Showing posts with label jazz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jazz. Show all posts

Sunday, January 05, 2020

[Probably not such a] Naughty Boy, Sam Smith - La la la (Lyrics / Lyric Video / Letra) #songlyricsunday





7clouds videos are awesome - along with Rachel Reyes - they are my first choice for videos which emphasise lyricism.



and here come the words [thought NOT the style!] for my choice of #songlyricsunday for 5 January 2020:



[Intro] Na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (Tu meri mauja hain) [Verse 1] Hush, don't speak When you spit your venom, keep it shut I hate it When you hiss and preach About your new messiah cause your theories catch fire [Bridge] I can't find your silver lining I don't mean to judge But when you read your speech, it's tiring Enough is enough [Hook] I'm covering my ears like a kid When your words mean nothing, I go la la la I'm turning up the volume when you speak Cause if my heart can't stop it, I'll find a way to block it, I go Na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (I found a way to block it, I go) La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na [Verse 2] If our love is running out of time I won't count the hours, rather be a coward When our words collide I'm gonna drown you out before I lose my mind [Bridge] I can't find your silver lining I don't mean to judge But when you read your speech, it's tiring Enough is enough [Hook] I'm covering my ears like a kid When your words mean nothing, I go la la la I'm turning up the volume when you speak Cause if my heart can't stop it I'll find a way to block it, I go Na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (I found a way to block it, I go) La la na na , la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (I found a way to block it, oh) Na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (I found a way to block it, I go) La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (Tu meri mauja hain) I'm covering my ears like a kid When your words mean nothing, I go la la la I'm turning up the volume when you speak Cause if my heart can't stop it I find a way to block it, I go I'm covering my ears like a kid When your words mean nothing, I go la la la I'm turning up the volume when you speak (when you speak) Cause if my heart can't stop it I find a way to block it, I go Na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (Tu meri mauja hain)


And then I realise there's a reason that YouTube does that when it comes to lyrics - or the 7clouds people did what they did.



When I was a little girl I discovered author Dorothy Edwards and illustrator Shirley Hughes for the first time in a simple novel / anecdote format - the series My naughty little sister.



It was one of my first conscious trips to a beach house; subject to a friend from the civil service.



So in the best traditions, or perhaps defiant/oblivious of these same traditions, I wrecked the entertainment room with Trivial Pursuit cards all over the floor.



The outdoor landscape of that beach house though! It had a big tree at the back. I was trying to trust trees and treehouses again after I had a nasty splinter at home walking on the top of the house [my treehouse had two floors] and it was on my foot. I remember going on the porch to get the splinter out with a needle.



Some three weeks before [12 December 1990] the wonders of the video cassette recorder were revealed to me and one of my very first picks was Pippi Longstocking which was a highly musical version and vivid. I had read the Astrid Lindgren books first in the library especially Pippi in the South Sea Islands with my grandparents so I knew the Ville Villa Kuella.



And Scrubbing Day was incredible - so was Running Away and the whole The First Noël feeling when Pippi and friends came to the orphanage. I loved the Head Girl - the first I recognised as Head Girl. I had not even read Blyton school stories yet in January 1991 - that pleasure was to be some eight months away with Elizabeth Allen and The naughtiest girl in the school.



I too had been considered - one of - the naughtiest girls in my school. I think of Hermoine Granger and that scene in the film of The Philosopher's / Sorcerer's Stone.



That witch really needs to sort out her priorities! - Ron Weasley - Harry and Hermoine's friend


One of the naughty things I did was blow on another student's whistle with the residue of a frozen ice. I did not quite have the mens rea involved [guilty mind in Latin] because I wanted to know how Melisande's whistle worked and if it had nuts in it like the Physical Education teacher's whistle did. The Phys Ed teacher was yet another champion of mine - and a broker into the system. Some years later on she would have us learn and support Italian lessons. And because of this she was a really strong connector - especially when it came to a question on Copernicus/Kopernik when we were studying the stars and astronomy.



Love La la la because it has the idea of preach speech in it and it has been so popular in so many countries.



