quanti amori porterai Le vendemmie che farò Ahi settembre tornerò
Sono pronto e tocca a me L’aria fresca soffierà L’armatura non l’avrò Ahi settembre partirò
Mentre il giorno sparisce Primavera verrà Sarà dolce e nervosa Ma non mi scapperà Salirò sul battello e non la fuggirò Sarò avvolto per sempre e la bacerò E i suoi lunghi capelli Non li rivedrò più Ahi settembre lontano Dalle un bacio per me La tempesta di neve non mi sorprenderà Ahi settembre che sarà
Lascio tutto a te Dille del mio amore Dille che se può Io saprò aspettare L’accompagnerò dentro il mio giardino Sempre la terrò Da vicino, sempre, sempre
Ed un giorno mi disse Entra ti aspetterò Ma il nemico da sempre si cattura così Apri bene la porta Fallo entrare da te Lei l’ha fatto settembre Lei l’ha fatto con me
E se nella sua testa un rasoio terrà Taglierà i miei pensieri Come e quando vorrà Userà i suoi capelli Io la pettinerò E prima che sia settembre Il mio sangue darò
Lascio tutto a te Dille del mio amore Dille che se può Io saprò aspettare L’accompagnerò dentro il mio giardino Sempre la terrò Da vicino, sempre, sempre
Sempre vi terrò Da vicino, sempre, sempre
Oh settembre my love I love Oh settembre my love
September Song – Wynton Marsalis & Sarah Vaughan
Oh, it’s a long, long while From May to December But the days grow short When you reach September
When the autumn weather Turns the leaves to flame One hasn’t got time For the waiting game
Oh, the days dwindle down To a precious few September November
And these few precious days I’ll spend with you These precious days I’ll spend with you
September When I First Met You – Barry White
September Remember? September Remember? September
September (september) When I first met you Remember? (remember) September (september) When I first met you Remember? (remember)
Oh what a day it was Everything was so clear There’s something about that day I could feel it in the air Ooh Suddenly I knew Why I felt that way The moment I laid eyes on you
Girl, I just had to say Please let me be the one You give your love to If we reminisce Through all of this That’s how we make Everyday anew
September Remember? September Remember?
September (september) When I first met you Remember? (remember) September (september) When I first met you Remember? (remember) Oh what a night it was How I had it planned The things I would say and do The way I’d hold your hand But when you rushed into my arms There was nothing left to say I’ll never forget that night I’ll never forget that day
September Remember? September Remember? September Remember? September Remember?
September (september) When I first met you Remember? (remember) September (september) When I first met you Remember? (remember) September (september) When I first met you Remember? (remember) Uh uh uh Uh uh uh
September Remember? September Remember? September Remember? September Remember? September
Remember? September Remember? September Remember? September Remember? September Remember?
Settembre – Luca Carboni
Forse sarà quest’aria di settembre O solo che, che tutto cambia sempre L’estate va e poi ogni giorno muore E se ne va portandosi con sé la mia allegria
Forse sarà quest’aria di settembre O solo che vorrei sognare sempre Ma poi perché di colpo tutto non è facile Mi chiedo se qualcosa resta o tutto se ne va
Come i gol che facevo contro una porta di legno Con le ginocchia sbucciate di esterno gol Come morire di sete dopo una corsa d’estate Ma non ho più la mia bici da cross
E allora scaldalo, amore Questo bambino che trema Che vuole tutto l’amore che c’è
Forse sarà quest’aria di settembre O solo che sto diventando grande Ecco cos’è, mi vien da ridere due lacrime Ma poi perché di colpo tutto non è facile
Come i gol che facevo contro una porta di legno E con le braccia alzate segnare gol È la mia mamma che chiama che è già pronta la cena Ma voglio ancora giocare un po’
E allora salvalo, amore Questo bambino che trema Che vuole tutto l’amore che c’è
Come morire di sete dopo una corsa d’estate
Come aspettare Natale e poi le palle di neve
Come aspettare Natale
September Gurls – The Bangles
September girls Do so much And for so long ‘Till we touched I love you, boy Never mind I’ve been crying All the time
December boys got it bad December boys got it bad
September girls I don’t know why How can I deny What’s inside Even though I Keep away They will love All our days
December boys got it bad December boys got it bad
When I get to bed Late at night That’s the time he Makes things right Ooh when he makes Love to me
