Sunday, April 25, 2010

Song Stuck In My Head This Week - 25th April '10 - Nick Stephenson - Poor Little Boy

This song has been stuck in my head more often than not for the best part of this year at least however its performer, the seriously talented Nick Stephenson, has only just put a video up on youtube which is why I'm only now getting round to blogging it.

As I've mentioned before when I blogged about the wonderful Martin Bradford-Gago back in January , there is a really brilliant music scene in St Albans, Hertfordshire and Nick Stephenson is another one of the amazing artists making a name for himself right now.

With influences ranging from Bowie to Beethoven, Nick Stephenson taps into the key elements required to create great melodies and lyrics and produces mesmerizing and truly unforgettable songs. It seems so wrong that he, like so many others, is not being heard by the masses.

So I hope you enjoy this song and it prompts you to check him out as well as local artists where you are. You shouldn't wait for the music to come to you, you should go out and find it and then share it with others.

Enjoy and catch you all next week!!

(P.S. Sorry if I get any of the lyrics wrong Nick!!)

Nick Stephenson - Poor Little Boy

Brushing all his fingers against the painted glass
Moving him sideways
Moving him so fast
Cannot get fruit from the tops of the trees
But useless is tasting an appetite
Be free

Make believing shadows
Falling in the rain
Everyone's in the same boat
But no one feels the same
Fall and die for no one
When no one lives for you

Cotton, cold and heartfelt
Nothing left to say
Smile on all the faces
And the harsh light of the day
Well you can't let it happen
And you can't push him over the edge

Well I'm a poor little boy and I know what I like
A poor little boy and I know what I like
I'm a poor little boy won't you cast your eyes down for me
Well I'm a lost little boy and I know what I like
I'm a lost little boy and I know what I like
I'm a lost little boy won't you pull down the blinds for me

Oh sleep a little moonshine
Dogs and howling cats
Somewhere in a window a woman and the past
Sleep with an open mind but never a bleeding hand

She says 'I can recollect all the times we carried on'
And nothing really mattered
No meaning in his song
But then something took over, something so wild and free'

Lay dreaming of the open portals in our minds
Stick, hot summers of the everlasting kind
Well they sit in their days
Losing all sense of time

Oh well I'm a poor little boy and I know what I like
A poor little boy and I know what I like
I'm a poor little boy won't you cast your eyes down for me
Oh well I'm a lost little boy and I know what I like
I'm a lost little boy and I know what I like
I'm a lost little boy won't you pull down the blinds for me

Poor little boy
Poor little boy
Poor little boy
Poor little boy

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Song Stuck In My Head This Week - 17th April '10 - The Verve Pipe - Colorful

Formed in Michigan in 1991 by brothers Brian and Brad Vander Ark and their friends Brian Stout and Donny Brown, The Verve Pipe were a band I knew nothing about til a decade after their formation when their song 'Colorful' was used on the soundtrack of the movie 'Rock Star'.

The song itself struck me for its simple beauty and storytelling narrative, as well as the fact that it really stuck me emotionally and brought tears to my eyes on the very first listen.

Though not a well known song it is up there as one of my all-time favourites so imagine my surprise when I was at the WWE wrestling at the O2 Arena in London this week and they used it as the music for Shawn Michael's farewell speech - it reduced me to tears, much to the confusion of my friend who I had gone with.

It is a beautiful song that not enough people know so I've decided I should share it with you. I hope you enjoy it!!


