Hello! As you may have guessed from the name of this blog, my name is Liz and I am fascinated by song lyrics. I hope you enjoy my waxing lyrical about lyrics and about music generally. I also review albums and gigs and have interviewed several wonderful musicians. Enjoy!
There has been a fairly big development in my life, in that I have moved to a new University hall of residence.
There were various reasons behind the move which I won't go into. What I will say is that I settled into my new hall really quickly - even on the first day I felt that I was home. This song kept playing in my head:
That was last Wednesday - eight days ago. It feels like so much longer. I feel as though I've been living here for a long, long time. I already know a large number of the hall's residents, and I have made some wonderful friends. It's safe to say that I'm very happy here.
Long live my new home, and may many happy times be ahead of me here.
I'm just letting you know that I've had an article about the Eurovision Song Contest published in The Mancunion, the University of Manchester's student newspaper. Check it out if you love Eurovision - or if you hate Eurovision. Hopefully in the latter case I can change your mind.
Just to let you know, I've set up a Facebook page for myself as a writer. Feel free to "Like" it or, if you don't have Facebook, to check it from time to time, to keep up to date with all my writing - be it blogging, poetry, journalism or novel-writing.
Last night I stumbled upon Flying Without Wings by Westlife.
From what I had heard of this in the past I used to find it cheesy in the extreme, but listening to it properly I... I really like it. The lyrics aren't mindblowing but are very pretty...
"Some find it sharing every morning,
Some in the solitary night..."
I especially love the last verse:
"For me, it's waking up beside you,
To watch the sunrise on your face..."
Cheesy and not very original, I know, but I really do like it and would love to sing this song at karaoke one day... Maybe I will if I can get someone else to sing it with me as I think it would work wonderfully as a duet.
And what's my special thing that helps me fly without wings? I don't know if I can pinpoint one thing. Maybe simply the beauty of this earth. My family, friends, my cat, the stars, the sea, sunset skies, the cool breeze in the evening, that smell when it's about to rain...
Since I last posted on here, in January, spring seems to have come to Manchester! There is blossom on the ground, the birds are singing... And I just can't help feeling happy.
A few other things have happened since I last posted: I have turned 20, I have had several important University exams, and I have made big steps in trying to become a published novelist. Re. the novel, watch this space: I really hope to have good new for you one day!
2014 is going scarily fast - I really hope it slows down a bit so I can enjoy it while it's here, and make it a year to remember.
♥
What music have I been listening to? Well, I've been listening to On ira, a French song by Jean-Jacques Goldman.
I first discovered most of Mr Goldman's music when I was at sixth-form college, and listening to his songs always brings me back there. Sitting in the infamous "Islands" computer area, with my earphones in, waiting for my bus and supposedly doing some work while actually just listening to the song. Happy days.
If you speak French and are interested, I wrote a piece in French about Jean-Jacques - click on the link to read it, or click his name above the video to read another piece I did about him in English. (Yes, I'm a huge fan!)
♥
There's also All Out of Love by Air Supply.
I heard this for the first time in a long time on the radio last year, and assumed it was a woman singing the choruses - I was in for a surprise!
The radio DJ described this as "one of the best love songs ever written," making it sound, as DJ's have a tendency to, like this sentiment were universal. When it played, I thought, it isn't that amazing.
However, I did like it and I started listening to it on YouTube, and one day I heard the beautiful simplicity and sadness of the opening bars and realised it is an incredible song. One of the best love songs ever written? Quite possibly. I'm really glad I heard it on the radio that day.
♥
After I listened to All Out of Love on YouTube just now, Right Here Waiting came up in the suggested videos, and I decided to share it here as it fits my developing theme of simple but beautiful love songs.
This was one of the first songs I ever knew. It was on a compilation album called "Bitter Suites" that my parents used to listen to when I was very young. It was probably the first song on the album that I learned to recognise and to like.
The words meant little to me and I couldn't understand his accent a lot of the time, so the song was less a story, something with meaning, than a beautiful series of sounds and - in my head - colours and patterns.
Soon I knew most of the songs on the album, and I think I might do a blog post about it (so again, watch this space!) but Right Here Waiting was always, and will always be, special to me.
♥
Another song that follows in a similar vein is In Too Deep by Genesis.
For a while, In Too Deep was nice but not mindblowing. Then something changed. I realised it was playing in my head at random times. I dreamed of singing it at karaoke. While it will never replace Follow You, Follow Me in my affections, it has become another song whose simplicity, for me, makes it a classic.
♥
I'll end this list of simple but effective love songs with one of my favourite such songs: I Want You, by The Silencers.
My parents used to play this at home, and I quite liked it. Then when I was at sixth-form I played it to myself and I realised I really liked it. It has become one of my favourite songs. So simple, so beautiful. It's near the top of my list of "songs I will learn to play first if I ever master the guitar." It would be just wonderful to be able to play it and sing it with joy and pride and so much love.
♥
I've just realised that I have managed to collate a song each from France, Australia, the US, England and Scotland. This wasn't intentional and just shows that all over the world people are writing simple, beautiful love songs - it is a genre that spans continents and cultures and that we all can enjoy and respond to.
Well, night's coming in and it's nice and cool, and people are milling about outside, probably unable to believe their luck that spring seems to have come overnight. I certainly appreciate this change in the weather - good weather really can lift your mood. Time for spring, for blossom, for lighter nights and birdsong and feeling great ♥
