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!
It's now been a week since Eurovision, and I'm pleasantly surprised that no less than four of its songs are in the UK Top 40 Singles Chart.
Calm After the Storm, the Netherlands' song, is at number 9, Rise Like a Phoenix,the winning song from Austria, is at 17, the UK's entry, Children of the Universe, is at 23 and Swedish entry Undo is at 40.
For me, this a a brilliant sign for Eurovision; that its songs are making their way into the daily lives of British people. They aren't things to be listened to as a one-off, but something to be enjoyed and valued.
However, I am a bit sad that Malta's entry, Coming Home, hasn't yet made the Top 40. It and Calm After the Storm were definitely my two favourites, and both received a vote from me. I'm now going to talk a bit more about these two songs and why I love them.
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I will start by debauching any perception anyone may have that, as both songs are folk/country songs, I only like Eurovision songs in this style. This is untrue.
Some of my favourite ESC songs over the years have been pop, rock or semi-opera, and there are many folksy entries that I haven't liked; Latvia's entry this year, Bake a Cake, comes to mind.
No, the reason I like Calm After the Storm and Coming Home are that they are both great songs, independent of one another of of their musical style.
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Firstly, Coming Home by Firelight.
Before hearing the sing itself, I heard a tiny bit of this on a recap of songs and I just knew I would like it. When I heard it through, I liked it even more than I had anticipated, and it became my favourite song in the competition. I also love the video; it's very moving and relevant for the Centenary of World War I.
Commentators in the UK compared Firelight more than once to Mumford and Sons, but I don't hear that much of a resemblance. I agree with other comparisons, though - to Gary Barlow (Let Me Go) and One Direction (Story of my Life).
Despite these similarities, I think this song stands alone and is much better than any of the things it's been compared to!
I'm really glad the UK gave several points to Malta, though I wish the song had achieved a better placing by the end (it came 23rd). It's certainly a song I'll listen to again and again, long after this year's Eurovision fever has sizzled out.
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Secondly, Calm After the Storm by the Common Linnets.
I really glad to see this reach the UK Top 10; I had had a hunch that it would do well in our charts.
When I first heard it, I thought it was a very average country song, but pretty enough. I hoped it would do well as it was so different and would be a refreshingly different winner.
However, it really grew on me in the two days between its semi-final and the final, and I liked it so much in the final that it received my second vote. I now like it even more: it is a real grower.
I was really glad to see it receive so many 10s and 12s; it's really not your typical Eurovision winner and I had worried it would be overlooked, but instead it did incredibly well, eventually coming second.
I hope this is the beginning of a successful international career for both members of the Common Linnets, Ilse deLange and Waylon. They are already big in their own country; in fact, Ilse is a current coach on the Dutch version of the Voice (which I've just found out was the very first version of the show!).
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I wish these two bands the very best for the future, and hope they will turn out to be Eurovision success stories, like Abba and Céline Dion. Even if they don't, I doubt their wonderful Eurovision offerings will ever be forgotten. They are a pair of songs with true longevity.
I am now on my Easter holidays! Hooray! Three weeks of relaxation before going back to University and facing my summer exams. I will do plenty of study, of course, but a lot has happened this half-semester, and it will be good to have the chance to chill out a bit.
I would like to bring to your attention that I have set up a blog for my poetry and possibly other types of writing. It would mean a lot to me if you could have a look at it. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.
Finally, I thought I would share this song and clip from the film Casper. Beware of spoilers if you haven't seen the end of the film!
For anyone who doesn't want to see the clip for fear of spoilers, here is the song on its own:
As a kid, I'd occasionally go to an activity club where they had a TV room. At least half the time, this film was showing. I saw all of it in bits and pieces, but never from beginning to end.
It was only a couple of years ago that I caught it on TV and was able to sit back and enjoy the whole film. It was a lot better than I remembered; I think being older allowed me to appreciate the tragedy/friendship/romance side of the film, whereas as a kid I saw it more as an adventure/mystery film.
Anyway, I really love the dancing scene. While I do like the song in its own right, I believe that being fitted with this specific scene elevates it to something incredibly beautiful and poignant. The lyrics are very simple, but work so well with the music and with the scene.