The Verve Pipe - Colorful

The show is over close the story book
There will be no encore
And all the random hands that I have shook
Well they're reaching for the door
I watch their backs as they leave single file
But you stood stubborn, cheering all the while

I know I can be colorful
I know I can be gray
But I know this loser's living fortunate
Cause I know you will love me either way

Most were being good for goodness sake
But you wouldn't pantomime
You are more beautiful when you awake
Than most are in a lifetime
Through the haze that is my memory well
You stayed for drama though you paid for a comedy

I know I can be colorful
I know I can be gray
But I know this loser's living fortunate
Cause I know you will love me either way

Look ahead as far as you can see
We'll live in drama but we'll die in a comedy

I know I can be colorful
I know I can be gray
But I know this loser's living fortunate
Cause I know you will love me

I know I can be colorful
I know I can be gray
But I know this loser's living fortunate
Cause I know you will love me
Cause I know you will love me
Cause I know you will love me either way

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Song Stuck In My Head This Week - 11th April '10 - The Doors - The End

Friday was my last day at the job I've worked at for the last 6 years and all that day, 'The End' by The Doors was the only song that was going round and round in my head.

The song had its beginnings in being a break-up song that Jim Morrison wrote after splitting up with a girl he'd been seeing, but as it progressed it developed into a song with many other layers. Along with the boy/girl relationship theme it has themes of saying goodbye to childhood as well as an Oedipal section which, though often interpreted on a basic level which can be seen as quite shocking and perverse, is actually more in Morrison's eyes about rejecting other authority in order to create your own ('father, I want to kill you') and embracing the positive and enriching sides of life ('mother, I want to fuck you'). It also may well have been aimed, in part, at his estrangement from his own parents who he would often be quoted in interviews as saying they were both dead even though they were alive and well and his dad held a high rank in the US navy.

Also, through its use in the Francis Ford Coppola movie 'Apocalypse Now' it is often connected to the tragedies and loss of young soldiers lives in the Vietnam war.

The music of The Doors has often given me strength in tough times and I cannot imagine living without it.

I hope you enjoy this weeks song!!


The Doors - The End

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again

Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand
In a...desperate land

Lost in a Roman...wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

There's danger on the edge of town
Ride the King's highway, baby
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby

Ride the snake, ride the snake
To the lake, the ancient lake, baby
The snake is long, seven miles
Ride the snake...he's old, and his skin is cold

The west is the best
The west is the best
Get here, and we'll do the rest

The blue bus is callin' us
The blue bus is callin' us
Driver, where you taken' us

The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall
He went into the room where his sister lived, and...then he
Paid a visit to his brother, and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
And he came to a door...and he looked inside
Father, yes son, I want to kill you
Mother...I want to...fuck you

C'mon baby, take a chance with us
C'mon baby, take a chance with us
C'mon baby, take a chance with us
And meet me at the back of the blue bus
Doin' a blue rock
On a blue bus
Doin' a blue rock
C'mon, yeah

Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end

It hurts to set you free
But you'll never follow me
The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die

This is the end

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Song Stuck In My Head This Week - 03rd April '10 - James Taylor - Fire & Rain

James Taylor is a survivor. Having first been hospitalized for depression in 1965 at just 17 and having an on and off battle with drugs that didn't end for good until the early 80s. The fact that he made it through all that and is still touring and recording today is a great accomplishment.

James Taylor is an amazing singer/songwriter. Writing songs that capture the imagination, have an amazing narrative and touch the emotions he cannot be seen as anything other than one of the finest artists of all time.

One of these songs is 'Fire & Rain' from his second album 'Sweet Baby James'. Written in part about his experiences in psychiatric institutions and partly about the suicide of his friend Suzanne Schnerr, 'Fire & Rain' is a song that never fails to capture my attention or emotions. It's the kind of song that makes you want to tell all your friends and family just how much they mean to you and how much you love them. Not many people can write songs that emotive and so when you come across one like it then it's worth sharing.

I hope you all enjoy it and it makes you want to spread a little love too!

James Taylor - Fire & Rain

Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone
Susanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can't remember who to send it to

I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again

Won't you look down upon me, Jesus
You've got to help me make a stand
You've just got to see me through another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand
And I won't make it any other way

Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again

Been walking my mind to an easy time my back turned towards the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around
Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things
to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground

Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again, now

Thought I'd see you one more time again
There's just a few things coming my way this time around, now
Thought I'd see you, thought I'd see you fire and rain, now