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 will be posting on this music blog again soon - I'll tell you all about my time in France, about my two trips to Spanish Catalonia and about the music that for me will always resonate with memories of this unique year.
It is Friday night and I have come home from Uni for the weekend. I have had a busy week - my first week of lectures and classes.
There have been some problems, mainly getting lost around the huge university, but on the whole I have enjoyed this week. I have had the chance to meet people doing the same subjects as me, and I have made some new friends.
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You never realise just how many people you will meet at university. People in your halls of residence, people in your classes, people in societies you have joined. It is amazing how many people you meet.
And although I feel like I must have met all the students in Manchester, I know in reality I can only have met a tiny percentage. It's amazing to think how many more friends there are out there for me to make, if I only meet them somehow. Ah well, fate often brings people together who were meant to end up in each others' lives.
"I do believe, love came our way, and fate did arrange for us to meet."
A line from Almost Unreal, one of my favourite songs by Roxette, who are one of my favourite bands. Actually, this song has been stuck in my head, not because I have been thinking of fate, but for reasons I can't quite put my finger on... it just floated into my head! Anyway, it is a brilliant song so I will share it with you.
"Yeah, come on and do the hocus pocus to me;
The way that you touch, you've got the power to heal."
I love Marie Fredriksson's voice! She is so beautiful and has an air of wisdom about her. The song is so incredible; I think it is one of the mist underrated songs I have ever come across. It is up there with the best ballads of the 90s.
And the video is so ahead of its time; it is technically stunning and you could think that it had been made today, rather than back in 1993.
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People are like songs; you can think you know all the ones worth knowing and then you discover one that is incredible and you wonder how you lived without it/them. That is my deep and meaningful observation for the day!
An example of a song I discovered just yesterday, and which I love very much already, is The Sun, Moon and Stars. The version I know is sung by Nanci Griffith, but the song was written by Vince Bell.
I love how she does a typical Nanci introduction to it - one of the things I love about Nanci Griffith is the way she introduces most of her live performances with a bit of information about the song, or an anecdote related to it.
They are so endearing, and teach you things about the song you never knew or realised, which make the song so much more special and dear to you.
And I may not have understood the exact meaning behind this song had she not said what she said at the beginning. A few words made everything so clear. It is a song about the importance of friendship, something I am very aware of at the moment. I will probably always associate this song with my starting university now!
Not that you would have found me, "drunken in a bar, with the fan turning," as I don't drink alcohol... But the message still stands that friends are one of the most amazing things we can have in our lives! Don't take your friends for granted. Never forget how amazing they are. Yes, I know I use the word amazing too much. It is my word. And here it is the right word; the only word that will do.
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Watching this video and listening to the song, I realised what people mean when they say Nanci has an angel's voice. I had always thought her voice was beautiful and powerful, but it was her songwriting rather than her voice that endeared her to me.
Seeing the way she interprets this song, the way she uses her voice so cleverly, so carefully, so sincerely to tell a story, to convey every ounce of emotion in her, to make every word beautiful and significant...
I realised listening to this just what an amazing gift she has vocally, that she can sing other peoples' songs as if they were her own story - and with this song you get the idea that she understands and empathises with every word. She is amazing. Nobody deserves higher praise than Nanci Griffith. She really is an angel.
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This song has also taught me not to be prejudiced and judge a song based on the first line - another life lesson that can be applied to people as well. I heard the beginning of the album version of The Sun, Moon and Stars once and I didn't think a lot of it, so I stopped listening.
The live version changed my mind, and so I listened to the album version again (from Late Night Grande Hotel) and I really like it - maybe not as much as the live one posted above, but it is a very beautiful and special song in its own way.
Nanci is one of those gifted few who can do an equally good job on a recorded and a live version of a song; making both incredible in their own right. I've said it before and I'll say it again: she is a genius.
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In other news, I have started the new term of my Mandarin Chinese course, and it was lovely seeing my friends from the course again. We meet once a week to learn Chinese, and I love it - the group is so friendly and we all get on really well.
Also, for those who have been keeping track of my Cornerhouse antics, tomorrow is the day we compile our shortlist of artists for the exhibition we are planning. I am really looking forward to getting back to Cornerhouse, and seeing my fellow curators Alex and Neetu again.
Our family friend Tommi is visiting, which is lovely. He lives in Germany and hopefully one day I will be able to converse with him in German - it is a language I have always wanted to learn and maybe now I am at Uni I will have the chance to.
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The moon is very bright tonight in Wigan; we were all looking at it through binoculars. Kind of fitting that I have written about a song called The Sun, Moon and Stars!
Thanks for reading,
Liz x
Songs: Almost Unreal - Roxette - 1993
The Sun, Moon and Stars - Nanci Griffith - album version 1991; live version here 1990
I am very happy and excited because I got my A-Level results yesterday and I got the results I needed to go to my first-choice university! I am going to the University of Manchester! Whoooooo!
