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They’re a very common part of our language, but in lyrics or titles where are they consciously and creatively used? With meaning instantly recognisable or more cryptically unpacked, their sound might perhaps be used musically or to help create memorable lines or rhymes
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Ladysmith Black Mambazo
From Africa to Jamaica, punk, to soul to jazz and church choirs, the act of prayer in song covers many styles and gods, and sometimes isn’t even about religion. Guest playlister Severin picks a heavenly selection from last week’s theme
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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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Hyde and seek: it wasn’t me, it was him …
Will with the conscious and subconscious play out? Inspired by the theories of Freud, but mostly by all the nominations from last week’s topic, guest picker Loud Atlas presents an engaging inner dialogue explaining his excellent choices
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Freud’s famous paper was published exactly a century ago
It’s time to wrestle with the conflicts and complexities of the conscious and sub-conscious mind captured in song lyrics. From that famous paper published by Freud a century ago, there’s also inspiration here in film, literature, comedy, musicians and more …
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Talking Heads - but what’s in the book?
Read all about it! Or in some cases, don’t believe a word. From books to letters to the media and more, guest of the week George Boyland picks out a classy selection from last week’s topic nominations. Browse and enjoy …
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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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It’s time to give those records a spin, but who will get round first?
It’s a competitive world out there, whether that’s in sports, business or looking for love. A stellar set of songs and nominators from last week’s topic, chosen by excellent referee Uncleben who waves the chequered flag, and they’re off …!
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Honest legacy? Park (bench) your musical heritage here …
How will you leave it, or be left? It’s a profound idea to think of how we’ll be remembered, or forgotten, as material, ethereal and emotional remains, or what others might leave to us. So let’s widen our musical legacy with some more song ideas on this topic …
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Peoples Temple leader Reverend Jim Jones in his classic shades at an anti-eviction rally in San Francisco in 1977 with Rev. Cecil Williams
From the divine to the ridiculous, they’ve accompanied others’ lives from birth to marriage and death, stand for moral guidance but sometimes go badly astray, but are fascinatingly charismatic, flawed and human. With inspiration here from real life to film and fiction, how are they captured in song?
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Late nights with a transcendent genius: Mark E Smith with Brix
Leading you down the garden path and beyond? Taking liberties with the facts? After a flurry of fabulous stories from last week’s topic, guest playlister ParaMhor narratives a host of colourful tale tales that can’t help but pull you in …
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Leaps of imagination …
Witty, mischievous absurdity, hairy hopelessness, irrelevant incidents, or audible anticlimax and a pointless punchline? It’s time to examine the art of tall storytelling in song. Enjoy some examples in comedy and literature here, but how will your suggestions end up?
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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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Deep and meaty?
This week’s topic is sensual rather than cerebral, and extremely subjective. It’s less a lyrical lookup, more seeking out music that makes you, at least metaphorically, vibrate, and even salivate. Please suggest examples and describe the accompanying feeling
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Can boredom and banality become such an art form that they become exciting, or snorefest into the stimulating? Picking from last week’s topic, guest playlister Olive Butler presents a magnificent selection of mundanity
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Orange beauty …
It’s a magical and at times surreal period at the end of day. Inspired by all the nominations from last week’s topic, guest playlister Shiv Sidecar picks a set of beautiful lists capturing a full spectrum of light, sounds, moods and genres. What a beauty.
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Hot-dog! Fingers ‘n’ everything …
This week, from a previous idea of nothing, we go to ‘everything’ not literally, but the idea of it, from big promises of love, all-encompassing importance, the the whole shebang, totality, the full caboodle, enchilada, the big ball of wax, all within the prism of song
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Got a gut feeling for what will come up in the latest lists?
Hungry to fill your musical belly with music? Need to digest, and relieve pain? After readers spilled their music guts in response to last week’s topic, guest song doctor Marco Den Ouden explores and prescribes a full menu of tasteful and entertaining ingredients
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Belly up? Billie Eilish contemplates some big ones in her video for Bad Guy
It’s our second ‘brain’ a part of the body that rules us more than we think. Whether in literal or metaphorical lyrics, it’s time to pull in or push out, in the form of song suggestions. Inspired by gut feelings, intestines, belly buttons and cultural and scientific inspiration here …
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From Salvador Dalí’s The Seven Lively Arts: The Art of the Concert
Trip up, or down? Hallucinogens, amphetamines, barbiturates and more, it’s time to feel stimulated and inspired by a big creative subject in the world of music, with songs about and expressing the ups and downs and experience of taking illicit, recreational drugs
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