What's in a song?

Oleg Bach · August 11, 2009

The kids will make sure the oldies get a good dose of what's new @ home.

ABBA...they're new...right??

You would be amazed what the kids listen too these days - stuff from the twenties and up - they have access to all the good stuff - thanks to tech.

M.Dancer · August 11, 2009

ABBA...they're new...right??

Yep....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_PcNbhVOjw

DogOnPorch · August 11, 2009

Yep....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_PcNbhVOjw

Gotta love Ms Streep.

M.Dancer · August 11, 2009

Gotta love Ms Streep.

Streep? I thought it was Julia Child!

DogOnPorch · August 11, 2009

Streep? I thought it was Julia Child!

Or this gem...

Oleg Bach · August 11, 2009

Or this gem...

Predicktable.

DogOnPorch · August 12, 2009

Predicktable.

Meryl is one of my favorites...so yes you old drunk...predictable.

DogOnPorch · August 12, 2009

There were no cuckoos, no sycamores

We played about the forest floor

Underneath the silver maples, the balsams

And the sky

We popped the heads off dandelions

Assuming roles from nursery rhymes

Rested on a riverbank and grew up by and by

And grew up by and by

Frail my heart apart and play me little Shady Grove

Ring the Bells of Rhymney

Till they ring inside my head

Forever

Bounce the bow,

Rock the gallows for The Hanged Man's Reel

And wake the Devil from his dream

I'm goin' back to Harlan

Goin' back to Harlan

And if you were Willie More,

Then I was Barbara Allen or Fair Ellen

All sad at the cabin door

A-weepin' and a-pinin' for love

Frail my heart apart and play me little Shady Grove

Ring the Bells of Rhymney

Till they ring inside my head

Forever

Bounce the bow, rock the gallows for The Hanged Man's Reel

And wake the Devil from his dream

I'm goin' back to Harlan

Goin' back to Harlan

---

August 14, 2009

My daughter had this song in her wedding last month and it was really beautiful:

Strange and beautiful

are the stars tonight

that dance around your head

in your eyes I see that perfect world

I hope that doesn't sound too weird

And I want all the world to know

that your love's all I need

all that I need

and if we're lost

then we are lost together

yea if we're lost

then we are lost together

I stand before this faceless crowd

and I wonder why I bother

so much controlled by so few

stumbling from one disaster to another

I've heard it all so many times before

it's all a dream to me now

a dream to me now

And if we're lost

then we are lost together

yea if we're lost

then we are lost together

In this silence of this whispered night

I listen only to your breath

and "in" that second of a shooting star

somehow it all makes sense

And I want all the world to know

that your love's all I need

all that I need

and if we're lost

then we are lost together

yea if we're lost

then we are lost together

Edited August 14, 2009 by American Woman

kimmy · August 14, 2009

I am just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told.

I have squandered my resistance,

For a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises.

All lies and jest,

Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.

When I left my home and my family I was no more than a boy,

In the company of strangers,

In the quiet of the railway station, runnin' scared.

Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters,

Where the ragged people go.

Lookin' for the places only they would know.

Asking only workman's wages I come lookin' for a job,

But I get no offers,

Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue.

I do declare there were times when I was so lonesome,

I took some comfort there.

And I’m laying out my winter clothes, and wishing I was gone, goin’ home

Where the new york city winters aren’t bleedin’ me, leadin’ me goin' home.

In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade,

And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down,

Or cut him 'til he cried out in his anger and his shame,

"I am leaving, I am leaving."

But the fighter still remains.

-k

kimmy · August 14, 2009

They were hiding behind hay bales,

They were planting in the full moon

They had given all they had for something new

But the light of day was on them,

They could see the thrashers coming

And the water shone like diamonds in the dew.

And I was just getting up, hit the road before it's light

Trying to catch an hour on the sun

When I saw those thrashers rolling by,

Looking more than two lanes wide

I was feelin' like my day had just begun.

Where the eagle glides ascending

There's an ancient river bending

Down the timeless gorge of changes

Where sleeplessness awaits

I searched out my companions,

Who were lost in crystal canyons

When the aimless blade of science

Slashed the pearly gates.