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 recently had a great revelation regarding Marcella Detroit. This revelation may seem obvious to some but I simply hadn't put two and two together. I had always known her as the singer of I Believe, a song that played throughout my childhood, but I've only just found out that she was also in Shakespears Sister.
This is largely to do with the fact that I had never seen her singing I Believe and at one point I thought from her voice that she was black. When I found out she was white it was via a tiny picture that wasn't sufficient to make me realise that she and that woman who sings the bulk of "Stay" were one and the same.
I had even seen comments on the video of Stay on YouTube referencing "Marcella"... the penny just didn't drop until I recently looked Shakespears Sister up and saw her name, and thought "of course..." and when I thought about it, I realised it was the same beautiful voice I had heard on both these songs that I loved.
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"I Believe" is featured on a compilation album named Girls and Guitars that I was brought up with; it was played in our car on long journeys and on lazy summer days sitting in the garden. When I got my own mp3 player I put the album on it.
I now know the complete track order despite the fact that my mp3 player doesn't recognise it and so it just says "track 1, track 2" etc. I Believe is track 7. It's followed by "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips, another favourite of mine, so I often used to listen to the two as a unit.
I mainly associate this song with a memory from my youth of us driving down a sunny motorway. However, I inadvertently created another special memory for myself when I played this song on the way from the university we had been staying at to the airport when I was leaving Beijing after studying there for three weeks in winter 2012/13.
I remember the silent city rolling past the windows in the still-dark early morning, and the sadness I felt at leaving it. And this song was playing.
I had felt guilty about listening to music, thinking that maybe I should focus all of my attention on my last views of Beijing. However, now I realise that music can strengthen memories, and I'm sure that without linking them to I Believe my memories of that final journey would not be as strong.
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Stay is a song that I probably will have heard when I was younger as it seems to have been a 90s classic; however only last year did I hear it properly, with a critic's ear.
It was on a music channel on TV, on some sort of countdown of ballads, and I remember thinking at first that it was rather generic but still a good song. It has since grown on me hugely.
The opening lyrics especially feel very poignant for me:
"If this world is wearing thin, and you're thinking of escape..."
Haven't we all felt like our world is wearing thin, and thought of escape? By escape I don't mean death, which from the video may be what the song is referring to; I rather mean retreating from things and pretending the world doesn't exist, or perhaps physically running away.
If I'm feeling down I often find myself playing this song in my head and thinking of the people who would be my Marcella and want me to stay; to hold on, to try to be happy.
Siobhan Fahey is great in Stay as well, and as Shakespears Sister was her project it wouldn't be right not to acknowledge her. However, for me Marcella makes this song; her voice and the emotion in her performance are just incredible.
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So, Marcella Detroit has gone for me from being a bodiless voice - but a brilliant one - to somebody I can envisage and I actually already knew... life is strange sometimes.
Today I got a lot of work done on one of the video projects I have going, which is good. I've also been to zumba, which was very enjoyable as always, although somewhat tiring! But I do love it.
I have been listening a lot to Pictures of You by The Cure.
I discovered this song the other day when I was listening to A Letter To Elise on YouTube and someone said on the comments that it sounded like Pictures of You. I had been meaning to listen to the latter anyway as it tended to come up on the related videos section on YouTube and I was keen to see what it sounded like.
I listened and decided it sounds a little bit like A Letter To Elise, but not a great deal, and it is by all means a song completely in its own right. I have definitely heard it before, probably on one of our old family car cassette tapes which are full of Cure songs. However, I had sort of forgotten about this song until I rediscovered it the other day. And I'm glad I did rediscover it!
It is very beautiful, as are a lot of Cure songs such as A Letter To Elise which I mentioned in a previous blog post. The musicality is brilliant; the pacing flawless. The full version of the song has a very long intro (during which, be warned, there is some flashing, psychedelic imagery in the video), and normally I don't like long, self-indulgent intros, but this one is actually gorgeous and adds so much to the song. It lifts the song from being a very nice song to almost a work of art; a story with a prologue, beginning, middle and end. And the video is bizarre but I like it!
I have to go now because it is raining very, very heavily and we may end up with lightning in which case I will have to turn off the computer. So, I will sign off now.
