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'm sorry that I haven't been able to post much recently, but I've had a very busy summer with various projects to complete and two wonderful holidays in Wales and Germany.
I wanted to share with you a song that has sort of defined this summer for me - I discovered it in May or June and have been listening to it since.
It is... Follow You Follow Me by Genesis.
It stirs up such emotion in me... It's so beautiful. The words, the singing, the music and the production are all brilliant.
Listening to it now, I've realised just how many memories are now attached to it for me. I think it will always make me happy and remind me of the summer of 2013.
I hope you enjoyed this post; you can look forward to me posting much more often in the weeks to come.
Today is the 4th of July which for some people will mean fireworks and celebrations, so I hope that if it concerns you, you are enjoying this special day. For me, however, this date is important for another, more personal reason: it was the 4th of July last year when I first posted my finished Montpellier trip film on YouTube. Here it is:
We went on this college trip in March/April 2011 and I really loved it. It opened my eyes to the culture of the south of France, where I had never been before.
I really got the chance to practise my French, and I could feel it improving more and more during the nine days we spent in Montpellier and Carcassonne. And I really enjoyed making the film of the trip - it was hard work but was truly a labour of love. I am so happy with the final result.
I had such a good time in Languedoc-Roussillon (the region of France we visited) that I went on the trip again this year, and again I had a lovely time. And again, I am making a film so that we can look back and remember the great times we spent together in such an amazing place.
I'm really pleased with the way this year's film is coming along, and hopefully it will be up on YouTube soon.
A song I have been listening to a lot recently is I've Been In Love Before by Cutting Crew.
As well as being incredibly beautiful, this song brings back lots of memories for me: I remember around the first time I started listening to it was on a lovely family holiday in London, and I remember driving down leafy green lanes listening to this in the car.
It also brings back memories of another enjoyable trip I went on around the same time; a school trip to Belgium. I remember listening to this on my MP3 player in the coach and being moaned at for having my music too loud! I love this song ♥
I hope you enjoy it too.
Thanks for reading,
Liz x
Song: I've Been In Love Before - Cutting Crew - 1986/7
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 ♥
I am well aware that it is nearly the end of June and I haven't blogged since May. I apologise for this, although in my defence I must say that I have been very busy.
Since blogging last, I have finished college; had my college Leaver's Do, which was lovely; done all of my summer exams; done a lot of work on some important writing projects I have had going; got a Saturday job; and have completed my course in Mandarin Chinese, through which I have met some lovely people and have learnt a lot.
I've also been to several really enjoyable pub quizzes, and I have done a lot of zumba. Zumba, as well as being really good fun, is also for me a chance to discover some great new music, and maybe rediscover some songs that I had forgotten.
So, I have been busy! But I have still found the time to listen to some music. One song which came out quite recently which I really love, and which my mum also likes, is Picking Up the Pieces by Paloma Faith.
I used to have mixed views on Paloma Faith; some of her previous songs I admired musically but I didn't really connect with emotionally. However, this song I feel is just beautiful; I love the tune, the lyrics, the emotion behind it, and of course her voice is amazing as always. And she is very beautiful. Overall, I really love this song and am looking forward to more music from Paloma in the future.
Another recent song (or, rather, a song that has been recently rereleased) that I quite like is We Are Young by Fun.
This was a song that grew on me; I wasn't a massive fan to begin with, because it sounded very generic. I still think it's generic, but I've come to like it anyway, just because it's a nice song to listen to, and easy to sing along to, and the tune sticks in your head!
There can be no doubt that it sounds like many other songs (Sailing by Rod Stewart, Puisque Tu Pars by Jean-Jacques Goldman), so it gets no prizes from me for originality, but for musicality, smoothness and polish it deserves a high accolade.
Tomorrow I intend to do one final June blog highlighting some other songs I have been listening to and enjoying during this last busy month. It will also be a bit of a celebration of June and all that I have achieved, and the good times I have had, because this has really been a special month for me personally.
I hope you have had a nice June as well ♥
Yours musically
Liz x
Songs: Picking Up the Pieces - Paloma Faith - 2012
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.
...and reminiscing about good times - hearing this for the first time on the radio while eating in a supermarket café and wondering what it was; looking it up and finding out it was Gloria Estefan and being pleased because I like a lot of her music; then listening to it a great deal on YouTube in the next few weeks, maybe even the next few months.
This was all in my early days of college, so hearing the song always brings back very strong and distinct memories; for example sitting in the language lab at lunchtimes on Fridays because I'd had a lesson there before lunch, and listening to music calmly and happily for an hour and maybe doing a bit of homework, before going to biology in the afternoon. This is how I would generally end my college week, and it was a pleasant ending, and this song brings it all back very clearly. Thank you, Gloria! ♥
Also I can't mention those early college days without this song, which for a while I simply could not get out of my head:
More good memories! Particularly of bus rides home - the scenery near our college is quite nice and, much as I love college, it was always nice to be going home after a hard day's work for a well-deserved rest : ) And, as I've said, I couldn't get this song out of my head. So thank you Amy Grant too ♥ And I think it's adorable that she wrote the lyrics of this song for her baby daughter.
That's probably enough reminiscing about college for the time being; I should probably get on with my homework; but I hope maybe you've enjoyed these songs too, and that this blog post has inspired you to consider which songs have a special significance for you.
Merci de lire,
(that means thanks for reading!)
Liz x
Songs: Don't Wanna Lose You - Gloria Estefan - 1989
"There's a melody in my head, and I ain't stopped humming it since I saw your face..."
This is lovely, I discovered it a few years ago and it is one of my favourite songs. The lyrics are gorgeous, and she has a really good voice. I love the video too; Katrina is so sweet and the landscapes in the video are so wild and natural and beautiful.
"I wanna laugh, I wanna live,
I'm gonna love you like there is...
like there is no end in sight..."
So adorable!
And she reminds me so much of Ola Jordan from Strictly Come Dancing! And Helen Skelton!
I love this song, it's one of those happy songs that just makes you smile
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
