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.