TRÊS ENIGMAS

Se já aqui mencionei duas despedidas e duas nostalgias musicais, desta vez quero falar de três enigmas. Trata-se de três canções que, não só na altura como depois, se tornaram verdadeiramente carismáticas, que saíram simultaneamente (foram as três editadas entre os meses de Maio e Junho de 1967) e cujas letras são verdadeiramente herméticas, onde permanecem ainda hoje abertas as interpretações sobre os seus significados.

As canções em questão são (por ordem de edição) A Whiter Shade of Pale dos Procol Harum, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds dos Beatles e White Rabbit dos Jefferson Airplane e a imprensa especializada da época apressou-se a classificá-las como Rock Psicadélico… Embora a classificação possa ajudar a caracterizar o estado mental dos autores das letras quando as escreveram, não é de grande ajuda sobre o seu significado.

Por esse motivo, neste caso excepcional apenas fiz a transcrição das letras originais, sem qualquer tradução. Uma pequena nota final para o vídeo dos Jefferson Airplane (que começa sem som), que se percebe ser um descaradíssimo play-back, só possível nos primórdios, onde dois dos membros da banda até se sentam no chão enquanto a vocalista se passeia pelo palco completamente desconcentrada – e não falha uma nota!

(Algumas explicações estão em links sobre o título das canções)

A WHITER SHADE OF PALE

We skipped the light Fandango
Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kind of seasick
But the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
The waiter brought a tray
And so it was that later
As the Miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale

She said there is no reason
And the truth is plain to see
But I wandered through my playing cards
And I would not let her be
One of the sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open
They might just as well've been closed
And so it was that later
As the Miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale


LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she's gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaahhhhh...

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmellow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high

Newpaper taxis appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you're gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaahhhhh...

Picture yourself on a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstyle
The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaahhhhh...
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaahhhhh...
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds

WHITE RABBIT

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Recall Alice
When she was just small

When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's off with her head!
Remember what the dormouse said;

Feed your head!
Feed your head!
Feed your head!