Saturday Classics – 06052023

John Lester Nash Jr. was an American singer-songwriter, best known in the United States for his 1972 hit “I Can See Clearly Now”.Primarily a reggae and pop singer, he was one of the first non-Jamaican artists to record reggae music in Kingston.

Nash found his groove in Jamaica and recorded his biggest hits “I Can See Clearly Now” and “Stir It Up” with the reggae influence he picked up from local musicians like Bob Marley. Nash signed Marley and his group, The Wailers, but Marley would have his first taste of success outside of Jamaica when Nash included a cover of Marley’s “Stir It Up” on his own 1972 album I Can See Clearly Now

We all have someone who influence us, these are his “There are three artists who’ve really influenced me in my singing career,” Nash told Melody Maker in 1969. “They are the late Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin and Harry Belafonte. They all have something I wish I had.”

Hold Me Tight” is a song written and performed by Johnny Nash. It was featured on his 1968 album Hold Me Tight,

I don’t want to hear it,
No more fussin’ and fightin’ baby,
Hold me tight.
Let’s let bygones be bygones,
Let’s think about tomorrow girl,
Our future’s bright.
Well, I know I was wrong,
But, I was just a fool,
Too blind to see
You were the only girl for me.
Ah but now I see the light,
And everything’s gonna be all right,
Baby, hold me tight.
Well, I know I was wrong,
But, I was just a fool,
Too blind to see
You were the only girl for me.
Ah but now I see the light,
And everything’s gonna be all right,
Baby, hold me tight.

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 29042023

Paul Simon – 50 ways to leave your lover

In a 1975 interview published in Rock Lives: Profiles and Interviews, Simon told the story of this song: “I woke up one morning in my apartment on Central Park and the opening words just popped into my mind: ‘The problem is all inside your head, she said to me…’ That was the first thing I thought of. So I just started building on that line. It was the last song I wrote for the album, and I wrote it with a Rhythm Ace, one of those electronic drum machines so maybe that’s how it got that sing-song ‘make a new plan Stan, don’t need to be coy Roy’ quality. It’s basically a nonsense song.”

According to Simon’s younger brother Eddie , Paul made this song up while teaching his son how to rhyme. Even though he didn’t take the lyrics too seriously, it’s an interesting song, particularly for those who feel trapped in bad relationships.( songfacts)

Here is the original and Miley Cyrus version. Both work for me…

Paul Simon may have sung that there were 50 ways to leave your lover, but he listed only five, which are:

1) Slip out the back, Jack
2) Make a new plan, Stan
3) You don’t need to be coy, Roy, just set yourself free
4) Hop on the bus, Gus
5) Drop off the key, Lee, and get yourself free

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 22042023

Nora jones – come away with me

Just a nice mood piece- I like singing to it. My voice range is abled me to sing along with it 🙂

This love song is the title track to Norah Jones’ debut album, released in 2002 when she was just 22. A patient, peaceful song, it finds Jones singing about a romantic escape where the only thing that matters is that they’re together. At the time, Jones was dating her bass player, Lee Alexander.

The music video was directed by James Frost, whose work includes Radiohead’s “House of Cards” and Coldplay’s “Yellow.” It shows Jones driving what appears to be the 1971 Cadillac DeVille that played a very important role in her life (we’re not sure if it’s the real one or a replica, but it has Texas plates). Jones’ mother bought her the oversized vehicle when they were living in Texas and Norah needed to commute for work. The car was pretty much indestructible, so it was a safe choice.(songfacts)

Come away with me in the night
Come away with me
And I will write you a song

Come away with me on a bus
Come away where they can’t tempt us with their lies

And I want to walk with you
On a cloudy day
In fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high
So won’t you try to come

Come away with me and we’ll kiss
On a mountaintop
Come away with me
And I’ll never stop loving you

And I want to wake up with the rain
Falling on a tin roof
While I’m safe there in your arms
So all I ask is for you
To come away with me in the night
Come away with me

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 15042023

Simply Red – Stars

“The second single to be taken from 1991’s Stars album and one of the most memorable hits of the 90s.

The most-logical explanation of Simply Red’s “Stars” would be that the vocalist is singing to his romantic interest.  The first verse is symbolic of his strong feelings for her. And the second verse is apparently indicative of them having some serious issues relationship. In the bridge especially it is revealed that the addressee has done something which has “hurt” the singer significantly.