Here is a quote that shows what I [and Beverley Eley] mean by PREACH SPEECH - it is also a good introduction to a book which showed me so much about biographical craft and graft - The book of David - it is also good for anyone who wants to know It's all right to be different:



[... earlier there was something about Democritus and the atom in that paragraph]Not only is his memory phenomenal, his wit is dry and clever. One day he walked into a conversation about homilies, proverbs and adages. After patting and kissing those close at hand [my emphasis], he walked away with the comment, 'Preach speech ... it's preach speech'.
By what yardstick do we measure someone like the eccentric, yet greatly gifted, David Helfgott? [says Eley on page 7 of The book of David in its 5th printing from 1997]
Eley and Helfgott [David and Gillian] are very good friends and her biographical practice is exemplary. Hoping the Gleniffer house where she and her husband John [who The book of David is dedicated to - for being someone who BELIEVES IN LOYALTY FRIENDSHIP AND JUSTICE - if books were tablets and stones - they would be carved in like that] is okay and the land too. That land is called the Promised Land and again Eley and David Helfgott are neighbours.



Had a great time watching Marianne and Leonard - words of love - so many people came by including in groups. Of course So long Marianne is a very important song. And Marianne was such a very generous and kind person. I think of Axel who is over 60 now and was only 6 months old when Leonard Cohen came into his Hydra life - in all my years I had never heard it pronounced like that so I could imitate it and reference it. Shows you how few of my resources are Greek. And the archivist really made the film, I do believe. I would sell the farm on it. Along with Broomfield of course who had a connection - intimate connection - with Ihlen from Oslo [and Paris and London and Hydra and one more place]



What did I want to talk about with the Naughty Little Sister and my experience?



When she was in a school choir one day; she and her friend Bad Harry la la la la'ed to the Christmas carols particularly Away in a manger which was the very first Christmas carol I connected with in 1985-86. Another early one was The first Noël - ten years later I connected so hard I named a character Noelle. She belongs to the gaggle of Gilberts - the five who were born on a student exchange. [and, yes, that is five at the same time in the same caul so to speak!]



And then I remember the Blubber singing lessons in Judy Blume - especially Miss Rochelle - great name for a musical person. My 1999 self thought this too - one of the times she and my 1994 self were in agreement [the former self was the one who read the book for the first time - and she was up for it six months later when she was sick and the world didn't make sense - she also enjoyed Paul Jennings' Quirky Tales where Linda thought salt was sugar and sugar was salt and No was yes]. So there was a young girl called Rochelle who absolutely loved music and was a flower girl. And then there was breathing and melody and harmony which I confess I really did not get until Grizel Cochrane had lost her harmony book in The head girl of the Chalet School which came with me in a Lion King bag along with a manuscript - that one was about a student called Tadeusz Meliński who studied temporarily at the London Progressive College. I got quite far in the writing of Educating Tadeusz laying and paving the ground [like crazy paving in my last].



Yours truly has also discovered Music from Ceefax which is the British Broadcasting Corporation teletext service. Especially looking for ocean music and ship music and sea shanties. After I watched Little Women in the Greta Gerwig mode and went to a park and a public house, I found many of them. It was when I became sick of Scouting and Guiding songs around the campfire and the Jamboree setting that I wanted to find some sea songs.

Many of you who have read Blubber will remember that Jill Brenner was quite the stamp collector - and she knew how to bargain and broker and write good letters. What she was not so good at doing was keeping her nails tidy and unbitten. Now nerves will do that to any person - and she was carrying around the sort of nervery which would make an animal pace and scratch and do various other displacement behaviours.

People often feel misplaced and displaced too. Especially when they feel their love is running out of time and that their words mean nothing.

Hope your lives feel Funktastic this week and for the Epiphany tomorrow. Imagine that - the first Monday of 2020!

Finally deck the halls with boughs of holly fa la la la la.

La la la  was released at the Jingle Bell Ball of 2013 and subsequently charted in many nations. And it had so many remixes - I chose the Sam Smith one because it had lots of resonance and was best-known perhaps ...

In Australia it peaked at number five; hit number one in the Commonwealth of Independent States chart as it did in the Czech Republic; number two in Denmark and Germany; number six in France; and it's probably time to point out the Hungarian charts and their genre diversity as well as media diversity [stream and radio]. A lot of central European nations [Poland too] have their dance charts and in this La la la came out 9th in Poland and 6th in Hungary. Seems the Romanians loved it and put it on number 1. Top 15 in Venezuela - 14th actually - awesome!

The US charts were much more mixed. Somehow the Brits bought more than a million copies. At least two charts showed top 20 and one was actually 10th. The Rhythmic seems open for debate.

And when hearts can't stop it they find a way to block it.

Trying to block this earworm [though I don't want to so it will stay] of La La Land which I think many of my #songlyricsunday companions and compeers have chosen.


