This week, we seek songs about God or the afterlife. Personally, I don’t believe in either of those things but, as Martin Luther reportedly said (although he probably didn’t): “why should the devil have al the best tunes?” The short-lived supergroup Blind Faith released their only – eponymous – album in 1969, when I was…
This week, Jim is looking for a song based on true events. My tertiary education alma mater is the University of Kent at Canterbury, where I studied (among other things) from 1970 to 1973. During my first year, a fellow student was an American who was doing a one-year masters course in Philosophy. I remember…
This week, Jim has set us the task of posting about a song written by a duo. Hmm. A few famous duos quickly came to mind: Lennon & McCartney; Jagger & Richard perhaps most (too?) obviously. Then I thought of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, who – in my humble opinion – deserve to have…
“To have a girl like her is truly a dream come true” This week’s theme is to find a song by a group that wore uniforms or dressed alike. Off the top of my head, I could think only of Kiss, with whose work I’m not at all familiar, and Kraftwerk – not exactly renowned…
As one who is blessed with all the graceful co-ordination of an inebriated elephant with its legs tied together, as a matter of public service I don’t dance. You’re welcome. Accordingly, I was particularly attracted to this little number as a response to Jim’s theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week, because although it’s about…
A little bit of personal history here. In the second half of the eighties, I spent a considerable proportion of my life on aeroplanes. Why so? Because, as I used to sum it up, I lived in Scotland and worked in London for an American investment bank as an analyst, covering companies (more specifically, banks)…
Song Lyric Sunday this week is about mental health. I resisted the temptation just to throw in something containing the word ‘crazy’ (‘Still Crazy After All These Years’; ‘Mama Weer All Crazee Now’) and I’ve already deployed what, to my mind, is one of the finest evocations of madness ever written – ‘Brain Damage/Eclipse’ by…
The theme for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday is to post something from a Scandinavian artiste(s). I can’t be the only one who’s first thought was Abba – nor, I suspect, the only one who thought ‘Nah: try harder”. So who else is there? Bjork from Iceland, of course; that heavy rock group from Finland…
“Put on your red shoes” This week’s Song Lyric Sunday challenge needs a song that mentions an item of clothing. My first thought was David Bowie’s ‘Queen Bitch’ (what exactly is a bippetty-boppetty hat?), but I’ve already deployed it. Still, Bowie surely knew more about fashion items than most modern music icons, so it didn’t…
Or, put another – literal – way: ‘Best Wishes’. In France, you’re more likely to hear this than ‘Happy New Year’, although in the subsequent ritual verbal exchanges it’s probably going to be escalated to ‘bonne année‘ (good year) and the final dénouement: ‘et surtout, bonne santé‘ – ‘and, above all, good health’. At this…
