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

My Five Favorite Christmas Songs

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Seventies Folk Favorites

Music is important to me. I listen to every type, every kind from hither to thither all the way over to yon. You get the picture. This is going to be a simple post. Maybe you’ll sing along with me, maybe you’ll snicker at how old I am.

I’m not going to wax poetic about how the songs of my childhood and teen years were so much better than the songs of today because I believe that there’s good music in all eras. You just have to look for it. And there were some pretty crappy songs when I was growing up, believe me.

No. This post is about listening to AM radio in the 70s and the songs that came out of that mono speaker that still inspire me today. So fluff out your Afros, get your love beads and granny skirts and take a walk with me down memory lane.

Melanie Safka – Look What They Done to my Song, Ma

This song was also done by the Seekers, but I like Melanie’s song better. The French in the song adds to its awesomeness. “Ils ont change ma chanson, Ma.” Love how “Ma” is the same in French and in English.

The weird thing is, after all this singing about they changed her song, it also was featured in an ad for oatmeal. Go figure.

Mary Hopkins – Those Were the Days, My Friend

You must love a song that tells a story. This song is based on a Russian folk song, which accounts for its melancholy, yet catchy tune. You know it, you love it, sing along.
“Those were the days my friend/we’d thought they never end….”

Last but not least, I’ve listened (and sung out loud) to this song so much that my children know this song, especially the harmonies at the beginning and the end. Love this.

Pilot of the Airwaves – Charlie Dore

Pilot of the Airwaves
Here is my request
You don’t have to play it but I hope you’ll do your best
I’ve been listening to your show on the radio
And you seem like a friend to me.

What are some of your 70s folk favorites?

Love and Lyrics

Red Piano — http://freedigitalphotos.net

Don’t they just go together? Not quite like a horse and carriage, but humans have been writing love songs to each other since…forever, right? Love songs are the glue that keeps us connected to the love in our souls.

“I look at you all…see the love there that’s sleeping….” (George Harrison) A good love song can bring that love to the surface, allow it to blossom and flow.

You see that one person and suddenly…”Zing! Went the strings of my heart!” (James F. Hanley)

Coming from a musical background, from piano lessons at five to playing in the high school band to singing lessons, I’ve heard a ton of varied music in my life. Some of it was by choice, other times, not so much. (Contrary to what my piano teacher wants me to believe, Bartok is just….ugh. But I digress.)

Because of this background, I’ve heard a ton of Broadway show tunes and pieces from the American Songbook. Some are good, some are….not so much. What stands out most for me, however, is the lyrics. It fascinates me how the lyricists were able to put together simple words to evoke such meaning and emotion in the listener. Certainly, some of that is also inspired by the music, the melody to which it is set, but many of these songs are poetry in and of themselves. I’m reaching back. Not as far back as Mozart, but mid 20th century back. Come on with me, would you?

And of course, I’m going to give examples!!!

Tonight from West Side Story

Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
This song is the pronouncement of the true (but forbidden) love between Tony and Maria.

“Only you, you’re the only thing I’ll see forever
In my eyes, in my words and in everything I do…
Nothing else but you…..Ever….”

Further on in the song:

“Today, the world was just an address
A place for me to live in
No better than all right…
But here, you are
And what was just a world is a star….”

The word love is never, ever mentioned in this song until the very end. But how powerful is their love that it can turn a world into a star? Indescribable.

And if the nebulous meaning of love escapes us, how about the power of a kiss?

How Little We Know
Songwriters: Carolyn Lee, Phil Springer

How little we know! How much to discover…
What chemical forces flow from lover to lover!
How little we understand what touches off that tingle,
That sudden explosion when two tingles intermingle.

Who cares to define what chemistry this is?
Who cares, with your lips on mine, how ignorant bliss is?
So long as you kiss me, and the world around us shatters….
How little it matters, how little we know.

The last one, I promise, but this is a goodie:

All the Things You Are
Songwriters: Kenny Gorelick, Walter Afanasieff

You are the promised kiss of springtime
That makes the lonely winter seem long…
You are the breathless hush of evening
That trembles on the brink of a lovely song

You are the angel glow that lights a star
The dearest things that I know are what you are
Someday my happy arms will hold you
And someday I’ll know that moment divine
When all the things you are, are mine

Look up the Frank Sinatra/Tommy Dorsey version from 1939-40.
It humbles me, as a mere writer of romance, to try my hand at describing love to you, the reader, when so many of these shining examples are already out there for the taking. I’m not sure that I can do better than they have.

What are some of the songs you look to for inspiration, to evoke the gooey center feeling of love within you?