First class of the new quarter. Only two people showed up -- both of them new to the class -- but FIUTS hadn't yet gone around to English classes to promote the class so I hope the group will be larger next week.
Nonetheless, I very much enjoyed the discussion with the two students who came!
After quick introductions I asked Ted (from Japan) what kind of music he likes. I was surprised when he answered "The Rolling Stones and Maroon 5". I was surprised that he likes an "old" band like The Rolling Stones (bio) since many of my students don't like anything older than from 5 years ago. And it was funny that he mentioned Maroon 5 because they have a hit in the charts right now called "Moves Like Jagger" which is an homage to Mick Jagger, singer for The Rolling Stones.
[A side note about Maroon 5: I saw them play a tiny club in Cologne, Germany in 2004, touring for their first album when they had just gotten really popular in the US but hadn't exploded yet in Europe. They were clearly having fun being in a club again and it was a fun concert, a good memory for me. The concert was actually recorded by someone in the audience and it can be listened to/downloaded here.]
The "Moves Like Jagger" video has flashes of Mick Jagger dancing, but the cuts are so fast you can't really see his moves in full. I looked for a video which has some longer shots of Jagger dancing. I came up with "Dancing In The Street" with David Bowie (video, lyrics)
I asked Ted what his favorite Rolling Stones song is. "Paint It Black" (video, lyrics) was his answer. Again I was surprised by this answer -- that is one of my favorite Rolling Stones songs, too! (My favorite Rolling Stones song is "Gimme Shelter" (song w/o video, lyrics) -- one of the best guitar riffs ever! And those background vocals are spine tingling!)
By the way, my favorite cover version of Paint It Black is by a band called Smack (bio) from Finland in the 1980's. Their version of Paint It Black (song w/o video).
Speaking of dancing, I played a clip of Elvis Presley (bio) doing "Hound Dog" (video, lyrics) which was very controversial at the time for how he moved his hips: the public at the time felt it was too sexual and in 1957 when he was on the Ed Sullivan show (info) he was filmed only from the waist up.
We got into a discussion about the origins of rock n roll. Big thick books have been written about this subject so it's a bigger topic than we could cover in our conversation class. Here's the Wikipedia article on the history of rock n roll.
I asked Vicky, from China, what kind of music she likes. Her favorite singer is Faye Wong (info). To show us Faye's singing style Vicky chose Faye's version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" (video, lyrics), which is a cover of the Queen (info) song (Queen's famous video, lyrics).
Ted and I said we wanted to hear Faye sing in Chinese, so we listened to "No Regrets" (video).
At this point I told them about my musician friend Geoffrey Castle who is an amazing violin player and is collaborating with a woman from the Beijing Opera, Lucy Wu, to put together a show of "Violin Meets Jinghu" (info about the jinghu). They are playing some local Chinese New Year events and will have a full show at the Triple Door on 23 January. Here's a promo video about their collaboration.
Now I asked Ted what his favorite Japanese band is. He said it is Ellegarden (bio). He chose the song "Marry Me" (video, lyrics). I asked if all their songs are in English and he said yes, they are -- in Japan is it cool to sing in English. Ted says that Japanese rock music fans don't really listen to the lyrics, so it's ok that they are sung in English. He said the music itself just makes him happy.
Apparently Ellegarden have also played in the United States. I did a little research and they played in a small club in Seattle, in 2006 on a tour called "Japan Nite" (info).
Ted mentioned that in addition to indie rock like Ellegarden, he also likes jazz. He has a wide range of taste in music and I look forward to hearing about more of his favorites! We didn't have time to go into jazz songs this class, but I did mention that I think the Miles Davis (bio) album "Kind Of Blue" (info) is an album *every* music lover in the world should own. As the class ended I played "So What" (video).
With that time was up and we parted. I had a great time talking with Vicky and Ted and I hope they return next Wednesday (and I hope some additional people show up, too!).
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