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 have recently written a piece for the Cuckoo Review on songs by Glasgow bands and artists, both old and new. These include some I have mentioned on this blog, including Deacon Blue, the Silencers and Eddi Reader, as well as two new bands.
I also did another piece for Cuckoo on my Top Five River Cities, if you are interested.
The Commonwealth Games have begun in one of my favourite cities - Glasgow. To celebrate, I have decided to finally write the blog post I have been intending to write for a while about the music of one of my favourite bands, Deacon Blue.
I first discovered them through a mix tape my mother used to play in the car when I was younger. The first song I remember hearing and liking is Queen of the New Year.
I have talked quite a bit about this in my Musical Royalty post, so here I will just add that it was the perfect introduction to Deacon Blue: such a happy, dance to-able song that made me keen to hear more of their music.
If it were the only Deacon Blue song I knew, I would love them for it alone, so imagine how much I love them now I have heard a whole set of equally wonderful works.
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The second song of theirs I remember becoming familiar with is Loaded.
I didn't really like this at first; I found it too negative and sad. Years later, as a teenager, I came to like it. One day my brother, now about the age I was when I first heard it, grumbled about how negative it sounded. It intrigued me that we both reacted that way at the same age.
I think children are much more in tune to the "vibe" of a song; whether it is positive or negative, perhaps because they don't really understand the lyrics, or they don't pay attention to them.
That being said, I still don't really understand Loaded's lyrics!
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When I was about ten I made an "official" list of my favourite songs. I now can't remember any but the top three. Bat Out of Hell was third, and two songs were forever grappling for first place. One was In Between Days by The Cure; the other was Your Swaying Arms by Deacon Blue.
However, when it came down to it, I think I always knew that I liked Your Swaying Arms better. I liked In Between Days as a brilliant piece of music, but I liked Your Swaying Arms for the feelings of deep love that overflowed from the words and the performance.
As a kid, I thought "Your Swaying Arms" was a pub! I knew a couple of pubs that were the Something Arms. As I've come to understand it better, I've come to love it even more. I love the lyrics so much; I would like to choose some to showcase but they are all so incredible!
I wouldn't call it my favourite song any more. It isn't that it's gone down in my esteem; it is right where it always was. It is simply that I have since heard songs I like better. But it remains probably my favourite Deacon Blue song, for its simple beauty and the sheer amount of love behind every word.
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The next song I would like to share is Chocolate Girl.
Chocolate Girl was the first song on the second side of my mother's tape and I always loved hearing those firm, confident opening bars setting the scene for the rest of the side. It is a great opening song - some just are. It is the sort you start concerts or albums with.
As a kid I liked it, but didn't see it as being in my little group of favourites. As a teenager I rediscovered it and realised that instrumentally, it is a lot better than I gave it credit for. I really love the cry of the guitar from the second chorus onwards after each line. ("So he calls her the chocolate girl (de-de-de-de), Cos he thinks she melts when he touches her (de-de-duh)").
I've really come to like it.
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Next up is When Will You (Make my Telephone Ring).
For a while when I was about twelve I saw this as my favourite song; however, I think a large part of that may have been the fact that I thought it was super-cool to like Deacon Blue. I did like the song, though.
As I've got older I've still liked it, and have realised that I can sing it decently (I hope!). One day I might do it on Karaoke or record a version.
"The wonder of it all... was you."
"I want you, in everything, in everything... in anything."
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That is the end of my "original" Deacon Blue songs; the ones I discovered as a kid. Now I am moving on to the ones I first discovered when I was maybe fifteen.
First up, probably their most famous song: Dignity.
I actually did hear this as a kid but I heard a very slow acoustic version that I didn't like. It was only as a teenager that I wondered, "What's all the Dignity fuss about? Maybe I should listen to it again," and found the actual original song. And I really love it.
I previously discussed it in 2012, and I will repeat what I said then: "Isn't that what everyone wants; dignity?"
It's what I want; it's something I'm still working on, two years later.
I'll get there.
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The penultimate song I'll be sharing is Fergus Sings the Blues.
This is not only the penultimate track on this list, it is the penultimate "old" Deacon Blue track I discovered. I have since heard their newer songs as they have come out, but Love and Regret is the only older track I heard after this one.
I was at sixth-form college when I heard Fergus, so I associate it with memories of sixth-form, which was one of the best times of my life. It is a lovely, upbeat song about travelling, and I'm so glad I found it. Deacon Blue do upbeat so well, but they also do slow and emotional beautifully.
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And that note brings us to our final song. Love and Regret.
I first discovered this on a bus journey home from sixth-form. I enjoyed the bus journeys as the college was quite a way out into the countryside and the scenery was very nice. Normally I wouldn't listen to a song for the first time on a bus, as the sound of talking makes it hard to hear it properly.
This time, for some reason, I did, and I'm glad because now whenever I hear this song I'll be rolling home again, though the cornfields, with the sky blue above me and the road wide and clear ahead.
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So, you can see how the music of Deacon Blue has shaped my life and holds valuable memories for me. Glasgow should be so proud of this incredible group. There are other Glasgow groups/artists I like such as The Silencers, The Blue Nile and Eddi Reader, but I think that ultimately, Deacon Blue are my winners. Gold medals for all the members!
