Photos of Ghosts

Recentemente tive um sonho com fantasmas. É um tema que sempre prende a atenção, porque é cercado de mistério, situa-se naquele campo onde todo mundo tem opinião e ninguem tem certeza.

Então fui ouvir algumas músicas sobre fantasmas. Não é algo muito comum para músicas. Seria mais fácil buscar referências em filmes. "Sexto Sentido", "Os Outros"...a lista é longa, desde os filmes de terror, como "O Iluminado" até os romances açucarados como "Ghost".

Mas é mais fácil ouvir músicas.

A primeira que me veio a mente foi "Diamonds and Rust" de Joan Baez, que conheci com a maravilhosa versão do Judas Priest, no album "Unleashed in the East".

I'll be damned, here comes your ghost again
But that's not unusual
It's just that the moon is full
And you decided to call

E depois lembrei de "Moonlight Shadow", de Mike Oldfield, do album "Crisis". Cantada pela escocesa Maggie Reilly. Narra a triste história da menina que vê seu amado morrer.

He was caught in the middle of a desperate fight

The trees that whisper in the evening
Sing a song of sorrow and grieving

All she saw was a silhouette of a gun
Far away on the other side.
He was shot six times by a man on the run
And she couldn't find how to push through

A música exprime bem toda a angústia dela:


I pray
I see you in heaven far away

Will you come to talk to me this night?

Não exatamente sobre fantasmas, mas sobre morte e passagem, o Marillion mostra uma poesia e sensibilidade reconfortantes com "Estonia" do album "This Strange Machine".

No one leaves you
When you live in their heart and mind
And no one dies
They just move to the other side
When we're gone
Watch the world simply carry on
We live on laughing and in no pain
We'll stay and be happy
With those who have loved us today


E garante que tudo passa com o tempo:

And we won't understand your grief
Because time is illusion
As this watery world spins around
This timeless sun
Will dry your eyes
And calm your mind

Temos também o Iron Maiden, com sua história de terror em "Still Life" do excelente album "Piece of Mind".

Take a look in the pool and what do you see
In the dark depths, their faces beckoning me
Can't you see them ?
it's plain for all to see
They were there, oh I know you don't believe me.
(...)
Hours I spend out just gazing into that pool
Something draws me there, I don't know what to do.


Até seu trágico desfecho:

Now I feel they are so near
I begin to see them clear...
(...)
Can't you see ?
Not just me they want you too.


E que tal "Hotel California", o grande sucesso do Eagles?

Eu já li diversas interpretações e explicações para a letra da música, mas para mim, trata-se de um hotel fantasma, que aparece para visitantes desavisados.


On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw shimmering light
(...)
There she stood in the doorway
she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor
(...)
And still those voices are calling from far away...


E aparentemente, fazem nova vítima:

Last thing I remember,
I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
'Relax,' said the night man,
'We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave.


E como falar de músicas sobre fantasmas sem citar o mestre do Metal Terror, King Diamond? Algum produtor deveria levar as histórias de seus albums para o cinema.

Temos o album "Abigail", que conta uma história de possessão:


The bedroom was ice cold
But the fire was burning still
The blinding light
The Family Ghost had risen again...

The Ghost:
"Don't be scared, Don't be scared now My Friend
I am Count de LaFey
Let me take You to the crypt down below
Where Abigail rests"

E em quem, ou no que, acreditar?

"The spirit of Abigail is inside Your Wife
and there's only one way You can stop
the rebirth of evil itself
You must take her life now"


E no album "Them", temos diversos fantasmas se divertindo:

Late that night I awoke from my sleep
Hearing unknown voices laughing insane
Grandma' was one,
Oh it's coming from the room next to mine

As I stood there alone in the dark
Peeking through the keyhole, couldn't
believe My eyes
I'd never seen anything like it,
only Grandma' was inside the room

Speaking to no one...
the invisible guests
Cups were rising in thin air and
then emptied on the floor


E o pobre coitado é parte da diversão:


Suddenly the door was open and
Grandma' said
"Do come in My little friend"


O Metallica também entra nesta lista, com a perseguição estilo Freddy Krugger em "All Nightmare Long", do fantástico album "Death Magnetic".


Still-life incarnation
Still-life infamy
Hallucination, heresy
Still you run, what's to come?
What's to be?

Cause we hunt you down without mercy
Hunt you down All Nightmare long
Feel us breathe upon your face
Feel us shift, every move we trace

Definitivamente, não há como escapar do próprio medo.


The light that is not light is here
To crush you out with your own fear
You hide, you hide, but will be found
Release your grip without a sound


E para terminar, "Photos of Ghosts", do album em Inglês da banda italiana de progressivo, Premiata Forneria Marconi.

Beside a dried up fountain
Lie five dusty tomes
With faded pasted pictures
Of love's reverie.
Across each cover is written,
"Herein are Photos of Ghosts"
Of the days we ran and the days we sang.