I read that , Throughout the years, Hucknall has given many interviews offering another angle behind the inspiration for Stars. “There’s a theme of being famous and what that means and how do you keep yourself normal,” the singer has said. “I had this fixation with stardom and what that does to a person.” Given that he was already one of the biggest pop stars in the world at the time, Hucknall used the song to explore his views on stardom by reflecting on love as a means of bringing him back down to earth (“I wanna fall from the stars/Straight into your arms”). Speaking of its lyrics and his relationship with fame, Hucknall admits that Stars is really “just all about sort of escaping from that”.

Anyone who ever held you
Would tell you the way I’m feeling
Anyone who ever wanted you
Would try to tell you what I feel inside
The only thing I ever wanted
Was the feeling that you ain’t faking
The only one you ever thought about
Wait a minute, can’t you see that I

Wanna fall from the stars
Straight into your arms, I
I feel you, I hope you comprehend

For the man who tried to hurt you
He’s explaining the way I’m feeling
For all the jealousy I caused you
States the reason why I’m trying to hide
As for all the things you taught me
It sends my future into clearer dimensions
You’ll never know how much you hurt me
Stay a minute, can’t you see that I

chorus

Too many hearts are broken
A lover’s promise never came with a maybe
So many words are left unspoken
The silent voices are driving me crazy
After all the pain you caused me
Making up could never be your intention
You’ll never know how much you hurt me
Stay, can’t you see that I

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 08042023

Bee Gees How Can You Mend A Broken Heart (Live At The MGM Grand)

Released in 1971, “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” was the lead single on the Bee Gees album Trafalgar. Primarily written by Barry and Robin, this song was the band’s first U.S. number one hit!

Barry and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees wrote this in the style of Andy Williams, who was a popular recording artist and television presenter at the time. It became the first #1 US hit for the group, topping the chart for four weeks. Later in 1971, Andy Williams identified it as a song in his wheelhouse and recorded his own version for his covers album You’ve Got a Friend.

Despite the affected tale of heartache, this song was very easy to write, as Robin Gibb claims they wrote it in about an hour and without struggle or hardship. 

Al Green recorded this in 1972 for his album Let’s Stay Together. His version was used in the 1999 movie Notting Hill. Green drew out his epic interpretation to nearly six and a half minutes. According to Mojo magazine, producer Willie Mitchell instructed the band to imagine “they were sitting by a river, a forest across the water, with all this music coming out of the forest and floating across the river, kind of delayed.” I had to include this here too.

I can think of younger days when living for my life
Was everything a man could want to do
I could never see tomorrow
I was never told about the sorrow

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
Tell me, how can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go ’round?

How can you mend a this broken man? Yeah
How can a loser ever win?
Somebody please help me mend my broken heart
And let me live again, la-la, la-la, la

I can still feel the breeze that rustles through the trees
And misty memories of days gone by
But we could never see tomorrow
Would you believe that no one, no one ever told us about the sorrow?

So how can you mend a broken heart? And mine is
How can you stop the rain from falling down? Baby
How can you stop that old sun from shining?
What makes the world go ’round? And sometime I have to say, yeah, say

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 01042023

Etta James – Misty blue

Misty Blue” is a song written by Bob Montgomery that has been recorded and made commercially successful by several music artists. Although Montgomery wrote the song for a different artist in mind, it was brought first to the attention of Wilma Burgess in 1966.

The song reached a bigger audience after it was covered by Ella Fitzgerald the following year. Joe Simon recorded the original R&B version in 1972.

In 1976 Etta James recorded Misty Blue on her album Dreamer, a blues version of the song. It was one of the songs she almost always sang at her performances. 

Oh, it’s been a long, long time
Looks like to get you off my mind but I can’t
Just the thought of you, ooh, oh babe, just the thought of you
Turns my whole world a misty blue

Just the mention, just the mention of your name, yeah
Turns a flicker to a flame, listen to me good
I think of the things, oh, I think of the things we used to do
And that’s when my whole world
Oh, my whole world turns misty blue, yeah

I should forget you, heaven knows I’ve tried
But when I say I’m glad we’re through
My heart, my heart knows I’ve lied, I’ve lied
Oh, I’m glad we’re through
Yes, but my heart knows, my heart knows I’ve lied, yes

