22 January 2014 (Wednesday)

(Today's post written while watching the Grammy Awards. Proud of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (info) winning Best New Artist and doing a great performance.)

6 students came today to talk music. The theme for the day was "unrequited love" or songs about longing for someone. Or, as always, whichever songs the students have been listening to a lot lately.

The first song we listened to was "Louie Louie" (video, lyrics, song info) because one of the guys in the class is named Lui. I mentioned that in the 1980's some people tried to make "Louie Louie" the official song of Washington State, but it didn't make it. Instead, our officials song is "Washington, My Home" (video, lyrics + song info) :-( I have never sung this song, but I've sung Louie Louie a million times!

The next song was "Disco 2000" (video, lyrics, song info) by Pulp (info). The lyrics fit the theme of the day very cleverly!

Next we listened to a song from a new student: "El Amaken" (video) by Mohammed Abdu (info). The student said he is the most favorite singer among all Arabs.

The next song was back to our theme: "You Give Love A Bad Name" (video, lyrics, song info) by Bon Jovi (info).

The next song was "Ta Tienne" (video, lyrics, song info) by Carla Bruni (info). The student who chose this song said it is her favorite song while travelling.

The concept of travelling made me think of a video I have shown many times in class: "I Will Possess Your Heart" (video, lyrics, song info) by Death Cab For Cutie (info). I relate to the concept of this video of someone travelling alone throughout the world and I love the way the video and the music work together.

The next song chosen was "Moi Lolita" (video, lyrics, song info) by Alizee (info).

This reminded me of another song, "I'll Kill Her" (video with lyrics) by Soko (info). It's a funny song. The French accent that makes the singer sound like a weak little girl makes the song even more cute as she talks about killing her rival.

On the theme of wanting to curse or kill a rival to a lover, a student played a song by Miyuki Nakajima (info). I don't know the song's title, but here's the video: video, song info. Wow, she's *really* angry at someone!!

Next we listened to "Photograph" (video, lyrics, song info) by Def Leppard (info). This song was back to our theme of the day -- how someone wants to know Marilyn Monroe (info) but all he has is a photograph of her. Coincidentally the album "Photograph" was on, "Pyromania" (info) was released on this day 31 years ago!

Speaking of songs about Marilyn Monroe, I asked the class if they knew the song "Candle In The Wind", which most young people know at the song that Elton John (info) sang at Princess Diana's (info) funeral (video, lyrics, song info). But Elton John's original version of this song, from 1973, was written for Marilyn Monroe (video, lyrics, song info).

The next song chosen was "Heartbeat" (video, lyrics) by Tahiti 80 (info), which was the only song by a French band the student knows.

The next song chosen was "Love Email" (video, lyrics) by Nico (info). I can't read my notes very well, but I think the student heard this song through friends.

The last song we listened to was "How Soon Is Now" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Smiths (info). A few of the people in our class love Johnny Marr (info), the guitar player for The Smiths and this is a song which highlights his guitar playing. I personally also like the lyric when he sings "When you say it's gonna happen "now"well, when exactly do you mean?".

I wonder if the class has ever heard the version of this song by the Russian duo t.A.T.u (info) that had 15 minutes of fame in about 2003. Their version of "How Soon Is Now" (video). (I feel kind of bad posting this link since it's such a terrible version of the song...)

With that, class was over for the week. I hope to see everyone next week.The next theme will be "Which song have you heard the most times in the past week?"