12 February 2014 (Wednesday)

5 students came today (2 of whom were new!). With Valentine's Day at the end of the week naturally today's topic was "love songs"!

But first I posed my weekly question about whether anyone had had any musical adventures in the past week. I was the only one who had had any: Sunday I had gone to a Chinese New Year festival as well as a heavy metal concert in the evening -- quite a contrast of music on one day!!

The Irish band The Strypes (info) are coming to Seattle in March. I am going to the concert and had asked if any of the students (who are over 21 years old) wanted to join me. But it doesn't look like anyone can :-( One of the students mentioned that he things The Strypes's version of "Can't Judge A Book By The Cover" (video, lyrics, song info) is better than the original (original video).

The first song along our theme was "Because The Night" (video with lyrics, song info) by Patty Smith (info). The student who chose it chose it because it's not an obvious choice of songs (he said he could have made a much more obvious choice). He likes her because she's a poet and there's depth to her lyrics.

The next song chosen was "Heart's Content" (video with lyrics, song info) by Brandi Carlile (info). What a sweet song!!! The student who chose it heard it in a romantic scene in a movie and was charmed by the song + scene.

I mentioned that Brandi is from Seattle. She has a lot of songs that I like, but for me her most impressive performance is her live version of "Hallelujah" (video, lyrics, song info), a song originally by Leonard Cohen (info) which has been covered many times.

The next song was "Be Without You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Mary J Blige (info). The student who chose it says the song describes his situation with his girlfriend back in his home country. Long distance relationships are hard!

The next song chosen was a live version of "Happy" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Rolling Stones (info). The guitarist, Keith Richards (info) sings this song. The student who chose this song likes Keith Richards even though he technically isn't a very good guitarist.

I knew that one of the students in the class loves the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series. She also likes the Rolling Stones (favorite song: "Gimme Shelter" (video with lyrics, song info) but did not realize that Keith Richards made an appearance in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie (film clip) (Here's an interview with Keef + Johnny Depp).

Next was "Count On Me" (video with lyrics, song info) by Bruno Mars (info). The student who chose it had heard it on a compilation album and just liked the song -- she didn't know Bruno Mars is popular or that he had sung at halftime of the Superbowl!

The next song was something completely different: "Down With The Sickness" (video, lyrics, song info) by Disturbed (info). The student chose it just to show that she also likes hard music, not just soft music.

The last song of the day was chosen by a student who wasn't in class -- she had written me an email saying she couldn't attend but requested that I play "Sharin no Uta" (車輪の唄) (video, song info) by Bump Of Chicken (info). This song depicts the parting moment of lovers but at the same time there is hope in the line "Let's meet again someday". 


With that our time for the week was over. I don't have a theme for next week... let's just talk about any songs on your minds!