Just the mention, just the mention of, of your name, yeah
Turns a flicker to a flame, listen to me good
I think of the things, I think of the things we used to do, yeah
That’s when my whole world, my whole world turns misty blue
Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah
And I, I should forget you, heaven knows, heaven knows I’ve tried
But when I say I’m glad we’re through
That’s when my heart knows
That’s when my heart knows that I’ve lied and I’ve lied and I lied

Oh, oh, it’s been such a long, long, long, long time, babe
Looks like I can’t get you
I’m gonna get you off my mind but I can’t, oh no
Just the thought of you, just the thought of you
Turns my whole world, it turns my whole world
Just the thought of you, just to think of you
Just the thought of you
Turns my whole world misty, misty blue

One of the most important things that set Cray apart from his peers on the blues scene in the ’80s and ’90s was his focus on songwriting rather than guitar heroics. While he was an impressively strong player, his soloing was clean and concise for the most part, without excessive showboating, and his songs were more closely related to vintage Southern soul in their storytelling and sense of character than in the typical 12-bar paeans to whiskey and women favored by most blues acts of the era. 1983’s Bad Influence was the album that first earned Cray a major buzz among blues enthusiasts, while 1986’s Strong Persuader was a near flawless set of songs that made him a star and allowed him to cross over to the mainstream on his own terms. ( All Music)

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 25032023

Don’t Dream It’s Overby Crowded House

Crowded House lead singer Neil Finn wrote this song. He explained in an interview with Goldmine: “I wrote that on my brother’s piano. I’m not sure if I remember what the context was, exactly, but it was just about on the one hand feeling kind of lost, and on the other hand sort of urging myself on: Don’t dream it’s over. That one actually fell out literally, without me thinking about it too much.”

Finn considers this a song of unity. When he performed it in Hartford, Connecticut with Fleetwood Mac on March 15, 2019, he dedicated the song to the victims of the shootings in Christchurch, where earlier in the day a gunman opened fire on two mosques.

It is such a beautiful song that has been an anthem of hope and unity during various global events.

There is freedom within
There is freedom without
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup
There’s a battle ahead
Many battles are lost
But you’ll never see the end of the road
While you’re travelling with me

Hey now, hey now
Don’t dream it’s over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they won’t win

Now I’m towing my car
There’s a hole in the roof
My possessions are causing me suspicion
But there’s no proof
In the paper today
Tales of war and of waste
But you turn right over to the TV page

Chorus

Now I’m walking again
To the beat of a drum
And I’m counting the steps to the door of your heart
Only shadows ahead
Barely clearing the roof
Get to know the feeling of liberation and release

One of the most important things that set Cray apart from his peers on the blues scene in the ’80s and ’90s was his focus on songwriting rather than guitar heroics. While he was an impressively strong player, his soloing was clean and concise for the most part, without excessive showboating, and his songs were more closely related to vintage Southern soul in their storytelling and sense of character than in the typical 12-bar paeans to whiskey and women favored by most blues acts of the era. 1983’s Bad Influence was the album that first earned Cray a major buzz among blues enthusiasts, while 1986’s Strong Persuader was a near flawless set of songs that made him a star and allowed him to cross over to the mainstream on his own terms. ( All Music)

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 18032023

I discoved his music, all by myself way back in late 1980’s, while stopping to a record shop to buy something different, I went to buy Robert Gray album, after hearing some songs at a friends place. the mood, the voice spoke to me.

The Robert Cray Band performing Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark, from the album named the same.

The most commercially and critically successful blues artist of his generation, Robert Cray took his music to the upper reaches of the pop and rock charts when many major blues acts were counting their sales in the tens of thousands. On the strength of his breakthrough album, 1986’s StrongThe most commercially and critically successful blues artist of his generation, Robert Cray took his music to the upper reaches of the pop and rock charts when many major blues acts were counting their sales in the tens of thousands

Dead of the night baby
We’re finally alone
I’ll pull up the shades
If you’ll unplug the phone

Put on some music
Marvin Gaye’s real nice
Once we get settled
I’ll turn off the lights

Don’t be afraid of the dark
Don’t be afraid of the dark
I’ll be there to hold you
Don’t be afraid of the dark

It might be scary
Til your eyes adjust
Don’t fear the shadows
Me you can trust

I’m at my best
In a pitch black room
Hold on tight baby
You’ll feel the power soon

Don’t be afraid of the dark
Don’t be afraid of the dark
I’ll be there to hold you

You might tremble
You might shake
Scream out loud
You may even pray

I know which moves
Suit you right
You’ll beg for more
You’ll forget about the night

