19 November 2020 (Thursday)

A small group today to talk about "Songs about family or thankfulness".

In fact, while we waited for more people to join us, we talked about other things than music, and that conversation ended up going quite long. Which is fine with me: this group is about practicing conversational English, and whichever topics that ends up being is fine with me as long as the conversation flows.  

One of the students talked about his experience back in his home country taking a group of young kids learning English to an event. I taught him one of my favorite American English idioms: "something is/was like herding cats". It is used when a person has to get control of a chaotic situation. It usually means a person is not successful at getting it all organized. Imagine you have 10 cats and you need to get them all to go together down the street. It's impossible, right? Here's the Urban Dictionary definition. 

We also talked about what we will do for Thanksgiving. The student from Taiwan said he will have hotpot with his friends. Even if that's not turkey, it's a good Thanksgiving meal! And most importantly, with friends!

I mentioned at some point in the conversation that on the weekend I will go for a walk at Magnuson Park. Magnuson Park is a very large park in Seattle, northeast of the University of Washington on the shores of Lake Washington.  

Until 1970 it was a military base with an airfield. That is why it is so big. In 1975 it was given to the city of Seattle to be converted into a park.

For music fans Magnuson Park is a landmark: there is an outdoor scultpture here called A Sound Garden (information) which makes sound as the wind passes through the pieces. It's a very cool thing to hear. As you might guess, the Seattle band Soundgarden named themselves for this sculpture.

Somehow that talk about little-known-Seattle-facts led me to tell the students that water that the University Bridge crosses ("the Montlake Cut") is actually man-made: until 1916 Lake Washington and Lake Union were two separate lakes, unconnected. In 1916 they cut a channel in the earth, connecting the two. This lowered the water level of the entire Lake Washington by 8.8 feet (2.7 meters)! Short history of the project. (long history).

Much time had passed, but I wanted to be sure to talk about some music!

The first song suggested was "Lean On Me" (video, song info, lyrics) by Bill Withers (info). 

The lyrics of this song are about people -- friends and family -- supporting each other, and is therefore a *perfect* choice for the theme. Bill Withers is one of my favorite singer/songwriters from the 1970's. 

(If that version of the song is too slow for you, check out the Club Nouveau version from the 1990's.)

Another song by Bill Withers that would have fit this theme very well: "Grandma's Hands" (video, song info, lyrics).

"Grandma's Hands" was sampled for the famous rap song: "No Diggity" (video, song info, lyrics) by Blackstreet (info).

We talked for a while about rap songs that use samples from old songs from the 70's. I think one album that used the most samples was Paul's Boutique (info) by The Beastie Boys (info). 

From Wikipedia: In total, 105 songs are sampled, including 24 individual samples on the last track alone.

For the last song of the day on our theme, I chose "We Are Family" (video, lyrics, song info) by Sister Sledge (info).  

(Note, I chose this version of the song because it includes Avril Lavigne, who was mentioned as a favorite singer earlier in the quarter.)

 

 

But wait, there's one more song that was sent to me via email by one of the regular students from Japan!

"Mama, I'm Coming Home" (video, song info, lyrics) by Ozzy Osbourne (info). In his own words, why the student chose this song for today's theme:

Now it seems like "Mama" in this song means his wife Sharon, but it can be interpreted literally as your mother at least for us listeners. Either way it suits the theme for this week. I also like how Ozzy, the Prince of Darkness himself, is proudly releasing such a wholesome power ballad even though some of the fans might hate it a lot.

There will be no conversation group on Thursday, 26 Nov due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. 

The last conversation group meeting of Fall 2020 Quarter will be Thurday, 3 December. Theme will be "Favorite songs of 2020".

12 November 2020 (Thursday)

Today our group was 5 people to talk about "Duets".

As usual, before starting in on our topic, I asked if anyone had any interesting musical experience during the previous week.

One of my long-time students from Japan raised his hand. His favorite band is Foo Fighters (info), which has been well-documented in the pages of this blog :-) The "musical event" for him this past week is that the Foos released a new song: "Shame Shame" (video, song info, lyrics).

A new song by his favorite band is great news for him, however he has mixed feelings about it since he is not sure he likes the song. (I like it, though!)

