What does this track make me want to write about? Shall I write about my attempt - not yet formally abandoned - to learn to play the Ukulele? Shall I write about our trip through the Pacific? Or shall I write about inheritance - cultural and genetic?
I can't say I can pronounce this singer's last name, and it's possible you've never heard of him. But you have heard him. What happens is that every year or two a sound researcher finds they need some simple happy/sad music, and discovers Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's cover of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" mixed with "What a wonderful world". It's gorgeous, and it's one of those covers that makes you realise immediately how well two apparently very different songs interlace.
This is the opening track from the same album, and if anything I think it is more moving than the cover that gets the airplay. In it you hear Kamakawiwo'ole talking about his two inheritances; the cultural - reflecting on how his ancestors would view the current development in Hawaii, and also the genetic and environmental - that obesity and depression had killed other members of his family. He talks about avoiding going down the same path - but just a few years later he died himself.
I know I'm riddled with biases, but I find it hard to reconcile such a light, sweet voice coming from such a troubled and burdened man.
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