One of the most important things that set Cray apart from his peers on the blues scene in the ’80s and ’90s was his focus on songwriting rather than guitar heroics. While he was an impressively strong player, his soloing was clean and concise for the most part, without excessive showboating, and his songs were more closely related to vintage Southern soul in their storytelling and sense of character than in the typical 12-bar paeans to whiskey and women favored by most blues acts of the era. 1983’s Bad Influence was the album that first earned Cray a major buzz among blues enthusiasts, while 1986’s Strong Persuader was a near flawless set of songs that made him a star and allowed him to cross over to the mainstream on his own terms. ( All Music)

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 11032023

I discoved his music, all by myself way back in late 1980’s, while stopping to a record shop to buy something different, I went to buy Robert Gray album, instead of buying only that album I also bought this album, Bring the family, I did not regret it.

This song isn’t the most recognized, that would be ”Have A Little Faith In Me”, I’m sure.

John Hiatt is an American singer-songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including new wave, blues, and country. Hiatt has been nominated for nine Grammy Award and has been awarded a variety of other distinctions in the music industry.

He has said this: I call myself a singer-songwriter, but I’m a pretty good rhythm guitar player and there’s something to be said for that. Bob Dylan is also a pretty good rhythm guitar player – Edward Van Halen couldn’t do what Dylan does as a rhythm player.

There’s a lipstick sunset
Smeared across the August sky
There’s a bitter sweet perfume
Hanging in the fields
The creek is running high

And I left my lover waiting
In the dawn somewhere to wonder why
By the end of the day
All her sweet dreams would fade
To a lipstick sunset

Well, a radio was playing
And that ol’ summer heat was on the rise
I just had to get away
Before some sad old song
Brought tears to my eyes

And Lord I couldn’t tell her
That her love was only killing me
By the end of the day
All her sweet dreams would fade
To a lipstick sunset

Well it’s pretty as a picture baby
Red and blushing just before the night
Maybe love’s like that for me
Maybe I can only see
As you take away the light

So hold me in the darkness
We can dream about the cool twilight
‘Til the dawning of the day
When I make my getaway
To a lipstick sunset

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 04032023

She is one of my all time favorites, I used to listen to her often in the 80’s , my sister introduced me to her music.

Anticipation by Carly Simon

Carly Simon wrote “Anticipation” while waiting for Cat Stevens to come over for their first date (she was making chicken with a béarnaise sauce). She was his opening act for a concert at the Troubadour in Los Angeles on April 6, 1971, and they were set to play again at Carnegie Hall in New York City on June 5. Simon lived in the City, so she invited Stevens over for the date a few days before that show.He was late, so Simon burned off some nervous energy by sitting down with her guitar. She imitated Stevens’ style (he was her favorite artist) from his song “Hard Headed Woman,” where he keeps it mellow but then ramps it up for a section when he sings, “I know many fine feathered friends.” Simon played loud, singing the word that came into her mind because she was waiting for Stevens: “Anticipation.””I was anticipating his arrival,” she said in the book Anthems We Love. “So I just started the song and I wrote the whole song, words and music, before he got there that night. So in about 15 minutes I wrote the whole song. Three verses and the choruses and the outro. That’s only one of three times that that’s ever happened to me. That I just sat down and wrote the whole song in just one stretch. It was only about 20 minutes that he was late.”

This song is very much about living in the moment. Simon isn’t sure this relationship is going to last, but she decides to just enjoy it while they’re together. “These are the good old days,” goes the refrain at the end. (Song facts)

We can never know about the days to come
But we think about them anyway
And I wonder if I’m really with you now
Or just chasin’ after some finer day

Anticipation, anticipation
Is makin’ me late
Is keepin’ me waitin’

And I tell you how easy it feels to be with you
And how right your arms feel around me
But I, I rehearsed those words just late last night
When I was thinkin’ about how right tonight might be

Anticipation, anticipation
Is makin’ me late
Is keepin’ me waitin’

And tomorrow we might not be together
I’m no prophet and I don’t know nature’s ways
So I’ll try and see into your eyes right now
And stay right here ’cause these are the good old days

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 25022023

Moody Blues, Nights in White Satin

Was released in 1967 as part of the Moody Blues classic concept album Days of Future Passed.

