Annie Lennox - Sing (Official Video)

"Sing" is a song by Annie Lennox, released as the second single from her fourth solo studio album, Songs of Mass Destruction (2007). It is a charity record aimed to raise money and awareness for the HIV/AIDS organization "Treatment Action Campaign".



LINKS:
I've already posted concerning SING in April: SING-Sprout
Official SING Website | Official Annie Lennox Website | Wikipedia Article

The song is a collaboration between Lennox and twenty-three prominent female acts and artists. The line-up consists of Anastacia, Isobel Campbell, Dido, Céline Dion, Melissa Etheridge, Fergie, Beth Gibbons, Faith Hill, Angélique Kidjo, Beverley Knight, Gladys Knight, k.d. lang, Madonna, Sarah McLachlan, Beth Orton, Pink, Bonnie Raitt, Shakira, Shingai Shoniwa, Joss Stone, Sugababes, KT Tunstall, and Martha Wainwright [wikipedia.org]

Well sisters, let's SING!

Annie Lennox & Web 2.0

Amazing. This woman uses web 2.0 resources quite thoroughly. She twitters (that's where I got this picture) and she's got her own YouTube channel. It's fun to watch her video blogs :-)

And - honestly speaking - watching her makes me feel at ease with getting older. Thanks Annie, it's good to see rockin' & rollin' no matter what.

Not So Soft :-)

And now for something completely different ...


That's me, listening to The Sisters of Mercy in Vienna (Gasometer City).























Andrew Eldritch's voice is still fascinating. At the moment he's accompanied by Ben Christo, Chris Catalyst and a Doktor Avalanche (drum machine) operator.










Actually, the support act was quite good, iLiKETRAiNS from Leeds.



Thanks to Mitch for this quite nice pic :-)









And somebody's already uploaded two videos of the gig ... mobile phones are omnipresent :-)

Soft & Sweet

Just got my second Roxy Music CD. My, how I love the voice of Bryan Ferry. 'Oh Yeah' is one of my favs:



I came across Bryan Ferry & The Roxy Music watching '9 1/2 Weeks' - a movie I quite enjoyed, a book that shocked me. BTW, it's good to see Mickey Rourke up and alive again :-)

Music My Daughter Listens To

... it's Indie Rock :-)

Mando Diao | The Wildfire (If It Was True)



Nice lyrics ... here're some passages:

Well there's something in the way
She said I hate you cause you breathe
It's not the first time that I heard it
But this one is out of reach
[...]
And on the streets well they were dancing
To some kind of Puerto Rican music that we would hate
But we would just move along to
So if you're driving in your car
And hear this on Radio 1
Well I know that it sounds silly
'Cause you don't have a car
But I just read it in a book
That these things happen in the fictive world
[...]
It's just the wildfire burning
There's no way to put it out
Just a wildfire spreading
Through my days and through my nights

German Music

Two of my latest favourites ... lyrics in German, sorry!

Jennifer Rostock | Feuer
Phew, tough lady ... mind the Volvo ;-)



Die Aerzte | Lasse Reden
This guy acts according to lyrics :-)

Clueless

Heavens. It was easier to write my second bachelor thesis than to prepare an interesting presentation. So I'm sitting here, racking (wrecking? wracking? ah ... you'll know what I mean) my brain and listening to music.

Here are some most cynical passages of "Sick of You", performed by Lou Reed. Cheerful melody, most sociocritical lyrics.

I was up in the morning with the TV blarin'
Brush my teeth sittin' watchin' the news

All the beaches were closed, the ocean was a red sea.
But there was no one there to part it in two.

The ozone layer has no ozone anymore.
And you're gonna leave me for the guy next door.
I'm sick of you.

They say the president's dead. No one can find his head.
It's been missing now for weeks.
But no one noticed it, he had seemed so fit!
I'm sick of it.

If you want to listen too, here's the song on YouTube (I've got no idea why the picture of this guy was chosen for the song, please excuse my ignorance):

FALCO still rules

10 years ago a famous Austrian musician died, Hansi Hoelzl aka Falco.

No matter whether you liked him or not, he was a key personality within the Austrian music-scene. Videos pure 80's style, his lyrics a wild mixture of German and English, his music a combination of New Wave, Rock, Pop and Rap.



This video shows "Auf der Flucht" (On the Run), one of my favs.