Enjoy the rest of the Games.
Thanks for reading,
Liz x
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Songs: Queen of the New Year - Deacon Blue - 1989
Loaded - Deacon Blue - 1987
Your Swaying Arms - Deacon Blue - 191
Chocolate Girl - Deacon Blue - 1987
When Will You (Make my Telephone Ring) - Deacon Blue - 1987
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.
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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!)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 ♥
In October I had the honour of interviewing Eddi Reader for The Mancunion ahead of her gig at the RNCM on 1st November. I was then given the chance to review that gig, which was brilliant, and afterwards I met Eddi! She came across as a lovely, down-to-earth person and the whole experience was fantastic.
You can read my interview of her here and my review of the gig here. I hope you enjoy them.
Eddi and me
Let me now share with you some Eddi Reader videos.
I wish there was a video for Married to the Sea, a gorgeous song she performed at the concert I saw. Look out for that song, it's wonderful.
Bell, Book and Candle is probably my favourite song that she sings, and this live version is so beautiful.
There's also Patience of Angels, which I heard in a music quiz last year and which I recognised but couldn't place. I'm sure I heard it when I was much younger. It's a lovely song and always has that sense ofdéjàvu for me.
Here is Perfect. I never was a massive fan of this until she performed it live at the RNCM gig, and since then it's grown on me. I love this performance:
Finally, here is one of my favourite music videos of all time, Is This Love? by Alison Moyet, in which she, Eddi and the rest of the band dance on the beach and look so happy and carefree - that's how all music videos should be!
I listened again to the songs I liked so much a year ago, to decide how I feel about them now - and I found that I still really like them all, and that in some cases a song has taken on a new significance for me since I wrote that list back in March 2011.
After listing specific songs by a range of bands and artists, I ended the list with, "Pretty much anything written by Nanci Griffith, or by Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue (two very different people but both extremely gifted songwriters in my opinion. You'll be hearing a lot about them in this blog!)"
And the sad thing is, although I adore both of these songwriters, and have listened to their music so much before and since starting this blog, I have not blogged about them nearly as much as I had expected I would.
However, what I haven't done yet is a full post completely focussed on Nanci and just what her music has meant to me over the years, and I really want to do that. I also want to do a post all about Ricky Ross and Deacon Blue.
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I listened to music from both Nanci and Deacon Blue throughout my childhood, introduced to their music by my parents. Among my favourite Nanci songs were Gulf Coast Highway, Goin' Gone and Tumble and Fall.
My favourite songs by Deacon Blue were Queen of the New Year, Your Swaying Arms - at one point one of my favourite songs by any artist or band - and When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring).
As I got older, I discovered more and more amazing songs by both Nanci Griffith and Deacon Blue. A few months ago I had Nanci's 1988 album Storms bought for me, and have come to love the songs Storms(written by Eric Taylor), Radio Fragile and Brave Companion of the Road.
The latter I had heard before on what I'm guessing must have been a compilation tape that my family used to listen to in the car. I'd been searching a long time for that song when I found it on Storms and was very happy.
The reason I had had such trouble finding it was because I had thought the title was something to do with roses, probably because of the first line of the beautiful second verse:
"Some days come up roses,
Some days just come and go.
Some nights are so ruthless that you can't recall the day before.
This love has seen better days,
Come home for these holidays,
Cause this love has miles for sense of place,
Oh, my brave companion of the road."
Normally I wouldn't quote an entire verse, but Nanci Griffith is a genius. Her lyrics are among the most moving and memorable I know. I love the whole song; it is easy to overlook a track like this on an album like Storms which has louder, catchier songs, but I feel that Brave Companion of the Road is quietly beautiful, and is quite possibly my favourite song on the album.
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As for Deacon Blue, I got a new mp3 player recently, and onto it I put Our Town, their Greatest Hits CD. This meant I could listen to Deacon Blue on the bus on the way to and from college, and this way I came to really love some of their songs.
Love and Regret will now always remind me of college bus journeys and, to a degree, so will Dignity.
However, Dignity also brings back memories of writing for my college's magazine - I did a lyrics quiz for them, and one of the lyrics they had to guess was;
"And I'm telling this story in a faraway scene,
Sipping down raki, and reading Maynard Keynes."
Certainly unique lyrics! I love Dignity. I never used to because I found it too slow - I think the version I had heard was acoustic - yet recently I've begun to appreciate the beauty of the melody and the lyrics. Isn't that what everybody wants; dignity? To be respected?
I think that it is a very wise song. I'm glad that I learnt to like it and grew to love it.
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I must write proper blog posts about both Nanci Griffith and about Ricky Ross and Deacon Blue as soon as I can. Both Nanci and Ricky are wonderfully gifted songwriters, and I want them to know how much I admire them and how much I love their music and always have done. Hopefully one day they may read this blog and know.
I hope you enjoyed this post,
Thanks for reading,
Liz x
Songs: Brave Companion of the Road - Nanci Griffith - 1988