September When It Comes – Rosanne Cash
There’s a cross above the baby’s bed A Saviour in her dreams But she was not delivered then And the baby became me
There’s a light inside the darkened room A footstep on the stair A door that I forever close To leave those memories there
So when the shadows link them Into an evening sun Well, first there’s summer then I’ll let you in September when it comes
I plan to crawl outside these walls Close my eyes and see And fall into the heart and arms Of those who wait for me
I cannot move a mountain now I can no longer run I cannot be who I was then In a way I never was
I watch the clouds go sailing I watch the clock and sun Oh, I watch myself depending on September when it comes
When the shadows link them And burn away the clouds They will fly me like an angel To a place where I can rest
When this begins I’ll let you in September when it comes
Impressioni di settembre – Marlene Kuntz
Quante gocce di rugiada intorno a me Cerco il sole ma non c’e’ Dorme ancora la campagna, o forse no è sveglia Mi guarda Non so
Già l’odore della terra Odor di grano Sale adagio verso me E la vita nel mio petto, batte piano Respiro la nebbia Penso a te
Quanto verde tutto intorno E ancor piu’ in la’ Sembra quasi un mare d’erba E leggero il mio pensiero vola e va Ho quasi paura che si perda…
Un cavallo tende il collo verso il prato Resta fermo come me Io faccio un passo Lui mi vede è già fuggito Respiro La nebbia Penso a te
No! Cosa sono, adesso non lo so Sono solo Un uomo in cerca di se stesso No! Cosa sono adesso non lo sooooo Sono solo Solo il suono del mio passo
E intanto il sole Tra la nebbia filtra gia’ Il giorno Come sempre Sara’…
Aaaaaahhhhhh
September – Sting and Zucchero
One more sunrise One more empty sky Though she’s gone I will stay Counting days ‘Til September
Sorge il sole Sui miei giorni E tu sei Via da qui Pregherò Vieni Settembre
Lunghi giorni d’estate Mi rattristano un po’ Piove dentro di me Un deserto che so
Trace her perfume In my lonely room Like a dream Coming down You’ll come back Come September
Ma se ascolto però Queste voci Sembra strano, lo so Cade pioggia dal sole
Verrò Lo sai Ovunque tu sarai I lie awake So many thoughts in my head
E che mai ti dirò Se tu fossi qui Io chi mai tradirei E se fosse cosi Prego te e prego Dio Vieni Settembre Vieni Settembre
THOUGH IT IN no way endangers the meisterwerk musical status of Dark Side of the Moon (still on the charts nearly seven years after its release), Pink Floyd’s twelfth album, The Wall, is the most startling rhetorical achievement in the group’s singular, thirteen-year career. Stretching his talents over four sides, Floyd bassist Roger Waters, who wrote all the words and a majority of the music here, projects a dark, multilayered vision of post-World War II Western (and especially British) society so unremittingly dismal and acidulous that it makes contemporary gloom-mongers such as Randy Newman or, say, Nico seem like Peter Pan and Tinker Bell.
The Wall is a stunning synthesis of Waters’ by now familiar thematic obsessions: the brutal misanthropy of Pink Floyd’s last LP, Animals; Dark Side of the Moon‘s sour, middle-aged tristesse; the surprisingly shrewd perception that the music business is a microcosm of institutional oppression (Wish You Were Here); and the dread of impending psychoses that runs through all these records — plus a strongly felt antiwar animus that dates way back to 1968’s A Saucerful of Secrets. But where Animals, for instance, suffered from self-centered smugness, the even more abject The Wall leaps to life with a relentless lyrical rage that’s clearly genuine and, in its painstaking particularity, ultimately horrifying.
Fashioned as a kind of circular maze (the last words on side four begin a sentence completed by the first words on side one), The Wall offers no exit except madness from a world malevolently bent on crippling its citizens at every level of endeavor. The process — for those of Waters’ generation, at least — begins at birth with the smothering distortions of mother love. Then there are some vaguely remembered upheavals from the wartime Blitz:
Did you ever wonder Why we had to run for shelter When the promise of a brave new world Unfurled beneath a clear blue sky?
In government-run schools, children are methodically tormented and humiliated by teachers whose comeuppance occurs when they go home at night and “their fat and/Psychopathic wives would thrash them/Within inches of their lives.”
