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History’s geniuses often highlight the men …
We all have some, but what are they and will we really use them? From the gifted and natural to the grafted and learned all the way to the greatest and famous, it’s time to highlight amazing human skills as referenced in lyrics
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The yoke’s on you, Dad …
On this celebration day of the written word, let’s embrace the many songs which lyrically use a word to govern two or more other words or phrases in a line or sentence. It comes from the Ancient Greek meaning "a yoking together". Time to pull out words and pints …
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Ageing gracefully in nature’s autumn cycle: Japanese maple
Getting older happens at all stages in life. Is it down to perception? And is age just a number? Hopefully yes, a musically number at least, as we invite your song suggestions on this theme …
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The classic poisoner’s choice …
Natural or handmade, animal or chemical, fast or slow, murderous or accidental, we inhabit a world of toxins and venoms, but how are they expressed in song? With inspiration here, the more specific and colourful the better but there’s also the mental and metaphorical …
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“Actually, I think you’ll find these are not stocks, it’s a pillory …”
Far bigger than embarrassment, shame can be private, deep-seated and complex, covering all sides of society, psychology, religious, private or public life, a many-sided identity that can be corrosive but also controlling, useful but also harmful. How does it show in song?
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Warning: diversions expected ahead …
Prepare for the unexpected. This week in song, it’s all about moments of divergence, digression, and distraction, of interruption and intervention, leading to the unplanned, whether that be because of oneself, another person, events, or circumstances
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It’s a wrap: Claude Rains as the HG Wells’ Invisible Man in 1933
What’s hiding in plain sight, or completely obscured? From deceptive lovers to undercover governments, hidden worlds or he pleasure of anonymity, this week we find the power of invisibility to help fill in the musical blanks
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The flurry of first light
Morning always comes, but how might you start it musically? This is a topic not about the morning and everything that goes with it, although those details may figure, but is one more about complementary mood, style, feeling and pace
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Forever falling upwards down MC Escher’s stairs
How to we capture or express it? Through love, art, death, heaven, hell or other forms? Particularly song. This week’s largely lyrical topic ponders on the forever, the permanent, the endless and goes to infinity and beyond …
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Egg-centric playing style?
Please add your song egg-samples to this rich and delicate topic, whether in the context of eating, idioms, metaphor or the full cycles of life. Once the all the song suggestions are unscrambled the results will no doubt be egg-cellent
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Spring bluebells quietly getting on with it
Tranquillity, calm and serenity, or concentration, slow stirring, unrest, plotting and revolution? There are all kinds of quiet out there, and this week it’s time to explore these as described or captured in song lyrics
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Which way are you thinking?
Let’s celebrate the cerebrum and engage with the encephalon through lyrics and song subject, whether it is the biological makeup of this squidgy Tardis, or mindful thoughts and functions it can control. Worth a thought, anyway …
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It’s like dancing about architecture
Used in literature and everyday speech, it’s the verbal tool that compares one contrasting thing to another, by using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’. But where do they come up in song lyrics, and where, ideally, are they effective and original?
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The Immortal Jellyfish, Turritopsis dohrnii, which can reverse the life cycle process
Gods to vampires, myth to religion, nature to the supernatural, or simply need to preserve yourself in song, this week we explore that age-old obsession with living forever, or at least a mighty long time
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The rocks of Mount Rushmore. Things are looking rough right now …
This week let's not only get sensual on surfaces, objects and textures, but also look at the rough and the smooth of people, behaviour, conditions and life experiences, all captured in lyrics and music
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Sign of the times? Bird is the word? Tweet that.
From sarcasm to situation, dramatic twist to tragic consequence or perspective, let's take a wry look at songs that say one thing, but then reveal another
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Arrival of aliens. The human bit? That's where we might have a problem, Houston.
Don't take this the wrong way. Historic shambles to the pitfalls of predictive text, friends falling out to argumentative relationships, this week it's all about songs where language and more is a barrier
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