I asked him if he was aware that David Grohl (founder/singer/songwriter for Foo Fighters) and local musician Brandi Carlile (info) did an impromptu busking session at the Pike Place Market in Spring of 2019. He was not aware of that event. Here's the video of it.

In another musical event of the week, the same student drove from his home in Tokyo to Nagano as part of the Japanese government program to support tourism within Japan that has been hit by COVID-19.

The connection of this roadtrip to music is that while driving, he listened to a band that he had never previously really given a chance, but he discovered that he really like them! And now his trip to Nagano will always be connected to the band.

The band is Asian Kung-Fu Generation (info), and as an example of one of their songs he played "Rewrite" (video, song info, lyrics). He said this is the most famous fong by AKFG because it was used in an anime.

Now it was time to talk about duets!

The first song chosen was "If You Want Me To Stay" (video, song info, lyrics) by Ari Lennox (info) with Anthony Ramos (info). The student who chose this song said that Ari is one of her favorite singers. And it is interesting that Anthony is more known as an actor than a singer, but that he can sing very well, too. 

Indeed, I found that the way the two voices sound together is GREAT! This was a perfect choice on the theme of duets!

I asked the other students if they liked this song. The song was new to all the others. One likes it because it sounds fresh (what a coincidental choice of words -- this song is originally from an album called "Fresh"!!). Another said he prefers background music, but that this is ok. Another student, who plays guitar and bass said he needs to learn to play bass like this :-D .

The next song chosen was "Superheroes" (video, song info, lyrics) by The Script (info). While this song doesn't feature to different singers together like a typical duet, the reason he chose it is because all the people singing together reminds him of when he did his military service back home: many times people would gather around and sing together.

The next song was "Falling Slowly" (video, song info, lyrics) by Glen Hasard & Marketa Irglova, from the movie Once (info). The student who chose it says that this song has the special power to calm her any time she is in a stressful situation. For example, she listened to it before taking her SAT test. 

As with the discussion of music from films last week, where the one student talked about liking the movie Trainspotting because it shows people in real life, Once is the same kind of story, but based on music. So I highly recommended him to watch Once, too! Especially because he is fascinated with Dublin!

The next song was "Sailing To Philadelphia" (video, song info, lyrics) by Mark Knopfler & James Taylor. The student who chose this one said he had a hard time finding a good example of a duet, as opposed to a song with a main singer and featuring another singer. But he loves the guitar playing of Mark Knopfler (info). He also said he likes this song because it is timeless, and it is a song he will like even when he is old. Already he is aware that he might not still be listening to punk music and the Foo Fighters when he is 60 years old, but he's sure he will still be listening to this song at that age.

As we talked about what kinds of musical styles we like, one student gave "500 Miles" (video, song info, lyrics) from the movie Inside Llewyn Davis (info) as an example of his musical taste.

As our session was winding down, I mentioed to the group that one of the most famous musical movies in America is Grease (info), from 1978. It is an idealized version of the United States in the 1950's. It is a fun movie to watch to see American culture. 

Here's a duet from Grease: "You're The One That I Want" (video, song info, lyrics). Yes, that is a young John Travolta (info) in the movie!*

With that, our time was over for the day.

In honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday in the US, the theme for next week's conversation will be "Songs about family or thankfulness". (Or, as always, any song you want to talk about!)

 

*My first exposure to John Travolta was in the 1970's when he was still on television, before he started making movies. I loved watching the show "Welcome Back, Kotter" (info), about a teacher in New York City. Example of a scene with John Travolta.

5 November 2020 (Thursday)

Today I was joined by 2 students, and the FIUTS coordinator, to talk about "Songs from movies."

The first thing we discussed was whether I should have done a better job illustrating the day's conversation, since only 2 people showed up. In other words, would more people have shown up if I had chosen a more current or popular film to illustrate the conversation topic?

On the FIUTS Virtual Conversation Facebook page I used a picture of the movie Titanic.

 

 

On the Language Of Music Facebook page I used a picture of The Sound Of Music.

 

 

We didn't reach a definitive conclusion about whether either of these illustrations turned off potential participants. I guess I'll never know if more people would have come if I had used a different movie to illustrate the theme.

