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.