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Chuck Brown and The Soul Searchers
A funktastic, upside perspective set of playlists chosen by guest DJ Bear from hundreds of nominations by readers sets the new year of 2020 where it needs to be on the energetic, positive good foot
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Some people have no time to sit …
New Year resolutions, revelations or revolutions? Whether it’s from or for love, money, survival, fear, self-respect or more, let’s open 2020 with songs that may motivate, but ideally also tell us where that comes from
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Another uplifting evening of joyous anarchy with Amyl & The Sniffers
To round off 2019, please share any music you’ve especially enjoyed or discovered this year, here at the Bar, or outside it, material new or old, releases your’ve bought, or any great experience at live music events
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The Radiogram: perhaps he most important piece of furniture in many a 20th-century childhood home
Rockin' chairs and recliners to tables and desks, sofas, wardrobes, amoires, beds, side tables to dining suites, lyrically as passing image, or as a main subject, let’s furnish this week’s song theme with some solid support
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Lotte Lenya
Sometimes you can believe, yet it doesn’t work out. But sometimes it does. This week it has, at least through hundreds of brilliant song nominations, and playlists equal that by guest Severin, spanning genres, mood and eras
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Nose. We all knows … what lies, above. And below, look out for capo alert …
There’s a UK general election today, but here it’s also time to vote for songs about trust, that fragile but vital hub around which the world spins, in love, family, friendships, the self, creativity, religion, but also played in politics and business
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Two of the greats. Ray Charles, also a great arranger as well as performer, with composer and arranger Quincy Jones
From full orchestration to carefully stripped back, this week let's consider work where in originals or later versions, added instrumentals, vocal parts, melodic fills, changing tempo or keys, have made a great song even better
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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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Cream, with a heavy dose of Ginger
Collaborations, surprising or predictable, are of what music is made. But this week’s topic focuses on artists from different, already successful acts who collaborate not only on one song or performance, but a whole LP or more
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Panda nanny, anyone? Hours may be long …
Habitual to unusual, the professional or the manual, the skilled or the basic, gig economy to obscure and hidden, this week we look at a variety of job titles and what they all entail, all evoked through song
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Play Misty For Me? Be careful what records you choose … Clint Eastwood and Jessica Walter in 1971
Do you follow? This week it could well be a creepy, but also complex topic, with tracking and pursuing people in all contexts, done or from the perspective of either party, for love or perhaps more sinister reasons
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Take a gallop through our musical landscape …
Will it be all white on the night? The time is certainly white to suggest songs relating in every way to this colour, from skin and race to ghosts, food, clothing, weddings, purity and innocence to noise and light …
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Little Richard
Feel the magnetism. It’ s a quality of presence, an aura, a warmth, an energy, eyes and voice. It inspires and attracts others to good, or sometimes bad effect. But it isn’t only in the famous, but also unknown people brought to light in song
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Walk this way and press play …
Shoes, boots, slippers, high-heels, trainers, loafers, brothel creepers, brogues, to clogs to spats and a whole lot more, from the sexy to the silly, the stylish to the smart, let’s get the sole of this subject in this lyrical theme
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Michael Jackson had more than his fair share of changes. In one instance he takes a breath before sharpening his G
No technical knowledge required. Michael Jackson to the Beatles, they've all done it. From a single step up to lift or alter the mood, to more complex modulations, if you can feel or hear a significant change in the song, it could be a key one
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There is a light …
With this week’s topic cycle straddling two months, let’s capture both in songs that may be autumnal, seasonal, celebratory or mournful, during a time of year of change, activity and a strange red-tinged beauty
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Welcome to the bar. What else is happening here besides whisky …?
Jazz scat to beatboxing, Appalachian eefing to Scottish Puirt à beul, Indian bol and Blackfoot songs to Tuvan throat-singing, this week we go beyond language to explore the intricacy of the voice as a non-lexical instrument
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Smokin' Sabrinatini
Let’s distil down and mix: from brandy to gin, whisky, rum, absinthe, vodka, rum, baijiu, tequila, pisco, mezcal and more, and all the exotic, strong, elegant and sexy combinations are on offer in this week’s lyrical topic
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Cabinet meeting? Alice, Hatter, Dormouse, but who is that guy with the floppy ears? Read to find out more …
The table is set for tea, except not all is quite as it seems … guest playlister EnglishOutlaw explores the topsy-turvy, inside out and upside through a fictional Lewis Carroll universe, in lyrics and music, inspired by last week’s topic
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Shadow play. Where? On the square
This week we enter the world of the topsy-turvy and the back-to-front, all reflected in song lyrics, literally or metaphorically, here with a perspective on other work, from reversed or mirror images to the distorted or refracted
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