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But this one really can’t be put off, can it?
They are forced upon from an early age, and a key driver of human behaviour, a trick we play upon ourselves or others to get things done, but in song they have range of contexts and inspire all kinds of emotions
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Fibonacci sequence is found in music and the natural world, but there are even stranger numbers out there …
From bingo to pi to Fibonacci and beyond, share, as well as vote for, your favourite as well as unknown and newly discovered, strange, obscure numbers as found in song lyrics and titles, highlighting the exact and untypical
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The face of ecstasy: detail from Gian Lorenzo Bernini 1652 sculpture, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa in Rome, and an acid house party in 1993
Whether its chemical and recreational to sexual, spiritual or even religious, music can take you back to an extraordinary high. This week’s theme a musical mood and feeling topic, but can also be a lyrical one …
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Gregory’s Girl (1980)
Distinctive smells, sights and stories, anxiety and awkwardness, comfort and routine, ambition and ordinariness, this week it’s time, after the holidays, to return to settings of routine and familiarity captured in song …
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Reflections on a musical fountain …
Spurting ornate symbols of eternity, youth, health and good fortune, some for drinking others just decoration, they’ve been a feature in villages, towns and cities for thousands of years, and some can be programmed to dance to music. How are they expressed in song lyrics?
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Cultured vultures: The Jungle Book brings about surprise levels of support via the medium of song
This Bar creates them too, but what about songs in playlists? From assorted human and animal encounters, generational pals to cultural social crossovers, guest Loud Atlas brings them all together in wonderful entertainment inspired by last week’s topic
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James Stewart is one of several hanging out at the Bar this week …
Mixing memory and desire, situations, faces, sounds and experiences, it’s a common psychological experience of misplaced memory. But how is it expressed in song, and what others induce that feeling?
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Doubly great: John "Jabo" Starks and Clyde Stubblefield
Hit it! It’s a lyrical topic, where perhaps the singer might address, direct, encourage, or praise the band's drummer, any real or fictional player, or the beat, rhythm or instruments themselves
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Double trouble: The Grady twins from The Shining (1980)
Especially when identical they almost always mesmerising, but even if not, and different genders, twins say a lot about human nature. They, as well as doppelgängers, and other sorts of pairing mirror a fascinating subject …
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Doubly horny
It’s a figure of speech in which two meanings, one obvious, the other less so, sometimes suggestive or sexual, though not always, hover simultaneously. But how do they come up in song lyrics?
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A surprising final act of mercy: Bladerunner (1982) with Rutger Hauer and Harrison Ford
From wars to trade tariffs, it’s arguably never been more absent and more required in the modern world. But here, with some cinematic inspiration, how is it expressed in song? With idioms or stories, calling for, or dispensing it, and much more …
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Ready to roll? A Peterbilt 389
They’re a great, sometimes romantic, sometimes tragic vehicle for human stories, and have nomadic culture of their own. This week we musically celebrate this freight transport, with all sorts of payloads and other services. Where better to listen to music?
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How my living room does not look
With spring cleaning possibly on the to-do list, practical and creative decluttering, not merely in the house, but all kinds of editing out, paring back, chiselling, sifting, trimming, shaving, scaling or downsizing, all expressed in song. Check out some experts’ tidy tips too…
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Playtime: Jacques Tati’s masterpiece about modern life (1967)
Strange, surreal, ironic, absurdity very much part of life, and absurdism is all about embracing the freedom with its meaninglessness. Exploring influences from Camus to Tati, Milligan to Python to Lynch, how is it expressed in music?
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Inca Trail, Peru
Timeless travelling, personal and universal, from the minor the major way, this topic less about about passing through, going somewhere, even if that destination may end up being an existential nowhere. It’s the romance of the road, the tantalising tread of the trail, the perception of the path
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Get your AAA passes here to a full musical experience ….
Tickets to travel, alluring invitations to important passes come in all forms, and inspired by last week’s topic nominators, guest inspector Loud Atlas brings you access to all areas of musical enjoyment
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The bells! The bells! Handheld bells ...
They resonate through time, marking beginnings and endings, life and death, and have a host of meanings and contexts. Alone or in harmony, large or small, as instrument or sound effect, what tintinnabulum tickles your fancy in music?
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They call him Mr Tibbs: Sidney Poitier shows Rod Steiger how real detective work is done - In The Heat of The Night (1967)
There’s a body, but what’s the motive, and whodunnit? Gathering a cast of famous detectives and a pile of tracks about them to spin in the Bar, Chief Inspector Marco den Ouden solves the case with musical cues and keys, inspired by last week’s topic
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What’s inside the bar this week?
There’s a smoky haze in the Bar this week as dozens of suspicious individuals sit down for a quiet drink, but what are they up to? Are they real or fictional. It’s time to do the sleuth work and find some musical inspiration
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Sleeve of Japrocksampler: How the Post-war Japanese Blew Their Minds on Rock 'n' Roll – by Julian Cope (2007)
It’s a huge market for the industry, inspired by outsider music, and this extraordinary land also delivers much of its own, but what songs captures the essence of Japanese people and culture? Here’s a tiny dish of metaphorical sushi to get your tastebuds tingling ….
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