I’m in full swing writing tonight and felt the need for some happy groovy beats. So tonight I’ll share Max The Disco Strut by Seaward & Thunberg with guest performer Maximillian Alduca. An instrumental disco funk tune that puts a smile on my lips.
…a monster groove combined with S&T’s haunting strings, analogue synth stabs and unquestionable swagger or as the Haçienda’s Jon Dasilva said, “Jacked up Starsky and Hutch vibes with a twist!”
I’ve been struggling all day with writing a song. Keeping every line between five to eight syllables long. So this poem came to mind for tonight’s Wandering the Archives Wednesday.
The Return Of The Giant Hogweed by Genesis
Written for Kim’s prompt at dVerse ~ Poetics: Sylvia and Ted. Where we’re asked to write about growing, multiplying, invasive species. As well as try to emulate style of one of the poets.
I decided upon the challenge to keep my line short, with five syllables in each like Sylvia Plath’s Mushroom. It took some editing, but eventually I got there. But boy, do my inner saboteurs have a field day every time I decide to say I actually can do something that connects with writing. Just as they did when I decided to make a new translation of one of Edith Södergran’s poems. Even though I actually have paid bills working as a freelance translator.
As yesterday’s Haibun challenge showed me how much harder I have with counting syllables in English than my native Swedish. This time I put most words trough a syllable counter I found online.
Wikipedia informed me that this weed too have at least one song to it’s honor.
Can upbeat happy songs convey feelings of depression. Sure it can!
Tonight’s Saturday song is one such example. Released less than two weeks ago Falling Apart by Pegboard Nerds, Stonebank & EMEL is a happy bounce around trance anthem that I would love to dance wildly to while forgetting all my troubles!
If you can’t laugh at the darkness it will swallow you whole.
Enjoy!
Falling Apart Lyrics
Watch my life pass me by Never knowing where I belong In the web of love and lies As you string me along and
I can’t breathe, I can’t see I’m losing sight of everything I feel the walls closing in, closing in Am I falling apart?
Oh I just wanna be free I just wanna be free I think I’m falling apart Oh I just wanna be free, free, free I’m falling apart I’m falling apart I’m falling apart I’m falling apart
I can’t breathe, I can’t see I’m losing sight of everything I feel the walls closing in, closing in
This week’s song choice was inspired by a Google doodle this week. Wednesday the 8th was the birthday of the late Avicii (Tim Bergling). He would have been thirty-two this year. In hindsight it’s easy to think that many of his songs are about his struggles with mental health. And they probably are to some extent. Such problems usually seep out in any work done by a creative person whether it’s intentional or not. When I read through my own writing the pain and suffering shines clear and bright even when I had no intentions to share it. Just last week someone asked how I was after reading something from this summer. And the answer is it’s neither better nor worse. But it made me think again about how much it shows in what I write. And that before I have written it all out of my system I won’t get past it to write something else. Or maybe my characters will always carry a hint of pain and sorrow. Who knows?
The song featured in the doodle is Wake me up! which was a megahit and therefore both loved and hated. I like the lyrics written and sung by Aloe Blacc(you’ll find his acoustic version below) and for someone like me it’s hard not to connect to the video’s story of searching for and finding that place where you belong.
Whatever you think of it. And whether or not you find any hope in the lyrics, I hope you feel like you belong and that you are loved and cherished!
Feeling my way through the darkness Guided by a beating heart I can’t tell where the journey will end But I know where to start They tell me I’m too young to understand They say I’m caught up in a dream Well life will pass me by if I don’t open up my eyes Well that’s fine by me
So wake me up when it’s all over When I’m wiser and I’m older All this time I was finding myself, and I Didn’t know I was lost
So wake me up when it’s all over When I’m wiser and I’m older All this time I was finding myself, and I Didn’t know I was lost I tried carrying the weight of the world But I only have two hands Hope I get the chance to travel the world But I don’t have any plans Wish that I could stay forever this young Not afraid to close my eyes Life’s a game made for everyone And love is a prize
So wake me up when it’s all over When I’m wiser and I’m older All this time I was finding myself, and I Didn’t know I was lost
So wake me up when it’s all over When I’m wiser and I’m older All this time I was finding myself, and I I didn’t know I was lost
I didn’t know I was lost I didn’t know I was lost I didn’t know I was lost I didn’t know
Tonight’s Saturday Song is one of the songs released this week by ABBA, I Still Have Faith in You. It’s their first new release in 40 years. When I was really young, ABBA’s music was more my mothers than mine. But as I grew, and sang a lot both in choirs and as a soloist, their music grew on me.
They were so hugely influential that it’s hard to quantify. Their music is still played in clubs, even if it’s house music remixes. And they were the trailblazers in what became known as “the Swedish music miracle”, a description generally used of the successful music export from Sweden, since the 1970s (eg. ABBA, Roxette, Ace of Base, Max Martin, etc.).
This new song has an old time feel I really like. It’s a sweet and beautiful ballad with lyrics that feels both personal and universal (you can read the lyrics below). It’s easy to sing along to. All in all it feels like a good song to start the ABBA Voyage as their upcoming album and concert is called.
And I’ll readily admit I got shivers the first few times I’d listen to it.
Now let’s hope at least one of the songs on the new album is an old time disco hit that you can’t sit still while hearing.
Enjoy!