Although I loved to listen to his music from the beginning (okay, not quite from the beginning, I was too young to honour Drahdiwaberl, an Austrian hard rock-punk rock band where he played bass *g*) I bought my first Falco CD the year he died.

I'm still a little bit ashamed of that, but that's the Austrian way, we honour our stars the most when they are dead. Just as Falco asked "muss ich denn sterben um zu leben" (do I have to die if I want to live) on his last CD "Out of the Dark" ...

But I loved to quote him ever since: "It's better to have a bad image than no image at all" - that's just too true :-)

Hothouse Flowers

Wikipedia told me that my favourite music genre is rock, alternative rock, blues rock, soft rock, hard rock, celtic rock, folk rock ...

Ah, it's good to know what to answer in case this question comes up! Not "Uhm, a little bit of this and a little bit of that" ... now I can answer "Rock" in a simple & straightforward way :-)

The Irish band Hothouse Flowers around Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna Ó Braonáin is an example for folk rock respectively celtic rock.

I've got three of their CDs, People (1988), Home (1990) and Songs from the Rain (1993) - the song "The Older We Get" is on the first mentioned CD People.



Liam Ó Maonlaí has got a MySpace website, there is an interesting flute tune online, An Buachall Ban Dea.

Irish music is something special, I can't think of any other music which is so sad and (sometimes at the same time) so cheerful.

Kate Bush Videos

Referring to one of my older posts here are two of my favourite Kate Bush videos. I love the feature of embedding YouTube videos - and it is amazing what you can find on YouTube, I didn't watch these videos for EONS!

Cloudbusting with Donald Sutherland (1985)



Experiment IV (1986)


If you look closely you'll find Hugh Laurie - my daugther did some Google research and came across this information. Nice coincidence (referring to my Dr. House post).

The plot is scary, it's about sound as a military weapon - a sound that could kill someone - and that killing sound (represented by Kate Bush, nice one) escapes.

Reminds me of 'The Stand' by Stephen King or Monty Python's 'The Funniest Joke in the World' .

I just pray that someone there can hit the switch ...

Fanta 4

A German music video by "Die Fantastischen Vier" featuring Herbert Groenemeyer.

I love this song, it's called "Es koennte so einfach sein, ist es aber nicht" meaning "It could be so easy, but it isn't"



Enjoy - the video is quite funny, even if you don't understand the lyrics (although to be honest ... the lyrics are what I like most).

Annie Lennox & Kate Bush

Annie Lennox and Kate Bush are two really impressive women, great artists IMHO. I looked for their websites, both are beautifully done.

That's what Wikipedia has to say about Annie Lennox:

Annie Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is an Oscar, BRIT, Grammy and Golden Globe award-winning Scottish pop musician and vocalist. She is both a solo artist and the lead singer of the duo Eurythmics, often hailed as "The Greatest White Soul Singer Alive".

If you visit her website www.annielennox.com you'll find a video concerning her engagement for Comic Relief in Uganda.

What I really like about her is the way she plays with her looks, especially in her videos. Compare her appearance in her videos with that natural way she looks in Uganda ... fascinating how she transforms from masquerade to her pure self.

I simply love her voice and her lyrics.

Kate Bush is different ... here's what Wikipedia says about her:

Kate Bush (born 30 July 1958, Bexleyheath, Greater London) is a British singer, songwriter, musician and record producer.






Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic lyrics have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful and original solo female performers of the past 30 years. [...] It has been difficult to define the musical genre of Bush's work because there are very few other artists like her.

There is a quite new album available, Aerial, produced in 2005. You can listen to the songs on www.katebush.com.





The video "King of the Mountain" is something you should watch, it's extremely well done and it tells a story, as so many of her videos do - just remember Cloudbusting with Donald Sutherland (1985) or Experiment IV (1986).

The suit of Elvis jumps from its hanger, and starts to fly towards the mountains, where it meets its original owner.




This picture shows clothing on a clothesline applauding to the suit ... the video is really great, enjoy.

I think my favourite album is "Hounds of Love" ... if you listen to the second part of the album, called "The Ninth Wave", Kate Bush might give you the creeps. She is weird, in a fascinating way.