 

I asked the students if anyone had any musical event in their life in the past week. One of them had! He had band practice with some friends of his from high school. This was one of the songs they played: 

 サカナクション / 新宝島 (video)

 

I also asked if anyone did anything special for Halloween on the previous weekend. One student had a BBQ with friends. They carved 8 pumpkins! Sadly no pictures of the pumpkins, however. :-(

 

Now we started talking about songs from movies. The FIUTS facilitator said that perhaps I would have attracted more students if I had illustrated the post with an image from movie The Fast & The Furious "Tokyo Drift" (video, song info, lyrics) by Teriyaki Boyz (info).

 

 

 

One of the students said, he likes the movie "Walking on Sunshine" (info) because it has lots of songs from the 80's in it. As an example, we watched the title song from the movie (video, song info, lyrics).

 

 

 

 

 

For the next choice the student offered to play us either a depressing song or a happy song. We said we want *both*!

We started with the depressing song: 防人の詩 (An Ode By An Ancient Japanese Coast Guard) (video). This from a movie called The Battle of Port Arthur (info), which is about a specific event in the early 1900's, during the war between Russia and Japan. The film is from the 80's, from the student's parent's generation.

As we talked about this song, it was mentioned that this movie would only be known in Japan, since it is so specifically tied to an event in Japanese history. That discussion led me to explain to the class the American phrase "big in Japan". Generally, we use the phrase ironically. For example:

Person A: "Your band writes terrible songs."

Person B: "That might be your opinion, but we're big in Japan".

The irony/joke of saying something is "big in Japan" is that before the internet, no one could verify whether a band was popular in Japan or not. So someone could claim to be popular in Japan, and no one could deny it. Here's the Wikipedia explanation of the phrase.

A famous true story of an American band being big in Japan before anywhere else in the world was Cheap Trick (info). They released an a live album, At Budokan (info), only in Japan, but it became popular in the United States, selling so many copies imported from Japan that they released it in the US and this album made them stars. 

Cheap Trick's most famous song is "I Want You To Want Me" (video, song info, lyrics). It is a really simple song, with really simple lyrics. But one of the things I have learned in teaching this class, is that people enjoy singing songs in another language, so simple lyrics are *good* for international audiences!

This was also the first of many of their albums where they put the two good looking guys on the front cover, and the two less-attractive guys on the back, hahaha.

 

Now we went to the not-depressing choice from the student: "Lust For Life" (video with scenes from the movie, song info, lyrics) by Iggy Pop (info) from the movie Trainspotting (info).

The reason the student chose this song is because:

1/ He thinks Iggy Pop is great!

2/ He likes this movie. He likes that the movie is about lowlife guys trying to get money, not about idealized heroes like James Bond. He likes that the movie is about real life, not fantasy.

One student had never heard of Iggy Pop before. He said he looks homeless.

I said that looking homeless, or like a total loser, is done on purpose by Iggy. He's actually a very smart guy, but throughout his career he played a dum-dum guy. One of his albums is even called "The Idiot". 

But it takes a lot of intelligence to play so stupid. In fact, David Bowie, who is considered a creative genius, idolized Iggy Pop. They were friends and David wished he could be as free in his spirit as Iggy. The song "Lust For Life" was co-written with David Bowie.

Yes, Iggy had a long history of doing a lot of drugs. It is amazing he didn't die from drugs. But he has always been a very intelligent guy.

BTW, the first CD I ever bought in my life was Iggy's first band: The Stooges "Funhouse" (info). To this day I listen to that album regularly.

With that our time in the discussion group was over. But I have one more song to share!

One student from previous classes was not able to join our discussion, but he took the time (thank you!) to write down which song he would present, if he were able to join us today. Here is his choice + explanation:

- - -

I want to recommend my favorite song from the film. The song is called “Lost Boys Calling” (video, lyrics) from the film, “The Legend of 1900”. (info) 

The film was made by legendary tag, Giuseppe Tornatore and Ennio Morricone. 

As you know, they also made “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso” too. 

The song, “Lost Boys Calling” is the theme song of “The Legend of 1900” and was composed by arranging the instrumental main theme song of the soundtrack for pop song. 

In addition, the participants of the song was so gorgeous, Ennio Morricone, Roger Waters (ex-Pink Floyd) and Eddie Van Halen! 

They arranged Morricone’s original soundtrack very well. Don’t miss the beautiful melodies, the lyrics influenced by the story of the film, Eddie’s impressive guitar sound and Roger’s vocal! 