Band member Justin Hayward wrote and composed the song at age 19 while touring in Belgium and titled the song after a girlfriend gave him a gift of satin bedsheets. The song itself was a tale of a yearning love from afar, which leads many aficionados to term it as a tale of unrequited love endured by Hayward.

Nights in white satin, never reaching the end,
Letters I’ve written, never meaning to send.
Beauty I’d always missed with these eyes before.
Just what the truth is, I can’t say anymore.

Cause I love you, yes I love you, oh how I love you.

Gazing at people, some hand in hand,
Just what I’m going through they can’t understand.
Some try to tell me, thoughts they cannot defend,
Just what you want to be, you will be in the end.

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 18022023

Carol King and “You’ve Got a Friend”. This is appropriate for the week of Valentine’s Day!

It is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with over 25 million copies sold worldwide.

It received four Grammy Awards in 1972, including Album of the Year. In 2003, “Tapestry” was ranked number 36 on Rolling Stone list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

King wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album, several of which had already been hits for other artists such as Aretha Franklin’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and The Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” (in 1960). James Taylor, who encouraged King to sing her own songs and who also played on “Tapestry”, would later have a number one hit with “You’ve Got a Friend”.

When you’re down and troubled
And you need some lovin’ care
And nothin’, nothin’ is goin’ right
Close your eyes and think of me
And soon I will be there
To brighten up even your darkest night

You just call out my name
And you know, wherever I am
I’ll come runnin’
To see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I’ll be there
You’ve got a friend

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 11022023

Remembering Burt Bacharach

This Guy’s In Love With You,” by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass. The song became the first #1 hit single for the performer (Alpert), the writers (Burt Bacharach and Hal David), and the label (A&M Records).This video first appeared as a segment of the 1968 television special The Beat of the Brass.

You see this guy, this guy’s in love with you Yes I’m in love who looks at you the way I do When you smile I can tell we know each other very

Well How can I show you I’m glad I got to know you ’cause I’ve heard some talk they say you think I’m fine

This guy’s in love and what I’d do to make you mine Tell me now is it so don’t let me be the last to Know

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 04022023

This weeks choice was selecteg because of my recent trip to Georgia.

Otis Redding, (born September 9, 1941, Dawson, Georgia, U.S.—died December 10, 1967, near Madison, Wisconsin), American singer-songwriter, one of the great soul stylists of the 1960s.

Redding’s open-throated singing became the measure of the decade’s great soul artists. Unabashedly emotional, he sang with overwhelming power and irresistible sincerity. “Otis wore his heart on his sleeve,” said Jerry Wexler

Ironically, the across-the-board success Redding had sought was realized only after his death. His most-haunting composition, cowritten with Cropper, shot to the top of the charts and became his only number one hit: “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” (1968), a bittersweet lament of indolence and love.

Watch the official video for (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding. The video features video clips and photos of Otis Redding in the prime of his musical career. (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay was released posthumously on Stax Records’ Volt label in 1968 becoming the first posthumous single to be #1 on the charts in the US.

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 28012023

This weeks choice is a classic to me at least, it was part of our wedding ceremony.

Judy Collins has inspired audiences with sublime vocals, boldly vulnerable songwriting. The award-winning singer-songwriter is esteemed for her imaginative interpretations of traditional and contemporary folk standards and her own poetically poignant original compositions.

Judy Collins’ first few albums consisted entirely of traditional tunes and contemporary folk songs. By 1966’s In My Life, she was branching out, bringing attention to songs written by The Beatles, Donovan and Leonard Cohen.With her 1967 album Wildflowers, Collins started laying down her own compositions. “Since You’ve Asked” was the first song she recorded that she wrote herself.

Judy Collins explained the story of the song to Mojo magazine.”When Leonard (Cohen) asked me why I didn’t write songs, I kind of didn’t have a clue. I didn’t know how you even started writing a song. So I called Bruce Langhorne, who played guitar and tambourine on Carolyn Hester records and Bob Dylan records and was living up in White Plains (north of the Bronx) and I said, ‘Can I come and see you?’ I had all these notebooks of depression and darkness and desperation, really random, nothing finished. I’d been writing my dreams down for years because I’d been in therapy already, three years I guess.He read my dreary little notebook and said, ‘OK, you’re going to go home and you’re going to write five songs about a relationship, the beginning, the middle and so on end-to-end.’ I said, ‘Oh good, that’s simple.’ ‘Since You’ve Asked’ was the first. It took me about 40 minutes.”

What I’ll give you since you asked is all my time together
Take the rugged sunny days, the warm and rocky weather
Take the roads that I have walked along
Looking for tomorrow’s time, peace of mind

As my life spills into yours changing with the hours
Filling up the world with time, turning time to flowers
I can show you all the songs
That I never sang to one man before

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 07012023

This weeks choice is a classic… if it makes you happy….

If It Makes You Happy” is a song by American singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow, released as the lead single from her 1996 eponymous album in September 1996.

This song describes a person who seems depressed or upset no matter what happens. According to Crow, the inspiration for the song was her feelings after the massive success of her first album, as her record label and the media put pressure on her to follow it up.

Sheryl Crow (b. 1962) has won nine Grammys and sold more than 50 million albums, but success has not come easily. Crow has had to fight sexism in the music industry as well as her own depression and perfectionism, and she has had breast cancer. His private life has also been exposed in public, so this part of the lyrics make sence

You get down, real low down
You listen to Coltrane, derail your own train
Well, who hasn’t been there before?
I come ’round, around the hard way
Bring you comics in bed, scrape the mold off the bread
And serve you French toast again

If it makes you happy
It can’t be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad?

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 31122022

Wishing you all a great New Year!

Almost hits? Classic . Elvis Costello and the attractions , Everyday I write the book from 1983. This is one of his most beloved songs.

The song contains lyrics using writing as a metaphor for sustaining relationships;

Costello’s clever lyrics are the best, He describes himself as “a man with a mission in two or three editions,” then proceeds to summarize a tumultuous relationship

Chapter One we didn’t really get along
Chapter Two I think I fell in love with you
You said you’d stand by me in the middle of Chapter Three
But you were up to your old tricks in Chapters Four, Five and Six

Then he chronicles the highs and lows of their relationship:

The way you talk, and try to kiss me, and laugh
In four or five paragraphs
All your compliments and your cutting remarks
Are captured here in my quotation marks

he ends the song on a bitter but humorous note:

“With my pen and my electric typewriter / Even in a perfect world where everyone was equal / I’d still own the film rights and be working on the sequel.”

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Saturday Classics – 24122022

Wishing you all a peaceful and safe Christmas, with lots of Joy and Love!

This is a classic; Bing Crosby, David Bowie – Peace On Earth / Little Drummer Boy

Peace on Earth can it be?
Years from now, perhaps we’ll see
See the day of glory
See the day, when men of goodwill
Live in peace, live in peace again
Peace on Earth
Can it be

Every child must be made aware
Every child must be made to care
Care enough for his fellow man
To give all the love that he can

November 2022 marks the 45th anniversary of the Bing Crosby & David Bowie’s duet “Peace On Earth / Little Drummer Boy” which premiered to a global audience in Bing’s 1977 Christmas special, “Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas”.

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

Seasons Greetings from Kirkkonummi!

Saturday Classics – 10122022

This is my first entry for this challenge, my aim is to keep up with listening to music. My first pick is, as is is December, and it is snowing and the weather is frightful…

This is a classic; Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! · Dean Martin

Dean Martin was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century.

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!“, the song written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in July 1945. It was written in Hollywood, California. First recorded for RCA Victor in 1945 by Vaughn Monroe

Despite the lyrics making no mention of any holiday, the song has come to be regarded as a Christmas song worldwide due to its winter theme, being played on radio stations during the Christmas and holiday season, and having often been covered by various artists on Christmas-themed albums. 

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”, also known as “Let It Snow”, is a song written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in 1945. The song was written in July 1945 in Hollywood, California during one of the hottest days on record. First recorded by Vaughn Monroe, it became a popular hit, reaching number one on the Billboard music chart the following year. One of the best-selling songs of all time, “Let It Snow!” has been covered countless times by many artists. Due to its seasonal lyrics, it is commonly regarded as a Christmas song. However, despite the song’s cheery, holiday feel, it is a love song that never mentions Christmas.
First recorded in 1945 by Vaughn Monroe, it became a popular hit, reaching number one on the Billboard music chart the following year.

Lepis is hosting Saturday Classics, you can add your own link here Saturday Classics

On Her page she writes: This blog is back with hosting the Classics after few years break. This time we’ll be playing on Saturdays and you can link straight here on this own page. Rules: There are no rules, as long as the song you play is a classic in your mind. Linking open 8 am and closes 12 pm.

