Biblioteche e bibliotecari nella musica

TALES OF A LIBRARIAN: A Tori Amos Collection (Bonus DVD) di Tori Amos (pubblicato il 13 novembre 2003)
Nell'album è citata per esteso la CDD, con tanto di copyright OCLC e riferimenti biografici a Melvil Dewey. Ogni canzone è inserita al suo posto all'interno della CDD (della quale vengono riprodotte per intero le due tavole principali), con una breve spiegazione. Nelle note si ringrazia la "reference librarian" Nicki Maxwell. La "librarian" Tori è ritratta in varie pose, tra cui quella della copertina, visibile a http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drg100/g100/g10000g9eqg.jpg
[RR, RZ]

Love in the Library, dall'album FRUITCAKES del 1994
Once upon a time
She gathered her books, walked
while she read
Words never spoken, but so
much was said
You can read all you want into
this rendezvous
But it's safer than most things
that lovers can do
Well stories have endings,
fantasies fade
And the guard by the door starts
drawing the shade
So write your own ending and
hope it comes true
For the lovers and strangers
on Bay Avenue
[GL]

Testo della canzone "Hedda Gabler" di John Cale, tratta dall'EP ANIMAL JUSTICE (1977):
Hedda Gabler
Had a very funny face
Tired of waiting
Tired of the human race
Like her brother
Sitting in the library
Reading how dear Adolph
Was going to save all Germany
Hedda Gabler
She'll go down in history
Hedda Gabler
Down in all her misery
Like her mother
Married to the bank manager
She took the money
Hung him in the closet for fun
Hedda Gabler
She'll go down in history
Hedda Gabler
Down in all her misery
Hedda Gabler
She'll go down in history
Hedda Gabler
Down in all her misery
Sleep... sleep.... sleep, Hedda Gabler
Sleep... sleep.... sleep, Hedda Gabler
Sleep... sleep.... sleep, Hedda Gabler
Sleep... sleep.... sleep, Hedda Gabler
Sleep... sleep.... sleep, Hedda Gabler
Sleep... sleep.... sleep, Hedda Gabler
[RR]

Dall'album di Adriano Celentano ESCO DI RADO E PARLO ANCORA MENO (2000) la canzone Io sono un uomo libero scritta appositamente per Celentano da Ivano Fossati, che include questi versi:
"Qui tutti parlano e parlano
o peggio scrivono e scrivono
per cultura universale
o biblioteca comunale"
La canzone è presente, nella versione dell'autore, anche nell'ultimo album di Fossati LAMPO VIAGGIATORE (2003).
[RR]

Dall'album 1,039/SMOOTHED OUT SLAPPY HOURS (1992), il brano At the library dei Green Day racconta di un amore infelice in biblioteca.
Testo disponibile all'URL: http://www.stormpages.com/lyrics/text/1039.html#1:
1: At The Library
Hey there lookin' at me..
Tell me what do you see...
But you quickly turn your head away...
Try to find the words I could use,
don't have the courage to come up to you.
My chance is looking a bit grey...
Starting across the room: are you leaving soon?
I just need a little time...
What is that drives me mad!?
Girls like you that I never had!
What is it about you that I adore?
What makes me go so insane
That makes me feel so much pain?
What is it about you that I adore?
Why did you have to leave so soon?
Why did you have to walk away?
Oh, well, it happened again..
She walked away with her boyfriend
Maybe we'll meet again someday...
someday...
[MP]

Dal sito ufficiale del gruppo rock inglese Hefner il testo della loro canzone The Librarian dall'album BREAKING GOD'S HEART (1998):
He started to woo her in a most peculiar way,
The Librarian's dress was a fawnish shade of grey,
The books he was to borrow he would surely never read,
They were of an intellectual calibre, he hoped that she would see.
He planned to take her home to bed some day,
He'd smooth her goosebumped skin whilst she lay,
But the unspoken truth they both knew,
Whilst he'd dream of her often she would forget in just ten minutes.
Her beauty has not truly been seen til her beauty's
been seen by his tired eyes,
Her tears have not truly been dried til her tears have
been dried on his tattered shirt sleeves.
Her body has not truly been stripped til her clothes
have been ripped by his nail bitten fingers,
Her beauty has not truly been seen til her beauty's
been seen by his tired eyes.
He was beginning to irritate so she made him go away,
The smallest cruellest insults she ignored his subtle ways.
The deftly silence let him know his efforts were in vain,
Did the thoughts ever exist and if so could he find them.
(and oh, oh the loneliest of nights,
he will never hold her tight,
he will never kiss her eyelids.)

