Category: Music & Magic

“R” is for “Reddy” and “Ready”

“Reddy,” of course, is Australian-American singer Helen Reddy. Phenomenally successful worldwide during the 1970s, she will forever be known for the feminist anthem, “I Am Woman.” That song and seven others — including “Delta Dawn,” “Angie Baby,” and “Ain’t No Way To Treat A Lady” — peaked at number one on the Billboard Easy Listening (now Adult Contemporary) Chart. Her record sales dwindled in the 1980s, and she turned her attention to musical theater, in effect returning to her performing roots: Her parents were professional entertainers, and she got her start at the age of four performing with them on the Australian vaudeville circuit. She retired from performing in 2002, returned to Australia, and subsequently earned a degree in clinical hypnotherapy and neurolinguistic programming. In 2012, she briefly returned to performing but, sadly, was diagnosed with dementia shortly thereafter. She passed away from an undisclosed cause in September 2020.

“Ready” is a fun little Emerson, Lake, and Palmer song, “Are You Ready Eddy?” Eddy was their engineer/producer Eddy Offord. According to Keith Emerson, every time ELP was ready to record, one of them would yell “are you ready, Eddy?” A tongue-in-cheek poke at rock ‘n’ roll standards, the song is one of the few composed by the entire band.

Enjoy “I Am Woman” and “Are You Ready, Eddy?”

 

“N” is for “Nevermore”

“Nevermore” quoth the Raven in Edgar Allan Poe’s 1845 poem “The Raven.” Anyone who has gone to school in the United States has read this poem at some point in their education. The word “nevermore,” in use since around 900 A.D., means what it says: Never again. Whether or not it was commonly used before “The Raven” was first published, such is the power of Poe that ever after “nevermore” has been understood as a direct or indirect allusion to “The Raven.” You don’t believe me? I did some research and discovered the surprising extent to which Poe’s poem is imprinted on our collective psyche.

The first entry on Wikipedia’s always informative “disambiguation” page refers to a Seattle, WA, heavy-metal band named “Nevermore.” Nevermore is also the title of a few novels, films, a Dr. Who “audio play,” a musical, and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle character. However, three other entries are, to me, the most interesting.

First, the most surprising find was that French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gaugin in 1897 created an oil painting he named “Nevermore.” It depicts his naked Tahitian wife lying on their bed; in the background is a raven, and “Nevermore” is written in capitals at the top of the painting. At the time Gaugin painted it, he and his young wife were grieving the loss of their first child, and Gaugin was grieving the loss of his European daughter.

Second, Queen recorded a song entitled “Nevermore” written by Freddie Mercury. (The short video is included below.)

Third, a young American composer, Edward W. Hardy, created a violin solo, “Nevermore,” and starred in a 2018 short film by the same name. Hardy, in fact, wrote “Three Pieces Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe” that included “Nevermore,” “Evil Eye,” and “A Fantasy.” “Nevermore” is a beautiful, haunting violin solo that, to me, truly evokes Poe. (The five-minute film is posted below.)

So henceforth whenever you hear “nevermore,” you can, if you choose, try to avoid thinking of “The Raven” and think instead of Gaugin, Queen, and Hardy. Enjoy the vids!

 

 

 

 

 

“M” is for “Murphy’s Law” and “Music”

Murphy’s Law says “anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” So says Merriam-Webster.  Other dictionaries contain similar definitions, but not all agree with the actual words. The Wikipedia article gives a convoluted history of similar sayings dating back to 1866. OK, so there’s no agreement on the actual words; surely, someone named Murphy originated it. The same Wikipedia article (tl;dr) doesn’t bring a “Murphy” into this history until circa 1949.

In a nutshell, Edward Murphy developed devices to measure human tolerance for g-forces during testing of rapid deceleration at what is now Edwards Air Force Base. The devices failed, and Murphy allegedly tried to deflect blame onto an assistant, claiming “if that guy has any way of making a mistake, he will.” Others on the project mocked Murphy’s excuse, eventually calling it “Murphy’s Law,” using words other than Murphy’s or Webster’s. Murphy, of course, and his son on his behalf denied ever mouthing those words. Both Murphys, however, agreed that the saying did originate with Murphy’s blaming his assistant for his failure. Ironically, the words they put into Murphy’s mouth are essentially a long-winded version of “Murphy’s Law.”

For sh*ts and giggles, and if you have a lot of time for a rabbit hole, visit the Murphy’s Laws website for a plethora of Murphy’s Law trivia, mostly tongue-in-cheek. According to Wikipedia’s “disambiguation” page, Murphy’s Law has been used as the title of television series (British and American), a novel, a film, a punk band, several albums and songs, and a 2016 Disney XD series. (Whatever an XD series is, that’s one rabbit hole I’m not going down.)

My favorite Murphy’s Law is none of the above. It’s a 2020 video I stumbled across on YouTube called, you guessed it, “Murphy’s Law.” This one has an actual Murphy — Irish singer-songwriter/record producer Roisin Murphy. This Murphy has been active on the UK/Irish/European music scene in one capacity or another since 1999. Her style is electropop/disco/hip-hop/dance club/art-pop type music. It’s hard for me to describe, but if you know anything about some of the idiosyncratic performers she credits as influences — Iggy Pop, Siouxie Sioux, Grace Jones, Bjork — you can get a sense of her style. Here’s the video:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Song Lyric Sunday — “Run” — Snow Patrol and Leona Lewis

Jim Adams’ challenge for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday is one word song titles. There are so many to choose from. The one that has been on my radar lately is “Run.” With lyrics by Gary Lightbody and music composed along with his bandmates Iain Archer, Jonathan Quinn, Mark McClelland, and Nathan Connolly, the Northern Irish band Snow Patrol released the song in 2004. It peaked on the Irish Singles Chart at 25 and on the UK Singles Chart at 5.

“Run” has been covered by multiple diverse performers, most notably English singer Leona Lewis, who first performed it on a live BBC Radio show in late 2007. She recorded and released it as a digital single in 2008 after she won the UK’s singing competition television show “X Factor.” Lewis’s version shot to number 1, becoming UK’s fastest selling digital release ever, with 69,244 downloads in the first two days. Following her success with the song, Snow Patrol’s original re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 28.

The videos following the lyrics listed below are live versions recorded circa Snow Patrol’s and Leona Lewis’s original release dates.

“Run“

I’ll sing it one last time for you
Then we really have to go
You’ve been the only thing that’s right
In all I’ve done

And I can barely look at you
But every single time I do
I know we’ll make it anywhere
Away from here

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I’ll be right beside you dear

Louder louder
And we’ll run for our lives
I can hardly speak I understand
Why you can’t raise your voice to say

To think I might not see those eyes
Makes it so hard not to cry
And as we say our long goodbye
I nearly do

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I’ll be right beside you dear

Louder louder
And we’ll run for our lives
I can hardly speak I understand
Why you can’t raise your voice to say

Slower slower
We don’t have time for that
All I want’s to find an easy way
To get out of our little heads

Have heart, my dear
We’re bound to be afraid
Even if it’s just for a few days
Making up for all this mess

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I’ll be right beside you dear