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Said Madi
Dieterich
ENG 102 I
09 September 2018
Diagnostic Essay
My Top Five Mixtape
Music is almost everywhere in each identified nation, Algeria is one of those countries influenced
by many civilization through history, this influence is mirrored in music where we find every genre, from
Chaabi (popular music), Andalusian classical music (known as Andalusi Nubah in Algeria), Rai, Berber
Music (which englobe Kabyle, Chawi and Tuareg music), Staifi, Rap, Hip hop and Pop Rock. Since my
teenage age I listen to a variety of songs from different kind and I never ranked those soundtracks in list of
top five. Rob Gordon the hero character of the movie “high fidelity” says, “The making of a good
compilation is subtle art,” and that what I stated when I started to create my mixtape.
One of my favorite albums is A Vava Inouva, Hamid Ceryat called himself Idir meaning of ‘to live’,
is known as the ambassador of the Kabyle (a region in Algeria), the album released in 1976 and interpreted
in seven languages, first Algerian hit in Europe and aired for the first time in a French radio, The album
includes a such beautiful song “A Vava Inouva” (O my Father Inouva). The singer with his guitar and
vocals assert his Amazigh (Kabyle) identity, he describes a grandmother seating in fireside and telling
stories to her grandchildren while the snow falls outside during nightfall. It is a typical image of Algerian
and Kabyle folklore; the singer blends the family’s story with his guitar in a harmonized style inspiring
from western folk’s star like Bob Dylan. Idir began the song by describing the conversation between father
Inouva and his daughter Ghriva, singing, (lyrics translated from Kabyle to English) “Please, Unlock the
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door for me/ O father Inouva/ Make your bracelets shake /O my daughter Ghriva/ I'm scared, the monster
of the woods is here / O father Inouva / But I'm scared too / O my daughter Ghriva / The grandfather,
wrapped In her burnous [ birrus from Latin, a long cloak of coarse made from wool with a hood ] ,
listening / His son, in his memory of yesterday, eating, turned /The daughter, behind the craft / Alone,
weaving the loom / Family together / Listen eagerly to stories she was telling them. / Family together /
Stories she was telling them.” Than the opening refrain from “Please, unlock till O my daughter Ghriva”
after that “The snow behind the door / And the stew heats up in the pot / And those assembled dreaming of
the coming spring / And the moon and stars are still hiding / Refer to the oak and replace the willow mat /
Family together / Listen eagerly to stories she was telling them / Family together / Stories she was telling
them.”
Rai (originated from the meaning of opinion in Arabic) is another genre music in my home country,
it was created back to the 1920’s in the city of Oran, Rai singer is named Cheb (young), to the contrary in
Chaabi music a singer is named Cheikh (Old). one of my favorite songs is called “Haoulou” from his
Album Let Me Rai in 1991, sung by Cheb Mami, Grammy Awward telecast with Sting for their song
called “Desert Rose” released in 1999. The song “Haoulou [Try]” is a perfect introduction to the first time
Rai listener. With his voice which stands out from the rest singing, (lyrics translated from Arabic to
English) “ Poor lovers, if they are going through the same things as I am / I've put trust and trust shouldn't
put on an enemy's land / Try to make my baby come back to me, my heart is bewildered because of him /
Try to make my baby come back to me, my heart is bewildered because of him / He abandoned me and left
me wounded / I became a homeless nobody”, Mami’s music is a mix of occidental, Turkish and Greek all
blended with Algerian style associated to his voice with an Andalusian accent.
A French song called “ J’ai Quitté mon Pays (I Left my Country)” has marked my spirit and still is,
which I played over and over and still is, the first I discovered the song was after been selected in the DV
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Lottery organized each year by U.S.C.I.S ( U.S Citizenship and Immigrant Services), at that time I start to
imagine myself as a foreign, I began to miss everything despite the fact I was leaving over there and I
‘was not yet left the country toward U.S.A, This French singer is named Gaston Ghrenassia, an Algerian
Jewish, his stage name is Enrico Macias, awarded with the prix Vincent Scotto in 1965, and received a
Gold Disc in 1976 for his album Mélissa, this is a lyrics translated from French to English “ I left my
country / I left my house / My life, my sad life / Is a drag for no reason / I left my sun / I left my blue sea /
The memories are waking up / Long after my last goodbye / Sun! Sun from my lost country / From the
white cities I loved / From the girls I used to know / I left a friend / I can still see her eyes / Her eyes filled
with rain / Goodbye rain / I see her smile again / So close to my face / It made shine / The nights of my
village / But from the edge of the boat / That took me away from the quay / A chain in the water / Cracked
like a whip / I looked for a long time at / Her avoiding eyes / The sea drowned them / In a tide/swell of
regret.”
My trilingual background helped me to appreciate songs from overseas, one of my favorite songs is
called “Looking for the Summer” from his album Auberge, released in 1991. The British singer songwriter as described by the Book Rockopedia as “gravel-voiced guitar stalwart”, he was awarded in 1979 a
Grammy nomination as Best New Artist and several Brit award, A message of hope by the singer, singing
“Look deep into the April face / A change is clearly taking place / Looking for the summer / The eyes take
on a certain gaze / And leave behind the springtime days / Go looking for the summer / This ain't no game
of kiss and tell / The implications how you knew so well / Go looking for the summer / The time has come
and they must go / To play the passion out that haunts you so / Looking for the summer / Remember love
how it was the same / We scratched and hurt each other's growing pains / We were looking for the summer
/ And still I stand this very day / With a burning wish to fly away / I'm still looking, looking for the
summer.”
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The last favorite song in my mixtape is about love and only love, performed by Brian Adams, a
Canadian singer with several awards in Canada, U.K and U.S.A, the song called “everything I do (do it for
you)” from his album Walking Up the Neighbours, released in 1991, this song is about love and what could
a man do for his beloved,. After each dispute with my other half, I played this song over and over, the
global star is singing “Look into my eyes / You will see / What you mean to me / Search your heart /
Search your soul / And when you find me there, you'll search no more / Don't tell me it's not worth tryin'
for / You can't tell me it's not worth dyin' for / You know it's true / Everything I do / I do it for you / Look
into your heart / You will find / There's nothin' there to hide / Take me as I am / Take my life / I would
give it all, I would sacrifice / Don't tell me it's not worth fightin' for / I can't help it, there's nothin' I want
more / You know it's true / Everything I do / I do it for you / There's no love / Like your love / And no
other / Could give more love / There's nowhere / Unless you're there / All the time / All the way, yeah /
Look into your heart, baby / Oh you can't tell me it's not worth tryin' for / I can't help it there's nothin' I
want more / Yeah, I would fight for you / I lie for you / Walk the wire for you, yeah, I'd die for you / You
know it's true / Everything I do / Oh / I do it for you / Everything I do, darling / And we'll see it through /
Oh we'll see it through / Oh yeah / Yeah / Look into your heart / You can't tell me it ain't worth dying for /
Oh yeah / I'll be there, yeah / I'll walk the wire for you / I will die for you / Oh yeah / I would die for you /
I'm going all the way, all they way, yeah.”
After all, by revisiting my favorite songs, and after listening to thousands of songs during my life, I
would say that my top five enumerated in the last paragraphs are expressing my taste almost for every
period of my life, starting from my childhood and passing through my teenage age than my adulthood, it
express my emotions on each period and related tightly to some events that happened in my life, whether
joy, sadness, or affection to my home country. This list represents somehow my past and my present life. I
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believe that songs are a kind of bridges to different culture because it portrays images of fight, love, live
issues and other pictures live through instruments and vocals to the entire world.