“Oh baby, is this the woman I want to be? The door is unlocked, the windows are open, every time the place looks best for me. I said, kiss me, kiss me, kiss me again, kiss me again…”
These lyrics are from “Kiss Me Again“, a track by Arthur Russell. Listen to the entire track here (unfortunately the lesser of the two mixes of this twelve inch).
The photograph is of Maria Bonnevie, one of the more interesting actresses currently working in European cinema. She is the lead in the 2003 small masterpiece Reconstruction and the current cult favorite; Andrey Zvyagintsev‘s The Banishment.
The audio track posted above comes via here, a new blog of someone who goes by the nick fac586, what I believe to be a reference to Fac 51 Haçienda also known as just The Haçienda.
The author of this blog does an extended analysis of the song and its lyrics. Regarding the lyrics he says:
Have you ever gotten back together with someone who you shouldn’t have? I think most of us have, and I think that’s what this song is getting at, and the music tells the story even more than the words.
Deserving mention in this context is a recent article by popular music scholar Tim Lawrence, author of “Love Saves the Day” and current biographer of Arthur Russell. The article is titled “Connecting with the Cosmic: Arthur Russell, Rhizomatic Musicianship, and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-92” and connects Arthur Russell in a tired way to the theory of rhizomatics of Deleuze & Guattari.
“Kiss Me Again” is world music classic #25 and Reconstruction is world cinema classic #41
I do not want to be a starfucker but I love your bog!
You remind me of Gilles Peterson ,in that you join the dots!
Highbrow,lowbrow,nobrow, it’s all good!
If you like Arthur Russel,then I would recommend Kelley Polar on Environ records.
Will o8 be the rebirth of disco nirvana? what with Hercules & Love Affair getting a big push in the UK via EMI.
The remix of Blind by Frankie Knuckles is fierce and unleashes the whiteman 2step.
Best wishes to you and yours
Oh Scott,
Thanks for the big compliment.
But an even bigger thank you for connecting me to this Antony and the Johnsons track.
I first heard it yesterday night at around 1 a m at a magnificent wedding party, presented by DJ Romeo from Izegem. It blew me away.
Thanks again.