Week 38 – 19th September 2014 – Monster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz-Uq4TKdjE I have been asked often whether songs come easily or not. The answer is, of course, that it depends. In the case of this song, the answer is definitely, NOT I knew exactly what it was supposed to be, I could hear it, but I just couldn’t make it happen. Then eventually I got […]
Week 37 – 12 September 2014 – You’re Noticing Now?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySOGMnFfAqw Now I love a ranting break-up song – they are a staple of all my favourite kinds of music: country, RnB and pop – but I’ve always thought it a little sad that a lot of artists seem to have two modes of songwriting: mushy get-it on song and bitchy break up song. I’m not […]
Week 36 – 5 September 2014 – All Change
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kys9vgZh4JQ Life changes (all good!) and the end of summer… Season Change This begins because that’s ended I am free How pure the air smells September breeze It’s the scent of my freedom Fertile as this pear tree The sun has given all day I have gratefully received I breathe the air so sweet I […]
Week 35 – 29th August 2014 – Afternoon Tea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCVqRzhpAAo Anyone who knows me will be aware that there’s nothing I like better than hosting afternoon tea. Though I say it myself I’m a stunning baker and I like getting out the best china. So this is, on the surface, a nice song about a late afternoon visitor. But it is about grief as […]
Week 34 – 22nd August 2014 – Lethe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_UPclMfSJI Less literal than a lot of the 52 Fridays songs this talks about depression, coeliac disease, prescription anti-depressants, negative self-talk and the myths of Classical Civilisations, but mainly about love. Lethe Go find a prism that electrifies Go find a vision that clarifies Slam dunk a morning that disagrees Slam shut a meaning that just […]
Week 33 – Stalagmite – 15 August 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxpunIhOFYg A song about love and loss. [The room in the sky is not some kind of weird notion of heaven. It was a real room in a real towerblock that was pulled down several years afterwards. I often return to that idea of the room that used to exist, very real and very solid, […]
Week 32 – 8th August 2014 – Be Kind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8uVYNeVQ7A Coming back from holiday – trying to achieve smooth re-entry. I caught myself being unsure of which house I currently lived in. Then I had a long conversation with my mother about my grandmother who has dementia. She is showing a lot of interest in her parents and feeling guilty about not going to […]
Week 31 – 1st August 2014 – I’m Suing Sinatra For The Five Years I Would Have Lived With Him If He Had Asked Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4bVMRT7D2k Alternative title 20:20 Vision The long title is from a Joan Rivers line from a live album I had when I was about 12. 90% of this album is locked away in my brain and comes out at odd moments. This is a true story of my train ride home yesterday when I was […]
Week 30 – 23rd July 2014 – No Pressure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVOksVWOizw A bit of a strange love song. Pretty tune. I played my boyfriend the chorus and he wryly said “No pressure, babe”. So no pressure become the verse. Lyrics: No Pressure No pressure but this thought has struck me No pressure but I just had clarity No pressure but I now see the deal […]
Week 29 – 18th July 2014 – Long Haul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iktpY9N8zz8&feature=youtu.be I’ve got a song about the Malaysian Air disaster. Not about the politics or what it must have been like to be there but a simple song about what it was like on a 24 hour flight on Malaysian four days ago. I’m having trouble uploading the video. It will be viewable shortly. Long […]