Happy Monday! I hope that whoever you are, wherever you are, you're having a nice day ♥
This is my final blog entry of June 2012, and I have to say; this has been an amazing month for me, and I only really realised when I was writing yesterday's blog entry and looking back on all that has happened in my life in the last thirty days.
I have Domino by Jessie J stuck in my head at the minute - not the best song in the world but quite catchy and upbeat. I heard it on the radio at work today, which is probably why it is in my head! Also My Kind of Love by Emeli Sande - I really like this song and her voice is so incredible.
I also discovered another song today; well, I say discovered but I think I had already heard snatches of it because parts of it sounded familiar. But today was the first time I heard the song through - in fact it was on the radio twice while I was at work - and I really like it. It turned out to be Brokenhearted by Karmin.
I must admit that, while the name rang a distant bell, I knew practically nothing about this band (or, rather, duo). However, I now fully intend to listen to more of their music and see what other material they have, and then I can decide how far I think they can make it in the charts. Judging from this song, I have high hopes for them! It has such a good beat.
When I first heard it I was wracking my brains trying to think who it could be - Jessie J, Pixie Lott, Lady Gaga and even X-Factor winners Little Mix came to mind, but it didn't sound quite like any of them. I was pleased to see that it was a band I didn't know; I love discovering new talent.
I realise that I have been blogging a lot recently about newer music that is currently in the charts. However, I still spend just as much time listening to the older stuff - music that never ages. One of my all-time favourites has to be A Letter to Elise by the Cure.
It is twenty years old this October; I never realised until I researched it for this blog entry. Happy birthday, song!
When I was younger, my parents used to play the Cure a lot in the car when we were travelling. I liked this song, but I preferred the flashier, louder, more upbeat songs like In Between Days and Love Cats. While I still love both those songs, I have come to really appreciate the simple beauty and poignancy and sheer emotion in A Letter to Elise, and it is now among my favourite Cure songs.
It is certainly, for me, the most mood-versatile Cure song - many of their other songs I have to be in a certain mood to listen to, but A Letter to Elise I will happily listen to any time. It is so perfect as a song. Four-and-a-bit minutes of sheer beauty and emotion and sincerity.
From when I first listened to this as a child, my favourite lyrics have always been;
"Oh, Elise, it doesn't matter what you do, I know I'll never really get inside of you,
To make your eyes catch fire the way they should."
There is so much love in that second line. I love this song. And, listening to the song more recently, I have come to really like the stanzas he speaks at the end, almost like a poem;
"Every time I try to pick it up like falling sand,
As fast as I pick it up, it runs away from my clutching hands."
It is such a strong image, and the narrator's sense of defeat at the end, "There's nothing else I can really do at all," is heartbreaking.
I love this song and I am so glad that I rediscovered it in all its beauty and brilliance. The Cure are amazing! And not remotely dreary and Gothic as some people seem to believe! Listen to some of their songs and you will see how varied their material is - they can do bouncy pop songs (Friday I'm in Love); arty, slightly bittersweet numbers like Boys Don't Cry and Close To Me; and beautiful, poetic love songs such as A Letter to Elise, Catch and Pictures of You.
So, I will sign off for now, but I am challenging myself to write on this blog every day as is humanly possible during the month of July. There are some days where it just won't be possible because I will be away without Internet access, but whenever I can blog, I will!
Hello! We are now three days away from the grand final of Eurovision 2012!
Today I am going to analyse the three most recent Eurovision winning songs; "Fairytale" by Alexander Rybak, "Satellite" by Lena and "Running Scared" by Ell/Nikki from respectively, Norway, Germany and Azerbaijan.
Probably the most obvious thing that jumps out immediately about these three songs is that they are all in English rather than Norwegian, German and Azerbaijani. I have mixed feelings about this: a song being in English, or one of the other languages I speak, means I can understand it, which is a plus for me personally. And a lot of people across Europe speak English as a first, second or third language.
However, I feel that it is important that people sing in their own tongue because different languages, and the amazing richness and variety of languages we have in Europe, is something to be celebrated and not to be forgotten. We don't want to encourage the belief some people seem to hold which is that English is some sort of universal language. If we accept that it is, we risk other languages dying out, and their associated cultures, stories and songs dying with them, and that would be just terrible.
