Ghiţă, by Cleopatra Stratan

Cleopatra Stratan - Ghiţă
Cleopatra Stratan – Ghiţă – from last.fm

The Moldovan-Romanian singer Cleopatra Stratan was born on October 6, 2002 in Chişinău, Moldova. Her father Pavel Stratan is a singer and musician. In 2006 she released her first album La vârsta de 3 ani (“At the age of 3”), which sold more than 150,000 in Romania. It included the hit “Ghiţă,” which reached number 1 in the Romanian Singles Chart. Then in 2008 she released her second album La vârsta de 5 ani (“At the age of 5”). CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Little girl, don’t be blue

Mary Cassatt - Little Girl in a Blue Armchair
Mary Cassatt – Little Girl in a Blue Armchair (1878)

The Scruffy Group was a band formed in 1965 by Jack Van Pelt (guitar) and Max Freeland (drums), two students at Ohio State University, who joined with two friends from their hometown Lima, Ohio: Jim Buehl (rhythm guitar) and Alan Ulrich (bass). The band moved to Strongsville, Ohio, where they played night concerts at the Skyline Inn. After being suggested to make a single, Jack Van Pelt composed the two songs “Little Girl” and “Do” in four hours. The band recorded them in a few hours at Audio Recording in Cleveland. The record was released in the summer of 1965 by Jimmy Testa’s Tema label, with “Little Girl” on the A side. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Jailbait, by Ted Nugent

Front cover of the album Intensities in 10 Cities by Ted Nugent
Front cover of the album Intensities in 10 Cities by Ted Nugent – from Vinyl Records and Album Cover Gallery, vinyl-records.nl

Theodore Anthony Nugent (born December 13, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist from Redford, Michigan. He started as the lead guitarist of the rock band The Amboy Dukes. After dissolving the band, he embarked on a successful solo career in the 1970s and 1980s. His second live album Intensities in 10 Cities consists of 10 songs recorded during the last ten dates of his 1980 tour; it was released on March 2, 1981. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight, by Spinal Tap

Spinal Tap
Spinal Tap – from Canal+

Spinal Tap is a made-up English heavy metal band created by the comedians and musicians of The T.V. Show on the American commercial broadcast television network ABC. The 1984 mock documentary film This is Spinal Tap gave a dramatised fictional history of this parodic band, which satirises in its image, sound, and lyrics some of the biggest bands of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The soundtrack of the film was released on March 2, 1984. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

The Cult of the Child, by Ernest Dowson

Elliott & Fry – Minnie Terry as Daisy Desmond
Elliott & Fry – Minnie Terry as Daisy Desmond (1889) – National Portrait Gallery

In 1889, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Prevention of Cruelty to, and Protection of, Children Act. An amendment had then been proposed to ban children under the age of 10 from acting on stage, which provoked a widespread opposition in public opinion. Dowson entered into the debate, arguing that children are natural actors, that their performance is always artistic. Moreover, they have a wonderful charm, of which spectators should not be deprived. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Full circle

Aleksandra Waliszewska
Aleksandra Waliszewska – from Frank T. Zumbachs Mysterious World

Poets and Lovers exists since 4 years, and this is its 427th article. It should go on for a 5th year, with more poems and songs presented at a regular frequency. Indeed, I am indebted to the collection Amours Enfantines by François Lemonnier for its many poems, mostly in French, devoted to the love of little girls; I discovered there many lesser-known authors. I have also collected a list of songs, mostly in English, about young girls. However, I lack poems in English, readers are welcome to propose some. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Thirteen, by Big Star

Front cover of the album #1 Record by Big Star
Front cover of the album #1 Record by Big Star – from Discogs

Big Star was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel. The group broke up in early 1975, and reorganized with a new line-up 18 years later. By the 1980s, they were recognized as one of rock music’s classic groups. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Little Bird, by Infant Sorrow

Russell Brand as Aldous Snow, lead singer of Infant Sorrow
Russell Brand as Aldous Snow, lead singer of Infant Sorrow

In Nicholas Stoller’s two comedy films Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) and Get Him to the Greek (2010), the English actor Russell Brand plays the role of Aldous Snow, an English rock star, lead singer of a group called Infant Sorrow. According to Genius, Russell Brand did all the vocals and most of the vocal arrangements for the various songs found in the movies, and the soundtrack for both movies also credits Brand as a writer. The role of the other musicians of the band seems to have been played professional musicians, but not those performing in the soundtracks. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…