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!
My parents are huge fans of German tenor Jonas Kaufmann and his concert DVD You Mean the World to Me is often played in our house. Although until a few nights ago I was not too familiar with opera, I could tell his voice was amazing.
So when last week Arts Alliance asked if I would like to see his new film, An Evening With Puccini, I was of course delighted. It was to be shown at, among many other places, the Odeon in the Printworks, Manchester, which was handy for me.
Chinese New Year having just gone, Manchester city centre was a sea of red lanterns, setting the scene for an exotic and exciting night. I navigated the maze of escalators in the Odeon and settled down, ready to be enchanted.
Before the concert we were treated to a brief interview between Kaufmann and Clemency Burton-Hill, in which the tenor explained how he chose to devote an evening to Puccini as the latter was so expert in conjuring up and playing with human emotion. They also hinted at a surprise to come.
The film proper begins with Jonas striding purposefully through Milan to dramatic music, which could have been very cheesy but somehow works. He arrives at the La Scala opera house and is visually moved by its golden majesty, charged atmosphere and six levels of seating.
He introduces the conductor, Jochen Rieder. The amiability and mutual respect between the two men is one of the strongest elements of the film. We meet the orchestra, who play a prelude, over which Jonas tells the life of Puccini. His love for the composer is very evident.
Kaufmann then walks on-stage to rapture from the audience and performs his first aria. His voice is strong and confident, his acting solid and his joy at telling the story, of sharing something he loves, is radiant.
The show proceeds fairly methodically: the orchestra will perform an instrumental piece, then Kaufmann will take the stage and perform an aria, then there will be another instrumental and another aria. However, methodical as it is, the evening feels very natural and rings with emotion.
A range of operas are covered, with pieces from Manon Lescaut, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and La fanciulla del West.
Of course, he has to end with Nessun dorma, which he performs with gusto. Having heard it many times, I was pleasantly surprised that his version made me feel something I hadn't previously. On the last notes of "I will win", I felt such a power and determination coming from his voice, from him, that it filled me with hope and the idea that maybe I could win, too.
Finally, of course, come the numerous encores including the surprise hinted at earlier. While I won't spoil it, I will say I'm glad that it was left in the film and that instead of putting Kaufmann off as it could well have done, he embraced it and made it work in quite a positive way.
The film ended quite abruptly but left me feeling like I had been transported to another place and time - to the point where on my way out, I honestly kept having to remind myself I was in Manchester and not Milan.
It was a unique experience which has inspired me to watch and listen to more opera and to see more event cinema.
Shortly after returning to Manchester after my wonderful Spanish summer, I saw that a Gabrielle Aplin gig was up for grabs to review for The Mancunion. I had heard a few songs by Gabrielle and liked them, and claimed the gig in the hope of getting to know her better.
There was then a lot of confusion between The Mancunion and her people and I was told by The Mancunion not to bother going as they weren't sure whether or not I would be on the guestlist. However, I decided to go to the venue - The Deaf Institute - and see what I could find out.
It transpired that I wasn't on the guestlist but when I explained what had happened they let me in anyway. Relieved, I got a San Pellegrino, took a seat and sat back to watch what turned out to be a pretty great show.
My review for The Mancunion of Gabrielle and her support Sample Answer can be found here but I also wanted to share with you some general thoughts about her music.
She has released two albums, the folksy English Rain and the rockier Light Up The Dark. The thing is, when performed accoustically, any of the songs could be from either album. It's purely the production that separates them. Gabrielle has a very definite songwriting and performing style that remains unchanged.
One of my favourites, as mentioned in the piece, is Don't Break Your Heart On Me.
This is actually a secret track on Light Up The Dark - you have to wait a while after the last official song for it to appear. I like the general concept of secret songs (although in these Internet days, can any track really be secret?) but think this one is so good it should be on the main album.
It's a classic example of what is clearly a folk song at heart, made grungier and darker by the production. I loved it sung accoustically on the night and was doubtful at first about the album version. But I've learnt to really like it.
Another song from Light Up The Dark that I love is Hurt.
Hurt is kind of the opposite of Don't Break Your Heart On Me in that I wasn't ecstatic about her live performance of it but fell in love with the studio version.
