Song Lyric Sunday – 28 February 2021 – Starless

Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday gives us the chance to share familiar, and sometimes not so familiar, songs. This week the title or lyrics of the song must contain the word Breeze, Cloud, Sky, or Wind. 

If you fancy sharing one of your favourite songs you can find out how to participate, and also listen to all the great entries, here.

The song I’ve chosen this week contains the word sky, but only once!

Last week it was 1minute 30seconds before we hit the song lyrics. This week we add another 3 seconds before any word is heard and the last lyric will be heard at 4minutes 18seconds and yet the track is 12.36 long.  How can this be a Song Lyric Sunday?

Do I care?  Well, quite frankly, no.  This one is a Marmite song (Vegemite for some).  You will either love it or hate it!

The video is a masterpiece. It shows each artist clearly.  The 3 – yes 3 – percussionists, one of whom also plays the mellotron.  The clarinetist with his red braces (suspenders). The imposing bass player, cool as cool could be. The guitarist, singer, in the middle, displaying his lovely curly red hair.  Then there’s the quiet chap, sitting in the top right corner. 

Robert Fripp, excels on lead guitar.  He is the only remaining founder member of King Crimson, an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968. They exerted a strong influence both on the early 1970s progressive rock movement and on more recent rock and experimental artists. Though Fripp is often seen as the band’s leader, Fripp himself tends to shun this label.  However, I shall concentrate my comments on him!

There are all sorts of subtleties in this performance.  I particularly like the hand over of lead guitar at 6.12, and when did the first handover occur anyway????

Apart from the fact that I adore this song there are all sorts of side issues that are fascinating. The more you look, the more there is to see. However, I’ll let you now choose whether you wish to spend the next 13 minutes listening to this masterpiece.

Starless is a suite written and performed by King Crimson.  It is the final track on their seventh studio album, Red, released on 6 October 1974.   If you wish to cut this short, by all means do so – but you will be missing something special.  If instead, you wish to discover whether Robert is naughty in the bedroom then dash ahead to beneath the video!

Starless

King Crimson

Sundown dazzling day
Gold through my eyes
But my eyes turned within
Only see
Starless and bible black

Old friend charity
Cruel twisted smile
And the smile signals emptiness
For me
Starless and bible black

Ice blue silver sky
Fades into grey
To a grey hope that oh yearns 
To be
Starless and bible black

Sundown dazzling day
Gold through my eyes
But my eyes turned within
Only see
Starless and bible black

Old friend charity
Cruel twisted smile
And the smile signals emptiness
For me
Starless and bible black

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: David Francis Cross / Richard William Palmer James / Robert Fripp / William Scott Bruford / John Kenneth Wetton

Level Five lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

So, you either now love it, hate it, or have missed out on the opportunity to find out.  More now about that fantastic lead guitarist.

Robert Fripp chooses to sit whilst playing, he’s always preferred to do so.  Since 1985 he has used New Standard Tuning, which he developed himself, and he plays right handed although he is naturally left handed.

Apart from heading this band he has been a session musician on many recordings and at many concerts and is held in the highest esteem by many guitarists around the world.  He has worked with David Bowie, Blondie, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Daryl Hall, Midge Ure, Talking Heads, and David Sylvian.  He has even helped create the sounds for the Windows Vista operating system. He has contributed to over 700 record releases.

And he has been married to Toyah Willcox since 1986 and has an asteroid named after him!

Not bad for a quiet little chap in the corner!

I really am in awe of this gentleman, and he’s married to Toyah Willcox!  Did I mention that?

During the Covid19 pandemic Robert and Toyah have been performing regularly online.  If you search on your favourite site you will be down a rabbit hole for at least half an hour.

Here’s a sample

and to find out if they are naughty in the bedroom look here

and, finally, Jim, who hosts SLS, tells me that he is a keen user of his home gymnasium, so this one is for him!

I can only shake my head in wonderment!!!!!!!

I do hope that you have enjoyed this as much as I have.

A to Z of Nonsense

Arbitrary avenues, bellicose bends

Cantilevered caverns, dangerous dens

Every single episode could easily expose

Fancy if you will and gather all the goes

Hurry to the harbour, investigate the Ids

Jump every jerrycan kissing all the kids

Leap over lanterns, many then some more

Nicking all the neaps and offering an oar

Picking up some peppers, quacking in a queue

Running rings around us stirring up the stew

Taking turns to tamper, urging we undock

Voting for the vampires and cooking with a wok

Exiting excitingly yawning yet again

Zeds and zoos and zany clues adds zest we can’t explain

Song Lyric Sunday – 21 February 2021 – Cups

Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday gives us the chance to share familiar, and sometimes not so familiar, songs. This week the title or lyrics of the song must contain the word Long, Short, Small, or Tall.

