Song Lyric Sunday – 20 December 2020 – A wheel within a wheel

Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday gives us the chance to share familiar, and sometimes not so familiar, songs. Jim has given us Circle /Polygon /Square /Triangle this week to be included in the title or lyrics.

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.

This week I didn’t have to go round in endless circles to find a song and I shall not even begin to tell you the joke about the missing parrot.  Instead, I’ll just get on with telling you that  I have chosen what I consider to be a captivating song from a film that first aired in 1968, starring Steve McQueen and German actress Astrid Heeren. The title song was performed by Noel Harrison who took the song to #8 in the UK Singles Chart. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1968.

A version by Sting was used in the 1999 remake of the film which, this time, starred Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. The trailer can be viewed here.

The song is Windmills of Your Mind and the film is The Thomas Crown Affair

Live performance from Orange, France 2012 Vocal: Sinne Eeg Piano: Jacob Christoffersen

A cover by Alison Moyet

Joe Hisaishi & New Japan Philharmonic World Dream Orchestra

And the glider sequence from the 1968 film

The flying sequence and Noel Harrison background music,” Windmills of Your Mind”, was the only part of the movie to receive an Oscar.

Windmills of Your Mind

Noel Harrison

Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain, or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!
Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own
Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!
Keys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head
Why did summer go so quickly, was it something that you said?
Lovers walking along a shore and leave their footprints in the sand
Is the sound of distant drumming just the fingers of your hand?
Pictures hanging in a hallway and the fragment of a song
Half remembered names and faces, but to whom do they belong?
When you knew that it was over you were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair!
Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
As the images unwind, like the circles that you find 
In the windmills of your mind!

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Marilyn Bergman / Michel Legrand / Alan Bergman

Windmills of Your Mind lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, BMG Rights Management

Song Lyric Sunday – 15 November 2020 – The End

Jim Adam’s Song Lyric Sunday gives us the chance to share familiar, and sometimes not so familiar, songs. Jim has given us Begin/ End/ Finish/ Start this week to be included in the title or lyrics.

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.

This week I’m pushing my luck a bit. I really do not expect many readers to listen to the whole of this song. To help out I am including an extract of a film that the song featured in.

I love this song. I love the film that it features in, but I know that it is not to everyone’s taste and some will find it rather strange.

It is a song by Jim Morrison of The Doors, written, initially, as a farewell to a girlfriend. It ended as a much longer song, at 12 minutes, and was released on 6th January 1967, just before my 19th birthday.

The lyrics contain the words “My only friend, the End” and when interviewed by Lizze James, he commented : “Sometimes the pain is too much to examine, or even tolerate … That doesn’t make it evil, though – or necessarily dangerous. But people fear death even more than pain. It’s strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. Yeah – I guess it is a friend.”

Jim Morrison’s death came two years to the day after the death of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones and approximately nine months after the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin — all of whom died at the age of 27 as did so many musicians, artists, and actors.

The song is The End and it featured in the Francis Coppola epic film Apocalypse Now.

Apocalypse Now Intro (1979)

This full length version of the song accompanies a video tribute made by QueenOfTheHighway who says “This is a tribute to the amazing James Douglas Morrison, who died far too young. His life was incredibly tragic, and he was so misunderstood and under appreciated. He was so much more than just a talented musician. He was a true genius and a poet with a beautiful soul. I love him because he knew what it was like to battle unbearable demons, and yet still retained his childlike wonder and love for life. I do not own any footage used-all belong to The Doors.”

The End

Jim Morrison

This is the end, beautiful friend
This is the end, my only friend
The end of our elaborate plans
The end of ev’rything that stands
The end

No safety or surprise
The end
I’ll never look into your eyes again

Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need of
some strangers hand
In a desperate land

Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain
There’s danger on the edge of town
Ride the king’s highway
Weird scenes inside the goldmine
Ride the highway West baby

Ride the snake
Ride the snake
To the lake
To the lake

The ancient lake baby
The snake is long
Seven miles
Ride the snake

He’s old
And his skin is cold
The west is the best
The west is the best
Get here and we’ll do the rest

The blue bus is calling us
The blue bus is calling us
Driver, where you taking us?

