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!
I hope you are all well. I have finished all of my university exams so now I can relax for the summer - although I am still busy with writing and poetry. One of my poems - a poem about music, actually - is going to be published in an online magazine soon! So I am very happy about that.
I was recently listening to Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler and remembering how much I love the film Beaches - I really must watch it again soon.
I also never knew the girl who played Bette Midler's character at eleven in the film is now Sheldon's girlfriend (or sort-of girlfriend or whatever; I don't watch it so don't know the ins and outs of it) in the Big Bang Theory.
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Recently I heard this song in the car, on the radio, and remembered how much I like it: I'll Stand by You by the Pretenders.
When I was younger I heard the Girls Aloud version a lot and discovered far too late that there was a brilliant 90s song behind the awful over-the-topness GA made it into. When I found the original I was amazed by Chrissie Hynde's sumptuous vocals. This is one song I would love to be able to sing really well.
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You know when you keep hearing a song and you don't know what it is, and you'd love to hear it again? Well, once on a car journey I heard a song on the radio that I accepted was clichéd but which I really liked, and all I could remember was a lyric about open arms.
I then heard it again very recently in a café and listened as hard as I could to try to hold onto something I could look up and hopefully find the song. This time I caught enough lyrics to find it, and it turned out to be... drumroll... Where Do Broken Hearts Go by Whitney Houston.
I was surprised, I had expected it to be from before her time. I am also not generally a big Houston fan; however I do really like this song.
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I have been watching bits and pieces of The Voice UK and my favourites out of the four finalists have to be Matt and Mike, with Mike being my winner (though I don't think he will actually win, sadly. Ah well, I can hope).
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I've been learning Cantonese for a month or so (I already speak some Mandarin) and I wanted to share this song by Faye Wong: versions exist in both Mandarin and Cantonese. Here is the Cantonese one.
I would recommend learning a Chinese dialect to anybody: there is so much fascinating culture attached to the language and idioms.
In addition, I imagine learning a language made of characters instead of letters (assuming your first language is one that has letters) probably improves lateral thinking too. I feel that it's had that affect on me, anyway.
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I think that's it for now; thanks again to all my wonderful Uni friends for a great first year; thanks as well to all my non-Uni friends for some amazing times together.
Just after starting Uni I shared this song and described how it captured my feelings about the new friendships I was making; it still does now.
Thanks for reading,
Liz x
Songs:
Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler - 1989
I'll Stand By You - The Pretenders - 1994
Where Do Broken Hearts Go - Whitney Houston - 1988
Don't Close Your Eyes - Mike Ward - 2013
No Regrets - Faye Wong - 1993
We Are One - Cam Clarke and Charity Sanoy - 1998
As you may know, Eurovision 2013 is almost upon us: the semi finals are on 14th and 16th May and the final is on the 18th.
I am a huge Eurovision fan - it occurred to me recently that Eurovision is probably my favourite yearly event. I love the way it unites so many people and the fact that for a few hours people all over the world are watching the same thing. It's amazing; a real feeling of the numinous, which is perfectly summed up in this clip:
Last year I did a Eurovision countdown, posting about Eurovision past and present in the run-up to the competition in Baku.
Here are my initial thoughts on this year's contest:
The host county/city: Sweden is a country I have wanted for a long time to visit, and I don't know a lot about the city of Malmö, so this year's Eurovision is a good opportunity to see and learn more about both.
The Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo in 2010 was probably my favourite that I've seen so I'm hoping that having it in another Scandinavian country might bring about similar success.
The venue: Malmö Arena seems to be smaller than some recent Eurovision venues, which I think is meant to give the show a more intimate feel - although to be honest I don't personally mind the bigger venues and if you're watching on TV it doesn't make much difference anyway.
The host: There is only going to be one main host this year, Petra Mede. This is a bold step after there being two or three hosts the last few years, but having looked her up I see she seems very feisty and has a lot of presence so hopefully she can pull it off.
Eric Saade will be the green room host; this Swedish pop star represented his country at Eurovision 2011 in Düsseldorf with the song "Popular" of which I am not a fan. However, I won't judge his hosting abilities until I see them.