Nella canzone "Lighthouse", tratta dall'album TINY VOICES (2003) del cantautore americano Joe Henry, c'è un riferimento a "the siren on top of the library wall".
[...]
The siren on top
Of the library wall,
The stairs that give way
At the end of the hall;
The pawnshop pavilion,
The newspaper saloon,
All burn in your wake
And light up the room
[RR]

Dal libretto del loro album EVERYTHING MUST GO (1996), un estratto dal testo di A Design for Life (Libraries Gave Us Power):
libraries gave us power
then work came and made us free
what price now for a shallow piece of dignity

Nell'album SNOW BORNE SORROW dei Nine Horses (estemporaneo progetto di David sylvian, Steve Jansen and Burnt Friedman) il brano conclusivo, lungo 9 minuti, si intitola The Librarian.

Keep you head down
Keep you head down
While they're firing low
You're too young child
To know the difference
Oh my pretty
Oh my sweet girl
It's a marvelous place
They put weights down
In your coat tails to burn you out
Lest you fly
Lest you take off
And show whomever what's what.
It's one outrageous lie after another
Turn their lights out
Change the channel
Before we lose the heart
To fight against belief in what they're saying
There's a hotel
With a dark room
At the end of a corridor
I will meet you
To the strains of Allah
We will lie back
On a pillow of the whitest snow
And the silence we were promised
Will engulf us
Lay your head down
Keep your head down
While they're firing low
You're too young child
You're too young child
We will wake up
From the dreams that bury us
We will tunnel our way out
By moonlight
From the dark room
To the white streets and the snow banks
We'll invest in one another's future
Oh my pretty
Oh my sweet girl
It's a marvelous place
She designed it
With escape routes
For you and me
So to the library
With your new card
Grab your favorite books
Look for blueprints
To the strains of Allah
Here we gos.
Benevolence is in back
Of everyplace you look
It's not a monstrous face she is hiding
If I see her
I will tell you
You'll come quickly
If you see her
Don't hesitate just go
But til then
Keep your head down
Keep your head down
While they're firing low
You're too young child
You're too young child
You're too young child
Here we gos

[RR]

Dall'album LOW BIRTH WEIGHT (1999):
--- I Am the Sublibrarian
I am the sub-librarian,/ come in on the council bus,/ Chalk Farm to Highgate Woods,/ sportbags of borrowed books./ A steady diet of Brautigan,/ "Tapestry" on the walkman,/ paranormal ill health/ from dusting off the top shelf./ I am the sub-librarian,/ counter-girl, tea-maker./ I am the sub-librarian,/ swan feeder, spectacle breaker,/ I am the sub-librarian.

Dall'album LIVE IN DUBLIN (1975):
--- Délivrance.
Voici venu le temps de délivrance/ Loin de nous toute idée de vengeance./ Nous garderons notre amitié avec le peuple de France/ Mais nous abattrons les murailles honteuses/ qui nous empêchent de regarder la mer/ Les miradors qui nous interdisent nos plus proches frères/ de Galles, d'Ecosse, d'Irlande./ Et nous, dont le nom est connu des goëlands et des cormorans,/ fut banni de tous les langages humains,/ de toutes les bibliothèques, de toutes les cartes terrestres.
[RdA]

Dall'album UNIVERSAL HALL (2003):
--- Universal Hall.
In this library I could lose myself transports, gateways on every shelf dark words, bright words of ice and fire as if an angel did descend and use the writer as a pen
[RR]

Una famosa commedia musicale di Meredith Wilson ha tra i protagonisti una bibliotecaria di nome Marian. Ad essa è dedicata una delle canzoni più celebri Marian the Librarian il cui testo è:
Marian, The Librarian
Harold:
Marian, Madam Librarian
What can I do, my dear, to catch your ear?
I love you madly, madly, madam librarian, Marian
Heaven help us, if the library caught on fire
And the volunteer hose brigade men
Had to whisper the news to Marian
Madam Librarian
What can I do, my dear, to make it clear?
I need you badly, badly, madam librarian, Marian
If I stumbled and I busted my whatchamacallit
I could lie on your floor unnoticed
Till my body had turned to carrion
Madam Librarain
Now in the moonlight a man could sing it
In the moonlight...
And a fella would know that his darlin'
Had heard every word of his song
With the moonlight helping along
But when I try in here to tell you dear
I love you madly, madly, madam librarian, Marian
It's a long lost cause, I can never win
For the civilized world accepts as unforgivable sin
Any talking out loud with any librarian
Such as Marian, Madam Librarian

Il brano è stato riarrangiato anche in chiave jazz; tra esse una performance famosa del clarinettista Jimmy Giuffre : 2887 Marian The Librarian -1 Atlantic 1276 Coastal Studios, NYC, December 31, 1957 Bernie Glow, Phil Sunkel, Joe Wilder (tp), Giuffre (cl -1, ts -2, bari -3, arr), Al Cohn, Ed Wasserman (ts), Sol Schlinger (bari), Wendell Marshall (b), Ed Shaughnessy (d).
[GL]