If you fancy sharing one of your favourite songs you can find out how to participate, and also listen to all the great entries, here.

The song I’ve chosen this week contains the word LONG, although you’d be hard pushed to find it.  In fact, the word appears twice. It is always referred to as “The Cups Song” and I’m offering you the Official Video version of Pitch Perfect’s “When I’m Gone”.

The singer is Anna Kendrick and, although she is probably best known for her role in this 2012 film Pitch Perfect she was singing long before this.  Aside from starring in a few movie musicals over the past few years, Kendrick has even performed on a real life Broadway stage.

Here she is.  I hope you enjoy it.

The Cups Song became very popular, especially as a project for amateur groups.  If you search you will find many interesting recordings and they all have one thing in common.  Everyone taking part is thoroughly enjoying themselves.  Albania recorded a world record attempt in 2017 that is pretty spectacular to watch.

One of the best, to my mind, is a recording sung in Irish.  I think the language is a real joy to listen to, it is lyrical even if you are being sworn at!  The danger with adding this video is that I shall spend a good part of today finding other Irish lyrical songs.  I hope you join me! 

Cups (Pitch Perfect’s “When I’m Gone”)

Anna Kendrick

I got my ticket for the long way ’round
Two bottle o’ whiskey for the way
And I sure would like some sweet company
And I’m leavin’ tomorrow, what do you say?

When I’m gone
When I’m gone
You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone
You’re gonna miss me by my hair
You’re gonna miss me everywhere, oh
You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone

I got my ticket for the long way ’round
The one with the prettiest of views
It’s got mountains, it’s got rivers
It’s got sights to give you shivers
But it sure would be prettier with you

When I’m gone
When I’m gone
You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone
You’re gonna miss me by my walk
You’re gonna miss me by my talk, oh
You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: A. P. Carter / Heloise Maud Tunstall-Behrens / Luisa Amanda Gerstein Vallejo

Cups (Pitch Perfect’s “When I’m Gone”) lyrics © Peermusic Publishing, BMG Rights Management

Rapid Rhyme #36

Woe is me

My tummy’s hurting quite a lot

I may not last the night

My forehead’s getting very hot

My chest is feeling tight

I think my arm is dropping off

It really feels quite weird

And now I have a tickly cough

And spittle in my beard

I’ll p’raps survive till Monday morn

But maybe I will not

I’ll just sit here, alone, forlorn

And very slowly rot!

*I don’t really have a beard!*

Song Lyric Sunday – 14 February 2021 – Wishing Well

Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday gives us the chance to share familiar, and sometimes not so familiar, songs. This week the title or lyrics of the song must contain the word Brain, Mind, or Think.

If you fancy sharing one of your favourite songs you can find out how to participate, and also listen to all the great entries, here.

The song I’ve chosen this week does, indeed, contain the word THINK, although you’d be hard pushed to find it.  In fact, the word appears twice. 

The song is by The Airborne Toxic Event, an American rock band from LA.  They formed in 2006 and have been active ever since, performing rock music and orchestral arrangements with great panache and very obvious enjoyment.  They love what they do, and it shows!

Their critically acclaimed debut album of 2008 propelled the group onto a world-wide stage. They sold hundreds of thousands of albums.  Their hit ‘Sometime Around Midnight’ was named iTunes #1 Alternative Song of the Year.  After two years of selling out concerts around the world, the band finished by coming home and playing the most important show of their career.  The LA Philharmonic asked the band to curate/perform their own show at the most prestigious musical building in the world, the Frank Gehry designed Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. They filmed the performance.  It was 2010.

“All I Ever Wanted” is not a concert film, it’s a documentary about the struggles, pain and persistence of being in a family.  This family happens to be a rock band, and you can see the trailer here.

Here they are playing Wishing Well live from that concert. Enjoy!

