Art is the music we make from the bewildered cry of being alive. ~Maria Popova
15 Feb 2013 Leave a comment
in Best of the Blog, On a Lighter Note Tags: bill & ted, fred durst
15 Feb 2013 Leave a comment
in On a Lighter Note Tags: josh groban, kanye west
15 Feb 2013 1 Comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: fyfe dangerfield, when you walk in the room
Fyfe Dangerfield: “When You Walk in the Room” (2009)
To quote a phrase I’ve uttered many times: God save us from people who like one kind of music.
It’s my firm and long-held belief that, since music is effectively the sound of our feelings, we ought to collect, and learn to appreciate, music as diverse as those feelings within us–to serve and accompany our many emotions and moods.
By that statement I don’t mean that we must become fans of jazz if we hate jazz, or learn to love the blues if we have an aversion to it. But we each ought to have somewhere to turn for contemplative music, joyful music, defiant and angry music, sad music, etc.–in whatever forms, styles or genres suit us.
Of course, being a product of particular and distinct influences like anyone else, I have my go-to music. Like comfort food for my ears, it’s the stuff I return to either to zone out and de-stress, or to re-center myself as a fan of music and remind myself what it means to me–or for many other reasons. Other music is more like a place I visit than the one I call home. It possesses a novelty, not in its style or sound so much as in the state of mind it induces or transmits.
Perhaps it’s because by personality I seem to like clearly-defined order and function, but my musical home base tends to be the well-constructed, the artfully-arranged, the tastefully rendered and the sophisticated.
And when I feel like stepping away from myself–venturing from my center, as it were–my ears might lead me to the land of lark, abandon and carefree expression.
That’s why when I first heard this song it didn’t really resonate with me. I wasn’t in the correct frame of mind for it to do so. On another day I heard it again and liked it–a lot. Quite literally, I was feeling it.
Fyfe Dangerfield, for this three and one-half minute span anyway, just doesn’t care. This is an exuberant expression of joy that overrides considerations of, say, singing on key. Exclamation marks mean more here than lyrics. The shout means more than what note, or even what word is shouted.
For me, it’s all wrong.
But it’s alright.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/03/30/songs-you-may-have-missed-377/
14 Feb 2013 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: indian girl, the hollies
The Hollies: “Indian Girl” (1972)
While this song’s lyric wouldn’t pass the political correctness test today, its story of a young man and the Indian maiden he wishes to marry hits on a familiar pop music theme: young, determined love. The suitor in this case can’t afford the ten hides and twenty horses that tribal law has set as the price for marrying the girl he loves, so he’s asking her to run off with him instead.
“Indian Girl” was the non-LP B-side to the Hollies’ 1972 “Magic Woman Touch” single.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2016/03/23/songs-you-may-have-missed-578/
14 Feb 2013 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: queen bohemian rhapsody
A song that lends itself to so many styles, from the sublime to the ridiculous…
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/03/01/best-version-of-bohemian-rhapsody-ever-played-in-a-vw-7/
14 Feb 2013 Leave a comment
in General Posts, On a Lighter Note Tags: marvin gaye, nietzche
(Reprinted from Thought Catalog)
By Zach Schonfeld
“In the end one loves one’s desire and not what is desired.”
“Gonna get it together. Gonna love every day every night till I get it.”
“What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do…?”
“Boy, it’s the sweetness of your charms. Makes me love you more each day. In your arms I wanna stay.”
“I don’t know where you come from, baby. Don’t know where you’ve been, my baby. Heaven must have sent you, honey, into my arms.”
“It offends us beyond forgiving when we discover that where we were convinced we were loved we were in fact regarded only as a piece of household furniture and room decoration for the master of the house to exercise his vanity upon before his guests.”
“I’ll be lovin’ you, I can’t help myself. I’ll be lovin’ you and nobody else.”
“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”
“If we live together with another person too closely, what happens is similar to when we repeatedly handle a good engraving with our bare hands: one day all we have left is a piece of dirty paper.”
“When I get that feeling, I want sexual healing. Sexual healing, oh baby.”
“Sensuality often hastens the growth of love so much that the roots remain weak and are easily torn up.”
“Where’d you get such sweet sugar? I’ll be lovin’ you day and night. In and out, wrong or right. Cause I want you, baby, for my wife. Oh girl, you’re so divine.”
“When you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you.”
Every Moment Has A Song 