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Fancy a game of colours? Vincent Van Gogh’s The Night Cafe, 1888
Alabaster, almond or amaranth, to zarqua, zinc or zomp? ‘Rhythm’ is also a colour name. This week it’s time to enjoy the music, poetry and imagery of obscure hues in lyrics. Feast your eyes and ears, and paint your imagination with suggestions …
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Who the Puck? A 1629 depiction of the traditional English and Celtic trickster
It’s everywhere in the modern world, particularly in politics, but the dark arts of the trickster have been around in folklore and mythology for thousands of years, so a starting point, let’s back to go forward …
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Songs pour out …
A fluid topic, fountains strike a deep emotional chord, while sometimes reflective and philosophical, cover a range from loneliness and sorrow to exaltation and celebration. Marco den Ouden turns on the the tap, inspired by the past week’s nominations
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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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Where will choices strike for this week’s lists?
One strike ncan remind us that nature is really boss, and for a songwriter, thunder and lightning can signify and express many meanings and emotions. Picked from last week’s topic nominations, guest ajostu’s playlists will go down a storm
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Here it comes …
Dramatic, extreme, they always come as a pair, if with delayed arrival, and may be a backdrop, or an expression of stormy relationships, a high charge of emotions, or of inspiration, change, turmoil or chaos, but it can also bring a state of cosy comfort
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A classic from Cole Porter looking at the new generation of his day. See if the pattern repeats below …
From the old Lost to the new lost, Baby Boomers to X, Z, Millennials to Alphas, patterns repeat as one generation looks at the past and future, all captured here superbly spanning selection by guest Severin, picked from last week’s topic
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À la Mod: a key book written in 1964 (before today’s Generation X were actually born) by Jane Deverson and Charles Hamblett that influenced the likes of British punk Billy Idol and later the Canadian author Douglas Coupland …
The Lost, the Silent, the Greatest, the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Y (Millennials), Gen Z, then Alpha and Beta, the last 125 years have generational labels now increasingly used in our language and culture. But what are their traits, and how are they reflected in song lyrics or even music?
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It may not be long for the dugong, hauntingly heralded below in song …
From man-made causes – hunting to climate change and habitat loss, it’s a heartbreaking, tragic tale. But this musical menagerie also has poignant positivity, with guest Marco den Ouden adding conservation success stories in these moving, beautiful lists, picked from last week’s topic
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Heavy metal to heavy mammal. One Ozzy departs, another arrives: A namesake southern white rhino, here with mother, was born the day Ozzy Osbourne died on 22 July
It’s a musical menagerie: land, sea or air, mammals, birds, amphibians, marsupials, tragic tales of destruction to near extinction, but also heroic conservation, it’s time to highlight creatures under threat but featuring in song
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Facing the dark: Find out who below …
Death, fear, the unknown, but most of all affecting beauty - darkness brings a breadth of scenarios and emotions, all brought to light by guest of the week ParaMhor with powerful picked lists inspired by last week’s theme
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Where would stars be without the dark…?
It’s a vast spectrum of a topic that occupies half of Earth’s rotation, filled with emotions, stories, assocations, and styles. With the recent death of one famous rock figure, what other forms of darkness come to mind in song?
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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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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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Neil Young, playing at Live Aid in 1985, also features on this week’s playlist
Inspired by last week’s topic about the 40th anniversary of Live Aid and song nominations, guest of the week tincanman reflects on the outcomes, Bob Geldof, and some songs that made it against the odds
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A world united? Live Aid, 13th July 1985
It will be 40 years ago this weekend. An extraordinary event and background story, and a global sense of positivity, but what did all mean then, and now? To mark the anniversary, let’s celebrate and reflect with this theme
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Bird’s eye view? Ever seen … Immortel Ad Vitam
Tricks of mind and memory to recurring lifestyle loops, our senses are sometimes working overtime, and guest Sidecar Shiv makes superb sense of it all with playlists picked from last week’s topic nominations
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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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From the 1959 film Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro), a key year for bossa nova …
It’s time to source and serve out this charming, cool Brazilian rhythmic genre that began in the 1950s, whether it’s songs by the original artists, with different twists and mixes, as well as in many later songs it has flavoured
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Time to grab a different instrument …
Revamped and newly performed by the original artists or as covers by others, the unplugged, undistorted and stripped back acoustic version can bring new feeling, meaning, audible lyrics and sometimes a sense of a whole new song
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