It was then I knew I'd had enough,

Burned my credit card for fuel

Headed out to where the pavement turns to sand

With a one-way ticket to the land of truth

And my suitcase in my hand

How I lost my friends I still don't understand.

They had the best selection,

They were poisoned with protection

There was nothing that they needed,

Nothing left to find

They were lost in rock formations

Or became park bench mutations

On the sidewalks and in the stations

They were waiting, waiting.

So I got bored and left them there,

They were just deadweight to me

Better down the road without that load

Brings back the time when I was eight or nine

I was watchin' my mama's T.V.,

It was that great Grand Canyon rescue episode.

Where the vulture glides descending

On an asphalt highway bending

Thru libraries and museums, galaxies and stars

Down the windy halls of friendship

To the rose clipped by the bullwhip

The motel of lost companions

Waits with heated pool and bar.

But me I'm not stopping there,

Got my own row left to hoe

Just another line in the field of time

When the thrashers comes, I'll be stuck in the sun

Like the dinosaurs in shrines

But I'll know the time has come

To give what's mine.

-k

kimmy · August 14, 2009

(was this supposed to be the part where I, in my recurring role as the only person here under 40 years old, try to extol the virtues of new music to people who haven't bought a record since 1978? I've done that often enough already, I'll pass.)

-k

August 14, 2009

The wife introduced me to the Ting Tings. Very catchy. I have to say the dance genre in general is doing quite well these days. It's the actual 'rock n' roll' that seems to be having the mid-life crisis.

My sister really likes the Ting Tings. A bunch of us sat out on my patio listening to them on youtube last month and my brother ended up liking them enough to buy tickets to their concert. I'll have to be sure to ask him how he liked it.

One of the things I like about youtube is being able to check out new songs/groups before going out and spending money on their music not knowing if you'll really like it or not.

Wild Bill · August 14, 2009

"So, gather up the pots and the old tin cans!

The corn, the mash, the barley and the bran.

Run like the devil from the Excise man!

Keep the smoke from risin', Barney!

---Nova Scotian traditional

And just to keep this thread political:

"Sea Kings in the Sun

(Sung to the tune of Seasons in the Sun)

Goodbye papa please pray for me

My helicopter's crashing in the sea

I honestly don't mean to pout,

but my future is in doubt,

My co-pilot just fell out.

Goodbye papa it's hard to fly,

When my airframe’s cracking in the sky,

For every hour in the air,

it takes them 30 to repair,

We fly these things on a dare.

We've had joy, we've had fun,

We've had Sea Kings in the sun,

But the engines are on fire,

and the Sea Kings must retire,

Goodbye Chrétien my stingy one,

You could have bought the EH-101,

Instead you blew 500 mil,

Just to cancel out the bill,

Now I need an airsick pill.

We've had joy, we've had fun,

We've had Sea Kings in the sun

We'll be lucky if we reach,

a crash landing on the beach."

---Canadian Armed Forces traditional

msj · August 14, 2009

(was this supposed to be the part where I, in my recurring role as the only person here under 40 years old, try to extol the virtues of new music to people who haven't bought a record since 1978? I've done that often enough already, I'll pass.)

I'm under 40 and this thread is still bogus.

Wild Bill · August 14, 2009

I'm under 40 and this thread is still bogus.

That's your opinion and you're entitled to it!

Meanwhile, the rest of us are having fun! 3 pages of it, so far.

That's better than a lot of other threads! :lol:

Argus · August 14, 2009

(was this supposed to be the part where I, in my recurring role as the only person here under 40 years old, try to extol the virtues of new music to people who haven't bought a record since 1978? I've done that often enough already, I'll pass.)
-k

Yes, actually, and you posted Simon and Garfunkle and Neil Young. Fail!

The latest album I've actually bought bought, was An Ancient Muse - by Loreena McKennett a couple of years ago.

The latest music I've downloaded and actually liked enough to repeatedly listen to was Sarah Slean's Get Home.

August 14, 2009

I'm under 40 and this thread is still bogus.