 

Sunday, August 18, 2019

#songlyricsunday - Another Group - Sylvie Boisel - #istillcallaustraliahome - One Song Glory I promise!

Good music doesn't have to stay in Vegas, does it? Not when it's from Elvis Presley - or Celine Dion - or Sylvie Boisel who I am introducing to you this week.

It all started about the time of the first Bleidsloe tournament which was played in Perth Stadium and someone was singing the immortal [it was released originally in 1980 by vaudeville song-and-dance man Peter Allen - whose other big one was I go to Rio and not to mention Tenterfield Saddler which was about a very special person in PA's life] I still call Australia home.

I thought I would be a bit mischievous and say - It can be about another ethnic group or a sporting tribe, can't it? Not strictly musical.

So Sylvie Boisel - she sings in French; English; Spanish and speaks the languages of music. Songs to charm and soothe savage beasts such as the ones you might meet on the sporting field or in the street or indeed inside of you.

And also - mid-August - Le Grand Depart - has some big moments.

Especially when it comes to the time of assessments and examinations. And holidays / vacances.

My English and Welsh friends in particular have their Advanced Levels and the English Baccalaureate.

Since Michael Gove changed the standards from A to G [and probably UG - the mark you get when you don't pass] to 1 to 9 it's been quite a ride.

There are 12 million links alone!

And there are lots of open days to the universities and colleges.

With things like language taster days and forensic sessions.

I've been to cities that never close down
From New York to Rio and old London town
But no matter how far or how wide I roam
I still call Australia home

I'm always traveling, I love being free
And so I keep leaving the sun and the sea
But my heart lies waiting over the foam
I still call Australia home

All the sons and daughters spinning 'round the world
Away from their family and friends
But as the world gets older and colder
It's good to know where your journey ends

And someday we'll all be together once more
When all of the ships come back to the shore
I'll realize something I've always known
I still call Australia home

But no matter how far or wide I roam
I still call Australia, I still call Australia, I still call Australia home
But no matter how far or wide I roam
I still call Australia, I still call Australia, I still call Australia home

thank you SongLyrics for keeping us honest

And Mama Lisa has a French version

Je suis allé dans des villes qui ne ferment jamais
De New York à Rio et la vieille ville de Londres
Mais pour aussi longtemps ou aussi loin que je vagabonde
L'Australie, c'est toujours chez moi.

Je suis toujours en voyage, j'aime être libre
Aussi je continue à quitter le soleil et la mer
Mais mon cœur attend au repos au-dessus de l'écume
L'Australie, c'est toujours chez moi.

Tous les fils et filles, faisant le tour du monde
Loin de leurs familles et amis
Mais quand le monde vieillit et refroidit
C'est bon de savoir où le voyage finit.

Mais un jour, on sera tous ensemble encore une fois
Quand tous les bateaux seront de retour sur le rivage
Je me rends compte d'une chose que j'ai toujours sue
L'Australie, c'est toujours chez moi

Mais pour aussi longtemps ou aussi loin que je vagabonde
L'Australie, c'est toujours, l'Australie, c'est toujours
L'Australie, c'est toujours chez moi.




And what a moment when receiving the cover of Traveller and Kopernik was on it. Many of you know the wizard of Turin as Nicolaus Copernicus who disseminated the information that the earth orbited the sun; and not the other way around.


In the same way Brian Johnston put Poland at the centre of the European traveller's universe. Both aspiring and established travellers can take that in as they will.

The illustrators/photographers used lots of iStock material especially one for Gdansk.

There were five eats and five other European destinations which had not got quite the same due like Belarus; Bosnia and Albania.

Poland's close neighbour Ukraine may or may not have been mentioned.


And there were five Polish cities mentioned - two being Krakow and Gdansk.




Torun and Wroclaw [the city with so many names] were mentioned too.


Torun is in northern Poland; Wroclaw in the central west of the country close to Germany.


While I find out why the text is going in the middle ...


I will point out that BJ went through a country-focused Collette tour - which is one of the more interesting tour companies out there.

Meanwhile Sue Williams wrote about a very swish Hungarian hotel known as the Nemzeti.

In the Nemzeti there is red nail varnish among the amenities. [Williams 2019]

I had my own splash of red also when I had a wart removed - it was a flap of skin that had been on my neck for some years.