The killer awoke before dawn
He put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall

He went into the room where his sister lived
And then he paid a visit to his brother
And then he walked on down the hall
And he came to a door
And he looked inside
Father?
Yes son
I want to kill you
Mother, I want to…

Come on, baby, take a chance with us
Come on, baby, take a chance with us
Come on, baby, take a chance with us
And meet me at the back of the blue bus

This is the end, beautiful friend
This is the end, my only friend
The end

It hurts to set you free
But you’ll never follow me-aca

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Alexandria Rae Koehler / Kathryn Sarah Goodman / Monica Cassia Grzymkowski

The End lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

Cat astrophic omission

After reading all the terrible reviews of the Cats (2019) film, Daisy, my British Shorthair princess, would like it to be known that, although she auditioned for one of the leading roles, she was rejected for being too beautiful!

She thinks she’ll have to ponder a little and, of course, the best way to do that is to snooze.

Song Lyric Sunday 24/11/2019 – Bounty /Desert /Eat /Feast /Food /Hungry /Turkey

Thank you to Jim Adams, who hosts Song Lyric Sunday and gives us the chance to share lots of familiar, and some not so familiar, songs.

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

I am totally cheating this week in that this is an instrumental video, it is NOT A SONG, and there are NO LYRICS. However, it is the end music to the film “Mutiny on the Bounty” from 1984, so it sort of fits the bill.

It really is great music, in the very recognisable form of Vangelis, although, in this video, sequenced with sonar and tyros 3 and performed by Albertvvl.

I hope you enjoy it.

 

Also, below, is the Opening music

 

Song Lyric Sunday 04/08/2019 – Song from a TV Show

Thank you to Jim Adams, who hosts Song Lyric Sunday and gives us the chance to share lots of familiar, and some not so familiar, songs.

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 theme for this week posed a bit of a problem for me as I could quite happily live without television in my life!

I was 14 when we first had a television. Black and white of course, and only one channel. At 16, I joined the army and went to college for 3 years. No television. At 19 I deployed to the Middle East. No television. At 21 I went to Germany. Very little television. My daughter grew up with Sesame Street in German. So it goes on. I watched TV intermittently. Today, if the television is on, the chances are that I am reading blogs rather than watching it.

However, I think it is impossible to be untouched by television. I have seen a fair selection along the way, and one thing I MUST see, when it is on, is Later……with Jools Holland. He is a consummate musician and performer in his own right and , over the years, has introduced a gargantuan list of artists of every genre imaginable, and then some! You can see the list here.  

So I thought here we have a huge number of songs I can use for my SLS choice this week.

WRONG!

Instead, I suddenly thought of one show that I found to be both funny, thought provoking, and, at times, downright sad!

M*A*S*H (an acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) was an American war comedy-drama television series that aired on CBS from 1972 to 1983. It was developed by Larry Gelbart, adapted from the 1970 feature film M*A*S*H, which, in turn, was based on Richard Hooker’s 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. The series, which was produced with 20th Century Fox Television for CBS, follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the “4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital” in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War (1950–53). The show’s title sequence features an instrumental-only version of “Suicide Is Painless,” the original film’s theme song. The show was created after an attempt to film the original book’s sequel, M*A*S*H Goes to Maine, failed. The television series is the best-known of the M*A*S*H works, and one of the highest-rated shows in U.S. television history. (wikipedia)

This was, of course, being shown at the time of the Vietnam War, and was highly controversial. What started out as a comedy, with drama overtones soon became a drama with added comedy!

It’s a long time ago now, but I seem to remember that the “squaddie” humour really came across well, and could evoke real feelings of sadness, even the odd tear or two.

Suicide Is Painless is a song written by Johnny Mandel (music) and Michael Altman (lyrics). It was the theme song for both the movie and TV series M*A*S*H.

Director Robert Altman had two stipulations about the song for Mandel: it had to be called “Suicide Is Painless” and it had to be the “stupidest song ever written”. Altman attempted to write the lyrics himself, but upon finding it too difficult for his 45-year-old brain to write “stupid enough,” he gave the task to his 14-year-old-son Michael, who wrote the lyrics in five minutes. Ironically, the son’s income from royalties for the song far exceeded his father’s income for the film.

So here it is. The Tongue-in-cheek theme song for the very sad tongue in cheek comedy about the Korean war. The film was released in 1970, at the height of the Vietnam war, and the TV series debuted in 1972, appealing to the growing anti war crowd, lasted 11 years, and was arguably one of the most successful series ever.

The TV series used instrumental versions of the song only.