The song really reminds me of the relationship between Emily Starr and Dean Priest in Emily of New Moon and its sequels by LM Montgomery. Emily never loves the much older Dean but admires him and feels sorry for him as he has a humpback and has been spurned by society as a result.
For me, Emily's feelings towards him are evoked so strongly by this song and I wish they would make a video for it telling the story - I can imagine exactly how it would look, scene by scene! Gabrielle looks enough like Emily that she could play her and it could be amazing. The Emily books need more attention - for me they are far superior to the Anne (of Green Gables) books.
The final song I want to highlight is from English Rain and is How Do You Feel Today?
After the show I could not get this song out of my head but I wasn't totally sure it was actually by Gabrielle and not just some random other song that had invaded my mind. I kept forgetting to check it when I was online and it was getting annoying!
All the time I was remembering more and more of the song and it was coming to me more and more clearly. Eventually I looked it up and found it and love it so much. Her voice is perhaps the best in the above video that I have ever heard it (though it is always lovely) and the guitar is brilliant, too.
I hope you've enjoyed learning about Gabrielle Aplin - I have high hopes for this talented young woman.
Thanks for reading,
Liz x
Songs: Don't Break Your Heart On Me - Gabrielle Aplin - 2015
This blog post will be part music, part update of my life.
What's happened in my life recently?
I've nearly finished my first year of university. That went quick! I remember when I was blogging after hearing I had got a place at the University of Manchester - I was so happy.
And Uni didn't disappoint: I've had an amazing year including a trip to China, meeting some wonderful people, completing my Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award, organising an exhibition and learning German, among many other brilliant experiences.
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Now all my lectures and lessons have finished for the year; all I have left are exams. In fact, today I did my level one HSK exam, the internationally recognised Mandarin Chinese examination. I felt like it went well, touch wood, and I hope to progress through the different levels of HSK over the next couple of years.
We also had our Hall photos taken today, and it reminded me how proud I am to be a member of my wonderful Hall of Residence, where I have made some friends for life.
On Friday I went out for a German meal with my German class and it was lovely, and on the radio I heard I am what I am; I believe it was the Gloria Gaynor version, which I've been listening to a lot since.
I find it a really empowering song which reminds me that I can be whoever I want to be without worrying about what anybody thinks.
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In June I am going to see The Kennedys in concert, which should be a really nice treat - by then I'll have done the majority of my exams so it's something to look forward to at the end of all the hard work and revising!
Here is their song, "Listen."
I love this song, which I only discovered quite recently. They've produced some truly amazing music over the years. If you want to know more about The Kennedys you can check out my recent interview with them - another thing that I've done this year about which I'm really happy and proud.
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I mentioned in my last post on this blog that for me the next big excitement is the Eurovision Song Contest, which this year will be on 18th May in Malmö. As always I will be celebrating with my family; we will watch it together and have a Eurovision party. I'm really looking forward to it ♥
I think that's all I have to report for now so I'll leave you with a really lovely Eurovision song from Niamh Kavanagh: It's For You.
Beautiful song ♥
Thanks for reading my blog, I hope you enjoyed this post.
This year I am hoping to come and see them again on their own UK and Ireland tour. Meanwhile, I have had the huge honour of interviewing this folk-rock duo about their musical journey.
Photo: Shelagh Gibson
1 Pete, Maura, thank you so much for letting me interview you. It is a great honour as I adore your music and have a great deal of respect for you both as musicians. I want to begin - well, at the beginning. How did each of you first get into making music, and which artists inspired you when you were younger?
Maura: I'm from a big family, but I'm the only one who got into music. There was no record player in my house growing up, so the only music I heard when I was really young was on TV - reruns of the Monkeys and the Partridge family! I think that's why I like poppy melodies. When I was older, I gravitated towards school chorus and musicals.
Then in my junior year of high school, I discovered a used record store on the campus of Syracuse University. At least three times a week my friends and I would take a city bus from the northern suburbs down to Syracuse University and spend hours looking through the vinyl there. The people who worked there would always play anything that looked interesting to us. That's where I first heard everything from Badfinger to The Clash to Fairport Convention to Joan Jett. I just loved so many kinds of music, and I found a musical treasure trove in that store. Pete: I was inspired by The Beatles, who seemed to be creating a new kind of lifestyle, based on music and camaraderie, and also by Bob Dylan, who seemed to be speaking with courage for my generation. Those artists gave me a feeling that by playing music, I was joining a global artistic community that offered inspiration and support.