Apparently not bogus enough to keep you from reading through it and posting in it.

msj · August 14, 2009

Apparently not bogus enough to keep you from reading through it and posting in it.

That's what I do!

I only respond to bogus threads to expose the bogusee for what he/she really is!

It's my kind of "fun."

kimmy · August 15, 2009

Yes, actually, and you posted Simon and Garfunkle and Neil Young. Fail!
The latest album I've actually bought bought, was An Ancient Muse - by Loreena McKennett a couple of years ago.

The latest music I've downloaded and actually liked enough to repeatedly listen to was Sarah Slean's Get Home.

I thought this was the "post your favorite lyrics" thread. Neil Young and Simon and Garfunkle are writers that I think stand out as among the very best.

As for the other thing, no, I can't be bothered. It's only been a couple of weeks since the last "summit of the generations" thread. If you're actually interested in new music, Youtube is a great place to start... go nuts. If this is another one of those "things were better in the good old days" threads, I'm sure I won't be able to convince you otherwise. I mean, I've gone on at great length in threads about TV, and movies, and music. I've explained that the good old days just weren't as good as you remember, because you've forgotten the dog-crap that made up 95% of everything that was on TV and in theatres and on the radio. I'll stand pat; there's nothing more for me to add.

-k

{"...I never watch TV anymore, but it seems to me like it sucks. Back in my day, we were breaking new ground, like the time they flushed a toilet on Archie Bunker. Who's taking that kind of risk nowadays?"...}

lily · August 15, 2009

(was this supposed to be the part where I, in my recurring role as the only person here under 40 years old, try to extol the virtues of new music to people who haven't bought a record since 1978? I've done that often enough already, I'll pass.)
-k

I'm over 40 and I like a lot of today's music.

There's been enough good stuff and bad stuff in each generation to make this thread zoom to 10+ pages. And IMO - the first sign of being "old" is complaining about "the crao that passes for 'music' these days". :lol:

August1991 · August 15, 2009

What a thread. It deserves a better response but here's a start.

In English, Cole Porter wrote good lyrics and wrote the delightful lyric "how strange the change, from major to minor" when

changed exactly from major to minor. That's hard to beat! (I have always liked Simply Red's version.)

I prefer the Claude François/Sardou version Comme d'habitude because it is so powerful in its ordinariness - "Tu me tournes le dos... ". (Here's better version - slower to load though.) BTW, Paul Anka bought the melody and added and sold his English lyrics to Sinatra. Anka was a smart Maronite from Ottawa. Someone should do the same for Gérard Lenorman's Voici les clefs and Le boulevard de l'océan. Both are melodies crying out for an English translation/tranferral. (In my ear, Voici les clefs=I wannabe, I wannabe an American girl.)

Correct me if I'm wrong but popular commercial opera started with Mozart's

. In the 19th century, ordinary people had enough income to pay for entertainment and opera (Puccini, Gilbert & Sullivan, Berlioz) became popular. Talking movies changed this because vaudeville was no longer profitable. Plastic discs, 78 rpm, 45 rpm, then changed the nature of music.

Composers and lyricists could make money by selling plastic discs. They took time to compose and invent.

Nowadays, people can copy music/lyrics without paying. There's little money in creation. So, composers resort to electronic symphonies, easy voices and repetitive lyrics. The typical Italian pop song is three tall dyed blondes in bikinis lip-synching "I want you baby" to an electronic track. Anything more sophisticated would cost too much and just get ripped off anyway.

So, good musicians must now play live, or they play TV gigs. That's a milk cow for old established groups (eg. Aerosmith, McCartney) but makes it hard for new musicians to break through.

But, there is cinema.

As long as cinema remains, like a church, a place where a young guy can sit beside or look at a young girl, then people will pay to enter a cinema or a theatre.

I suspect that there will be a revival in the popular preference to songs (melody/lyrics) in the near future. Musicians will compose for the cinema. I recently saw the movie 500 Days of Summer. It was filled with pop music. I am sure that Hollywood producers are now brandishing cheque books, ordering pop music.