Needless to say, I am very chuffed. But slightly scared... starting university is probably one of the biggest, most challenging things I will ever do, leaving home and learning to live by myself and become independent.
However, I feel well up for that challenge, and will throw myself into university life. As they say, you only get out of things what you put in, and I intend to do everything I can to make my four years at university as amazing as they possibly can be ♥
I will be studying French and Spanish, but I intend to try studying some other languages in my free time, and I will look for clubs and societies to join - hopefully there will be French and Spanish societies, as well as the chance to keep playing badminton, and maybe even do some more zumba!
Talking of zumba, I went to a Steps-themed zumba yesterday, and it was brilliant! I enjoyed it so much - more than I had expected to. I had thought that Steps only had a few big hits, but at zumba there were lots of songs that I quite liked, and I may listen to more music by Steps from now on (and maybe do the dances)!
I've had so many lovely messages from my family and friends congratulating me on my results and getting into Manchester Uni, and I'm so grateful and happy to have so much love and support. Knowing they will always be there for me makes me feel more confident about making the huge jump of going to Uni.
There's a song that I had heard briefly and liked, but that recently my brother brought back to my attention and I realised I really like it. (And now it's stuck in my head.) It's Express Yourself by Labrinth. Give it a listen if you haven't already. Here is a video my brother made with the song which I prefer to the official video.
Also, in honour of me starting Uni I have to share one of the most hopeful, beautiful songs I know: Life Is Large by the Kennedys; Pete and Maura.
This amazingly talented pair were the opening act for Nanci Griffith when I saw her live in concert in Salford Quays for my eighteenth birthday treat earlier this year. I had heard of the Kennedys before then but I hadn't really known their music so it was great to discover them! ♥
Photos courtesy of my mum.
I was lucky enough to meet Pete and Maura Kennedy after the show and they were so lovely.
I bought their latest CD, which they very kindly signed for me, and it has a live version of Life Is Large, which is one of the most wonderful songs you will ever hear. It is simply gorgeous. The guitar playing, the vocals, the lyrics...
"We've only got one chance to walk this line;
If you should get lost or stuck in time.
Just believe this road does not end here.
How do you want to be remembered; a raging fire or a dying ember?"
Amazing. I love the version in the video earlier in this blog post which I presume is the album version, but my favourite has to be the live one... It is just incredible. So atmospheric and intimate and emotional and direct. One of the few songs I can listen to in any mood and still enjoy completely.
I will also share a stunning performance by the Kennedys of When I Go by Dave Carter.
I feel like I don't even have the right to comment on something so beautiful and perfect but I must say it is the song I wish I had written. I can't say for sure but I feel there is something very Native American in the melody and lyrics and, as I have some of this in my ancestry, this song feels very close to me personally and means a lot to me.
It is hard to pick out one lyric to highlight because every line is beautiful, but among the ones which I found most poignant are:
"I'll send this message down the wire and hope that someone wise is listening when I go."
"...in showers of crimson rubies when I go."
"And should you glimpse my wandering form upon the borderline, between death and resurrection and the council of the pines.
Do not worry for my comfort, do not sorrow for my soul,
Or your diamond tears will rise up in the dawn sky beside me when I go."
Truly beautiful. If I could ever write a song anywhere near as powerful and moving I would be very happy. I am not too familiar with the work of Dave Carter, but if this song is anything to go by he must have been a very, very gifted songwriter.
I really think the world would be a sadder, more desperate place without this song. It almost embraces death, makes it feel like something not to be afraid of. It is also a celebration of this beautiful world we live in which we often - too often - take for granted.
When I Go is humbling and magical and unlike any other song I have ever heard. I am so grateful to the Kennedys for bringing to my attention a song I may never have heard otherwise.
I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on the Kennedys. I will be off to university in September, and I have no doubt that it will be an amazing experience. It will be a journey of sorts, and you, my blog readers, will be able to take it with me as I blog at every step of the way with news and updates and - of course - plenty of brilliant music to listen to along the way.
This is the beginning of a new chapter in my life, and I'm hoping it's going to be a good one ♥
Today was a lovely day for me personally - I went to college just to sort a few things out and I ended up helping film a project for Winstanley TV, my college's TV station.
It was really brilliant; I love being part of Winstanley TV; filming, editing and producing programmes and films. And today's project was based in the languages department of college, and I love languages - I study French and Spanish and they are what I hope to study further in the future.
So, today was a nice day for me ♥
I want to talk about a song which I saw on TOTP2 a while back, and which I often find drifting into my head. It is Sign of the Times by the Belle Stars, a British female pop group from the 80s.
It is a little bit generic 80s, but I can't help loving it - the beat is good and I love the lead singer Jennie Matthias - she gets so in to the song and you believe what she is singing because she sounds so sincere, as if she means every word.
The woman doing the talky bits I do find a bit scary, and she reminds me of the monologue bit in Human by the Human League. The talking is my favourite bit of Human but my least favourite bit of Sign of the Times! But I do appreciate that it adds to the song.