In that vein I will mention one more article about Normandy's Honfleur - there is an eleven-day cruise from Scenic who do river and ocean cruising alike.

December last there was someone from that side of the hexagon ... the side which faces Dover and Kent and so on.

Last week there was something about packing for Provence.

And I have now read The Big Issue's Short Story edition!

There are so many good and invigorating tales.

The book I am reading just now which is on top of the printer is Taddeo's Three women and I am in the third part of Maggie's life. I know about Sloane and Lina and have read their second parts. [124-25: Taddeo 2019 Bloomsbury Commonwealth Edition - lives in the Cultural Studies section of your independent bookshop].

Maggie has a schoolteacher called Aaron K.

As it is the anniversary of Elvis's death - 6 times 7 [42] - I discovered a really fantastic Elvis site.

There was another Elvisersary - the 50th anniversary of a film called CHANGE OF HABIT.

And it appears I cannot count to 200. [Don't trust me with sums/products which are over 144 or 169 at a pinch; unless at the dartboard - which I can do some good combatronics and permutations - lumping and splitting and I do know my 19* and 20*].

There is a wonderful film with Binoche in it called Who you think I am which is about a middle-aged woman's experiences with the Internet.

It begins and ends with a white face mask.

Claire is a very fine French literature lecturer/professor. She gets into Dumas and Dangerous liaisons with equal feeling. And incisive dissemination.

And I like the part where she talks to her son about poetic analysis and description. Finding the rhyme and the three themes - I thought it was alexandrine or something classical or neo-classical.

Ludo and Alex! Those two flatmates!

Some of the most decent portrayals of psychoanalytic psychotherapy ever - a big contrast with Change of Heart. That tends to provide a transactional/transformative analysis.

Also there is a false document/manuscript involved. An autofiction.

There are some other interesting books out there like Salt by Bruce Pascoe and Deep Time Dreaming by Billy Griffiths.

Leser's Women Men and the Whole Damn Thing rocks my socks. I hope it does yours too.

[it helps if you've read his memoir about his Dad and Bernard Leser's stratospheric life in the magazine industry - everyone except him was a woman by the 1970s and 1980s].

In the Short Story Edition I was impressed with the works Learning to be Leb [Michael Mohammed Ahmad]; Betsy Number Four [Mark Brandi - do you remember Small Town - Big Secret - Sporting Reason?]; Bright Objects [Mirandi Riowe]; Cloud Brawls [Greg Foyster]; How to negotiate a dinner party with poetry [Alicia Sometimes]; Gull Song [Ellen van Neerven] and Joyriders [Chloe Wilson]. Also Goldfish get the blues [Lisa Walker].

That was a marvellous issue 593.

20 August 2019 is the Social Traders Conference at the Abbotsford Convent. There is a 10% discount if you use the BIGISSUE code on your tickets.

And Nicko and the High Tower - did it make you want to dive? That was by Simon Castles who was once an Editor of The Big Issue.

There were 424 submissions all up and [books editor] Thuy On [whose recommendations I need to take on some more] and [author] Nicola Redhouse looked at them all.

"Stories of hope, love, loss and even the world's biggest slide. A special edition indeed," says Katherine Smyrk the Deputy Editor.

Another thing that makes the fifteenth short story edition special would be Michelle Pereira's illustrations. - @youngpapadum - those are delicious especially in soup.

Cabbage as toilet paper for those knights - one of those intertextual details you learn to savour.

Queen of the Publication by the younger Olivia Newton-John is fabulous. Helmut Newton took her picture in a high fashion way. Haute couture. Reminded me a lot of what the Visual Arts honours students are doing and have done.

22 August is the opening of The Australian Dream which Stan Grant has directed about the effects and consequences of racial hatred on the life and career of Adam Goodes.

There is a great story by Nick Miller about 30 years since the Berlin Wall and the revolutions which made Central Europe what it is today. Was especially delighted because Drebecen is in there. Those two Hungarian friends - Bella and Nagy the activists.

And those Dekalog moments - that epic is set in and around a Warsaw apartment [I may have said before - Preisner is a deep bath - and I am not above rewriting Hotel California for my own purposes]. Then I remembered Michael Dembinski and his Jeziorki. There is an Armed Forces Day and Corpus Christi on the 15th. So in military and in religion we turn a corner and we transit.

In the publishing world too; August and September are important months. I believe there is a festival around love and that is directed by one Marieke Hardy.

I was always in a flurry and hurry for a good cause. In that case it was 1 September.