Yes it's Halloween tomorrow and it got me thinking about songs to play at this time of the year. I've never been a big fan of Halloween to be honest, I just tend to let it pass me by. That's not to say I don't have a few sweeties ready in case of trick or treaters, I'm not totally 'hallo'scrooge'.
I do like a song though and I suppose the classic scary theme song would be Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'. Such a good track and we must have all tried the dance at some stage. The video became so iconic and set the pace for music videos to become mini films too. I remember watching Thriller for the first time back in 1983 and when they announced it would be approximately 14 minutes long it was something everyone wanted to watch whether you like Jackson or not. No internet back then, this was what we got excited about back in the day. We had to be patient and wait for it to appear on tv at a certain time, no You Tube in those days. This was after we had been playing outside for about three hours after school. The good old days. There are so many songs you could pop on a playlist for a party such as Rockwell 'Somebody's Watching Me' Ray Parker Jnr 'Ghostbusters' Iron Maiden 'Number of the Beast' The Cranberries 'Zombie' Many more too but the ultimate classic and the one that makes me just smile from ear to ear, in fact it makes me giggle stupidly is The Monster Mash by Bobby 'Boris'. Pickett. A sixties novelty song which I think you cannot but resist a little dance and singalong to it. I know I can't, it was on the radio yesterday while I was making dinner and the volume went up and I just had to dance. Kids thought I was mad but then that's a regular occurrence really in our house. See I could scare people without even getting dressed up. So on Tuesday night I might just enter into the festivities just a little bit by eating the left over treat sweets and doing 'The Monster Mash', it was a graveyard smash you know!!!! I will leave you with my 'pick of the pops' for Halloween: youtu.be/YHGUFJ3JidU Thank you for reading and stay safe on Halloween.....wooooooooooooo Don't forget to come back tomorrow for Teapot Tuesday. Take care for now..
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I finally sat down to watch George Michael's film 'Freedom'. I kept putting off a little as I knew it would be sad to watch. Yes although tinged with a little sadness it was also a celebration of his achievements and a good account of what a great man George Michael was.
I hate saying 'was', it doesn't seem right that this man is no longer alive. During the 80's I didn't consider myself to be a huge Wham fan but just recently I have found that I can reel off the complete lyrics to 'Wham Rap', 'Young Guns (go for it)' and 'Bad Boys' so I must have been a bigger fan than I thought. He oozed charisma and sexiness but seemed to be. constantly fighting his demons. It seemed so cruel to not only lose his lover but also his mum too shortly after, pain only those that have been through can associate with and for the rest of us can only imagine. There were some lovely tributes in this film from Nile Rodgers, May J Blige, Stevie Wonder, and even great respect from Liam Gallagher. I loved the humour Ricky Gervais brought to it and George's appearance on 'Extras' just showed you he could put his hand to anything, very funny! I couldn't help thinking though that there was so much more to see and so many more people that I would have liked to hear speak about him but this was a film made by himself not knowing what his destiny was. I thought someone may have added to it but then that may have spoilt his initial intention for this film. He was an individual and I admire that fact he took on Sony if only to protest that he could not be dictated to by this huge company. I feel no one was ever going to control George Michael, he would do exactly what he wanted to do and fight for what he believed in. I love that. His songs are just some of the best in British music history from the fun Wham hits such as 'Wake Me Up Before You Go Go' and the summer sunshine hit 'Club Tropicana'. He showed strength with 'Faith', 'Freedom' the phenomenal 'Praying for Time' and his loving tribute to Anselmo 'Jesus to a Child'. There are so many songs which will live on, so many that we can put memories to and maybe songs he has left behind for our future. I'll miss him, whatever you think of him, even if you were not a big fan he will have his place as one of musics finest artists and song writers. The guy did good! RIP George Michael 25th June 1963 - 25th December 2016 Thank you for reading and I will be back tomorrow for Teapot Tuesday. Take care for now. Well we are all getting comfortable now in our new term at Rock Choir and we've started our next song which is Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'. I've been quite excited at the prospect of learning this as it is an amazing song and will just suit Rock Choir so well. It does sound amazing already and I sense it will be one of those songs that will be included in the repertoire for many future performances. It will be one to stand beside the very popular 'Something Inside So Strong' which has become an anthem for us Rockies.
I was looking at the lyrics to 'Hallelujah' and trying to work out the meaning and interperet what Mr Cohen was trying to say with this song but the further I looked into it I realised there are so many different ways in which this song has touched lives and numerous ways people interpret it's lyrics. It can seem dark and melancholy, have many biblical references and is to be believed that the song is an account of just how many ways a Hallelujah can be expressed. It has also been covered by so many artists, I'm sure you all have a favourite version. I love that that some lyrics can be so complex they can mean different things to different people, it's a personal thing and you can hold quite an intense debate which I remember I did one morning sat having a brew with my fellow Rockies. The melody wraps itself around these dramatic lyrics beautifully and it is really quite emotional to sing. I'm so looking forward to our first performance with this. I have tended to be a bit side tracked with this song and cannot help but think about Shrek, it was featured in the first of the films and have watched it numerous times thanks to my son. It has become lodged in my my memory with the vision of poor old Shrek losing the lovely Fiona to Lord Farquaad, oh the sad twinge I get thinking it's all over for them but then it all ends happily in the end. Phew!! 'Don't Stop Believin' made it's debut over the weekend for our Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire Choirs. There was a flash mob performed in Beeston near Nottingham which looked great and they did the newly learnt moves too with the song, well done Nottinghamshire Rockies!!! The Derby guys and gals went to Belper in Derbyshire on Saturday night and performed at Voices for Hospices to celebrate World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. Well done to everyone who took part to all choirs everywhere. So the fun continues as we polish our Hallelujah's. Please pop and see Rock Choir when you can, if you would like any information about joining us you can still sign up for a free taster so go to the Rock Choir website at www.rockchoir.com and find your local session. Thanks for reading today, I will be back for Teapot Tuesday tomorrow but for now....... Take Care. I love a good introduction to a song, it gives me time to prepare my inner diva or rock chick especially with a tune like Livin on a Prayer by Bon Jovi. I need that bit of time to make sure the air guitar is tuned and also I find it quite amusing to try and guess when the vocals actually come in as most of the time I get it wrong, mainly due to impatience and eagerness. I do wish those professionals would keep up.