2 Would you mind telling me how the two of you met; did you know at once that you would make a good partnership?
Pete: Maura and I met at the Continental Club in Austin Texas, while I was in town playing a solo gig between Nanci Griffith tours. We wrote a song right away, and realized at once that we had a certain perfect chemistry both musically and personally.
I left town shortly afterwards to play a festival in the Rocky mountains, and after that we each drove five hundred miles to meet up at Buddy Holly's grave site in Lubbock, a remote town in Texas. A few months later, Maura joined Nanci's band, and we have been together ever since!
3 You have had the chance to work with some of the most respected folk/country/rock and roll artists of the 90s/00s; this video especially for me is a summing up of why I love country music!
How did it feel to be working with such incredible musicians, and do you feel they have influenced you musically?
Pete: Working with Nanci has given me the chance to play with and observe John Prine, Guy Clark, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Townes Van Zandt, Lyle Lovett and many other great artists.
I have been able to see how each one prepared and put together a performance, so I have had a broad and deep overview of the singer-songwriter genre.
Maura: That was one of my very first shows with Nanci Griffith. What an introduction! I kept thinking there was some mistake that they let me on that stage to sing with all those musical giants.
At one point, I was sharing a microphone with my one of my musical idols, Emmylou Harris. I was in awe of her, and I remember feeling unworthy at the time. I stood further back from the mic than her so that my voice wouldn't cover hers up, and I'll never forget, at one point, her hand on my back, nudging me closer to the mic!
I just kept my ears and eyes opened those two nights, and tried to memorize every moment as it was happening. It was 20 years ago now, but I do remember every detail. And thank goodness that video exists!
4 Following on from the above; I noticed that you both featured in Nanci Griffith’s Other Voices Other Rooms concert film; in which she and contemporary artists interpreted songs by artists who had inspired her.
I imagine taking part in that show must have been an amazing experience? Would you consider organising such an event one day about artists who have inspired you?
Maura: Sure we'd consider it, but I don't know if such a thing could come together as well as it did for Nanci. There was definitely an aligning of planets that happened with that project.
Sharing the stage with Nanci, Townes Van Zandt, Odetta, Emmylou Harris, Guy Clark, Alison Krauss, Iris DeMent, Jimmy Dale Gilmore and on and on... I'm still amazed to think of it now.
5 On the theme of collaborations; who is the person you are happiest to have had the pleasure of working with? And who is your dream collaborator?
Maura: I have a photo of me singing with Patti Smith, Joan Osborne and Cyndi Lauper from an annual John Lennon tribute concert that we participated in a few years ago.
Photo: Theo Wargo
It's apparent by the look on my face just how amazing that moment was for me. It was a once-in-a-lifetime event that I'll never ever forget.
But I'm also extremely grateful and amazed that I've spent so many good years collaborating with one of my earliest heroes, Nanci Griffith.
Whenever she asks me to co-write a song with her or take us along on a tour, both as her opening act and as band members, I always think of my 19-year-old self, and wonder how I would have responded back then if someone had told me this would be such a big part of my future. It's been a dream come true for me.
But I'm happiest still to have had the good fortune to have spent the past 20 years (!) making music and touring with my husband, Pete.
I always think, "how long can this last?" and every year that we find we still have people who are interested in our music enough to keep us working as full-time-musicians, is a great big gift of a year -- a gift I never expected from the universe, and am always grateful for.
Pete: Of course Maura is my favorite person with whom to collaborate, but I have also learned a tremendous amount about pure artistry from working with Nanci, as well.
My dream collaboration would be to play with The Band, back when they were known as The Hawks, and played rock and roll in small clubs on Canada, but I don't think that will ever happen now!
6 You both write some beautiful, beautiful songs - which we will get on to in a minute - but you have also been known to cover such artists as Dave Carter, The Byrds and Bob Dylan.
When you cover a song, do you think it is important to conserve the feeling and intention of the original, or do you feel free to perhaps come up with a new interpretation of your own?