How to Survive November 2022 – 30

I made it, this is the end of November. Thanks to my Novembers survivors Lepis and Susupetal for the company, I have heard songs that I haven’t in a while also made new discoveries. This has also made me again an active music listener, as I’ve grown older the less I’ve listened to music, And it’s a shame! Silence has been a good friend of mine, me and my thoughts, photos and art.

I need to keep up with this positive newly found joy of lisening to music.

Olavi Uusivirta is an actor and musician, As a musician, he is one of the most successful in our country. Three of his albums have achieved gold and Olavi (2016) received the award for rock album of the year at the Emma gala. Olavi Uusivirta has also acted in numerous films and on stage.

The song tells about a compelling longing for somewhere else, for a new environment away from the familiar and safe, perhaps for a new human relationship — towards the new and unknown. You can also think that the narrator of the song experiences a powerful spiritual experience, after which there may be no going back. However, something happens and ‘the new pedaling takes me with it’!” Uusivirta opens the song.

And I hear a voice in the distance
The new rhythm takes me along
And gravity disappears completely
This is a forbidden game
It’s another reality
And if we’re being reasonable
The game ends with the autumn rains

”Laulu kertoo pakottavasta kaipuusta johonkin toisaalle, uuteen ympäristöön pois tutusta ja turvallisesta, kenties uuteen ihmissuhteeseen — kohti vierasta ja tuntematonta. Voi myös ajatella, että laulun kertoja kokee voimakkaan sielullisen elämyksen, jonka jälkeen paluuta entiseen ei ehkä enää ole. Jotain kuitenkin tapahtuu ja ’uusi poljento vie mut mukanaan’!” Uusivirta avaa kappaletta. 

Thanks PARALLEL LINES |in scale for hosting How to Survive November once again.

At the ‘How to Survive November‘ monthly theme we will combine photo and sound. You can select a piece of music to your taste and find a photo to portray the song or you can make a drawing, painting or collage. The picture can be from your archives or you can get it fresh. Enjoy and have fun!

How to Survive November 2022 – 29

I saw Kristoffer Kristofferson oin Helsinki in 2016

KRISTOFFERSON’S Singing has always been low and conversational, but that time it is even more so. Age and kilometers could be seen and heard both in Kristofferson’s singing and guitar playing, but it only brought more humanity to the show

It’s also due to his age that this time the legend didn’t talk as much as before, and it seemed like he was going through the repertoire of his familiar songs with a bit of automatic gear. Still with feeling and a style tempered by self-irony.

Don’t look so sad, I know it’s over
But life goes on and this old world will keep on turning
Let’s just be glad we had some time to spend together
There’s no need to watch the bridges that were burning

Lay your head upon my pillow
Hold your warm and tender body close to mine
Hear the whisper of the raindrops blowing soft against the window
And make believe you love me one more time for the good times

Rain on the window

Thanks PARALLEL LINES |in scale for hosting How to Survive November once again.

At the ‘How to Survive November‘ monthly theme we will combine photo and sound. You can select a piece of music to your taste and find a photo to portray the song or you can make a drawing, painting or collage. The picture can be from your archives or you can get it fresh. Enjoy and have fun!

How to Survive November 2022 – 28

Let’s try something else. WINTER

Antonio Vivaldi is a genius and truly stands out as the most creative among the host of composers who brought the Italian Baroque style to its zenith. His works ooze the perfection of the 17th-century Italian opera and concerto formats.

Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” or “Le quattro stagioni” in Italian is a set of four concertos. The generalized views suggest concertos as a conversation between – a solo instrument or multiple solo instruments and a wider ensemble. Antonio utilized the violin as the sole instrument in “The Four Seasons.”

Winter blue sky

Winter

The concertos end with “L’inverno” or “Winter.” The opening movement resembles a shivering person, stamping his feet in rhythm to stay warm. The middle movement portrays the pleasure of getting warm inside through a crackling fire. The final movement offers people outdoors walking down icy paths, while people inside houses feeling the relentless chill finding its way inside. 

At a basic level, “The Four Seasons” is extraordinarily authentic, an association with profound elegance and luxury. It is full of glistening and brilliant sonorities, ingenious innovations with vivid solo lines capturing the essence of nature. The most important factor that renders its popularity is the fact that it incorporates the basic human elements – the passage of time, the cycle of years and nature. The program incorporates seasonal images and sounds spectacular, without constraining the imagination. Each season offers a “point of departure” for a diverse range of metaphors.