As Roger Waters sees it, even the most glittering success later in life — in his case, international rock stardom — is a mockery because of mortality. The halfhearted hope of interpersonal salvation that slightly brightened Animals is gone, too: women are viewed as inscrutable sexual punching bags, and men (their immediate oppressors in a grand scheme of oppression) are inevitably left alone to flail about in increasingly unbearable frustration. This wall of conditioning finally forms a prison. And its pitiful inmate, by now practically catatonic, submits to “The Trial” — a bizarre musical cataclysm out of Gilbert and Sullivan via Brecht and Weill — in which all of his past tormentors converge for the long-awaited kill.
This is very tough stuff, and hardly the hallmark of a hit album. Whether or not The Wall succeeds commercially will probably depend on its musical virtues, of which there are many. Longtime Pink Floyd fans will find the requisite number of bone-crushing riffs and Saturn-bound guitar screams (“In the Flesh”), along with one of the loveliest ballads the band has ever recorded (“Comfortably Numb — “). And the singing throughout is — at last — truly firstrate, clear, impassioned. Listen to the vocals in the frightening “One of My Turns,” in which the deranged rock-star narrator, his shattered synapses misfiring like wet firecrackers, screams at his groupie companion: “Would you like to learn to fly?/Would you like to see me try?”
Problems do arise, however. While The Wall‘s length is certainly justified by the breadth of its thematic concerns, the music is stretched a bit thin. Heavy-metal maestro Bob Ezrin, brought in to coproduce with Roger, Waters and guitarist David Gilmour, adds a certain hard-rock consciousness to a few cuts (especially the nearfunky “Young Lust”) but has generally been unable to match the high sonic gloss that engineer Alan Parsons contributed to Dark Side of the Moon. Even Floydstarved devotees may not be sucked into The Wall‘s relatively flat aural ambiance on first hearing. But when they finally are — and then get a good look at that forbidding lyrical landscape — they may wonder which way is out real fast.
Behind the Meaning of “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” by Pink Floyd
In a world of love songs, Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” inevitably stands out.
The defiant anthem is a satirical view on formal education, a loud protest against authority, and it became one of Pink Floyd’s most recognizable songs.
Here we’ll dive into the song’s context, composition, and success.
Just one part of the story.
“Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” is as it’s descriptor indicates, only one part of the story. There are three sections of “Another Brick in the Wall” on Pink Floyd’s 1979 rock opera album, The Wall. All three parts total eight odd minutes of building up emotional walls.
The beginning, “Part 1,” sets the scene with the protagnoist’s first blow from life. His father abandons the narrator, whether that is in death or otherwise, and creates a level of distress. Daddy, what else did you leave for me? / Daddy, what’d ya leave behind for me?
“Part 2,” which we will get to, continues the assembling of emotion. Then, “Part 3” concludes the trilogy with the determination that everyone has simply been just bricks in the wall.
Recording an unexpected beat and children’s choir.
Roger Waters, singer/songwriter and bassist for Pink Floyd, wrote the “Another Brick in the Wall” song series and the band recorded the songs for several months in 1979.
For “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2),” the underlying beat leans into the themes and sounds of disco. And according guitarist David Gilmour, the band’s producer Bob Ezrin, has suggested this sonic turn. “[Ezrin] said to me, ‘Go to a couple of clubs and listen to what’s happening with disco music,’” Gilmour recalled in a 2009 interview with Guitar World, “so I forced myself out and listened to loud, four-to-the-bar bass drums and stuff and thought, Gawd, awful! Then we went back and tried to turn one of the parts into one of those so it would be catchy.”
Another unique aspect of “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” is the children’s choir that sings the second verse of the song. The collection of young singers was composed of 23 children from the Islington Green School in North London. After recording, the childrens’ part was overdubbed 12 times to give the effect of many, many more children singing.
Ezrin explains their decision to use a children’s choir: “[W]e sent [engineer] Nick Griffiths to a school near the Floyd studios [in Islington, North London]. I said, ‘Give me 24 tracks of kids singing this thing. I want Cockney, I want posh, fill ’em up,’ and I put them on the song. I called Roger into the room, and when the kids came in on the second verse there was a total softening of his face, and you just knew that he knew it was going to be an important record.”
Lyrics: Say a lot with little.
The lyrics themselves while not necessarily elaborate, speak volumes.