I Still Have Faith in You Lyrics
I still have faith in you I see it now Through all these years that faith lives on, somehow There was a union Of heart and mind The likes of which are rare and oh-so hard to find
Do I have it in me? I believe it is in there For I know I hear a bittersweet song In the memories we share
I still have faith in you And I will say I never really thought I’d feel this way But I remind myself Of who we are How inconceivable it is to reach this far
Do I have it in me? I believе it is in there For I know I hear a bittеrsweet song In the memories we share
We do have it in us New spirit has arrived The joy and the sorrow We have a story And it survived And we need one another Like fighters in a ring We’re in this together Passion and courage Is everything
I still have faith in you It stands above the crazy things we did It all comes down to love
Do I have it in me? I believe it is in there For I know I hear a bittersweet song In the memories we share Do I have it in me?
We do have it in us New spirit has arrived The joy and the sorrow We have a story And it survived And we know that we need one another Like fighters in a ring We’re in this together Passion and courage Is everything
(I still have faith in you) And we still have it in us We’ve only just arrived (Do I have it in me?) We stand on a summit Humble and grateful To have survived
I still have faith in you It stands above the crazy things we did It all comes down to love Do I have it in me?
As I wrote my daily Haibun Monday, I began thinking of songs about Monday Blues. Searching around a bit I found an artist I never heard of before, with a really good song about struggling with the blues, and hope of overcoming it. So here’s tonight’s Saturday Song: Eric Sharp – Monday Blues feat Zhao. It felt really very relatable. I couldn’t find the lyrics online, so in the end I decided to transcribe them myself since I feel they deliver an important message of hope and friendship.
“Monday Blues is a personal piece that comes from a place of empathy and compassion. It was written during a time when someone very close to me was unearthing deep-seated psychic pain in a healing process from their past. The verses are imbued with struggle and heaviness, while the chorus inspires hope, and faith in the ability move beyond our hurts together. Everyone has challenges in life, and we are never alone in our feelings. There is no wound too deep to be made whole, and I hope this song reminds people of that.’
Monday blues trying to get you down Let’s not talk about, ever wanna talk about Everybody gonna let you down Let’s not talk about, ever wanna talk about You say that you don’t need love Let’s not talk about, ever wanna talk about I was over to you had enough Let’s not talk about, ever wanna talk about
We’re gonna find our way out of the hole we dug Make back what we lost Times when we gave up We never compromise until we’re satisfied Through this troubled times I’ll be by your side
Wide awake in the dead of night Let’s not talk about, ever wanna talk about Fear chasing me through my mind Let’s not talk about, ever wanna talk about Hurry up it’s gonna be to late Let’s not talk about, ever wanna talk about It not enough just to be okey Let’s not talk about, ever wanna talk about
Let’s not talk about, ever wanna talk about
We’re gonna find our way out of the hole we dug Make back what we lost Times when we gave up We never compromise until we’re satisfied Through this troubled times I’ll be by your side
We’re gonna
We’re gonna find our way out of the hole we dug Make back what we lost Times when we gave up We never compromise until we’re satisfied Through this troubled times I’ll be by your side
We’re gonna find our way out of the hole we dug Make back what we lost Times when we gave up We never compromise until we’re satisfied Through this troubled times I’ll be by your side
Lyrics to Eric Sharp – Monday Blues feat Zhao (Transcribed by RedCat from the extended mix, any errors are mine.)
Life Is An Experiment by New Age Doom & Lee “Scratch” Perry
Tonight I wanted some new music. Something I hadn’t heard before. So I went looking in the release radar list on Spotify and found this little gem. Life Is An Experiment by New Age Doom, and the legendary Lee “Scratch” Perry. It has a new-old psychedelic sound. Blending drone, jazz, stoner rock, noise and dub. The single came out just a couple of days ago, on August 10th. The album, titled “Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Guide To The Universe”, is set to be released this November via We Are Busy Bodies.
The lyrics begin with:
Be faithful Be pure Be clean Listen to your dreams
From Life Is An Experiment by New Age Doom & Lee “Scratch” Perry
Enjoy!
Life Is An Experiment by New Age Doom & Lee “Scratch” Perry
I pause by the stand of ancient trees Breathing shallow, beset by old nightmares Inner demons that won’t let me be Harmful self-thoughts that long had me ensnared Breathing deep among trees, sets my mind free I’m still standing, whatever was done to me
When I read tonight’s prompt at dVerse, a song directly popped up in my mind and I knew I had to incorporate it somehow.
I’m still standing – Lyrics
You could never know what it’s like Your blood like winter freezes just like ice And there’s a cold lonely light that shines from you You’ll wind up like the wreck you hide behind that mask you use
And did you think this fool could never win? Well look at me, I’m coming back again I got a taste of love in a simple way And if you need to know while I’m still standing, you just fade away
Don’t you know I’m still standing better than I ever did Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid I’m still standing after all this time Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind
I’m still standing (Yeah, yeah, yeah) I’m still standing (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
Once I never could have hoped to win You’re starting down the road leaving me again The threats you made were meant to cut me down And if our love was just a circus, you’d be a clown by now
You know I’m still standing better than I ever did Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid I’m still standing after all this time Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind
I’m still standing (Yeah, yeah, yeah) I’m still standing (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
Don’t you know that I’m still standing better than I ever did Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid I’m still standing after all this time Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind
I’m still standing (Yeah, yeah, yeah) I’m still standing (Yeah, yeah, yeah) I’m still standing (Yeah, yeah, yeah) I’m still standing (Yeah, yeah, yeah) I’m still standing (Yeah, yeah, yeah) I’m still standing (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
The world according to RedCat 
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