Born Peter Nitollano, of African-American/Filipino parents, Joe Bataan grew up in Spanish Harlem, where he ran with Puerto Rican gangs and absorbed R&B, Afro-Cuban and Afro-Rican musical influences. His music career followed a pair of stints in Coxsackie State Prison. Self taught on the piano, he organized his first band in 1965 and scored his first recording success in 1967 with "Gypsy Woman" on Fania Records, . The tune was a hit with the New York Latin market despite the English lyrics sung by Joe, and exemplified the nascent Latin Soul sound. In early anticipation of the disco formula, "Gypsy Woman" created dance energy by alternating what was fundamentally a pop-soul tune with a break featuring double timed hand claps, . Joe would take this tendency even further on his influential Salsoul, which fused funk and latin influences in slick yet soulful orchestrations. Salsoul remains influential as a rare groove cult item, but pointed to the future at the time of its release. The LP embodied the artist's highly deliberate and culturally aware musical concept. Bataan theorized the '70s next big thing as a hybrid: an Afro Cuban rhythm section playing Brazilian influenced patterns over orchestral funk. In many ways, his vision was on the money, though most of the money would go to others, and mainstream stardom would elude him. He did, however, get in on the ground floor of the new trend as an early hit maker. His biggest commercial move was a Salsoul production released under the Epic umbrella, and promoted to the new disco market as Afrofilipino, which included 1975's "The Bottle", a much anthologized classic that drives an R&B horn arrangment with a relentless piano montuno.
Always in touch with the street, Joe Bataan picked up on rap very early in the game. His minor rap hit, "Rap-O, Clap-O" was a bit more successful in Europe than in the States, and is remembered as rap's debut in the European market. Nevertheless, his legacy remains his gritty and realistic Latin soul lyrics, his self identification as an "Ordinary Guy", and his highly personal and prophetic merger of Latin and soul influences.
My Cloud
Joe Bataan Lyrics
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I know you put the cloud there for all of us to see
That I have a home among stars to cure all my ills and
All of my scars... but I'm tired of living on a cloud alone.
I need a girl to help through my happy home.
I'm going to search and search this whole wide Milky Way
And I'm sure I'll find a girl someday.
To ride high on my cloud in the sky to live together
Until the day that we die but until that day I'll remain
Here on earth looking and searching for a girl that is worth.
To share my home and all that I own.
To love and guide me so I won't be alone.
The girl that I marry will live in my cloud and I'll do
My best my very best to make her proud.
Ohhh
That she married and carried for me,
Babies by the dozen maybe 1, 2, or 3 and on my wedding
Day I'll give to my wife, neck less full of stars for the rest of her life.
Thank you lord for answering my prayer for sending me
Down someone to share my love, my cloud who made me so
Proud. Thank you lord, thank you lord for answering my prayers.
Joe Bataan's "My Cloud" is a song of thanksgiving and hopefulness. The song begins with the singer expressing gratitude to the Lord for the cloud that was made for him, which represents his home among the stars. The singer is well aware that the cloud is visible to everyone and acknowledges that it holds an essential purpose in curing his ills and scars. However, there is a sense of loneliness expressed in the song. The singer desires a companion and intends to search through the Milky Way to find a girl he can bring to his cloud.
The singer's search for love highlights the theme of hope that runs throughout the song. He firmly believes that he will find a girl someday and share his space with her. The song's refrain, "Thank you Lord for answering my prayer," reinforces this theme and establishes the singer's faith that his prayers will be answered. He trusts that eventually, he will find a girl worth sharing his home and everything he owns.
Overall, "My Cloud" is a song of optimism, faith, hope, and love. It speaks of the importance of having a place to call one's own, and the significance of sharing that space with someone who brings joy, companionship and love into our lives.
Line by Line Meaning
Thank you lord for the cloud you made for me
Acknowledging the Lord for providing him with a blessing, which is his own cloud where he can find solace.
I know you put the cloud there for all of us to see
Grateful for the fact that the cloud is a sign from God that is visible for everyone to witness.
That I have a home among stars to cure all my ills and all of my scars... but I'm tired of living on a cloud alone.
With his own cloud in the sky, he feels protected and safe among the stars, but he desires a companion to share it with.
I need a girl to help through my happy home.
He needs a girl who can help him create a happy and loving environment in his cloud.
I'm going to search and search this whole wide Milky Way and I'm sure I'll find a girl someday.
He is determined to find the right girl to share his cloud with and would search even the farthest reaches of space to find her.
To ride high on my cloud in the sky to live together until the day that we die but until that day I'll remain here on earth looking and searching for a girl that is worth.
He yearns for a partner to spend his life with up in his cloud, but he will patiently search for someone deserving of his love until that day arrives.
To share my home and all that I own. To love and guide me so I won't be alone.
The girl that he will find will share in his life and become his companion, guide, and support for as long as they both live.
The girl that I marry will live in my cloud and I'll do my best my very best to make her proud.
The girl that he will marry will also live up in his cloud, and he vows to do everything in his power to make her feel happy and fulfilled.
That she married and carried for me, babies by the dozen maybe 1, 2, or 3 and on my wedding day I'll give to my wife, necklace full of stars for the rest of her life.
If he and his partner are blessed with children, he will feel all the more grateful and will give her a necklace studded with stars as a symbol of his eternal love and gratitude.
Thank you lord for answering my prayer for sending me down someone to share my love, my cloud who made me so proud. Thank you lord, thank you lord for answering my prayers.
Grateful to the Lord for sending him the right girl who will share his cloud and his life with him, making him feel content and proud of everything that he has.
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Written by: JOE BATAAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind