Category: Music

Forgive Our Foolish ways

~ Ruth ~ 3 Comments

I’m not at all religious but I nevertheless grew up singing all the traditional hymns of the era along with the best of them – mostly in school, but also in church on whatever special occasion brought me there. So when I saw Fandango’s One Word Challenge prompt word of ‘foolish’ today I was very surprised that my first reaction was to start singing the hymn ‘Dear Lord and Father of mankind’ – only the first verse mind, it’s all I know off by heart!

It goes like this:

Dear Lord and Father of mankind, 
Forgive our foolish ways!
Re-clothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives, Thy service find,
In deeper reverence praise,
In deeper reverence praise.

I sang it right through with no hesitation and without even thinking about it, yet I honestly don’t know the last time I actually sang that hymn anywhere of any consequence… it was obviously one of the hymns we were required to sing regularly as kids, as both the tune and lyrics seem to have stuck firmly in my mind all these years later 🙂

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Moves Like Jagger

~ Ruth ~ 5 Comments

When I saw today’s Word of the Day Challenge prompt word was Maroon, the first thing I thought of was Maroon 5’s banging tune ‘Moves Like Jagger’ from years ago, so had to share the video below… Enjoy!

It’s a Kind of Magic

~ Ruth ~ 4 Comments

‘One dream, one soul, one prize, one goal…’

Queen , It’s a Kind of Magic, 1986

There’s been a lot of Queen retrospectives airing on TV at the moment, musical concerts and documentary discussion and often a bit of both, and I’ve been listening to them and singing along with the volume turned up and a huge smile on my face.

I listened to a lot of Queen when I was growing up, from my teenage years in the late seventies through the eighties to Freddie’s untimely death in the early nineties, and I love to listen to it still. I just love the evolution of their music through the years, the way the sound produced by four good friends grew and changed with the times yet remained essentially theirs throughout.

Individually they are all great musicians, each with their own inimitable talent, but together, for me they were nothing short of magic…

Stream of Consciousness Saturday: Prize

Paradise Lost

~ Ruth ~ 2 Comments

There’s something about that song that always makes me think of being back there, in that particular time and place, driving around to find a quiet, private spot and parking up so particularly situated on the cusp of everything, ripe and ready for love. The spectacular sensation of surging hormones, heart beating hard and blood-flow burgeoning with typical teenage overkill. I remember the perfect potency of promise and feeling so powerfully alive at the burning urgency of it all…

Before the responsibility of pregnancy got in the way, before the adult realities of married life for two people so clearly unsuited and the sheer drudgery of perpetual poverty dragged me down and divorce divided us so definitively. Yet that song reminds me I was young and uncomplicated once, I yearned and loved and lusted freely along with the best of them. It reminds me with every note played and sentiment sung it is not our song, and never was; rather it is decidedly my song claimed in retrospect, long after you had left my life. Mine alone to carry with me always…

My female experience of paradise by the dashboard light ended not too much differently than Meatloaf’s testosterone-charged version, and all these decades later the thrumming rock music still brings back heated memories of my youthful desire and the oh-so-meaningful tongue-in-cheek lyrics still sear my sated soul, making me smile and shake my head at the fateful inevitability of it all.

I am growing old now and have moved on in life so far beyond every expectation. But watch me still play my song so unapologetically at teenage volume levels and you’ll see my eyes flash with the remembered brilliance of passion personified, the nascent climax of young love, a million sparkling fireworks exploding so suddenly across a long-lost landscape before fading away, limping so silently and softly into the scent-soiled night…

Fandango’s Story Starter

Music

~ Ruth ~ 2 Comments

I don’t tend to post many music posts, but music is and always has been an important part of my life, a soundtrack to live to, or is it to live through? To live with, for sure.

I was born in the early 60s hearing the Beatles playing on the radio while in my pram, grew up steeped in 70s Glam Rock and disco beats, listened happily to many 80s anthems as a stay-at-home mum when my kids were small, and heard many of the 90s sounds second hand as my kids developed their own musical tastes.

I love listening to classical music, soul music, reggae, ska, disco, pop, rock, hip-hop, lyrical ballads. Jazz is fine in small doses at times, as is the techno-beat of house music and even the occasional country and western track when the mood takes me, but I must admit visits to those particular genre moods are relatively few and far between.

I don’t feel at all qualified to comment on whatever styles of music sit in the current hit charts, because I have absolutely no clue what kind of music is even in fashion just now. I probably gave up following the charts at about the turn of the millenium, but make no apologies for that.

I currently have the radio on in the background while I’m typing this, tuned to the Smooth Radio UK channel, chockablock with relaxing tuneful memories to hum or sing along with. My perfect Saturday night sountrack, chilling on the sofa in my PJs with glass of wine after dinner… 🙂

Stream of Consciousness Saturday: M

A Bit of Beethoven

~ Ruth ~ 6 Comments

Yesterday Ritu at But I Smile Anyway posted a re-worked song which she not only provided new lyrics for but actually recorded and sang herself – so I thought I might have a go at writing new lyrics for something, too. I had initally thought of ‘My Sharona’ by the Knack but a quick search online shows me someone has beaten me to it, so sadly no-go with that one.

But I know lots of people have been playing Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ together-while-apart so I thought with a little bit of artistic licence I might be able to write some new lyrics to that, suitable for our current situation. To be honest no amount of pep-talk could convince me to record it myself, but its a well-known tune most people will know…

So here we are… my take on a bit of 19th Century Beethoven adapted for our 21st Century Covid-19 crisis… It helps if you sing it out loud and with passion, rather than just read it… enjoy! 🙂

Covid-19, world pandemic

Virus of corona strain

Mass infection, death toll rising

When will life feel safe again?

Watch as arrogant denials­­­

Let real symptoms spread unchecked

Keep it hidden, not forever

Truth will out to bad effect

Watch for new dry cough and fever

Wash our hands religiously

Shop with prudence and compassion

Act as one community

‘Stay at home’ our national chorus

Social distancing in place

Life in lockdown, isolation

Humbling of the human race

Learn the lesson nature brings us

Treat our planet with respect

Halt our years of selfish damage

Generations of neglect

Let the world heal unpolluted

Let us all draw precious breath

Let the joy of inspiration

Save us from the brink of death

Fandango’s One Word Challenge: Amount

Sir Mix-A-Lot

~ Ruth ~ 2 Comments

Do you ever see a prompt word and immediately think of something, however unsuitable, to write a post about and then can’t un-think it again? Yeah, well this is me today with a real blast-from-the-past ear-worm for my JusJoJan 7: Mix post… so here we go with Sir Mix-A-Lot and ‘Baby Got Back’! 🙂