Pete: We only cover songs that express our own feelings, when we are fortunate enough to find one, so we don't feel compelled to copy the original. We turn it into a Kennedys song for our version.
Maura: At the same time, we don't feel like we have to drastically change the original either. If the lyrics and the melody speak to us enough to want to cover, we'll play and sing the song "in our style", which is usually more of a feeling or mood.
7 Now for your own songs - you have written some amazing material. My personal favourites include “Life is Large,” “River of Fallen Stars,” and “A Bend in the River.”
I wanted to ask how the song writing process works for each of you: say you want to write a song; do you sit down and write, or do you wait for inspiration to come to you?
How often, on average, so you write a new song, and how does your partnership work when song writing?
Pete: Maura writes from inspiration when she feels strongly about something that she can express in poetic terms. I tend to write to fill out a mental template for an album, our live show, or maybe a certain style of music that would add variety to our repertoire.
Maura: Pete is very disciplined. If he thinks we need a new song, or a new kind of song in our repertoire, he'll just be able to sit down and write one. For me, I have to NEED to write a song, emotionally, intellectually. Usually, the song screams to be written by the time I actually sit down and do it.
8 Are the people in “Life is Large” (“I knew a man...”) based on real people you have known? Could you tell me what inspired you to write Life is Large; a song I find really beautiful?
Maura: One of Pete's oldest friends used to play and sing with us. One day he told us a story about being on tour when he was younger. He was with a whole band, and somewhere in the middle of the U.S. he met a woman and fell in love with her, and so he left the tour then and there and stayed with the woman.
I remember asking him, "Weren't you worried about leaving the band in the middle of a tour?" He just laughed and said, "Life is large!"
9 You have both produced solo material over the years; does your style of music/songwriting vary between your solo material and that recorded as The Kennedys?
Pete: I have a degree in History, so I study musical styles and gravitate towards roots music, with bits of Jazz and Classical. Maura is interested in contemporary indie rock and pop, but also has broad knowledge of roots music, so we meet in the middle with a synthesis of past styles and forward looking pop music.
10 You have a new album out, Closer Than You Know. I personally love it, especially the tracks “Winter,” “Sigh” and “Big Star Song.” Could you tell me what inspired this album?
Pete: Our new CD was inspired by a desire to blend our folk/pop sound with the Impressionist sounds of Paris in the early 20th Century, so there is a little bit of both.
Maura: Pete's talking about the musical aspect of the album. Lyrically speaking, there's a theme running through the album that is one of encouragement. That came from a few years of noticing and reacting to close friends who have been going through difficult times.
I've seen more and more of that in the past few years, and I've come to realize that you can't always make your friends' problems go away. But being a friend means listening empathetically, and offering encouragement and hope.
The title "Closer Than You Know" comes from a line in our song, "Happy Again", which states that a return to happiness is "Closer than you know, but it seems so far."
11 You’ve also recently contributed a track to Trouble in the Fields: An Artists’ Tribute to Nanci Griffith. The track in question is “I’m Not Drivin’ These Wheels,” a favourite of mine.
Why did this particular track appeal to you, and why did you choose to get involved in this project?
Pete: Many of Nanci's classic songs have a repeated structure of three or four chords that create a foundation over which the singer can phrase freely, and I'm Not Drivin' These Wheels is a good example.
Maura: We not only contributed to it, we conceptualized and produced the project, and we got all the artists together and collected their tracks. In some cases, as in the case of John Stewart and Amy Rigby, for example, we recorded their tracks in our own studio.
We just felt that Nanci should be recognized as a songwriter, and that the musicians playing on this tribute should be mostly musicians who have a personal or musical connection to Nanci directly.
There were so many Nanci songs we could have chosen, but I wanted to do a lesser-known song, and this one speaks to me, as it's a song about touring the Northeast U.S. in the winter - something we've done a ton of!
12 One thing that endears me to you as a group is that you seem to have a very strong relationship with your fans - you let me have a photograph and signed my copy of your album when I went to see you for my birthday, and you keep in touch with fans via Facebook and YouTube.
Do you feel this contact and communication with your fans is important? In addition; as your success has grown over the years, do you feel it has become harder to maintain that relationship?