Thanks PARALLEL LINES |in scale for hosting How to Survive November once again.

At the ‘How to Survive November‘ monthly theme we will combine photo and sound. You can select a piece of music to your taste and find a photo to portray the song or you can make a drawing, painting or collage. The picture can be from your archives or you can get it fresh. Enjoy and have fun!

How to Survive November 2022 – 27

k.d. lang & Roy Orbison – Crying

This time instead of my photos I added two of my artworks here. If interested seeing more of my art check out myy blog

ART BY RITVA

Roy’s solo rendition of “Crying” that night was flawless. Lang pours even more emotion into that song than he did in her subsequent solo performances of it, and her voice is unbelievably clear and strong. Two spectacular talents.

ArtByRitva – Crying

I was alright for a while
I could smile for a while
But I saw you last night, you held my hand so tight
As you stopped to say, “Hello”
Oh, you wished me well, you couldn’t tell

That I’d been crying over you
Crying over you
Then you said, “So long”
Left me standing all alone
Alone and crying

Roy Orbison  was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as operatic. Many of Orbison’s songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers chose to project machismo. He performed while standing motionless and wearing black clothes to match his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses, which he wore to counter his shyness and stage fright.

k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter A mezzo-soprano,Lang has contributed songs to movie soundtracks and has collaborated with many musicians. I love her voice.

ArtByRitva- alone

Alone and crying…

Thanks PARALLEL LINES |in scale for hosting How to Survive November once again.

At the ‘How to Survive November‘ monthly theme we will combine photo and sound. You can select a piece of music to your taste and find a photo to portray the song or you can make a drawing, painting or collage. The picture can be from your archives or you can get it fresh. Enjoy and have fun!

How to Survive November 2022 – 26

Electricity” is the 1979 debut single by English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), featured on their eponymous debut album the following year.

Electricity” was the first song that Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys wrote together at the age of 16. It addresses society’s wasteful usage of energy resources.

SO, relevant sond still today, even more so

Our one source of energy
The ultimate discovery
Electric blue for me
Never more to be free

Electricity
Nuclear and H E B
Come fuels from the sea
Wasted electricity

Our one source energy
Electricity
All we need is to learn to save
And if a man would throw away

It doesn’t change the city cost
The alternative is only one
The final source of energy
Solar electricity

Thanks PARALLEL LINES |in scale for hosting How to Survive November once again.

At the ‘How to Survive November‘ monthly theme we will combine photo and sound. You can select a piece of music to your taste and find a photo to portray the song or you can make a drawing, painting or collage. The picture can be from your archives or you can get it fresh. Enjoy and have fun!

How to Survive November 2022 – 25

This is a song from a Finnish rock band called Kolmas Nainen (Third Woman)

The Lyric translation of the few lines that I included in this post is certainly not the best translation available, but it brings out the coffee…

coffee break

I surprised myself by missing

my boyhood friends

especially that equally crazy one

the only one I fought with

who repeatedly told every coffee break

that he saw feline predators in the meadow

From this moment on I have

a few bushels of mammon

coffee and cigarettes to your heart’s content

At this moment on

heart only half-full, but

coffee and cigarettes to your heart’s content

Thanks PARALLEL LINES |in scale for hosting How to Survive November once again.

At the ‘How to Survive November‘ monthly theme we will combine photo and sound. You can select a piece of music to your taste and find a photo to portray the song or you can make a drawing, painting or collage. The picture can be from your archives or you can get it fresh. Enjoy and have fun!

How to Survive November 2022 – 24

I am getting desperate, but I am crabbing to straws….Melanie or Melanie Safka, is an American singer-songwriter.

With her sweet, captivating voice, quirky yet insightful songwriting and bubbly, upbeat, free-spirited hippie persona, pop and folk singer/songwriter Melanie totally epitomized the whole “flower power” counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s.


Oh, I wish that I could find a good book to live in
Oh, I wish that I could find a good book
Well, if I could find a real good book
I’d never have to come out and look at
What they’ve done to my song

Thanks PARALLEL LINES |in scale for hosting How to Survive November once again.

At the ‘How to Survive November‘ monthly theme we will combine photo and sound. You can select a piece of music to your taste and find a photo to portray the song or you can make a drawing, painting or collage. The picture can be from your archives or you can get it fresh. Enjoy and have fun!