Wishing Well

The Airborne Toxic Event

Standing on a bus stop
Feeling your head pop
Out in the night
On the kind of night
Where you want to be out
On the street, on the street
Crawling up the walls
Like a cat in heat

And the air is thin
And it blows through your skin
And you feel like something
Is about to begin
But you don’t know what
And you don’t know when
So you tear at your hair
And you scratch at your skin

You wanna run away, run away
Just get on the fucking train and leave today
And it doesn’t matter where you spend the night
You just might end up somewhere in a fight, in a fight
Or caught in your room on a concrete shelf
Fighting all alone, with yourself, with yourself
And you just wanna feel like a coin that’s been tossed
In a wishing well, a wishing well
A wishing well, a wishing well
Well, you’re tossed in the air
And you fell and you fell
Through the dark blue waters
Where you cast your spell
Like you were just a wish that could turn out well

So you stand on the corner
Where the angels sit
And you think to yourself,
“This is it, this is it,
This is all that I have
All I can stand
Is this air in my lungs
And this coin in my hand
That you tossed in the air
And I fell, and I fell
All the way to the bottom
Of the well, of the well
Like those soft little secrets
That you tell, that you tell
To yourself, when you think
No one’s listening to, well”

And the walls spin
And you’re paper-thin
From the haze of the smoke
And the mescaline
The threat of your brow
Under unmade sheets
In your ear with the noise
From the darkest streets
We ran far and wide
You screamed, you cried
You thought suicide was an alibi
But you were always a mess
You were always aloof
Yeah, it’s awful, I guess
But it’s the awful truth
It was truth from the first
To the last words that she read

And she emerged from the dark
Like a ghost in my head
She said, “I haven’t forgot
Any words that you said
I just stare at the clocks
And I cry in my sleep
And I tear up your letters
And I burn them in heaps
And I gather the ashes
In that hole in the ground
Where we fell”

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Mikel Frans JollettWishing Well lyrics © BMG Rights Management US, LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

I had planned to use another song by The Airborne Toxic Event for next week but, since you’ve been so good, I think you deserve an extra song this week. Here is Missy:

Thin Skin – A linked limerick

Such a marvellous thing is my skin

It helps keep my blood and guts in

It keeps the rain out

But now there’s no doubt

It is getting increasingly thin

---

Maybe I’ve just turned a page

It’s a battle my body must wage

I develop strange hues

And so easily bruise

It’s something to do with my age

Now I’ve started you may not be able to stop me!

Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed

I saw a little squirrel go a walking human paths well trod

His tail was swishing to and fro as if ‘twas like a passing nod

to metronomes just beating time accompanying his daily trek

And oft times I remember him, his journey by that lonely beck

I ponder this, and wonder that, considering his lonely jaunt

I saw him yet again today and thought him looking rather gaunt

I’d like to think he sees me, yet, I hope he knows I can’t forget

The joy he brought when e’er we met reminds me of the epithet.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed

This being my first audio attempt I am spoiled for choice of what to offer. I tried so many versions and have rejected dozens, but cannot pick which one of six should be THE ONE. Being human, and kind, I’m giving you all six. You choose!

BEABT1

BEABT2

BEABT3

BEABT4

BEABT5

BEABT6

Words, pictures, and audio all ©petermatthews February2021

Rapid rhymes in stereo?

Back in September 2018 I posted my first Rapid Rhyme.

I didn’t define what a rapid rhyme was but had in mind that it, and any subsequent similar rhymes, should be fairly short (hence rapid you silly man!), should be written as they came to mind, with no editing whatsoever, and should rhyme (is this man as dense as he makes out?)

I’ve only posted 35 Rapid Rhymes so far but many of them have been influenced by blogs I’ve read, by current events, or by something encountered on my daily walks.

One of the writers I follow, trE, at A Cornered Gurl, did me the honour of liking the idea of Rapid Rhymes so much that she started to write her own.  Not only did she write them, but she started to narrate them too.  An example, The Roamer, can be found here.

I rather liked trE’s idea and wondered whether I should have a go at the Spoken Word myself, an idea I quickly abandoned.  After all I have a squeaky voice, not at all fit for reading poetry, and definitely not my own poetry.

I then came across another blogger, Tom Alexander, whose poetry blog, The Lighthouse, features lots of very professional sounding audible poetry.  Tom assures me he uses very low-tech methods, but he certainly achieves some very good results. Check out Fulfilment here.

This resurrected the idea of recording some of my poems.  I could never achieve the quality of Tom, but I might just have a go……….so I did!  I chose a suitable short poem and recorded it……….11 times,  11 different versions, all of varying squeakiness, or huskiness, or choking half way through.  It wasn’t perfect, but it sounded not too bad.