Pete: The direct relationship with fans became possible because of the Internet and social networks, which came online right at the time that we started playing together, so that has been our way of staying in touch with our audience from the beginning.
Maura: I agree. Social networking has made it much easier for us to stay in touch with our fans.
13 You are touring the UK and Ireland in May/June 2013, as you have done in the past; also your new album features a U2 song - do you feel that British and Irish music has been a big influence on you?
Pete: The folk, country, rock and pop music of the US are a mixture of Celtic melodies and African rhythms, reflecting America's cultural diversity. Celtic melodies, filtered through the modernist energy of British rock and pop, are the basis for our music.
14 What do you feel is your greatest achievement, musically or otherwise? And if you each had to pick a favourite of your own songs (as The Kennedys or solo), which would it be?
Pete: Our greatest achievements have been instances in which we inspired or empowered an individual to move confidently to a better place in their own life. That means more to us than record sales, awards etc.
Maura: I agree. I think maybe our greatest achievements are ones we're not even aware of. Last night, after a show, a woman came up to me and was sobbing, and she just grabbed me and hugged me and cried. I asked her if she was OK, and she said, "You have no idea what a powerful energy you're putting out into the world!" She was right! I had no idea!
Every now and then, someone as generous as that woman will let me know what our music means to them, and we're very lucky for those glimpses.
My two favorite Kennedys songs are "Breathe", which is about death-as-a-kind-of-birth, and "I'll Come Over" from our new album. That one is very emotional for me.
15 As a student of French and Spanish, I am interested to know; does either of you have a second language, and would you consider recording songs in a language other than English?
Pete: We both speak a little French, enough to visit the country as tourists, but not enough to compose convincing lyrics!
16 What are your plans for the future? Do you think you will be in the music industry for the rest of your lives, or are there other projects planned? Do you have one lifelong ambition you really want to fulfil?
Pete: We will both always play music, and Maura is involved in acting in New York, as well.
Maura: All I ever wanted to do was play music. I am constantly amazed and grateful that I have made my living from it for the past 20 years.
I hope I never have to stop. I don't think I will, though. I always say to Pete, "if things ever slow down to the point where we need a day job, we can always just go down into the subway and busk for coins. All you have to do is play until you have enough money to eat or pay your rent, and I like playing and singing enough that I wouldn't have to stop."
17 Finally, why do you think, sometime in early civilisation, humans invented music?
Music is not essential to our survival, yet across different continents, different cultures, music developed and it has survived so many changes in the world and they way we live.
Why is music pleasing to us? And, I guess the killer question; what is music?
Pete: Joseph Campbell commented that when we use our brains and bodies for anything other than basic survival, we are approaching the realm of art, so I think that the process goes back to the Lascaux cave paintings, the African Earth Mother figurines, and beyond.
Rhythmic grooves probably developed out of the rhythms of the body, starting with the heartbeat, and some scholars think that the first human communication may have sounded like what we call singing, so music is a basic impulse to communicate, and also to create.
Maura: I was walking down the street yesterday and thinking about my life and about, really, EVERYONE'S lives, and I thought, everything we do as humans is either to pay our expenses (survival), or to enjoy the experience of being human (being happy, making others happy).
If you can combine the two in your life's work, then you've really got something. That's what music is to me. It's my whole way of life. I'm glad I figured it out before I was told that it wasn't practical!
Thank you again for your time, and I wish you the very best – may you continue to be as amazing as you have been for twenty years, and may you keep blowing us away with your incredible talent and compassion.
I am potentially very chuffed because I may have found out something that, to me anyway, is amazing. I just need to check to be absolutely sure that I am right.
On one of our Duke of Edinburgh's Award expeditions, we stopped in a Lake District village that I'm pretty sure was called Bouth. And if it is the right Bouth, it is where Christine McVie was born!
I must have read this sometime in the past, before we went, because I love Christine McVie and have researched her and her music many times. However, I had forgotten where she was from, and when we were in Bouth I never realised the incredible significance of the place - or, rather, the significance it should hold for me, personally, as a Christine fan.