So, I would personally like a song sung in the native tongue of its country to do well this year!
Now, onto the winning songs. Firstly, the 2009 winner, Alexander Rybak of Norway with, "Fairytale."
I have to say, I am grateful to this guy for bringing Eurovision to Norway, because they put on one of the best shows I have ever seen; the highlight being their unforgettable flash mob interval act.
Here is Alexander's song:
At first I didn't think that much of this song. However, listening to it again, I've come to quite like it. There is no doubt that he is incredibly talented, both as a singer and on his violin. He also wrote this song... how musically gifted can one person be?! It's extraordinary. I'm jealous!
Overall, it is quite a catchy song from a talented musician, and I think it merits winning. I'm not sure if it merits receiving the highest number of points ever in Eurovision, which it did do, but I'd rather that accolade go to this than to some other winning song which was rubbish or whose win was due completely to block voting.
In 2010, the contest was held in Oslo, Norway, as a result of Rybak's success. As I have mentioned many times, I loved his year at Eurovision. There were so many good songs; from Ireland, France, Denmark and Belarus, among others. The winning song was "Satellite," by Lena of Germany.
Again, I wasn't particularly keen on this at first, but it grew on me. It's certainly very bouncy and you can dance to it. Admittedly some of the lyrics are fairly awful, but otherwise this song isn't bad at all. And I find Lena very likeable as a performer.
I would have preferred for Niamh Kavanagh to have won, because I think song she performed that year for Ireland is one of the most beautiful Eurovision songs ever sung. But Lena wasn't the worst in that competition by a long shot. And I love the supposedly impromptu version of Satellite whipped up by the larger-than-life German hosts the next year - almost better than the original!
The winning song that next year - last year in fact - in Düsseldorf was "Running Scared" by Eldar and Nigar, or Ell/Nikki - the same people but for some reason they seem to operate under two different names. I really like this song, and I'm quite pleased that it won.
I must admit, I hadn't expected this to win at all - but I'm glad it did. It isn't your typical fast, bouncy Eurovision song, but it is quietly beautiful in a way that you don't see very often. There is real raw emotion in it, and both Ell and Nikki sing with real love and passion.
I wish maybe, just maybe, the winner could have been Lucía Pérez of Spain, whose song I adored... but Running Scared is a very good song as well so I am not going to complain. Well done Ell and Nikki!
I also happened to see Nikki being interviewed during the semi-final last night, and she came across as a nice and amicable person, who was very interesting to listen to. She was clearly very proud and happy to have brought Eurovision to Baku, and so she should be.
I hope we can enjoy an equally deserving winner this year; there are some good songs in the competition and some not-so-good... we'll just have to see how the people of Europe vote!
I thought I would share with you one of my favourite Eurovision songs and, in my opinion, one of the prettiest - The Fire in Your Eyes by Boaz Mauda, which was the Israeli entry in the 2008 competition in Belgrade in Serbia.
Although I don't understand most of the lyrics, I have still always found it beautiful.
I don't speak Hebrew, so I have to trust the Internet when it come to translations. I've checked a couple of lyrics sites and the general consensus for the chorus seems to be,
"Not a starlight,
You are now.
With me, with me, as if real,
Like back then."
Which I think is very beautiful. I was puzzled by the graphics on this video saying the song was second on the running order when I remember it being later, then I found out that it was second in its semi-final, so that must be where the video is from. In the final this song was seventh in the running order.
Anyway, overall I really like this song and am glad it did quite well - it came ninth out of twenty-five songs.
So well done to Boaz Mauda and well done to Israel for this lovely song.
I must hasten to add that the point of this blog entry is not to question whether or not Céline Dion is successful. I love her to bits and it is clear that she is one of the biggest and most influential artists in the world.
However, unlike ABBA, whose international career was without doubt jump-started by their Eurovision win, I have to ponder, wouldn't Céline have made it anyway?
Someone with such an amazing voice, such beauty, such charisma and stage presence, and the driving forces of René Angélil and Jean-Jacques Goldman on her side, this talented woman would always have eventually become a global superstar.
That is my opinion, anyway.
However, we can't deny that appearing on Eurovision - and winning it - helped her a great deal when it came to gaining international exposure. She represented Switzerland in 1988 with the song, "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi."
