Dahlia DeWinters - Author

Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

Music Monday – Top 5 Billy Joel Songs

Heidi-ho, it’s music Monday and I’m here once again to thrill and wow you with my musical choices.  Today’s list comes from my piano lessons as a youth.  I began piano lessons at the age of five.  I hated them.  But then by the time I was in middle school, I’d discovered Billy Joel, and thought that I, too, could be  Piano Man.  Alas, that did not work out, thankfully, I think, but that hasn’t tarnished my love for Bill.  Take a gander at my favorite songs (at least today) from this artist. The list is in no particular order.

 

Piano Man

The song that started it all.  For some reason, I was fascinted by the fact that you could sing and play the piano.  (Bear with me,I was kinda young at the time.)

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Downeaster Alexa

The music beneath the melody just makes you feel like you’re bracing yourself against the sway of a rolling boat.

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Goodnight Saigon

A sad song about lost, broken, lives.

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River of Dreams

In the middle of the night….

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Pressure

That jabbing synthesizer rift….

“You have to learn to pace yourself.”

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And there’s my faves from the piano man.  Have any Billy Joel favorites?  Drop them in the comments!

 

Peace, Love, Unity

Dahlia

 

Music Monday – Top 5 Songs – The Police

There were five Police studio albums released between 1978 and 1983.  I know this because I owned them all.  For Music Monday, let’s take a trip down memory lane and name my favorite track from each of these studio albums.

Outlando D’Amour was the first album released by The Police.  They “broke out” with the hit “Roxanne”.  I don’t need to go into the whole story now, everyone knows what the song is about.  However, while I did like Roxanne, my oh-so-favorite track from this album is “So Lonely”.

 

Reggatta de Blanc

Released in 1979, the hot “hit” from this album was Message in a Bottle. While I do love Message in all its iterations (the acoustic version is especially stirring), here’s my go to from this album:

 

Zenyatta Mondatta

The song “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” hit the U.S. charts with a bang and spent three years there.  I guess….people liked it? 😉  The songs did have staying power.  My personal favorite, because I know you’re waiting for it is…Shadows in the Rain.  Who can resist a song that begins “Woke up in my clothes again this morning/Don’t know exactly where I am…”

 

 

 

Ghost in the Machine

Their fourth studio album.  My pick:  Secret Journey

 

Synchronicity

The final studio album before Sting broke out on his own, although after listening to some of the early “demos” on YouTube, it seems that The Police was mostly Sting and two guys.  Regardless of who wrote what when and where, my pick from this album is Tea in the Sahara.

 

There you go, there it is…my five favorite Police songs!

Peace, Love, Unity

Dahlia

 

 

Music Monday – Goth Classical Music

Hey! It’s Music Monday!

 

There’s nothing I like better on a cold winter’s evening (and sometimes in the summer too) is a cup of Irish coffee and some dark classical music.  Whether it be a mournful aria or a draggy dirge in a lovely minor key, the dulcet tones of a sorrowful violin or the lamenting mezzo-sorprano.

I thrive on that shit.

Forget about the dog dying in movies or some drama on television.  Youwant to bring a tear to my eye, play me a tune in a minor key.  Those gloomy chord progressions will get me every single time.

Here we go.

 

 

 

Dido’s Lament – Dido and Aeneas, Henry Purcell

In operas, someone always dies. Here, it’s Dido.  She’s taken poison because her great love, Aeneas, has abandoned her.  Grab the tissue and take a look at her first lines: (Belinda is her lady in waiting)

“Thy hand Belinda….darkness shades me….on thy bosom, let me rest…
More I would….but death invades me….Death is now a welcome guest….”

And the great, greatc Jessye Norman brings these lyrics right to your doorstep.

“Remember me….but ah!  Forget my fate…..”

Goosebumps!

Moonlight Sonata – Beethoven

One of the comments on this video (paraphrase):  “I listen to this in the dark with a cup of tea…like a psychopath”

 

Frederic Chopin – Waltz in A minor

Sergei Rachmaninoff – Prelude, Opus 2 #2 in C sharp minor

 

 

John Williams – Theme from Schindler’s List, Performed by Itzhak Perlman

 

Go ahead.  Get the tissues, sob, breathe, then touch up your black eyeliner and tighten the laces on your Doc Martens.  I hope you enjoyed my little gothy list of classical songs.

 

1Love

Peace, Love, Unity

Dahlia