Suicide Is Painless

Johnny Mandel

Through early morning fog I see
Visions of the things to be
The pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see

That suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please

The game of life is hard to play
I’m gonna lose it anyway
The losing card I’ll someday lay
So this is all I have to say

Suicide is painless (suicide)
It brings on many changes (changes)
And I can take or leave it if I please

The sword of time will pierce our skins
It doesn’t hurt when it begins
But as it works its way on in
The pain grows stronger
Watch it grin

Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please

A brave man once requested me
To answer questions that are key
Is it to be or not to be
And I replied oh why ask me?

Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please

And you can do the same thing if you please

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Johnny Mandel / Michael B Altman

Suicide Is Painless lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

 

 

Song Lyric Sunday 28/07/2019 – A song featured prominently in a movie – The Watchmen.

Thank you to Jim Adams, who hosts Song Lyric Sunday and gives us the chance to share lots of familiar, and some not so familiar, songs.

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 theme for this week is “A song featured prominently in a movie.”  Now, it depends on your definition of prominently doesn’t it! Music is pretty important to the movie industry, and a film can become a huge success, or failure, purely because of the choice of music.

The movie that I’ve chosen has 53 different songs, so it cannot really be argued that any of them feature prominently.

Watchmen is a 2009 American superhero film directed by Zack Snyder, based on the 1986–87 DC Comics limited series of the same name.  Both a soundtrack and excerpts from Tyler Bates‘ film score were released as albums on March 3, 2009. The soundtrack features three songs written by Bob Dylan—”Desolation Row“, “All Along the Watchtower” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’“—with only the latter performed by Dylan on the soundtrack. It includes some songs mentioned in the comic, such as Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah“. Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin'” and “All Along the Watchtower” are also quoted in the graphic novel.

I think my choice of video gives you not only a classic song but also a good idea of what to expect of the film. I hope you enjoy it.

The Times They Are A-Changin’ (Witmark Demo – 1963)

Bob Dylan

Come gather ’round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
And you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin’
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Bob Dylan

The Times They Are A-Changin’ (Witmark Demo – 1963) lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Audiam, Inc

Lots of information gleaned, and copied, from Wikipedia, to whom I regularly donate. It is a free service but can only remain so if supported by its users!

RIP Doris Day

RIP Doris Day

Quotes

Any girl can look glamorous… just stand there and look stupid.

If it’s true that men are such beasts, this must account for the fact that most women are animal lovers.

Wrinkles are hereditary. Parents get them from their children.

Song Lyric Sunday Theme for 04/11/2018 – Take a look at me now.

Helen’s theme for SLS this week is take/taking. Fancy joining in with this great way of listening to some old favourites, and, often, some new music? If so, you can see all of the entries here and read all about the way to get involved.

This week I’ve chosen a song from Phil Collins,  written for the movie of the same name, “Against All Odds”. The song is better known as “Take a look at me now”.

Originally titled “How Can You Just Sit There?”, the song was initially from the sessions for Collins’ debut solo album Face Value (1981). Collins wrote the song, while Arif Mardin produced it.  The piano performance is by New York musician Rob Mounsey. Piano, keyboard bass, and a string section, arranged and conducted by Mardin, were recorded at RCA Studios, New York, while Collins recorded vocals and drums in Los Angeles.

The video has a hunky male form for those who are interested in that sort of thing. Yes, I’m thinking of you Sandra!

Lyrics are on the video too! Enjoy.

Just because #4

I do hope you can view this – You will smile!

 

 

Song Lyric Sunday Theme for 03/06/2018

Helen’s theme for this week is “Smile”. It was supposed to be “Simile” apparently, but I’m happy the way it turned out.

My immediate thought was a song based on the instrumental theme used in a film that came out the year my big sister was born.

In 1936 Charlie Chaplin starred in Modern Times, a film based on the Great Depression. The theme tune had lyrics added in 1954 which were based on the lines, and themes, of the film. This was recorded, as Smile, by Nat King Cole, and the rest, as they say,  is history.

In looking for a worthy version to offer I discovered Madeleine Peyroux, and what a discovery she is. I do hope you enjoy this, but more than that, I hope that the video really does make you smile. It is delightful.

Madeleine Peyroux – Smile Lyrics

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it’s breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you’ll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You’ll see the sun come shining through for youLight up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
That’s the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what’s the use of crying
You’ll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smileLight up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
That’s the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what’s the use of crying
You’ll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile

That’s the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what’s the use of crying
You’ll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile

Songwriters: Charles Chaplin, John Turner, Geoffrey Parsons

Smile lyrics © BOURNE CO.