Tag Archives: Music

My Top Songs 2018 Part Two

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In my previous post, I looked at the Top 15 of my Spotify Top Songs of 2018. In this post rather than going numerically through the remaining 85 I have picked out a selection.

I thought I would top and tail this post with extremes.

In my Top 20 is, what my daughter refers to as my ode to Eurotrash – Loreen’s Euphoria, winner of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. Only to be listened to at the gym with the volume at the max!

David Bowie is also in my Top 20 with Life on Mars. I can’t say Bowie is a go-to in my music listening, but there are some of his albums that I adore and Hunky Dory of which Life on Mars is the fourth track on side one is definitely one. I can’t remember when I bought the album, it’s an import so it must have been around 1975 when a school friend of mine and I took advantage of the huge difference in exchange rates between the UK and Australia and started importing records.  Whether its Life on Mars, Changes, Kooks, Andy Warhol, this is a classic album and seeing it in My Top Songs gave me an excuse to fire up the turntable and give it a spin.

America’s Ventura Highway. The simplicity and harmonies make America’s music and Ventura Highway, in particular, a regular on my Spotify Playlists. Continue reading →

My Top Songs 2018 Part One

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As Christmas and the end of the year approaches the reflections on the year begin.

One I look forward to is Spotify’s, “Your Top Songs”, and it arrived in the Spotify App in the last few days.  Over the next couple of posts, I will run through the list.

First up is what I regard as my all time favourite song – Born to Run.  It is the title track of the album I have no hesitation in saying is my favourite album of all time.  The album version was the one featured in my most listened too, although it could just as easily have been one of the many other versions I have from Springsteen’s concerts which now are thankfully able to be downloaded. From the opening wall of sound to the end this song has it all. My most vivid memory of the song isn’t seeing it performed live but a morning recess in Year 12, when the teacher who introduced me to Bruce put the song on in the Music Centre. He had it absolutely pumping out through the school HiFi. Forty plus years on having it pumping out is the only way to listen to Born to Run.

Second and a complete change of pace are The Carpenters, We’ve Only Just Begun. Certainly a contrast from the first song on my list but still a song I don’t tire of.

Next is by Australian, music icon Brian Cadd, Ginger Man.  I’ve loved Brian Cadd from his days in Axiom and Arkansas Grass. Ginger Man is a song of its era, about times past, when we posted letters and travelling from Australia to the other side of the world, in this case, the USA was an epic journey.  The references to his  Dad and brother mythical or otherwise, are so real, I feel I am eavesdropping on a very personal letter back home. Brian Cadd a songwriter of extraordinary talent and a characteristic voice released Ginger Man in 1972, a golden period of Australian music. I have seen Brian Cadd live many, many times from the very first concert I ever went to in 1972 through to a couple of years ago when he toured with a fellow Axiom member and former lead singer of Little River Band, Glenn Shorrock.  He is a storyteller and Ginger Man is one of his best. Continue reading →

Finding an artist to late: Nico

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Source: Allmusic.com

My usual routine for a day’s studying is to put my headphones on muse over what to listen too. Often its a playlist recommended by Spotify or Apple. As I listen, a song or artist will come up that I like that I don’t know and I will search out that artist’s discography.

Beach at Second Valley

This is just what happened as I sat with my coffee looking over the sea at Second Valley when my head should have been in the spreadsheet loading my data.

On came a song. What was it?  Who sang it? Why hadn’t I heard it before?  All these thoughts came running through my head. The song was  These Days by Nico a German born singer of the 60s. How had I missed her? She fits perfectly into my favourite music style – solo female vocalist, haunting, strong lyrics, and simple music backdrop.

Nico released 6 solo albums, a collaboration with another of my favourite bands The Velvet Underground and a series of live albums.

 

Tower Records, Dublin

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The Diary of a Slow Traveller

I have fond memories of spending a delightful afternoon thumbing through CDs at one of the Tower Record stores in San Fransisco back in the 90s while my jet lagged family were asleep. I’d also spent time in the HMV store in Singapore and London, thumbing through the racks of CDs.

I particularly remember the Singapore store as I’d spent a whole afternoon there in preference to seeing Singapore’s sights. When I caught up with my colleagues they were somewhat bemused by how I’d spent my afternoon. But in 2017 these were all distant memories.

So what has this got to do with our trip to the UK. Well, it has been one of my laments that the joy of thumbing through racks of CDs is a thing of the past,  so it was with absolute joy that I spent a delightful hour at Tower Records in Dublin.

We’d booked a tour in The Little Museum of Dublin  for early afternoon, as the morning tours were booked out and so we thought we’d visit Trinity College to see the Book of Kells in the interim. When we arrived to purchase our tickets for The Book of Kells we found that it was on timed entry and that our slot was just before our scheduled Little Museum of Dublin tour. As a result we had an hour or so to kill.

As we’d walked to Trinity College to purchase our tickets, I’d seen the Tower Records store which was conveniently located directly opposite a large bookstore where my favourite person would be happy to browse. I left her there and headed straight across the road to Tower Records.

I suspect as I walked in, my eyes were the size of saucers. It’s enormous and not only did it have racks of CDs to thumb through but racks and racks of Vinyl. My morning was made as I browsed new releases and then walked upstairs where there was even more Vinyl. It was like stepping back in time and I was loving it. Continue reading →

It’s Negroni not coffee this week

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Negroni – Second Valley style

Well this week we won’t be sharing a coffee rather it will be a Negroni! After all,it is Negroni week .

Negronis have become our drink of choice. A wonderful aperitif that doesn’t seem to be climate dependent. Whether at home, at the beach (Second Valley) in a local bar or somewhere on our travels they have been a highlight. In Australia they are carefully measured, unless you having one of my homemade versions, whereas in many of the bars we sampled them in Italy it was a “glug” of Gin, Campari and Vermouth making them all the more special.

After a Negroni or two the conversation often becomes obtuse. For example – unusual words in songs.

“moot” in Rick Springfield’s Jessy’s Girl – surely a little sophisticated for a song like this?

“gavotte” in Carly Simon’s Your so Vain – Carly Simon in Variety discusses why she used the word which means a French dance. Continue reading →