Although I had known that she won the competition one year for Switzerland, I had never actually heard the song until quite recently.
Listening to it for the first time, I had high standards, because I love Céline Dion's music, especially when she sings in French as she does in this song, and I love Eurovision, so I was hoping this would be something spectacular.
In reality, I was a bit disappointed at first, because I found the verses a bit too slow, and the changes between the verses and the faster choruses a bit too abrupt and unnatural-sounding.
I also thought it was all a bit clichéd and generic (how many times have I said that about Eurovision songs! But then, I guess back then there was a winning formula and it kind of made sense to stick to it).
However, Céline fans, don't storm off in fury yet! Because when I listened to this song again a few days later... I really liked it. I kind of "got" the change in the verse and the chorus speed this time, and how it can sound quite effective. And I love the lyrics...
"Vous qui cherchez l'étoile,
Vous qui vivez un rêve."
"You who seek the star,
You who live a dream."
It is a very beautiful song.
I also love how she is one of those artists who are always changing their image - though in Céline's case, it seems like a natural change as she has grown and matured, unlike some people who change their image just to expand their market.
However, I feel that the magical thing about Céline is that while she has changed so much, in essence she has stayed the same - same big voice, same emotion when she is singing, same presence.
And she is recognisable; she hasn't metamorphosed physically like many artists of her age have since their younger days. I think what we can gather from this is that firstly, Céline stays true to herself and her natural musical style, and secondly, her music is timeless.
I really like this song now, and I will always love Céline ♥ A worthy winner!
This will be a short blog, I'm afraid, because I am really busy today. I just wanted to share with you one of my all-time favourite Eurovision songs: Butterflies, by 3+2, which was the entry for Belarus in Eurovision 2010 in Norway.
This was the same year that It's For You by Niamh Kavanagh was the Irish entry, and for me these two songs were far and away the two most beautiful in the competition. Both the video for Butterflies and its performance at the competition are lovely to watch, and I want wings like that! All the band are good but I especially love the guy who sings the second verse and then finishes the song. He has a lovely voice and sings with real passion and emotion. It turns out the two blonde singers are twins - I hadn't even realised this until I read it recently and looked properly! I feel a bit silly now that I didn't realise before. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this song as much as I do. Thanks for reading. Liz x Song: Butterflies - 3+2 - 2010
It's about time I did a blog entry on Jean-Jacques Goldman; after all he is one for my favourite singer/songwriters and I also owe a lot of the French I know to him!
Firstly, if you don't speak French, please don't be put off listening to his music. There is a strong case for music being THE universal language. Whilst the lyrics are important, there is also so much of the song in the voice, the emotion, the melody and the instruments. And if you can understand the lyrics, that's a bonus, especially with Jean-Jacques Goldman because his lyrics are generally very beautiful.
I will share with you some of my favourite Goldman songs and why I love them, and I will quote and give my translation of some of my favourite Goldman lyrics.
I discovered this singer through my brother; and I am very grateful to him for leading me to this musical genius. It came about because my brother and I often listen to a French compilation CD we have, named "Platine 45," after the Jacky TV music show of the same name that ran in France in the 80s. The compilation contains songs of the time mainly from France but with a few British or German additions. One of the French songs is "Je Marche Seul," by Jean-Jacques Goldman.
I had never listened to this song; I don't know why. Many of the songs on that CD I have only discovered recently, because I once had the somewhat cowardly tendency to stick to the English language songs that I understood. More recently that has changed completely and now I listen to French music as much as English; maybe more if I'm in a particularly French sort of mood.
Anyway, at the time I discovered Jean-Jacques, I had listened to and enjoyed a few of the French songs on the CD, and then my brother suggested listening to this. I did, not expecting much because I arrogantly thought I had already sniffed out all the good songs on the CD.
However, within a verse's worth of Je Marche Seul, I was in love. Well, maybe not quite yet, but I certainly thought it was a very good song.
I then went away and forgot about it. Then, a bit later, I was on YouTube and I decided to find it. I did, and I enjoyed it so much I set to learning the words to it, which I managed pretty quickly. I still know them to this day.
The first video here is the version I first saw and fell in love with. The second appears to be the official video, but I find it a bit odd. It might help if I understood Russian (if that's what language it is).
