https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y21UrdTi2kI
* Ithaka "Escape From The City of Angels) featuring Marta Dias * Recorded at Namouche Studios - Lisbon, Portugal 1995 * Produced by: Joe Fossard -* Pre-production and samples by: Grizly * Bass: Francisco Rebelo * Trumpet: Nuno Reis -* Tenor Sax: Paulo Muiños * Lyrics: ©1995 Ithaka Darin Pappas (Ravenshark Music/ASCAP/North Music Group)
People they ask me, Why the hell you wanna leave?
Saying that they’ll miss me, that they’re gonna grieve
This town is number one, we got the Lakers and the sun
There’s always lots of lovelies, always lots of fun
Why won’t you settle down and stay?
Who in their right mind would ever leave LA?
But I gotta tell you, got to put it straight
Still’ve busted out of there busted down the gate
Cuz, I had to get out while there was going to get
LA was the hunter, California was the net
So I got up, got off of my bucket
Sometimes you gotta say, Well what the hell.? fck it!
Wasn’t around for the riots of the King
But every other night bullets left my ears to ring
Hostility, the song that L.A. played
Every single night and every single day
Walking down the alley, the one behind my house
Came five slang-bangers, it was me they were to roust
They asked me, Where ya going?, said, Not really sure
The next thirty-seconds I remembered in a blur
3x WANT TO GET OUT. HAD TO GET OUT. GOT OUT
ESCAPE FROM THE CITY OF ANGELS
I tried so hard for years to understand
Why do you find such pleasure in killing another man?
I prefer the simple highs in life
Like a mountain of water, not cuttin’ with a knife
But where I’ve disappeared ain’t confidential
The sky’s still blue, the swells are monumental
And no, I’m not ignoring my heritage
Over the gap, I’m a building a bridge
To learn once and for all that peace can exist
Forgive, forget, bring down the fists
3x-WANT TO GET OUT. HAD TO GET OUT. GOT OUT
ESCAPE FROM THE CITY OF ANGELS
Five days later, what have I got?
I’m in another place which is sunny and hot
The difference here is that I’m free as a bird
No gun to my head, no blood on the curb
But just then a strange thought overtook my brain
And since that day, it never felt the same
If everybody just put down their arms
To nobody on the planet could ever come harm
3x-WANT TO GET OUT. HAD TO GET OUT. GOT OUT
ESCAPE FROM THE CITY OF ANGELS
The people of this planet they want explanations
For riots, earthquakes and all “God’s creations”
You got me, I just couldn’t say
I do what I do, I take it day by day
3x-WANT TO GET OUT. HAD TO GET OUT. GOT OUT
ESCAPE FROM THE CITY OF ANGELS
Well six weeks later, still don’t know what’s up
Don’t got many friends, still got an empty cup
They speak in tongues I don’t understand
But I look just like ‘em, visually I blend
It’s time to start it up in my new land
Korvorowng’s one and only survival plan
3x-WANT TO GET OUT. HAD TO GET OUT. GOT OUT
ESCAPE FROM THE CITY OF ANGELS
It took me two years, but now I know for sure
LA ain’t the enemy and goodness will endure
The Seed of Free, my real need
Was right there all the time inside of me
Just a voyage of my mind is what I needed
But now I’m on the other side and deep seeded
LA to LAX in fourteen hours flat
At home on two shores, but I ain’t living fat
Still plagued by brokenness
It doesn’t disappear when I say, hocus pocus
But grounded for the moment in the city of Lisbon
I’m looking for peace and I’m looking for wisdom
Hooked up with a mastermind named, Grizzly
Formed Ithaka, now we’re rolling busily
3x-WANT TO GET OUT. HAD TO GET OUT. GOT OUT
ESCAPE FROM THE CITY OF ANGELS
3x-WANT TO GET OUT. HAD TO GET OUT. GOT OUT
ESCAPE FROM THE CITY OF ANGELS
5x- ESCAPE FROM THE CITY OF ANGELS
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Escape From The City Of Angels
was recorded at Namouche Studios
located in Lisbon, Portugal in 1995
and originally appeared on
Ithaka's debut album
Flowers And The Color Of Paint.
The album was nominated for
three Blitz Awards (the Portuguese
equivalent of the Grammy) in the
categories of: Best Album,
Best New Project and Best Male Vocalist.
And in an end-of-decade retrospective
of national music, the prestigious
newspaper Publico considered
Flowers And The Color Of Paint
to be one of the ten most influential
'Portuguese' albums of the 1990's.
In 1997,
acclaimed Hollywood director
Antoine Fuqua
used the song in the soundtrack
for his feature film
The Replacment Killers
[released by Columbia Pictures]
starring;
Mira Sorvino (academy award winner)
Chow Yun-fat (academy award nominee)
and several other known actors such as
Clifton Collins Jr. and Michael Rooker.
All licensing inquiries for
"Escape From The City Of Angels" by Ithaka
should be directed to North Music Group [USA]
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10442478/
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https://planetithaka.blogspot.com
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https://www.discogs.com/artist/468212...
#losangeles
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Song meaning of "Escape From The City Of Angels" by Ithaka (Ithaka Darin Pappas)
The song Escape From The City Of Angels is a 1990's underground hip hop story-song about breaking away from the existence an individual is born into, both physically and mentally.
The protagonist of the track Korvorão (aka Ithaka) is feeling stifled by the gang violence in his native city of Los Angeles and is dreaming of leaving for a more idealistic place. Friends are confused why he would want to leave a city full of sunshine and pretty girls and is home to the Laker basketball team; People they ask me, Why the hell you wanna leave? Saying that they’ll miss me, that they’re gonna grieve. This town is Number One, we got the Lakers and the sun. There’s always lots of lovelies, always lots of fun. Why won’t you settle down and stay? Who in their right mind would ever leave LA?
As exemplified in these lines, our protagonist was mugged near his home;
Walking down the alley, the one behind my house. Came five slang-bangers, it was me they were to roust. They asked me, Where ya going?, said, Not really sure. The next thirty-seconds I remembered in a blur.
This only solidifies his resolve to leave his home and he decides to move to the European city of Lisbon, Portugal, with very little financial means, hoping to find a more peaceful and cleaner place. His departure is soon followed by the Rodney King riots leaving LA in turmoil;
Wasn’t around for the riots of the King. But every other night bullets left my ears to ring.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, he finds Lisbon to be, another place which is sunny and hot, but with blue skies and better surfing waves; the sky's still blue, the swells are monumental. He instantly experiences a renewed sense of freedom in a place with significantly less violent crime, leaving him to contemplate why crime even exists at all; if everybody just put down their arms, to nobody on the planet could ever come harm.
After a two year period living oversees, Ithaka, has a change of heart about Los Angeles, discovering that it was his perception of his own reality and his home city that let to the feelings of oppression. This is evident in the lines;
It took me two years but now I know for sure, L.A. ain't the enemy and goodness will endure. The Seed of Free, my real need, was right there all the time inside of me. Just a voyage of my mind is what I needed, but now I’m on the other side and deep seeded.
In a sense he has made peace with Los Angeles, and now considers both cities his hometowns as reflected in the lines;
LA to LX in fourteen hours flat, At home on two shores, but I ain’t living fat*. And the lines; Grounded for the moment in the city of Lisbon. I’m looking for peace and I’m looking for wisdom.
NThe word Fat in the line, At home on two shores, but I ain’t living fat. Is a reference to financial instability.