Even without this significance, it is still a lovely village. And the Lake District is always wonderful. But to discover that, without knowing, I visited the birthplace of one of my idols, is pretty amazing news, at least for me☺♥
I think I mentioned Christine McVie in my very first post on this blog in which I listed some of my favourite songs, and her Songbird was among them. For a while Songbird seemed to be a staple on reality TV singing shows, and it probably still is, though I wouldn't know because I watch a lot less of that sort of thing than I used to. Life's too short! But anyway, for years I hadn't heard the original, though I knew it was by Fleetwood Mac. When I listened to it for the first time, I fell in love.
From those first lines,
"For you, there'll be no more crying.
For you, the sun will be shining."
You just know that what is going to follow is something beautiful and extraordinary. This really is one of the most sincere, from-the-heart things I have ever heard - more than most songs, more even than poetry. It's like a love letter, sung with all her heart and soul. None of the other versions of this, lovely as some of them may be, can possibly capture the spirit and feeling behind the original.
I hadn't been absolutely sure that it was her song, so many people have sung it, so I looked it up and when it said on Wikipedia, "written by Christine McVie," my heart gave a little twinge of happiness and love. Of course it's her song. How could I have doubted that for one minute? Only Christine McVie could write a song like this one.
I would love to be able to sing this in concert one day. If I ever become a good enough singer, and have enough confidence, to do her justice!
Although nobody can sing this as well as she who wrote it, I do believe this is one of those songs that anybody could sing well if they mean it with their heart and they pick out one person to whom they can sing every lyric and mean it with all their soul. It is one of the best love songs I know. And I can give no higher praise than that.
Christine McVie is a genius, and, almost more importantly, she writes straight from her heart. And that, when writing anything that is meant to touch the soul, is what really matters.
And her voice! Nobody else I have ever heard has a voice quite like hers. It is so, so beautiful and rich and full of love or pain or emotion or whatever she is feeling as she sings. She is blessed, yet I imagine she has also worked hard to train that voice, and I love it so much when a natural talent is nurtured properly to make the world a better and happier and more loving place, which for me, at least, it becomes when I listen to her singing.
Here is Over My Head, another of her songs which would probably never sound as good sung by anybody but her. It is just a Christine McVie song. It works with her voice so beautifully to create something truly magical.
There is another nice live version I wanted to put on here but Blogger won't let me! Ah well, this version is gorgeous, taken, it would seem, from the same concert (The Dance, 1997) as the Songbird one. I wish I had been at that concert! But I was only three at the time and I didn't really get to know the music of Fleetwood Mac until I was seven or eight, when my dad bought my mum the Very Best of Fleetwood Mac compilation CD (both my parents are Fleetwood Mac fans).
We used to listen to that CD all the time. My brother became a Lindsey Buckingham fan. I liked Gypsy by Stevie Nicks, and I came to really like a lot of Christine McVie's songs. However, it was when I was a lot older that I began to really appreciate the beauty and emotion of her lyrics, and to realise what a gifted songwriter she is. But Over My Head was always a favourite of mine and my brother's.
A Christine McVie song that I always liked but have recently come to love is You Make Loving Fun.
I just wish I could sit down at a piano and play and sing this! I could never be as good as her, but it would bring me such pleasure just to play those gorgeous chords and sing those bitter-sweet lyrics. I will try and find the sheet music to this and learn it! It could be my tribute to this amazing woman. Her maiden name was Perfect, and she really is perfect in every way as a musician.
"I never did believe in miracles, but I've a feeling it's time to try.
I never did believe in the ways of magic, but I'm beginning to wonder why."
I used to think it was "I've a feeling it's time to fly." Either lyric is beautiful.
I must also share Everywhere with you - as I said to my mum just now, "You can't have a Christine McVie post without Everywhere!" It is so... her. So Christine McVie. I know that sounds silly, but I feel this song just sums up perfectly what Christine McVie is all about. It is a beautiful love song, with simple yet amazingly powerful lyrics, and she sings with such strength and pride yet such vulnerability, in a voice as stunning as ever.
Here it is live in The Dance (with a bit of Dreams at the beginning):
And here is the video - there is another one which is similar to this but with Christine - and, I think, the other members of Fleetwood Mac as well - appearing in silhouette at intervals. Regretfully, I can't find that version on YouTube. So here is the video sans band (it's still a great video):
I remember feeling smug because I thought I was the only one who knew this was based on The Highwayman. Maybe I was, but I doubt that somehow! Anyhow, somebody has written about the poem on YouTube and it's the top comment as I write, so now everybody who looks at the video on YouTube knows.