Having discovered this, I searched YouTube for other Jean-Jacques videos, and came across several similarly up-tempo songs such as Encore Un Matin (which taught me how to form possessive pronouns in French).
These songs I liked, but it wasn't until I found Famille that I realised I had been missing out on the other side of Goldman; the side I would come to love so dearly. Besides the writer of catchy and powerful pop/rock songs, there is also the tender, gentle side, who writes beautiful, inspirational, moving and emotional songs. I honestly don't know now how I lived before I discovered his music.
Famille is just stunning; so beautiful. He plays piano gorgeously, and he sings with such emotion and love. The lyrics are beautiful, although admittedly at one point not very politically correct. But the overall sentiment of this chanson is just adorable. I love it. One of those songs you can always, always listen to, and that you can listen to again and again without getting tired of it for one minute.
From this song, I discovered On Ira, in the list of associated videos at the side on YouTube. This has become perhaps my favourite Goldman song, and even one of my favourite French songs (and I listen to a lot of French music nowadays, so that is a strong accolade!) It is just so incredibly beautiful.
I searched in vain for a long time to find out who the actress in this video is; eventually it transpired it is Elodie Navarre. I had thought she seemed familiar to me, and looking up Navarre I found out she was in a French film I saw a few years ago called, "Jeux d'enfants" (Love Me If You Dare seems to be the English title). That might explain the familiarity, although I don't think I can really remember her character.
Anyway, I think she does a really good job in this video, although I don't by any means condone rude hand gestures. But basically, I think this song is amazing.
"Oh belle, on ira, on suivra les étoiles, et les chercheurs d'or,
Si on en trouve, on cherchera encore!"
"Oh my beautiful, let's go, we'll follow the stars and the gold-diggers,
And if we find them, we'll keep searching!"
But every line of this song is amazing and so moving. It will always be one of my favourite songs in any language.
The next JJ Goldman song I came across was Au Bout de mes Rêves.
It is more bouncy and upbeat than the previous two songs I have highlighted, but I find it is also very beautiful and the lyrics are very good if, like me, you like analysing songs, because I find them a bit ambiguous and therefore interesting to look into, not to mention pretty and poetic.
Plus, the musicianship in this song is just amazing, and the song itself is so happy! It can really make you feel better if you're not in too good a mood. It makes me smile :)
And in the second video, I think the way they put a music note in the middle of their "Melody" channel logo is quite clever. (Not very relevant, but I thought I'd mention it!)
I then found, "Là-Bas." Need I say more? I don't think any words can do justice to such a beautiful, wonderful song. Here it is:
The beautiful, talented woman who sings in this is called Sirima, and I think she is simply amazing.
So beautiful, such a good voice - and an unusual voice - and plays the part of her character in this song and video so convincingly and with such raw, tender emotion.
She would have been a superstar, I know it. But sadly she died two years after Là-Bas was released; murdered at the age of twenty-five. I cannot believe what a waste this was; of life, of talent; and even if she hadn't been a talented singer, ending anybody's life at twenty-five is just horrendous.
Although it is little consolation, at least we have this song and video to remember her by.
For those who can't understand the French (although I think a lot of it is illustrated well in the video) this is a song about emigration. Well, that is how it appears to me. Goldman's character ponders leaving their rural home to try to find a better life in an unknown place referred to only as "Là-Bas" - "over there." Meanwhile, Sirima, playing the role of his girlfriend/fiancée, begs him to stay because she wants to marry him and start a family. She worries that;
"N'y va pas; il y a des tempêtes et des naufrages.
Le feu, les diables, et les mirages.
Je te sais si fragile parfois,
Reste au creux de moi."
"Don't go there; there are storms and shipwrecks,
Fire, devils and mirages
I know you to be so fragile sometimes,
Stay here close to me."
Words cannot describe how much I love this song ♥ It's almost humbling to listen to; it's so stunning and... just perfect. You couldn't ask for more in a song. This is in serious contention with On Ira for the title of my favourite JJ Goldman song. It is so beautiful.
Also, because of the time when I discovered it and first listened to it a lot, it is connected to certain memories and sentiments for me personally. Just hearing the beat can transport me to another place and time. I hadn't anticipated this happening, but it does, and it's yet another thing to make me love this song.