Once I listened to this album with headphones and fell asleep, waking to her words "Tiefer, tiefer, irgendwo in der Tiefe gibt es ein Licht". The song "Hello Earth" contains this little German text part, that came as a real surprise and left me quite flabbergasted, it was a very strange experience :-)

Georg Danzer

Last week my favourite Austrian singer-songwriter, Georg Danzer, died.

He sometimes used Spanish lyrics, this passage is from his song "Weisse Pferde" (white horses):


Algo se muere en el alma quando un amigo se va.

There's nothing more to say, his music lives on.

Britain's Got Talent - Paul Potts

This one is really worth watching - a YouTube video named 'Paul Potts singing Opera'.



There is a talent show running in Britain, called 'Britain's Got Talent'. Paul Potts was there as a contestant at the first audition show. He's a mobile phone sales man from South Wales.

The quest is on to find the nation’s most remarkable performers, every night from June 9 to June 17. The Britain’s Got Talent judging panel consists of X Factor mogul Simon Cowell, who takes the strain along with journalist Piers Morgan and actress Amanda Holden.

More info and pics: http://talent.itv.com/

BTW this is the 'Nessun Dorma', an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot. There is an interpretation of Luciano Pavarotti as YouTube video available - if you'd like to compare.

What I Listened To In The Late Eighties

I looked some of my favourite musicians after and found out that I've been listening to alternative rock (referring to my Snow Patrol post) since the eighties. Fascinating what Wikipedia can tell you, I did not know that *g*

Here are some examples from different genres, e. g. post-punk. All of them represent alternative rock, too (if Wikipedia is right, I'm no expert when it comes to music genres).

Julian Cope
My Nation Underground

He's called the 'Dark Prince' by some. I love 'Charlotte Ann' although Julian Cope himself did not like this album:




Cope was extremely displeased with his fourth solo album, My Nation Underground, feeling that he had been pressured by his management into recording something that did not represent his artistic intentions. This only spawned one Top 40 single in 'Charlotte Anne'.


Talking Heads
Stop Making Sense

Nuclear weapons can wipe out life on Earth, if used properly. Cats like houses better than people. Dolphins find people amusing, but they don't want to talk to them.


They had some really strange videos (as you might know music videos came up in the eighties and how I loved to watch them!). 'Love For Sale' was my favourite ... really weird stuff, in some sequences the band members were covered with liquid chocolate. Only to be outperformed by Peter Gabriel :-)



I especially like the lyrics of 'The Lady Don't Mind' from the album 'Little Creatures' ...

Well the lady don't mind. No, no, no, the lady don't mind.
She just turns her head and disappears and I kinda like that style.
Little boat that floats on a river, it's drifting through a haze.
She floats by whenever she wants to, well, there she goes again.


The Cure
Disintegration

I think The Cure was my first contact with alternative rock. 'Hot Hot Hot' was one of my ex-husband's favourites, that's how I came to know them.



Their lyrics are extremely beautiful, especially 'Pictures Of You':

I've been looking so long at these pictures of you
That I almost believe that they're real
I've been living so long with my pictures of you
That I almost believe that the pictures are all I can feel

Remembering you standing quiet in the rain
As I ran to your heart to be near
And we kissed as the sky fell in
Holding you close how I always held close in your fear

Remembering you running soft through the night
You were bigger and brighter and wider than the snow
And screamed at the make-believe screamed at the sky
And you finally found all your courage to let it all go

Snow Patrol - Shut Your Eyes

I've got a new favourite song: "Shut Your Eyes" by Snow Patrol. Just bought their new CD "Eyes Open" via Amazon. Nice lyrics, too:

Shut your eyes and think of somewhere
Somewhere cold and caked in snow
By the fire we break the quiet
Learn to wear each other well

And when the worrying starts to hurt
And the world feels like graves of dirt
Just close your eyes until
You can imagine this place, our secret space at will.

Especially "learn to wear each other well" is quite a nice line IMHO.

And what has Wikipedia to say, concerning this band?

Snow Patrol are a Grammy Award-nominated rock band who formed in Scotland, with the majority of their members being from Bangor and Belfast, Northern Ireland. They are currently based in Scotland's second city of Glasgow and are signed to Polydor Records. Originally formed as an indie rock band, Snow Patrol has sought a more alternative rock sound in recent years on the heels of mainstream success with the songs "Run" and "Chasing Cars".

Ah. So it's Scotland again. Makes you wonder ... :-)

Seems like musicians have to follow the mainstream in order to earn some money from time to time. Hopefully they don't lose themselves doing so.