We don’t need no education We don’t need no thought control No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teacher, leave them kids alone Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!
It’s a pretty glaring critic of the education system, but Waters explained that it wasn’t so much of a blanket statement on education itself, but rather a statement to inspire a sense of individuality.
“Obviously, I care deeply about education. I just wanted to encourage anyone who marches to a different drum to push back against those who try to control their minds rather than to retreat behind emotional walls,” Waters told The Wall Street Journal in 2015.
Further explaining how he arrived at these lyrics, Waters revealed that his own experiences in school left a bad taste in his mouth.
“The lyrics were a reaction to my time at the Cambridgeshire High School for Boys in 1955, when I was 12,” Waters told The Wall Street Journal. “Some of the teachers there were locked into the idea that young boys needed to be controlled with sarcasm and the exercising of brute force to subjugate us to their will. That was their idea of education.”
Success and its haters.
Pink Floyd released “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” as a single, their first single release after “Point Me at the Sky” in 1968. The track topped the charts in 14 different countries, including the United States and the U.K. The song also garnered a Grammy nomination and a spot on Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list in 2010.
Not everyone liked the track, however. The single and the subsequent album were banned in South Africa in 1980 after the lyrics were used by school children to protest their educaiton under apartheid. Prime minster Margaret Thatcher was also reported to have “hated it.”
All in all, it’s just another brick in the wall All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall
Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 by de Pink Floyd
We don’t need no education We don’t need no thought control No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teacher, leave them kids alone
Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone All in all, it’s just another brick in the wall All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall
We don’t need no education We don’t need no thought control No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teachers, leave them kids alone
Hey, teacher, leave us kids alone All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall
If you don’t eat yer meat, you can’t have any pudding How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat yer meat? You! Yes, you behind the bike stands Stand still, laddy!
40 years later: Are we still just another brick in the wall?
They tell us we are the next generation. A representation of greatness, a symbol of hope, a future of prosperity. They tell us we have the power to fix all the wrongs in this world, make it a better place for all. And then they throw us into the deep end of the pool, expecting us to stay afloat. They don’t even flinch when we become just another brick in the wall.
Pink Floyd shattered the traditional notion of a song with their album “The Wall,” which is widely regarded as one of the best concept albums ever produced. Its most popular single, “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2),” issued a provocative social statement on the British education system in the 1950’s.
Although Waters wrote “Another Brick in the Wall” about another country and an earlier generation, the song’s lyrics and key concepts stay relevant to our own education system today.
We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control
Our educational institutions have systematically failed to adapt to change. They continue, even during these unprecedented times, to evaluate student performance based solely on rote memorization rather than progress and learning. We are labeled by our grades, which seems like the ultimate determinant of our futures. Our stomachs drop when a teacher hands back a grade, and we realize we underperformed on an exam. But shouldn’t failing be a learning experience rather than a punishment? And who decided that letter grades were supposed to determine what we could achieve in our lives? School is not supposed to be a series of memorized algebraic calculations or properly formatted, multi-paragraphed english essays; it’s intended to help us acquire new knowledge and skills, to teach us to collaborate and, most importantly, to inspire us.
However, Waters paints a bleak, but accurate image of the education system in his lyrics; he explains that education revolved around a set of rigid ideas to which all students were expected to conform and teachers were meant to enforce. Just like Roger Waters and his generation, we are being taught to put our heads down and color inside the lines. But what we truly need is for education to encourage free thinking and critical thought, releasing students and teachers from the confines of the curriculum.
The reality of our current educational system: we don’t need this type of “education.”
No dark sarcasm in the classroom; Hey! Teachers leave those kids alone
During our foundational years, we spend most of our lives in school. Yet, so many of us are scared to speak up in class, talk to our teachers or ask our counselors for help.
More than 40 years ago, Waters felt as though teachers served to chastise students whenever they stepped out of line. He too believed that his teachers simply enforced the “rules” of the classroom, turning his educational experience into one of isolation.
From kindergarten through senior year, the same set of rules are designed to mold us into the “ideal student,” one who displays only acceptable behavior in the classroom.
Don’t speak without raising your hand; don’t go to the bathroom before you ask; don’t talk back to teachers.
Those who do not follow such rules are deemed “bad children” and punished accordingly. In the music video for “Another Brick in the Wall,” the teacher punishes the main character for reading poetry because it did not fall within the classroom’s guidelines.