I think the song was a kind of “playing of the gods”.

- - -

Next week's topic: Duets (songs with two singers)

29 October 2020 (Thursday)

Today 4 students joined us to share "scary songs" in preparation for Halloween.

Before we started talking about scary songs, I first asked one of the new students to tell us what kind of music he likes. He said he likes Pop music. 

As an example of the kind of music she likes, he chose the song "Shape Of You" (video, song info, lyrics) by Ed Sheeran (info). 

He likes this song because it is pop and has a sexy/romantic feeling to it.

 

 

One of the other students said she likes Ed Sheeran, too. But she has a very specific reason: on her birthday a couple of years ago her boyfriend made a video for her with the song "Perfect" (video, song info, lyrics) as the soundtrack. What a romantic, thoughtful guy! 

 

 

 

The story of her boyfriend making a video for her reminded me of a video I have shown in the past: it's a video showing how a man got all his friends together to do a live-dance in the street for him to show his girlfriend how much he loves her. And at the end of the video, he asked her to marry him! Here's the video.

Ok, so we got sidetracked from scary songs by romantic songs! To start songs for Halloween, one student chose "Devil In A Midnight Mass" (video, song info, lyrics) by the band Billy Talent (info). 

The student who chose this song says that when he was young and heard the song, musically it made him feel uneasy. 

Something that makes the song even more unsettling is that the lyrics are based on a true story about kids being abused by Catholic priests. The fact it is a true story is very sad.

The next song chosen was "A Faker" (video with lyrics in the comments) by 跳房子. This song has dissonant tones and clearly the singer wants to express a bad feeling. But I'm not really sure what the song is about.

Next was "Welcome To The Black Parade" (video, song info, lyrics) by My Chemical Romance (info). When she was younger, this was the favorite band of the student who chose this song. What is most scary about the song is the visual of the video; it is made to be unnverving.

 

 

 

Now I chose a classic Halloween song: "The Time Warp" (video, song info, lyrics) from the classic movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show (info). 

This movie is a favorite among students and young people in America. One of the unique things is that when it is shown in the theater, people in the audience go in front of the screen and play the parts of the actors with the movie. And they throw rice in the theater. And the audience talks to the actors on the screen. It is an immersive experience. Here's an example of what it's like.

I asked the students which Halloween costumes they would wear if they could go to a Halloween party this year. The funniest answers was one student saying he would dress up like Covid. That is dark humor! :-D .

Then a student showed a video with the joke of "What is a skeleton's favorite snack?" (In case you don't understand the answer to the joke in the video, here it is.)

For the last song of the day, we heard "The Caterpillar (芋虫)" (video) by the Japanese band Ningen Isu (人間椅子) (info). The song is based on a story by the Japanese author Rampo Edogawa (info; more information about his books). (The student noted that this artists name is taken from the real author Edgar Allen Poe's name.) 

Musically this song sounds heavy and unhappy, like Black Sabbath (info). But it is the text which is very scary: it is based on a Japanese story called The Caterpillar (movie info) where the guy has no arms, no legs and can't move his body at all, but his mind is still functioning. In other words, he is trapped in his body. That *is* a very scary idea!

There is a real life story similar to that, about which the movie "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (info) was made.

 

With that our time was finished for the week.  

Next week's theme: Song from movies.

22 October 2020 (Thursday)

Today's topic was "Songs from your high school years".

This week was special: it was kind of a reunion, as three of my previous students -- coincidentally all from Japan -- joined us!  It was great to see them again after so many years (though we have kept in touch through the Language Of Music Facebook group)!

In addition to those three from Japan, we had a returning student, and we had a new student, joining us from China.

Before we started talking about music, the Japanese guys showed some of the vinyl LPs they have recently bought. As someone who grew up with vinyl as the way to listen to albums, I am happy that Japan still has the habit of buying LPs. I think it's a shame that the big-format artwork, plus all the detailed information, that used to be on LPs has been lost in the era of CDs, and now streaming.

The first song was chosen by one of the Japanese students: "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (video, song info, lyrics) by U2 (info). He said that when he was in high school, he was impressed by the message of the song.

I mentioned that when I was a college student (at the UW!), for one class I had to write an analysis of a poem, and I did that for the song "Drowning Man" (video, lyrics) from this same U2 album, War (info).