Apparently though we are seeing the big intros die out slightly. You see people are streaming music more and when listening to a track, if the vocals don't happen within a few seconds we get fed up and flick to the next track. Now that is being very impatient, give the artists a chance for goodness sake. I would hate to think people were not waiting to hear what I'd got to sing about and especially when I wanted to also show off my musical talent in sound and not just lyrics. Songs such as Sam Smith's 'Too Good at Goodbyes' don't process any introduction at all, he's there straight in there within one second and just gets on with the job. I suppose it depends on the song and it does work really well for that song. Queens 'Don't Stop Me Now' is straight there and that works too, I kind of get it a little especially in this digital age but when we only had vinyl, yes in the old days, we took the time to listen to the beginnings of records because, well frankly it was a lot more fuss to take the stylus off and take the record off and pop a new one on so we put up with it. I'm glad we did because there are some great intros to some classic songs. Hotel California by the The Eagles is just one of the best, how can you not listen to that? What would we do without the intro to Survivors 'Eye of the Tiger', I even sing the dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum daaaaaa' on that and U2 have the amazing intro to 'Where the Streets Have No Name' which is phenomenal in my opinion. One minute and eighteen seconds of great guitar before Bono does his thing. Don't forget, if your song hasn't got a good intro we can't guess it in a 'guess the intro quiz'. Now that's a game changer eh? (see what I did there). If a song starts in a second then how can we guess that? It becomes guess the song which just isn't the same and I need a big intro to gain points because it takes me a while so longer the better. I suppose the vocals are the main core in a song now and we live in a fast moving society where we need to get everywhere quickly and obviously need to listen to an artist as quick as possible too. There has been a massive drop in long intros to songs since the 80's so if you are an upcoming artist you have to start quick otherwise the punters will move on and listen to something else. Shame isn't it? I get a little impatient when they faff about on Strictly and don't get dancing straight away which I suppose is the same thing, I feel a few seconds of boredom creep in and before you know it I'm debating whether I can make a brew before they start tangoing. I too feel my inner 'get on with it' starting to emerge so we all have our limitations. Oh well times change I suppose and so does music. It's all down to timing but I think it's just down to what you like and whatever makes you happy. We all have our own different tastes, likes and dislikes so go with the flow. Let me know whether you like an intro or if you like to get straight down to it, also what are your favourite intros? Leave a comment. Thanks for reading and I will be back tomorrow for Teapot Tuesday. Take care for now..... This weekend saw Radio 1 and Radio 2 celebrate 50 years of broadcast. Wow I'm nearly as old as BBC Radio, I just missed the launch by three years but have been an avid fan ever since I could listen to the radio. On 30th September the BBC light entertainment programme split into two, the younger listeners were treated to Radio 1 and an older audience would tune into Radio 2. That's the way it's always been hasn't it? When Radio 1 had it's major overhaul a few years back I then realised I had probably hit the Radio 2 age, I can't even listen to Radio 1 anymore - it sounds all the same to me......oh yes! never thought I'd say it.
It's funny though, I did grow up on both stations. My mum always had R2 on with her favourite shows being Terry Wogan and Jimmy Young and then upstairs in my room would be belting out the current tunes of R1. I remember listening to the charts on a Sunday evening, never taped it though eh? None of us did such a thing, yeah right. The Radio 1 roadshows were the highlight of the summer, taking part in the quiz 'bit's and pieces' and having a cry with Simon Bates's 'Our Tune'. Radio 2 was always the oldies station wasn't it? It was the one mums and dads, granny and grandads listened to. Well I'm a mum now so it only seems fitting that I made the leap. Think we were all forced really. Radio 1 became too old fashioned would you believe, a lot of the presenters went over to Radio 2 and a new younger, modern Radio 1 was formed. I don't actually mind, I got the chance to listen to Wogan again and I actually like Radio 2 as it is, there is a good mix for all ages so goodbye and good riddance to ageist listening. I actually prefer the radio and listen to it a lot, I don't really listen to cd's and my downloaded music much as I prefer the music, chat and the odd go at Popmaster with Ken Bruce. You'd think it would be a thing of the past with all the technology around today but radio is still popular today as it's always been. To be honest sometimes it's a lot better than anything on the tv and with all the stations available there is always something for everyone to listen to. So thank you for the past 50 years BBC Radio, thank you for all the good memories and may it all continue for the next 50 years and beyond. Thanks for reading and I will be back tomorrow for Teapot Tuesday. Take care.......... |
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