I am convinced, however, that he cannot better Krisse in Helsinki in 2007: there was an amazing green room host.
Participating countries: Most of Europe seems to be taking part in this year's competition; notable exceptions being Portugal, Poland, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey (among others).
I am particularly sad about the absence of Portugal as I love Portuguese-language music. Bosnia and Herzegovina also produced one of my all-time favourite Eurovision songs:
However, we still have plenty of countries taking part, and hopefully those who can't this year will be able to return in the future.
The UK entry: Being from the UK, I have heard a lot about our entry for this year; namely Bonnie Tyler with her song Believe in Me.
I like Bonnie Tyler's older songs such as Total Eclipse of the Heart, and although Believe in Me isn't quite up to that standard in my humble opinion, I do think it is a nice song.
I'm really looking forward to Eurovision 2013 and I hope you are too, let the competition begin!
I thought I would talk you through my Oldies, why I chose them and what they mean to me.
Firstly, First Time (very apt for the first song) by Robin Beck.
I first heard this song on one of the music channels on TV, and I really liked it - it is very much the archetypical 80s love song: big-haired, big-voiced singer; moody video; strong beat and a really catchy tune. I love the lyrics and find them a lot deeper and more sensitive than many 80s love songs; I particularly like:
"Like a break in the clouds, in the first ray of sun,
I can feel it inside; something new has begun."
And,
"It's an uncharted sea, it's an non-opened door,
But you gotta reach out, and you gotta explore."
I love this song; I had forgotten about it for a bit and then something recently reminded me of it and I fell in love with it a second time. Brilliant song. And I'm glad they put it on first out of the Oldies; whether it was an intentional pun or not, it amused me.
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Secondly, we have the Rah Band and Clouds Across the Moon.
I first heard this at the gym, on some mix-tape they had of old songs. I'd hear snippets and really liked the chorus, but with machines whirring it was hard to hear the rest of it properly, so I went home and looked it up.
I really liked the song when I heard it through; however this was on Spotify, so I remained blissfully unaware of the bizarre video until I finally thought of looking for it on YouTube.
Though I do think the end of the video is really touching; you can see her despair at having to wait a whole year to hear her loved one's voice again.
Some people may see this as some sort of novelty song - a woman calling her husband who is fighting a space war is certainly an interesting concept - but I think it stands on its own as a really good song, novelty or otherwise. Certainly, as Steve says, there "doesn't seem to be a hint of irony."
I like to think this song is a serious exploration of what a space war could mean for the people left on Earth. To be honest this song could be used as an exploration of war generally and its effect on civilians; before I heard this properly I did think it was about a woman talking to her soldier husband in a more conventional war.
I also found out that the singer is called Liz! ♥
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Next we have Maria Vidal with Body Rock.
I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard this - doesn't that tend to be the way with songs that are special to us? I first heard Body Rock while on the way to badminton practice one night; we were driving past the DW Stadium except it was probably the JJB at the time; I remember the song reminded me of Rhythm of the Night by DeBarge at the time, though now I can't hear that much of a similarity.
It was me and my Mam in the car and I think I remarked to her that I liked this song; it has since been played on many car journeys. It just makes me want to dance! Not easy in a car, I know, but when I listen to it at home I do confess that I usually end up dancing about to it.
This seems to have been Maria Vidal's only big hit; I think it's a shame as she had a lot of potential. She was pretty in a way that seems far more natural than some other female pop singers of the era and she had a really nice and quite unusual voice.
I think she wrote this song, though I don't know for definite; if so she is a talented songwriter. I'm surprised she didn't achieve greater success in the 80s, as this is another song that epitomises the 80s for me!
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The next of my Oldies is Crazy For You by Madonna.
I included this in my choices partly for my Mam, as it is one of her favourite songs, and also for myself as I love it too, and as I like a lot of Madonna's music I was keen that she be represented in my Oldies.