I mentioned this song and how much I liked it to my French teacher, also a Goldman fan, and she recommended that I listen to Puisque Tu Pars (Since You Left), a Goldman song on the same album as Là-Bas. I gave it a listen, and I have to admit that the first time I heard it I wasn't that keen on it. However, the second time I listened to it, I fell in love with yet another Jean-Jacques Goldman song.
Listening to it now I can't believe I didn't realise straight away how astoundingly good it is. So beautiful and heartbreaking. The video as much as the song. Both are so simple, yet work so perfectly to convey their message, and both are so moving and can make me feel quite emotional.
The next (and penultimate) JJG song I wanted to share with you is Il Changeait la Vie.
Another song that I didn't like the first time for some reason but I loved from the second listening onwards. I think it forms the bridge between Goldman's softer, gentler songs, and the more up-tempo, high energy anthems. This song is tender and emotional and the lyrics are so touching; whilst the beat is fast and catchy and I love it.
It tells the story of how ordinary people can really make a mark on somebody's life; he highlights a cobbler, a teacher and a saxophone player. I really like the tune, but with this song it is certainly les paroles - the lyrics - that make me love it.
About the saxophone player:
"Et il mit tant de temps, de larmes at de douleur;
Les rêves de sa vie, les prisons de son cœur."
"And he put in so much time, so many tears, so much pain;
The dreams of his life, the prisons of his heart."
I love it ♥
The final JJG song I wanted to tell you about is Juste Après - Just Afterwards.
I must warn you now that the video is very graphic and contains scenes which you might find upsetting. It is centred around a baby being born not breathing, and the medics' attempts to save the child. It is very moving but also, as you would probably imagine, very scary, graphic and could be upsetting. So proceed with caution.
The video may not be watch-able for certain people, but I would recommend the song itself to anyone. It is just so beautiful. I would just love to be able to play it on the piano.
His guest singers, whom I believe to be Michael Jones and Carole Fredericks (although I would appreciate this being in the YouTube video description! They don't even credit Sirima in Là-Bas on YouTube), are brilliant too, and I think the three of them singing together is what elevates this from a very good Goldman song to a stunningly beautiful celebration of human life.
It is so haunting, yet so positive and hopeful at the same time. I have truly never heard another song quite like it.
I haven't been trying to put these songs in the order of when they were released; it's more the order in which I discovered and inevitably fell in love with them. However, I've realised that by chance the first and last song of this blog entry were released a decade apart - not only showing that JJ Goldman was on the French music scene for a long time, but a sign, I think, that Goldman's music and way of writing songs will never get old. It is timeless.
Yet another contender for my favourite Goldman song! I don't know if I'll ever be able to decide for sure which is my favourite. I'll just accept that they're all amazing. One thing is for sure, Jean-Jacques Goldman is sans doute - without doubt - my favourite French singer and I know I will always listen to and appreciate his music.
So merci tellement to my brother and my teacher for helping me discover and learn more about this wonderful artist whose music has made me so happy over the year or so since I first found it.
I hope that you, my reader, enjoy his music too.
Merci d'avoir pris le temps de lire cet article.
Liz x
Songs:
Je Marche Seul - Jean-Jacques Goldman - 1985
Famille - Jean-Jacques Goldman - 1985
On Ira - Jean-Jacques Goldman - 1998
Au Bout de mes Rêves - Jean-Jacques Goldman - 1983
My mum recommended this to me and, like most songs she recommends to me, it is amazing.
Gorgeous song, just exquisite. Roberta has a fantastic voice and sings this beautifully and with so much soul and feeling. The lyrics are lovely and the tune is mesmerisingly beautiful and emotional.
The arrangement on this LP is amazing; the sound is clear and sharp and the instruments and Roberta's voice go together perfectly and create the most gorgeous harmonies.
I will sign off before I have used the word "gorgeous" a million times! But it describes this song to a T!
Be warned: this video is a bit psychedelic towards the beginning!
I discovered this via Strictly Come Dancing, and now I love it! Truly beautiful lyrics and music, and two amazing voices which suit each other gorgeously. I love this song! I can't get it out of my head! Just wonderful.
Song: I Don't Know Much - Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville
