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.