 

One of the other students said that he saw the U2 360 tour (info) when he was in high school. And that was the only tour when they played the song "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight". I said I am not very fond of that song, but he said that the live version they did on that tour was better than the album version. (live video, song info, lyrics) 

Speaking of U2, one of the other students said he really likes the guitar sounds on the album "All That You Can't Leave Behind". U2's guitarist, The Edge (info) is famous for his unique guitar sound.

I said my favorite U2 albums is "Achtung Baby" (info) because it was recorded in Berlin, which is a city close to my heart as it was my first experience abroad as a high school student.

The next high-school era song was "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" (video, song info, lyrics) by Green Day (info). The student who chose this song said the song reminds him of the year 2010, when he was in senior high school in Japan, when a lot of things were happening in his life and he realized that everyone must take their own path in life.

He gave further context to this song on its album: he said that the song is part of a whole cycle of songs about life in the suburbs. While the lyrics for "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" are a bit depressing, the next song on the album is more hopeful. His comments were a good reminder that sometimes songs have a wider context than just the song itself.

This was the first time our Taiwanese student had ever heard this song. He said the lines of "I walk alone" fit to life during the pandemic. He liked that it mixes art with rock music.

The next song was chosen by the Taiwanese student. It is called "Courage" or "Encouragement" ("勇氣") (video ; lyrics are on the YouTube page). He said it is about overcoming obstacles together. It was popular during his high school years, so that is what he relates it to. 

The song later was used to support the LGBTQ rights movement in Taiwan. 

One of the Japanese students said this song sounds like a JPop song from around the year 2000.

One of the Japanese students next chose a song originally by Oasis (info), but he chose a more recent version sung by just the singer with piano and cello accompaniement: "Champagne Supernova" (video, song info, lyrics).

He chose this song because Oasis is his favorite band, but they split up while he was in high school (2009).

A string quartet played this song at his wedding, we don't have a video of that, hahaha.

We were talking about how sometimes a great song can get a new life when it is done a different way, like how this new version of Champagne Supernova (original version) was just centered on the piano rather than a full rock band. 

One of my favorite examples of this is another Oasis song, "Wonderwall" (original video, song info, lyrics) re-done as a slow, sad song (video) by Ryan Adams (info). I like both versions of this song. The Oasis one has a youthful exuberance, while the Ryan Adams version feels weary.

 

 

 

One student says that nowadays, when Noel Gallagher (the original writer of "Wonderwall") plays the song, he plays it like Ryan Adams did. This is similar to how the Jimi Hendrix version of "All Along The Watchtower" (video) has become better known than the original version (video) by Bob Dylan. Nowadays, when people cover "All Along The Watchtower", they do it like Jimi did it.

The last song of the day was "Obsesión" (video, song info, lyrics) by Aventura (info). The student who chose this song was learning Spanish and wanted to listen to songs sung in that language to practice. She liked the melody of the singing, but when she translated the lyrics, she found out they are actually not sweet at all!

 

 

One of the students pointed out that this is the same case with "Every Breath You Take" (video, song info, lyrics) by The Police (info). Some people think it's a love song, and even have it played at their wedding, but if you read the lyrics it is about surveillance and obsession -- not at all what love is about! In fact, Sting later wrote the song "If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free" (video, song info, lyrics) as antidote to "Every Breath You Take".

 

We closed the discussion after just one hour today because I wanted to watch the last US presidential debate. While I enjoy talking about music more, I just needed to see if the second debate would be a car-crash scenario like the first one. In a pleasant surprise, it was not.

With Halloween coming up, next weeks topic = scary songs.

15 October 2020 (Thursday)

The second week of the new quarter. We had two students (one returning, one new) to talk about "Songs about rain, or for a rainy day."

Actually, we had a third "virtual" student: one of my former students from a few years ago sent over some songs via email on the theme since he could not participate personally this week. Hopefully he can join us from Japan in the future.

The first thing we did was learn a little about what kind of music the new student likes. He mentioned Celine Dion, Queen and The Beatles. He said his musical taste was heavily influenced by his father playing CDs of those artists at home in Taiwan.

As we were talking the FIUTS facilitator mentioned liking Afrobeats music (info). Afrobeats is a relatively new style of music, and should *not* be confused with Afrobeat (without the "s") on the end (info).

