Radka Toneff - The Moon's a Harsh Mistress 嚴厲的月光夫人

Radka Toneff - The Moon's a Hard Mistress
Ellen Radka Toneff (25 June 1952 21 October 1982) was a Norwegian jazz singer. She died in 1982, officially by committing suicide. She is still considered one of Norway's most outstanding jazz singers.

A daughter of the Bulgarian folk singer Toni Toneff, she was born in Oslo and grew up in Lambertseter and Kolbotn.

She studied at Oslo Musikkonservatorium from 1971 to 1975. From 1975 to 1980, Arild Andersen, Jon Balke and Jon Eberson. among others, were members of the Radka Toneff Quintet. From 1979 she cooperated with Steve Dobrogosz.. In 1980 she participated in the Norwegian finale of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Parken by Ole Paus.

She received the Spellemannsprisen 1977 in the category best vocal for the record Winter Poem, and she posthumously received Norwegian Jazz Association's Buddy Prize in 1982. The Radka Toneff Memorial Award is based on a fund created with royalties from the albums Fairytales and Live in Hamburg.

Radka Toneff lived together with Arild Andersen for a long time. However, she was having a relationship with jazz drummer Audun Kleive at the time of her death.

Her father was Bulgarian folk singer Toni Toneff; her mother played piano; Radka began piano lessons at age six and studied at Oslo Music Conservatory '71--5, planning to become a piano teacher. She began singing when a pop group was looking for a vocalist, and switched to jazz when she met Erik and Jon Balke and started practising with them. She had no formal training as a singer. Lyrics were very important to her; she set the poems of Nikki Giovanni, Robert Creeley and Sylvia Plath. She led her own quintet '75--80, then met pianist Steve Dobrogosz in Stockholm '79 and mainly worked with him; bassist Arild Andersen was a close musical partner. Albums: Winter Poem '77 on Verve (incl. 'The Ballad Of The Sad Young Men'); It Don't Come Easy '79 on Verve; FairyTales '82 on Odin (duet with Dobrogosz). FairyTales was off-putting for jazz purists because of its title and 'new-agey' cover art, but was her best album, with a version of 'The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress' soon issued on an Odin CD sampler: people who heard it began scrambling for Toneff's albums, but she was already gone. Her sudden death was described by newspapers as a suicide, but friends said that although she brought it on herself, it was an accident. Live In Hamburg '81 was released '92 on Odin and posthumously won her the Norwegian Buddy prize '93, incl. 'Lonely Woman', 'Just Like A Woman', 'Havana Candy', 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most', 'Lost In The Stars', 'My Funny Valentine' etc. Norwegian pianist Per Husby and Chan Parker (Charlie Parker's wife) co- wrote 'A Song You'll Never Sing' in Toneff's memory, incl. on his album Dedications '85 on Hotclub, sung by Karin Krog.

See her how she flies
Golden sails across the sky
Close enough to touch
But careful if you try
Though she looks as warm as gold
The moon's a harsh mistress
The moon can be so cold

Once the sun did shine
Lord, it felt so fine
The moon a phantom rose
Through the mountains and the pines
And then the darkness fell
And the moon's a harsh mistress
It's so hard to love her well

I fell out of his eyes
I fell out of his heart
I fell down on my face
Yes, I did, and I -- I tripped and I missed my star
God, I fell and I fell alone, I fell alone
And the moon's a harsh mistress
And the sky is made of stone

The moon's a harsh mistress
She's hard to call your own.

See her how she flies
看看她如何翱翔
Golden sails across the sky
橫越蒼穹的金色風帆
Close enough to touch
近得彷彿觸手可及
But careful if you try
但若想嘗試，你要小心
Though she looks as warm as gold
僅管她看來如此溫暖金黃
The moon's a harsh mistress
寒月仍有如厲婦
The moon can be so cold
月球得以如此冰冷


Once the sun did shine
待太陽照耀之時
And lord it felt so fine
老天，那感覺真美好
The moon a phantom rose
月亮宛如幽魂玫瑰
Through the mountains and the pine
穿過山脈與松木
And then the darkness fell
而到了夜幕低垂
The moon's a harsh mistress
寒月仍有如厲婦
It's hard to love her well
沒人能好好深愛著她




I fell out of her eyes
我自她的雙眼掉落
I fell out of her heart
我自她的心跌出
I fell down on my face, yes I did
我摔得鼻青臉腫，我確實如此
And I tripped and I missed my star
而我絆倒錯失了自己的星辰
And I fell and fell alone
倒下且感覺好孤寂
The moon's a harsh mistress
寒月仍有如厲婦
The sky is made of stone
天空冷硬得像石頭




The moon's a harsh mistress
寒月仍有如厲婦
She's hard to call your own
沒有人能將她據為己有

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Radka
• Toneff
• The
• Moon's
• Harsh
• Mistress
• Norway
• Norwegian
• jazz
• Granako

[GerardusYT]

Oh,..... that purity in her voice ..... I am glad that it still exists in this world full of impurities

[harshmistress]

Totally agree. She's just straight on.

[kkk8815]

天賴美聲 慟悼一位凋零的世界巨星

[MrHaggis64]

Beautful song and the info supplied makes the song more poignant and touching

[shum65]

Beautiful, a truly moving vocal and song.... :D

[vonKlaust]

Radka Tonedeaf. Lol.

[jimdivax]

I'm cursed with perfect pitch and it can destroy my enjoyment of singers if they're 'out' too often. Unfortunately this lady's flat too many times in this version.

[brucerelling]

beautiful voice and song

[noname98765432100]

sad and beautiful

[MissPandora1967]

beautiful song,mant thanks for not putting written lyrics on the vid,I find it annoying..lol..reminds me of those brainless women channels with Dali Lama quotes..every single one has vids with lyrics...lol...beautiful song....to die by suicide by 30 is a cruel waste of talent...peace+bless her..

[MarkLarrimore]

Beautiful. I hope she has found peace at last