Then I hit a brick wall.

The ultra-simple, free version of WordPress I was using did not support audio files. 

Step forward a fairy godmother in the form of Sue at Nan’s Farm who offered to host my audio files.  I had to think about that very kind offer.  Meanwhile, I researched other ways of being heard.

Now we have lift off.

Watch this space!

Hear Ye, Hear Ye…………………You may be disappointed! 

Song Lyric Sunday – 7 February 2021 – Caribbean Blue

Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday gives us the chance to share familiar, and sometimes not so familiar, songs.

This week the title or lyrics of the song must contain a colour. (For my American friends that is one of the many words where you took out the U for some reason!)

If you fancy sharing one of your favourite songs you can find out how to participate, and also listen to all the great entries, here.

Last week I chose “Even in the Shadows” by Enya and I’ve decided to indulge myself further this week by offering “Caribbean Blue”, another Enya song.

The video for this is really rather clever.  It is other worldly, dreamlike, with a generous smattering of childhood magic.  The lyrics include a bit of Latin so I hope that you paid attention at school. 

Eurus Afer Ventus – South African Wind

Boreus Zephyrus Africus – Northern West and Southwest

These are all ancient Greek wind gods, or Anemoi

Please sit back and enjoy this lovely song.

Caribbean Blue

Enya

Eurus
Afer Ventus

So the world goes round and round
With all you ever knew
They say the sky high above
Is Caribbean blue?

If every man says all he can
If every man is true
Do I believe the sky above
Is Caribbean blue?

Boreas
Zephyrus

If all you told was turned to gold
If all you dreamed was new
Imagine sky high above
In Caribbean blue

Eurus
Afer Ventus
Boreas
Zephyrus
Africus

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Nicky Ryan / Roma Shane Ryan / Enya

Caribbean Blue lyrics © Emi Music Publishing Ltd

Song Lyric Sunday – 31 January 2021 – Even in the Shadows

Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday gives us the chance to share familiar, and sometimes not so familiar, songs. This week the title or lyrics of the song must contain one of the words Even, or Odd.

If you fancy sharing one of your favourite songs you can find out how to participate, and also listen to all the great entries, here.

I’ve chosen a song this week off the album Dark Sky Island, by Enya.  I used a song off this album in October 2020, when Jim gave us a free choice.  “The Humming” can be  found here.

Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, known professionally as Enya, is an Irish singer, songwriter, record producer and musician.  Born into a musical family and raised in an Irish speaking area in County Donegal, Enya began her music career when she joined her family’s Celtic folk band Clannad in 1980 on keyboards and backing vocals. She left in 1982 with their manager and producer Nicky Ryan to pursue a solo career, with Ryan’s wife Roma Ryan as her lyricist.  She has sung in ten languages.

In 2008 Enya took a three-year break from music and spent time travelling, including visits to Ireland, Australia, and France, where she bought a new home, on its southern coast, and renovated it. Eventually, she caught up with her long-time collaborators, Nicky and Roma Ryan, to discuss ideas on the next album and when to start work.  At one meeting, Roma presented Enya with a collection of poems she had written about islands, one of which was about Sark in the English Channel, and they spoke about its designation as the first island to become a dark-sky preserve in 2011.

I’ve chosen to offer you “Even in the Shadows”.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Even in The Shadows

Even in the Shadows

Enya

Even in the shadows
I turn around
To find you walk away
And even when I whisper
The winds will come
To steal the words I say

I could fall and keep on falling
I could call and keep on calling
Wonder why this love is over
Wonder why it’s not forever more

Even in the silence
I hear my heart
It’s still a part of you
And even in the morning
When light has come
I don’t know what to do

I could fall and keep on falling
I could call and keep on calling
(Love may come…)
Wonder why this love is over
(…and love may go)
Wonder why it’s not forever

I could fall and keep on falling
I could call and keep on calling
(Love may come…)
Wonder why this love is over
(…and love may go)
Wonder why it’s not forever more

I could fall and keep on falling
I could call and keep on calling
(Love may come…)
Wonder why this love is over
(…and love may go)
Wonder why it’s not forever

I could fall and keep on falling
I could call and keep on calling
(Love may come…)
Wonder why this love is over
(…and love may go)
Wonder why it’s not forever more

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Roma Ryan / Eithne Ni Bhraonain / Nicky Ryan