This is where the real question lies: when did school become more intimidating than inviting? As we sit in our Zoom classes, many are too afraid to unmute themselves. We build psychological walls to protect ourselves. School is still an unfriendly, increasingly isolating environment for many students. It can be terrifying to speak up to a teacher, and often “unacceptable” to voice your opinion when an adult says it’s not right.
The needless rules some teachers impose and the constant fear many students face reinforce Waters’ idea that if teachers cannot create a welcoming learning environment, they really should leave us kids alone.
You’re just another brick in the wall
As kindergarteners, we are eager to be “grown up,” excited about everything the world has to offer and filled with innocence. During our last years in high school, that curiosity has dimmed, replaced by a mask of stress, sleeplessness and cynicism.
Pink Floyd sketched this transformation through their lyrics: “you’re just another brick in the wall, all in all it’s just another brick in the wall.”
The education system is a machine, taking us in at kindergarten and spitting us out in 12th grade, isolated and alone, feeling like just another stitch in the fabric of society. It strips us of our humanity and our individuality as we make our way through the factory; it reminds us at every turn that we are always replaceable.
Yet, we aren’t. We are unique individuals, with passions, motivations and intrinsic drives. We are not clones molded by the education system. We will never be replaceable. We are not “just another brick in the wall.” Let’s stop letting them tell us we are.
1, 2, 3, 4 Freedom and Justice Is the melody that let us shine on If you feel it through the music We can make this world a better place.
Freedom and Justice Is the melody that let us shine on If you feel it through the music We can make this world a better place Live together, love forever Is the only thing we can do Hold.. my hand, by me stand We are gonna make it through.
Ohh..
Freedom and Justice Is the melody that let us shine on If you feel it through the music We can make this world a better place.
Freedom and Justice Is the melody that let us shine on If you feel it through the music We can make this world a better place.
Freedom and Justice Is the melody that let us shine on If you feel it through the music We can make this world a better place.
Freedom and Justice Is the melody that let us shine on If you feel it through the music.
We can make this world a better place We can make this world a better place We can make this world a better place We can make this world a better place..
Heal the World – Michael Jackson
(Think about um, the generations And ah, say we want to make it a better place for our children And our children’s children so that they, they They, they know it’s a better world for them And think if they can make it a better place)
There’s a place in your heart And I know that it is love And this place it was brighter than tomorrow And if you really try You’ll find there’s no need to cry In this place you’ll feel there’s no hurt or sorrow
There are ways to get there If you care enough for the living Make a little space Make a better place
Heal the world Make it a better place For you and for me, and the entire human race There are people dying If you care enough for the living Make a better place for you and for me
If you want to know why There’s love that cannot lie Love is strong It only cares of joyful giving If we try we shall see In this bliss we cannot feel Fear of dread, we stop existing and start living
Then it feels that always Love’s enough for us growing Make a better world So make a better world
Heal the world Make it a better place For you and for me, and the entire human race There are people dying If you care enough for the living Make a better place for you and for me
And the dream we were conceived in will reveal a joyful face And the world we once believed in will shine again in grace Then why do we keep strangling life Wound this earth, crucify its soul? Though it’s plain to see, this world is heavenly Be god’s glow
We could fly so high Let our spirits never die In my heart I feel you are all my brothers Create a world with no fear Together we cry happy tears See the nations turn their swords into plowshares
We could really get there If you cared enough for the living Make a little space To make a better place
Heal the world Make it a better place For you and for me, and the entire human race There are people dying If you care enough for the living Make a better place for you and for me Heal the world Make it a better place For you and for me, and the entire human race There are people dying If you care enough for the living Make a better place for you and for me
Heal the world (heal the world) Make it a better place For you and for me, and the entire human race There are people dying If you care enough for the living Make a better place for you and for me
There are people dying If you care enough for the living Make a better place for you and for me
There are people dying If you care enough for the living Make a better place for you and for me
You and for me (for a better place) You and for me (make a better place) You and for me (make a better place) You and for me (heal the world we live in) You and for me (save it for our children) You and for me (heal the world we live in) You and for me (save it for our children) You and for me (heal the world we live in) You and for me (save it for our children) You and for me (heal the world we live in) You and for me (save it for our children)
Idiomas RalFer 