Six Songs to Write By

 

Today I am appearing on the radio. (Can one appear on the radio?) Well, my dulcet tones shall be waxing lyrical about six songs that have meant something to my writing.

That was a hard decision to make….but I finally came down to seven and I’ve left the chappie to make the decision as to which Scottish one he fancies – but is my Scottish choice Scottish? It was written by a two Germans.

As today is National Unicorn (Scotland’s national animal ) they have announced that the Dire Haggis has been brought back from extinction. They started with the Dire Wolf and then tackled something difficult.

The Dire Haggis, as seen in Outlander, is an animal not to be trifled with.

The original DNA is from this kind of haggis, lowland, wild and weird.

This is the very old dog who was not helping me with my music choices at all. She wanted How Much Is That Doggy In The Window. I suggested Old Shep. The dog is not speaking to me. But she ain't nothing but a Hound Dog.

My first choice was "Slipping Through My Fingers" by ABBA, just for the lyric that says – "what happened to the wonderful adventures, the places we had planned for us to go. Some of them we did, but most we didn’t, and why I just don’t know."  The song is about the fleeting nature of childhood and parenthood, the sense of time passing unnoticed. On a wider sense it’s really about life. Do it while you can, because there might not be another chance, as the years pass, and frailty takes hold.

"I'm Not Scared" by Pet Shop Boys. Anybody recall this as song by Eighth Wonder in 1988? Anybody recall Eighth Wonder? Anybody recall Patsy Kensit?  Well the PSB later re recorded it with bits of the French National Anthem, huge orchestral layers, a multi harmonised chorus, the kitchen sink and all.  Overall, it has the same resonance as The Police and I’ll Be Watching You. It sounds lovely on the first hearing but gets more intimidating and creepy when you really listen. I imagine the Second Mrs De Winter humming it as she walked past the picture of Rebecca. Or should that be the other way round?

"Westering Home" by The Corries. A lovely song, just a song about longing to go home where there is ‘the laughter of love and a welcoming air’. Very nostalgic and a very obsessive earworm.  The song is about going back to Isle of Islay, but any island will do, or Scotland as a whole, or anywhere to call home. I believe it’s very popular in Canada. Unlike some people. (corries westerning home - Search)

"Sat in Your Lap" by Kate Bush. I love Kate Bush, so talented and eccentric. She just doesn’t care what anybody thinks, it’s about the art. The song Sat in Your Lap is about the opposite of the Dunning Kruger effect.  The song says the more you know, the more you need to know because you are aware of what you don’t know. ‘The goal says look I’m over here, then it disappears.’  The writer’s version is escaping down the rabbit hole of the internet, supposedly doing research but then seeing the best way to get the amaryllis to reflower and before you know it, you are redesigning a garden with an app you never knew you wanted for a garden that you do not have.

My second choice was "Help!" by The Beatles. I think Lennon wrote it as he was struggling with his personal insecurities, and fame. It’s a strange combination of a cheery wee beat that pops along, then those lyrics that many other artists have covered, slowing it right down. It was released in 1965, just as Beatlemania was getting started, and I think 4 wee lads from Liverpool were a bit stunned, and anxious about it.

"Highland Cathedral" was my other Scottish choice, although written by two German musicians Ulrich Roever and Michael Korb. It a much-loved song, was played at Alan’s mum’s funeral by Alan’s brother on the bagpipes.  As usual, there’s a deep sense of longing for Scotland, all about homecoming and love of being here. Some have suggested it should be the national anthem for an independent Scotland but as it  has a funereal  vibe to it, we'd get lapped in the opening ceremony of the Olympics as Billy Connolly

would say.

                                   

Another song I have picked is Prisencolinensinainciusol by Adriano Celentano which I blogged about before. That’s the gibberish lyric song that sounds like  English spoken with an American accent. The composer wanted to explore how language feels incomprehensible to non-native speakers, or to my mind, how something can sound like a language when it’s not. Running through the Brazilian football (soccer) team of 1970 with a certain intonation, does sound like speaking fluent Portuguese. The song is being used for two adverts at the moment in the uk, one for a holiday company and one for a beer. I’m sure he doesn’t need it, but Celentano probably wrote his pension when he wrote this.