music for my friend to get better

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i have a v.close friend who recently had a fairly serious stress&overwork related breakdown

she just wrote me a long letter about what she does these days to rest and recuperate, and since a lot of this involved the sea and swimming, it reminded me of robert wyatt's "rock bottom", which i'm going to tape and send her

of course since i've already said that her letter reminded me of this record, i'm already a tiny bit nervous that she'll listen for a bit and say "mark this is awful, do i really remind of you this? how horrible!!" — not very likely, perhaps, but who doesn't tiptoe a bit round convalescents? her getting better is far more important than her getting better taste

(let along sharing my tastes, which by all sane accounts = getting worse tastes)

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 15 August 2003 13:24 (twenty-two years ago)

anyway this is a thread about music and unwellness, and what helped you through whatever, or your friend — and do you still listen to it and like it, or was it just pale fever dreams on the way to recovery, and left behind when you/they stepped out of bed?

[i posted it on ile also: i suspect it will get different types of answer there and that will be interesting too]

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 15 August 2003 13:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Gorecki. Soothes and plays nurse maid to sadness and sorrow.
Johnny Mercer. For the anxious soul who wants to believe in southern springs, pretty things and long Frank Capraesque walks.

― st cloud cool kid of death, Friday, 15 August 2003 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

One long, cold winter during the period where I'd dropped out of college I worked the 7 am prep shift at a restaurant for minimum wage. Before leaving the house to face the tedium of peeling and cutting up about 50 lbs. of vegetables, I took to listening to "Sunrain", the first track on Ashra's "New Age of Earth". It really did the trick of keeping me from the brink of despair.

I think the Robert Wyatt was a good choice for your friend; his music always soothes my soul. Astrud Gilberto might be another choice if she finds him too downbeat.

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Friday, 15 August 2003 21:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Astrud's good, as is the self-titled Caetano album with the white cover and his signature (?) on the front.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 15 August 2003 22:13 (twenty-two years ago)

It's *gorgeous*. In the vein of kid's suggestion of Johnny Mercer, I'd add Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns -- rambunctious, hilarious '50s R&B from New Orleans.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 15 August 2003 22:52 (twenty-two years ago)

(ILE has many more posts, don't let me dismiss you as AFRAID TO FEEL and ROCKIST and SCARED OF MUSIC, ilm!!)

(present company excepted obv)

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 16 August 2003 10:04 (twenty-two years ago)

When Isabel was in a similar situation a couple of years ago I just made her lots of tapes of pop hits - whatever the latest stuff was with some reassuring old favourites like ABBA in too. When she wakes up I will ask her if any of it helped! I think her advice to your friend will be to aquire a rabbit.

― Tom (Groke), Saturday, 16 August 2003 10:26 (twenty-two years ago)

haha Tom at the next FAP i shall regale you with tales of my friend and her brothers and their pet-owning ways as children!! sometimes she has the grace to be a bit shamefaced about it, but it's usually grace-complete-with-feral-grin

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 16 August 2003 10:54 (twenty-two years ago)

ok here is my tapelist so far:

rock bottom: robert wyatt
b/w
return of the giant slits: the slits

zing zong: kanda bongo man
b/w
new urban greek folk music for dancing and listening: yiorgos mangas

live at the golden circle vol.one: ornette coleman trio
b/w
ruth is stranger than richard: robert wyatt

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 16 August 2003 12:36 (twenty-two years ago)

the jazz insects!!

― geeta (geeta), Saturday, 16 August 2003 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

haha hmmm, yes the soothing post-byrne stylings of their legendary not-quite-in-tune singer are a cure-all worldwide

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 16 August 2003 14:09 (twenty-two years ago)

You might try Toumani Diabate's New Ancient Strings album, he's a Kora (a bit like a harp, but cooler) player from Mali. I gave it to my friend who was very ill for a while and I think it helped. Soothing and beautiful, although too austere to be new age-y, if you will. And Oumou Sangare's Ko Sira album too, mainly because I am recommending that indiscriminately at the moment, but also because it is gentle and melodic...

― Conor (Conor), Saturday, 16 August 2003 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

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