As an example of Afrobeats music, the FIUTS facilitator suggested we listen to the song "Anybody" (video, lyrics) by Burna Boy (info), who is the biggest Afrobeats artist in the world.

The FIUTS facilitator commented that Afrobeats videos show that Africa makes modern music, and that people do things that people in industrialized countries do, like go to dance clubs. This is a great point she made: too often people think of Africa as undeveloped economically, but while much of the continent is poor, it is not *all* poverty and life in villages.

Side note: I am a big fan of Fela Kuti (info), the originator of Afrobeat music. I found out after the class that coincidendally today, 15 October, was Fela's birthday!

The drummer for Fela's band, Tony Allen (info) is my favorite drummer. I had the great fortune of seeing Tony play in a small club in Switzerland once. I watched him the whole show as if in a trance -- I couldn't believe I was standing so close to this musician from so far away who I revered.

Now I asked the new student if he has a "song for a rainy day". He chose "Your Name" (video, song info) by Radwimps (info). In this song he likes the mix of piano and fluctuations of tones in the music. He finds it relaxing. He said that even when it is raining outside, a person needs to keep a positive mindset.

At this point I asked him if he has gotten used to all the rain in Seattle. We talked about the difference in rain between Seattle and Taiwan.

The student from China said that the fact that the rain in Seattle goes on for a long time -- with no rainbow at the end to celebrate the end -- is depressing.

She chose the song "Jackie & Wilson" (video, lyrics) by Hozier (info) as a rainy day song. She said that on rainy days she likes to play rock music, something with energy. 

 

 

 

 

On the subject of rock music, the Taiwanese student said the Hozier songs reminds him of Avril Lavigne (info) because she is the most popular rock singer in Taiwan. As an example of a song he knows by Avril, we listened to "Head Above Water" (video, song info, lyrics). 

In this song the student likes the high tones and the dramatic quality of the songs. He finds the song dynamic and strong.

The Chinese student noted that the style of this Avril song is different from her earlier songs, when she was more rebellious.

Now I played a "rain" song. I chose "Love Reign O'er Me" (video with lyrics, song info) by The Who (info). 

 In addition to the mood of the song being good for a rainy day, I like the way the title has a homonym for "rain" ("reign"). The word reign is used for how a King or Queen is the highest power over the people. In this case, it's like saying "love" has the highest authority. Additionally, it plays with the idea of love raining on someone, like washing over him/her. I like all these intertwined concepts. And I like the music and singing a lot, too!

A song with a similar concept about love and washing is a song by a Seattle band, Pearl Jam (info) called "Wash" (video with lyrics). The first lyric of the song is "Oh please, let it rain today", which is perfect for Seattle. But most of all I really like the idea in this song about "washing" love -- washing something which is not physical.

 

 

The next song we played was "Endless Rain" (video with lyrics, song info) by X-Japan (info). The student who chose it likes how powerful the emotion is, especially the chorus where they sing in English.

 

As our meeting for the week was coming to an end, it was mentioned that there are many songs about rain. For example:

"November Rain" (video, song info, lyrics) by Guns N Roses (info).

-- Trivia fact: the bass player for Gun N Roses, Duff McKagan (info) grew up in Seattle, and after moving to Los Angeles when he was young to make a career in a music, now lives here again with his family.

"Purple Rain" (video, song info, lyrics) by Prince (info).

-- Speaking of Prince: one of the most famous concerts in American history was Prince's peformance at the the Superbowl Halftime in 2007: it was in a monsoon-like rain storm, and yes, he played "Purple Rain". Concert + story of the day.

The last song I played was "Rain" (video, song info, lyrics) by The Beatles (info).

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we didn't play the songs my former student sent over during the class, I want to include them with his commentary here:

~ ~  

Whenever I think about the songs related to rain, I always think about the scenery of rainy places. Thus my choices for this week are related to those places; specifically Seattle and Dublin. SDRE and The Script are from those two cities, and MV for The Script song was shot in Dublin. 

 

"Rain Song" (video, lyrics) by Sunny Day Real Estate (info).

"Breakeven" (video, song info, lyrics) by The Script (info)

~ ~ 

 

Those are all the "rain" songs we had time for today! 

Next week's theme: "Favorite songs from when you were in high school."