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Bear with us ...
We’re heading down into the woods today and beyond, hopefully in for a few surprises, and beyond naked necessity, with songs where bears feature prominently in title, lyric or theme, perhaps too in musical delivery capturing their qualities, and no doubt also in metaphor for all kinds of human contexts
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Eyes wide shut?
What does it mean, and what form does it take? From formal religion to private conversation, hope and supplication to comfort and meditation, and even parody of well-known prayers, it’s time explore this mysterious human activity in song
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Voluminous …
It’s an essential part of life - defined as a cognitive, active process of decoding these symbols to arrive at meaning, perhaps for a purpose to direct or extract information, to focus a goal, to simply to discover and escape, but how does it come up in song?
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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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Preface to a translation of Nostradamus’s Prophecies
From Julius Caesar feeling the sharp end in the Roman Senate to Nostradamus and his verse of things to come that will make the world worse. But what predictions will come from this week’s quatrains? Some playlists, for sure …
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Evolution’s purest clickbait: kitten in field
Nothing’s ideal, no one’s impeccable, nothing’s completely pure, but this week it’s time to search for the beautifully formed, the perfectly pitched, the adorably flawless and more as the lyrical focus. Or that’s the plan …
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Arctic wolves in full song
Hunter or hunted, in a pack or working alone, in metaphor or myth, human connections from werewolf to dire wolf, this week they are all at the door, so it’s time to howl out your song suggestions referring magnificent canis lupus
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Loops and more, what musical weaves might come up this week?
Nautical to metaphorical, clothes to emotional, knit to tapestry, crafts to industry, what binds and joins us, from love’s loose ends to heart string fastening, let's untangle, as well as lace up some lyrical threads and loops
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Float your ideas, and nevermind the cost. From the Nirvana album …
For crying out loud. This week’s topic is all about those beautiful and cute bundles of joy that we all once were, miracles of wide-eyed wonder as well as guzzling, selfish, exhausting, sleep-sapping, puking bags of expensive energy extraction
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Let it all hang out …
It’s partly perception, partly physical reality, an ongoing health and cultural issue affecting mind and body. So let’s go large on the lyrical portrayal of fat in people, with a dishful of tragedy, humour, self-consciousness, cruelty, pathos, and glory
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Gratuitous gif of Freddie and Roger from a song that is nothing to do with this topic
It’s time for some lockdown relief. While doing them, let’s also think up and sometimes dance to some numbers about those chores we all must now face, not just cleaning or sorting, but also the psychological cleanse and clear out
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The divine Miss Grace Jones
Let’s accessorise ourselves with songs about hats, gloves, scarves, sunglasses and the like, from a key lyrical moment to song as whole, with items that variously signify fashion, function, status, class, profession, character or era
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Maya Angelou: “I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.”
I feel for you. Reach out and I’ll be there. This week we’re seeking song-related understanding and connection the form of songs about empathy, and though it’s different perhaps also little secondary sympathy, in form or content
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David Bowie and ‘family’ on the set of The Man Who Fell To Earth
Transcending distance and time, and sometimes in another dimension, space itself, this week we look to go the full distance to explore the trials and triumphs of enduring love, or otherwise, made or broken by absence
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Sunset ending? Not every ride goes so smoothly …
No – it’s not the World Cup. This week we’re looking at all kinds of ends of albums and other songs – from surprising, sudden, or summing up, to those that are ambiguous, serious, comical or take us to a new place
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Who, what, where shall we go this week?
This week it's time to set the musical controls - to suggest songs that about time travel in the sci-fi sense, but also those that might move to another period in past or future in metaphor, memory and the imagination
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What songs will be preserved in the ice and snow of this week's nominations?
Flakes that meander down to frozen formations, beautiful and deadly, used literally or metaphorically in emotions or landscapes, let's explore songs that preserving this water in lyrics and titles
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