Ah well. It's still a brilliant idea for a music video, and it really brought the poem - which I'd studied at school several times - to life for me. I just wish I could see the band's lovely faces in the video!
The song is gorgeous, and the beginning so distinctive, as is the case with many Fleetwood Mac songs - you hear it and you know at once that it's going to be Everywhere.Then that powerful drum beat kicks in, and Christine's amazing vocals, and you sit back and are taken on a journey into a fantastic, wonderful, magical song, and into her heart and soul. It is an amazing song; a masterpiece. Along with Songbird and so many other beautiful songs Christine McVie has written during her long and hugely successful and fruitful career.
I feel so privileged to have had the chance to listen to her amazing music for ten years or so and I hope to continue to enjoy her genius and talent and beauty for many years to come. Bouth is a lovely village, and from it came one of the best musicians of our time. I'm glad I got to visit it.
I will leave you with probably her biggest hit, "Don't stop," one of the most upbeat, hopeful, reassuring songs I know, which is just perfect for putting you in a better mood.
Fleetwood Mac are just amazing! And Christine McVie is a legend and should be very proud of all the beautiful, powerful, inspirational, moving songs that she has put into this world.
I am very sorry that I haven't blogged for a while, but I was away on a Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition at the weekend, and since then I have been completely exhausted.
However, I had an amazing time! I was very homesick at first, as I often am on these things, but I soon got used to being away from home and I began to really appreciate the sheer beauty of some of the places we visited.
We were up in the Lake District and we saw mountains, tarns, waterfalls, many sheep, some cows and all sorts of wildlife from rabbits and deer (I didn't personally see the deer, but other people in my group did) to swallows and spiders.
It was a brilliant and unforgettable experience. Not least because I was part of a wonderful group - we all really got to know each other over the weekend and became good friends. There are four of us, and we all worked together to achieve what we wanted to achieve. I will be doing another expedition next week with the same group, and I am really looking forward to it ♥ ☺
A song which kept coming back into my head was These Days In An Open Book by Nanci Griffith.
When I have more time and am less tired I will definitely do a long blog post all about this woman because I think she is amazing ♥
I was brought up listening to her music because my parents are fans, and I came to really love her myself. It was my dream to see her live in concert, and that dream came true in March this year when I got to go and see her perform at Salford Quays as a treat for my eighteenth birthday.
Needless to say, I was very, very happy. She was phenomenal. She sung as beautifully as ever, and she told little stories to introduce all of the songs. Some of these stories I hadn't heard before, and they really helped me to understand the songs better.
I find These Days In An Open Book so upbeat and positive and this particular performance which I have embedded is brilliant; she just seems so happy and you can tell the song and its lyrics mean so much to her and she takes so much pleasure in singing them.
Another song which stuck in my head over the weekend was We Don't Need Another Hero by Tina Turner. I can't really find a decent video to embed, but there are various versions on YouTube. I like it; not enormously, but I do like it.
I had listened to a lot of Eighties songs including this one on the way up to the Lake District; including many that I like more than this one. However, for some reason this song really stuck in my head when we were climbing one of the mountains and it was drizzling and I kept having to spur myself on to keep going, and I felt like crying out, "Is this all or nothing?!" like she shouts in the song. Silly, I know, but I couldn't get that bit out of my head!
Anyway, we had an amazing time ☺ And all the long, hard climbs were worth the effort for the views we got from the top, and for the sense of achievement at the end ♥
Today I went to see the Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester with a group from my college. It was enjoyable, but not as good as As You Like It, which I saw at the Royal Exchange last year.
However, the Royal Exchange is a unique and fantastic theatre; it is theatre "in the round"; the performance space is round and everyone sits in circles watching the action unfold in the middle, which gives it a more three-dimensional feel, I think.
I hope you enjoyed this blog and maybe have been inspired to try a Duke of Edinburgh's Award, or go to a quirky theatre... or maybe just sit back and listen to some amazing music ☺
