Another beautiful sunny day in Seattle. Six students came to talk music.
As I was setting up the class I explained the word "supposedly" (definition) and then asked each student to use it in a sentence.
When it came time to ask for song suggestions I realized I had not suggested a topic/theme for songs for the day. Everyone was scanning their minds to think of a song when one students suggested "Beautiful Girls" (video, lyrics, song info) by Sean Kingston (info).
Do you hear the sample of the song "Stand By Me" (video, lyrics, song info) by Ben E. King (info) in that song? I love that original song!
Following the theme of beautiful girls I played a bit of a song by INXS (info) that I like a lot: "Beautiful Girl" (video, lyrics, song info). I like the melody as he sings "Beautiful girl, stay with me".
The next song chosen was "Goodbye Hook(?)" (video with lyrics). The student who chose it likes it because it is a cheerful song, though cheesy ;-) .
The next song chosen was "Nothings Gonna Change My Love For You" (video with lyrics, song info) by Khalil Fong (info). This is a cover of a song originally by George Benson (original version) but made famous by Glenn Mederios (video).
I can't remember now why I decided I wanted to tell the class about the Blind Boys From Alabama (info), but I wanted to show how they harmonize. I played a little bit of "Amazing Grace" (video, lyrics, song info). However I wanted to show how these old guys can make modern music sound really cool so I played "Well, Well, Well" (video, lyrics, song info), a song they did together with Ben Harper (info).
We talked a little about how blues music led to rock n roll music. Someone asked what the first rock n roll song was. It is debatable which song was the first rock song, but it is generally considered that "Rock Around The Clock" (video, lyrics, song info) by Bill Haley & His Comets (info) brought rock n roll music to the mainstream in 1954. It is funny now to think that at that time the music and the look of the musicians was outrageous.
Speaking of outrageous at the time, I played a clip of Elvis Presley (info) doing "Hound Dog" (video, lyrics, song info). This video shows Elvis doing all his moves, but on a later TV show they only filmed him from the waist up because they way he danced was considered indecent.
One student asked if a person's spoken accent in English can be heard when he or she sings. This was an excellent question! Basically, the answer is that all English-speaking people sing with the same accent; it is pretty much an American accent. Here's an article which supposedly explains the phenomenon.
As an example of the accent question I played a bit of "Can't Stand Losing You" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Police (info). Notice how he sings "I can't" like an American, not "I cahn't" like a Brit. (This song was banned by the BBC because it talks about committing suicide.)
One of the students mentioned that his favorite song is "Every Breath You Take" (video, lyrics, song info). I asked him why he likes this song so much and he said it's because the lyrics are easy to understand.
At this point I went into my usual explanation about the song meaning, that it is *not* a love song, rather it is a song about possession and obsession(!) and that Sting later wrote the song "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free (video, lyrics, song info) as an antidote to "Every Breath You Take".
The last song we heard for the day was "I'll Be Missing You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Puff Daddy (info), which uses a sample of "Every Breath You Take".
With that our time for the week was over. It was a fun conversation!
May Day! Another sunny day in Seattle. 7 students chose to talk music rather than work on their tans.
As we talked before class started someone mentioned the word "cheesy". This word is used a lot in US English but it's hard to define. Here's a definition.
Somehow we talked a little about Portland, Oregon (3 hours drive from Seattle). Portland is a nice city to visit. It has the world famous books store, Powell's Books (info, website). There's a cheap bus service between Seattle and Portland: BoltBus (website) . Prices start at $1 for the trip!
The first song of the day was "Close To You" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Carpenters (info). The student who chose this song said she has a lot of tests this week and this song relaxes her.
One of the new students said he likes "cheesy" music. I asked him for an example and he chose a song from Brazil, "Vida" (video) by KLB (info).
At this point one of the students mentioned that her Seattle Taiko club would be playing on campus on Friday. The Brazilian student said he knows some Taiko players in Brazil! Apparently Japanese culture is very popular in the part of Brazil where he is from.
Next we listened to a Japanese rapper: D.O. (but the student found the video by typing in Japanese and now I can't find the video!). The student who chose this song says that before this song Japanese rap was lame. She's not a big rap fan, but she likes D.O.'s style.
I asked a Korean student who likes rap a lot for an example of good Korean rap and he chose "Monster" (video, song info) by Drunken Tiger (info).
The next song was totally different: "Yellow" (video, lyrics, song info) by Coldplay (info). The student who chose it likes the lyrics and finds it relaxing.
The next song was "Owaranai Uta" (video, song info) by The Blue Hearts (info). It is an old Japanese punk band.
They sound a lot to me like The Clash (info). But no one in the class knew about The Clash so I played "White Riot" (video, lyrics, song info).
With that our time was up for the day.
It was the first really sunny and warm day of Spring in Seattle and I wondered how many students would show up... 6 students today.
I started by telling the class that I was going to a concert that evening: Shuggie Otis (info). He is most famous for writing the song "Strawberry Letter 23" (video, lyrics, song info). The bells in this song are the ring tone of my mobile phone!
In describing Shuggie Otis I said, "Shuggie was Prince before there was Prince". But it seemed like no one in the class knew who Prince (info) is, so I tried to think of what his most famous song is and played "Purple Rain" (video, lyrics, song info). Only a couple of people know that song and I don't think the class was impressed.
Since it was such a nice day I asked the class for suggestions of "sunny day" songs. The first choice was "Time After Time" (video, lyrics, song info) by Cyndi Lauper (info). When I asked the student who chose it why it reminds her of the sun she said it's because the melody is cheerful and makes her want to go out.
The student actually knows the song "Time After Time" through a Japanese cover version: (video) by Chihiro Onitsuka (info).
Another great cover version of "Time After Time" is from Eva Cassidy (info). Her story is tragic: she has a wonderful voice but only became known after she died of cancer at age 33. Here's her version of "Time After Time" (video).
I mentioned that the melody of "Time After Time" is cheerful, but the lyrics are kind of sentimental. I noted that putting sentimental lyrics over a happy melody is a pretty common thing in music. As an example I played "No Woman No Cry" (video, lyrics, song info) by Bob Marley (info).
But this whole theme was getting kind of sad for such a nice day in Seattle! The next song chosen was "Soak Up The Sun" (video, lyrics, song info) by Sheryl Crow (info). This song is self-explanatory on a sunny day!
As we talked about "Soak Up The Sun" one of the students in class mentioned that she is from Shonan in Japan (info), which has the best beach in Japan. In other words, it is the California of Japan!
As another example of a "beach song" I played "Better Together" (video with lyrics, song info) by Jack Johnson (info).
The next song chosen was "Santorini" (video, song info) by Yanni (info). The song is about a beautiful and famous Greek island (info), which is always sunny, too.
One of the students is from Thailand and he said that his family goes to Koh Tachai Island (info) for vacation. There's a crab there that sounds like a chicken.
The next song chosen was "What's Going On" (video, lyrics, song info) by Marvin Gaye (info). Again, the lyrics of the song are very serious while the music is upbeat and happy. I am a big Marvin Gaye fan but had never noticed how happy the music is because I always concentrated on the lyrics.
The last song of the day was "Mickey" (video, lyrics, song info) by Toni Basil (info). The student chose this because he saw cheerleading practice.
With that I went to the Shuggie Otis concert, which was great, one of my favorite shows in a long time!
