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A rare moment of peace for Marilyn Monroe’s restless mind - reading James Joyce’s Ulysses at Long Island, in 1955
It’s a literary narrative technique capturing our chaotic minds and random flow of thought processes, often with non-linear sense of time, free association, saturated with sensory experiences with strange rhythms, but how is it used in song?
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A commemorative model of Apollo-Soyuz on 17th July 1975
To commemorate the Apollo-Soyuz space link up, exactly 50 years ago today, on 17th July 1975, let’s celebrate strange, unusual bonds of friendship in song lyrics and shake hands with the unexpected …
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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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Players enter. But where’s the Wurlitzer …?
Strange goings on and off occur this week as the curtain opens for a theatrical absurdity featuring cast of random characters including this week’s guest guru, Loud Atlas, inspired by last week’s topic and Samuel Beckett. Fish. Wurlitzer. Balloon.
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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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Jarvis Cocker’s student pass for the art course he took when aged 25
Days of college, university, polytechnic, art school, institute or more, this week we examine education after secondary or high school and graduation, what it all means, from learning to social experience, captured though the prism of song
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White nothing? Not quite
This week, with a host of guests to inspire, it’s songs all about nowt, nought, the big nada, zilch, and by association, no one, nobody, but of course in whatever context, there's always someone, a something, a story, a feeling behind it
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Herd this? Non sequiturs are instrumental in this week’s musical zoo
Often poetic, strange, vivid, but definitely illogical, this week we explore lyrics that don’t really follow what preceded it, but somehow their meaninglessness masquerading as meaning, can also end up being something highly musical
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Shine some light through this topic
Clear or stained-glass, from or into rooms, trains, windscreens or more, literal or metaphorical, from the soul to an opportunity, it's time to shine light through and suggest titles or lyrics with this theme
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Big-boned …
Skulls to skeletons, dry to bad, dinosaur to Shakespeare, dead or alive, let's dig deep in our collections and unearth musical examples, inspired here by range of references from Hamlet to Ray Harryhausen
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Which song or songwriter will take the lead on this topic?
Anticipation, excitement or apprehension, for anything from the rapture to Robert De Niro, opportunity or a bus, the light, love or in limbo, place your songs in our waiting room and see what happens …
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