Leonard Cohen - Dance Me to the End of Love

My eyes want to overflow, my mind is filled with your songs, my heart is heavy. But most of all, I'm grateful for all that your music, your songs and your poetry have added to my life ...

R - I - P

Dance Me to the End of Love
Leonard Cohen

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Bruce Springsteen - Youngstown

Going through the online news today I ran into an article starting with the sentence "The people of Youngstown are fed up." Immediately, my mind went to playing Bruce Springsteen's 'Youngstown'. From the first time I heard the song it spoke to me ~ perhaps because I grew up in a coal-mining, steel-milling town, perhaps because the haunting lyrics and melody wormed their way into my mind, or perhaps because Bruce Springsteen's voice of velvet, rust and gravel just brings a lot of memories to life ... Whatever the reason, I'm sure the song will be playing on my mind for a while again ...

From the Monongaleh valley
To the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalacchia
The story's always the same

Youngstown
Bruce Springsteen

Here in north east Ohio
Back in eighteen-o-three
James and Danny Heaton
Found the ore that was linin' yellow creek

Andra Day - Rise Up

Andra Day's voice is simply marvelous, the song 'Rise Up' inspired ~ it doesn't matter what you may get out of the lyrics -or what you may read into them- I doubt anybody can remain untouched by this song ...

Rise Up
Andra Day

You're broken down and tired
Of living life on a merry go round
And you can't find the fighter

Zager & Evans - In The Year 2525

I have a distinct love/hate relationship to a large part of the music of the 60ies: It draws me in to listen but the more I listen to it the more I tend to ponder the fact that nothing really has changed since. Take "In The Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)" by Zager and Evans for example: the song bemoans how humanity becomes more and more dependent on technologies. That was in 1968. Almost 50 years ago. And still, humanity becomes more and more dependent on technologies ...

But through eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday ~

In The Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)
Zager and Evans

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find

Daniel Paterok - Boogie Woogie & Blues (piano solo) #1

From the YouTube files of Daniel Paterok (more here and here):

"Hi there! This is a Boogie Woogie tune I wrote inspired by the arts of the great Boogie Woogie player Axel Zwingenberger. I hope you'll enjoy it."

Pure joy to listen to ~

Pentangle - Lord Franklin

There are many times where music compelled me to investigate further into topics, history, or places. In rare cases, however, something I read led me to the music. Such was the case of Lord Franklin and his search of the Northwest Passage which I first encountered in Sten Nadolny's novel 'The Discovery of Slowness' (original German title: Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit). The recent rediscovery of the HMS Terror has reminded me of the ballad 'Lord Franklin' aka 'Lady Franklin's Lament' which recalls the loss of the expedition ...

Lord Franklin
Pentangle, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn

It was homeward bound one night on the deep
Swinging in my hammock I fell asleep
I dreamed a dream and I thought it true
Concerning Franklin and his gallant crew

Tracy Chapman - Mountains O' Things

I love listening to Tracy Chapman's songs, the intensity of her presentation and the rawness of her voice. And not to forget the lyrics which are worth to listen to carefully. Mountains o' Things was included in her debut album which was released more than 25 years ago ... and in all that time I've not grown tired of listening to it ~

Mountains o’ Things
Tracy Chapman

The life I've always wanted
I guess I'll never have
I'll be working for somebody else
Until I'm in my grave
I'll be dreaming of a live of ease
And mountains Oh mountains o' things