I love her voice so much in this song, and she looks so beautiful in the video. The production of this record is also gorgeous; from the beginning it it just a real pleasure on the ears.
In fact, the beginning of this song is one of my favourite song-beginnings, and it is pretty unmistakeable, especially in the video where it starts with an alarm clock ringing!
Whenever I see the video I ponder watching Vision Quest, the film featured, but never actually get around to it. If anybody has seen it and could let me know whether it is any good, that would be much appreciated.
Regardless of the merits of the film, Crazy For you is a really beautiful song and one of my favourite Madonna songs, as well as one of my favourite love songs of the 80s.
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My next Oldie is Ella Elle L'a (Ella, she has it) by the French chanteuse France Gall.
As you may have guessed from the fact that she features in the video, this song is a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. It was written by France Gall's husband Michel Berger. I love how happy and carefree France looks in this video, dancing around and looking like she is having a really good time - in her early career she came across as rather shy and demure, but here she seems to be coming out of her shell.
I love this song; I discovered it when looking for French music to listen to sometime when I was at sixth-form college and a combination of my really inspiring French teacher and a wonderful college trip to Montpellier in the south of France made me really love French culture, music included. As well as France Gall I love Jean-Jacques Goldman, Lio, Niagara and many other French or Quebecois musicians and bands.
Steve Wright commented on how high he finds France Gall's voice to be; I don't find it particularly high but maybe that is just because I am used to it as I have listened to this song so many times. Anyway, high or low I really love her voice and this remains one of my favourite songs in any language.
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Next is R.E.M. with Bad Day.
I have already done a blog post discussing this among other R.E.M. songs, which can be found by clicking above; however to re-iterate, I really like this song; it was one I heard and loved years ago, then lost, then rediscovered and now love as much as ever. And the video is really original and quirky; clearly a lot of effort went into the making of it. I love this song and always end up singing along to it!
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My penultimate Oldie is Don Henley with The Boys of Summer, which was my favourite song for a while when I was in early high school, maybe 12 or 13 years old.
We were doing some sort of project in our Music lessons about DJs, and I did DJ Sammy, and through doing so found his version of this song, which brought me right back to finishing primary school, when people were singing it on karaoke - either that or we were just listening to the song, I can't remember - but it was certainly popular at the time and I really liked it.
I then heard it in a bowling alley on one of our high school bowling trips, and wondered who sung it. I found out through doing my DJ project, and I re-listened to it and enjoyed it. Seeing that it was a remix of an older song by Don Henley, I listened to the original, convinced I couldn't like it more than the remix. I was wrong. It became my favourite song and I listened to it endlessly.
The fact that the original is sung by a man makes the sentiment a lot nicer, I feel - the DJ Sammy one seems to be a woman declaring without much shame that she is cheating on her lover but still expects him to be there for her "when the boys of summer have gone," whereas the Don Henley version seems to be a man bitterly acknowledging that his lover is cheating on him but saying he'll always love her and will still be there for her at the end of it all.
I still love this song and it was lovely to hear it on the radio and to share it with the listeners of Radio 2.
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My final Oldie is Is This Love? by Alison Moyet, which, again, was my favourite song for a bit - it may still be my favourite song. I have trouble deciding on a favourite at the minute, but this is certainly in contention.
I have a blog post all about my love for Alison Moyet in which I discuss this song and video, so feel free to check that out. For now I'll just say that I absolutely adore this woman and her music, and this song is so happy and upbeat, and the video just puts a smile on your face; they are all having so much fun on the beach.
And the dance they do at the beginning and end is contagious - I find myself doing the actions whenever I hear the song!
I love Alison Moyet ♥ And I love that my selection of Oldies ends on such a happy note with this jolly little song.
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I am really chuffed at my Oldies being chosen, and cannot stop listening to that half-hour of all my favourite music ♥ And I have a badge saying, "I chose the Non-Stop Oldies on Steve Wright in the Afternoon." I am very happy.
I hope you have enjoyed listening to my Oldies as well - please feel free to add any comments below.
Thank you so much for reading my blog and letting me share with you the music I love.
