18 February 2021 (Thursday)

Today's theme: Songs that remind you of your family. 

But first we started talking about general things, like the snowstorm that hit Seattle the previous weekend!

 

I also asked if anyone did anything special for Valentine's Day, but no one in our group had.

The past week I had discovered a new artist, Madison McFerrin (website), who I thought one of the students would like. I played a bit of "No Time To Lose" (video, lyrics), but Madison has a lot of other great songs. 

(Yes, she is the daughter of Bobby McFerrin (info), the famous a capella singer who sang "Don't Worry Be Happy" (video, song info)).

 

 

The first song to our theme about family was "ロビンソン / Robinson" (video, lyrics) by スピッツ / Spitz (info).

The lyrics of this song are vague, which is charateristic of the band; even the student who chose the song doesn't know what the lyrics are about! But the reason he picked the song was not for the lyrics.

This songs was a huge hit in Japan back when he was a child. He remembers hearing this song while driving around in the family car. So this song reminds him of his family because he "lived" it with his family as a young boy.

This is a brilliant interpretation of the theme! :-)

The next song was "Los Años Maravillosos" (video, lyrics) by Little Jesus (info). 

The student who chose it had his birthday the previous week. This song reminds him of his teenage years. The lyrics are about friendship. Our student wasn't a skater himself because he was afraid to break his bones, but many of his friends were skaters and he liked that culture.

 

The next song was "Africa" (video, translated lyrics) by Salif Keita (info).

Keita is one of the most globally recognized West Africa artists. The student's parents used to listen to his music a lot, and "Africa" is his most famous song outside of Africa.

My choice for the theme was "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey" (video, lyrics, song info) by Paul McCartney (info, as if any introduction were needed). 

I chose this song beause I used to make my sisters pretend to be a band with me and we would act out the instruments and singing parts in front of a mirror at home. The "hands across the water" part was choreographed with waving, naturally.

 

We started talking about the wives of Beatles, which led us to the song "Layla" (video, lyrics, song info) which Eric Clapton (info) wrote about his love for George Harrison's wife. It's a bold move to write a love song to the wife of one of your friends! But what the song is most well known for is the great guitar solo in it.

With that our time for the day was over.

Next week's theme: Songs from the year of your birth.

11 February 2021 (Thursday)

With Valentine's Day coming on Sunday, today's theme was "Love Songs".

Before we started talking about music, we talked about the coming snow storm headed toward Seattle. Thank goodness we had recently talked about "Songs about snow" to be prepared for this weather event, hahaha!

We also talked a little about Chinese New Year, since today is the eve of the Year of the Ox.

The student from Mexico made an interesting comment about how the public in Mexico is dealing with Coronavirus/Covid. He said the middle-income people stay home, but the low-income people must go out in public to earn money. 

Finally we started talking about love songs! 

The first song picked was "The Makings Of You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Curtis Mayfield (info). The student who picked this song first heard the Tamar Braxton version (video), then found out it was originally from Curtis Mayfield.

 

 

 

The next song was "My Love" (video, lyrics, song info) by Westlife (info). We talked philosophically about whether a love song is about true love if it's about a past relationship.

We also talked about people showing love through actions, or by buying material things, as opposed to saying "I love you" to their romantic partner.

I went around the group asking whether they would consider people in the cultures where they are from "romantic". It was interesting to hear the different perspectives, but naturally I won't go into details here.

Continuing on the discussion about love in different countries, we talked about whether people marry for romantic love, or whether it's a logical choice (or whether the parents pick for them!).

Now we went back to love songs, with an interesting twist.

The next song chosen was "Leif Erikson" (video, lyrics, song info) by Interpol (info).  The student who chose this song said he thinks it has one of the best love song lyrics ever written. 

But the lyrics are not straightforward; they are open to interpretation. The link to Leif Erikson is not clear. But the student especially likes the lyrics about keepsakes.

When he first heard this song, it wasn't the student's favorite song, but later he came to appreciate it very much.

With all the talk about love in different cultures, we didn't have time to play any more songs. Which is fine -- the purpose of this meeting is to *talk*! :-)

I do have a bonus song for the week from one student who was not able to join us: "Stand Up And Run" (video, lyrics, song info) by Billy Talent (info). The student sent me an email with his choice and explained that he really likes this lyric from it: "If the compass breaks, then follow your heart / And I hope it leads you right back into your arms".

Lastly, my choice for a love song? Oh, there are so many options to choose from! But the first one that came to my mind is "As" (video, lyrics, song info) by Stevie Wonder (info). I like how he says he'll be loving her until impossible things happen, for example, the oceans cover every mountain and dolphins fly. 

I also like the part later in the song where he talks about how hard life can get, but that love is the solution.

 (BTW, George Michael & Mary J Blige did a version of "As" with a very cool video, that I still don't get how they made it. My favorite thing in this version is the tone of Mary J Blige's voice.)

 

Theme for next week: Songs that remind you of your family.

 

4 February 2021 (Thursday)

Today I was joined by 4 students to discuss "Songs with music from another country, but with lyrics in local language".

Before talking about music, I asked what time people in different countries start greeting each other with "Good evening" rather than "Good afternoon" or "Good day".

Then I asked who is going to watch the Superbowl (American football championship) this weekend. To my surprise, most of the students didn't plan on watching it!

It's too bad that due to Covid I couldn't invite the local student to come watch the game with me. Back in February 2015 I watched the Seahawks in Superbowl loss with one of my Language of Music friends plus some of his friends from Mexico. It was fun to share that very American cultural event with international people. Too bad I couldn't do it this year... hopefully next year!

The Superbowl is of course interesting as the championship game for the season, but it is equally interesting for the commercials that are shown. As an example, I showed a commercial which will be shown on Friday about new electric vehicles by GM (starring Will Ferrell).

Ok, now on to music!

The first song chosen is originally Japanese, but re-done in Taiwanese:

 

Original Japanese version

Taiwanese version

Obviously the melody is the same, but the translated lyrics are also the same concept (about a couple breaking up) even if it is not a direct translation.

The student explained that old Taiwanese people like this style of music. Some companies use this particular melody to appeal to older people.

He said that when he was in high school, many of his friends liked the old songs, especially when drinking beer.

Our Japanese student said this musical style is called "enka" (info). All enka songs are about breaking up, usually sung by a male and a female singer. 

The next song was "Mis Sentimientos ft. Ximena Sariñana (Live)" (video, lyrics) by Los Ángeles Azules (info). This band is from the student's hometown.

This song is very popular in Mexico -- just this one video has over 1 billions views!
People dance to it in the streets.

The musical style is called Colombian Cumbia (info); it is originally from Colombia. It is a song for dancing, usually dance as a man/woman couple. But generally the women dance better than the men (as usual around the world, hahaha!). 

The student said that when he was young he didn't like cumbia music, but while living in the States, he longed for it.

The next song was "Ta Fete" (video with translated lyrics, song info) by Stromae (info).

This song shows Stromae's African roots, but contemporary Belgian life.

This song was released as song for the Belgian team at the 2014 football (soccer) World Cup. Because it was connected to football/soccer, it was very popular at the time.

The student who chose it said that this song is often used in French classes for people learning French language because it is easy for non-native speakers to understand.

The next student was trying to make a choice of which song to play based on what we had heard so far. I taught the class the phrase, "He is making a decision on the fly" (it means he is making a decision right at this moment).

He chose the song "Les Champs-Elysees" (video, lyrics, song info) by Daniele Vidal (info). This is one of the most famous songs in French. 

 

 

 

But very few people realize (I didn't!) that the melody comes from a British song called "Waterloo Road" (video with lyrics) by the band Jason Crest (info). The copyright for the song was sold to someone in France, where they did it in French and the rest is history!

I am almost certain that the Champs-Elysee is a much prettier and romantic place than Waterloo Road!

One of the other students recognized this song from a punk band that he likes. Here's the version by NoFX.

With that, out time for conversation for the day was over. I didn't have a chance to play my choice for the them, so here it is:

"Boa Sorte" (video, lyrics, song info) by Vanessa De Mata (info) with Ben Harper (info). 

My choice doesn't exactly fit the theme in terms of geography, but it has Ben singing a direct English translation of Vanessa's Portuguese lyrics.

 

 

 

Next week, in preparation of Valentine's Day on 14 February, we will talk about love songs!

28 January 2021 (Thursday)

Today I was joined by three students to talk about "Songs about snow". 

(I had chosen this topic for this date a few weeks in advance, hoping our conversation might coincide with a snowy day in Seattle. But it doesn't look like we will have snow in Seattle this year. Just rain. I could make the theme every week "songs about rain" if I want it to coincide with the weather in Seattle...)

When I first chose the topic of snow, I thought it would be an easy one to choose songs about. As easy as "Songs about rain". But in fact, it's *not* that easy! I had trouble finding more than a couple of options, and the students said they did, too.

Before we started talking about songs in the theme, I mentioned that I read a news article that referred to the song "Do you hear the people sing", which the Taiwanese student had introduced to us under the theme "protest songs". 

But the news article I read was about how it was posted on social media in China to protest the death of Dr. Li Wenliang, a doctor who raised the alarm about the Coronavirus in Wuhan early. It was interesting to hear that people on mainland China used the same song to protest as the people in Taiwan had done years ago by posting the video to social media. Were the Chinese inspired by the Taiwanese to use this song?

Being able to connect these dots in the news I was reading with songs I had learned about in class highlighted once again why I love doing this English class -- I learn so much about cultures in the world! 

Now we moved on to "Songs about snow". We all comiserated that it is hard to think of a song about snow that is not a Christmas song. Someone mentioned the song "Last Christmas" by Wham!, but we are all so sick of hearing that song, we didn't play it.

The first song chosen was "Snowblind" (video, lyrics, song info) by Feeder (info). This song is not obviosly about snow, except that the word is in the song title. But the student who chose this song had a very creative logic for how he chose it: Most of the time people romanticize snow; they think of it as beautiful and calm. But the student pointed out that snow can be scary or intimidating. In certain situations, being in a lot of snow can put you on edge.

So for the theme, he focused on a song that creates the mood of tension, like people can feel when caught in snow. 

To illustrate this feeling he told about driving 300km through the snow one day last year in a car without tires for driving in snow. It was a nerve-wracking experience for him, worried that his car would lose control while driving.

What a cool way to approach the theme of "Songs about snow"! 

Related to how snow can be un-romantic, the student from Taiwan told about his first experience seeing snow. The first time he experienced snow was in Kyoto, Japan. For the first 15 minutes he was excited to see the snow. But he didn't have a jacket with him, so for the next 50 minutes he felt like he was so cold he was going to die.

No one else had a suggestion for a song about snow. Apparently the topic was too hard!

So I played my first choice:  It was to be a song by Kate Bush (info). 

Before playing it, I told two stories:

1/ There is a saying that the Eskimos have "50 words for snow". It means, that since Eskimos live in a place covered with snow, they have many words to describe the variations of it, whereas most of the rest of the world just thinks of white frozen water. But it is a myth that Eskimos have 50 words for snow. 

2/ Kate Bush is one of my favorite singers. But when I was young -- a teenager and into my 20's -- I couldn't stand her voice! If I ever heard a song of hers come on the radio, I would immediately turn it off!

However, at some point through friends I was forced to regularly listen to Kate Bush songs (they were playing her music and I wanted to hang out with them, rather than leave the group). And one day, as if struck by lightning, her voice suddenly made sense to me! From that point on, I am a big fan of Kate Bush: I think she is an amazingly creative artist and performer, with an amazing voice!

So on to the song I chose for this week: "Snowflake" (video, lyrics). 

This song comes from an album Kate did all about snow called "50 words for snow" (info). This song is sung from the perspective of being a snowflake, which is an interesting perspective of the world to have. 

The album is not my favorite by Kate Bush, but it fit the theme for the day.

 

No one else had a great choice for a song about snow, so we listened to a song with "snow" in the title, but which is not about the white frozen water -- it is about cocaine: "Snowblind" (video, lyrics) by Black Sabbath (info).

I also had a little story about this song. This song is the first song where I consciously realized I love electric guitars. I heard it at a friend's house when I was about 15 years old. Until that time, I just listened to the radio and had no idea about different genres of music. Looking back, I realize I liked songs with guitars a lot (ex. "Sultans Of Swing" (video, lyrics, song info) by Dire Straits (info)), but I did not know there genres called "rock" or even "heavy metal". 

That day at my friend's house I heard the guitars blasting from the speakers as "Snowblind" played, and it filled my mind with wonder! I loved it! I immediately went out and bought the album (Vol. 4 (info)) and listened to it every day for months. 

I have listened to that album at least 1,000 times in my life. And it led me to listening to many more albums featuring loud electric guitars. And it all started with the song "Snowblind". Which is not about snow. For me, it's about guitars!

We only had a few more minutes in the class, and I brought up a video that had nothing to do with music or snow: it was a TV commercial for a Seattle brand of beer (Rainier Beer) from the 1980's. The series of commercials are great examples of Washington State culture. 

I showed the video with the motorcycle that sounds like it's saying "Rainier Beer" as it shifts through the gears.

The sound of this commercial made one of the students think of this video with car racing. 

We all laughed a lot, and with that our conversation time for the day was over.

Next week's topic: Songs with music from one country, but lyrics in the local language.