A Preference for Scotland?

I seem to have identified a preference for scotland. Fascinating, I've never been there and still ... I like Simple Minds since I've been a teenager and - as mentioned in previous posts - Fairground Attraction and Salsa Celtica.

But there is not only Scottish music I like, there are some quite interesting men coming from Scotland, like Sean Connery (since he's a grown up man, not as James Bond) and Gerald Butler (300).







While looking at some pictures of Gerald Butler (who wants to blame me for appreciating good looking men, huh?) I found out that he played in "Beowolf and Grendel" in 2005. How come I've missed that movie?? That's one of my favourite stories!

I've read quite a lot of stuff like that as a child and I still love these stories. The Song of Roland, the Nibelungenlied, the Illiad and the Odyssey ... talking about movies I liked Braveheart as well as Rob Roy.

Seems like I'm holding out for a hero ... quoting Bonnie Tyler ;-)

I think I have to go to Scotland, visit the country, get to know some people over there. One of my favourite retirement plans is to live by the sea (guess where ... yup, Scotland) writing books. But as I am a little bit too young to retire I might spend a holiday there first of all. Let's see whether I really like it.

Jonathan Carroll - Outside the Dog Museum Citation

Beside my already mentioned favourite authors Terry Pratchett and John Irving I also like Jonathan Carroll very much. His novels are quite weird, there's fantasy, magic, horror ... his stories are fantastic and discerning.

Jonathan Carroll was born in America and is now living in Vienna, Austria (and just like John Irving he mentions Austria in his novels from time to time).

In his novel 'Outside the Dog Museum' (about a famous architect who shall build a dog museum for a wealthy Sultan) there is an interesting statement concerning music:

Some centuries are happy being quiet and looking at the sky. Ours spends all ist time trying like crazy to fill that sky up!

There's no silence left, no minute when you can think or be still a while. How about places like elevators or the 'hold' line on a telephone: Elevators used to give you those few precious moments when you could stop in between floors and think about what you were going to say or about what'd just happened in your life. Now you walk into a little box full of 'Strangers in the Night'.

It also ruins the whole idea of music, which is something you should pay attention to, not resent or ignore while you're waiting for a call to go through.

Quite nicely stated IMHO. My personal strategy to escape a noisy environment is to walk around 'plugged in', listening to my MP3s. That way it's not quiet, but at least it's music I like to listen to.

Music & Lyrics Volume II

I watched Music & Lyrics again, this time in English. Here's one of the most amusing quotes:

Alex Fletcher: The best time I've had in the last fifteen years was sitting at that piano with you.
Sophie Fisher: That's wonderfully sensitive... especially from a man who wears such tight pants.
Alex Fletcher: It forces all the blood to my heart.

I loved the explanation why lyrics are so important. Sophie Fisher compares it to falling in love. She says the melody is the attracting part, it allures you, fascinates you. But the real seduction happens while listening to the lyrics. To get to know the person behind, the meaning. That's when you get really attracted, or even enchained.

Seems to be quite a feminine point of view, given. But it's just too true. Remembering some discussions with a friend of mine (who also regards the melody more important than the lyrics) I could not have put it better, had I known the words.

Salsa Celtica - El Camino

Referring to one of my older posts ... the music of Salsa Celtica is simply great! Your feet'll start itching, I can tell you that! There's just one question: Riverdance or Salsa? :-)

An Cailleach (The Hag) is a perfect example for that ... traditional Irish jigs run headlong into Salsa Celtica at full tilt.

Salsa Celtica's got a video online (23MB) and a MySpace Site where you can listen to some of the songs, released on the album "El Camino" in March 2006.

El Camino is a thrilling mix of Latin rhythm and exuberance, effortlessly blended with Celtic tunes and instrumentation and Spanish lyrics. The result is inspired, full of flourish, and intensely enjoyable! Review by folkmusic.net

Fuego, Alma y Paz (Fire, Soul and Peace) is one of my favourites. It's a Milonga about the healing strength of love.

Milonga uses the same basic elements as Tango, and requires a greater relaxation of legs and body. Movement is normally faster, and pauses are not made. It is rather a kind of rhythmic walking without complicated figures, with a much more "rustic" style than Tango.

These musicians are able to bring a smile onto your face, no matter what. Just try and see for yourself!