Life is Real (Song For Lennon)

While they certainly have gotten plenty of attention over the years, I can't express enough how highly underrated I feel the band Queen is.

Today's song comes from their 1982 album "Hot Space."   Penned by Freddie Mercury, the song is called "Life is Real" and is dedicated to John Lennon, who was murdered on December 8th 1980.  

This is going to be totally lazy of me, but here's what Wikipedia has to say about the song:

Mercury wrote "Life Is Real" as a tribute to John Lennon, whose murder in 1980 had also previously prompted the band to perform his song "Imagine" on tour. Like Lennon's songs, "Life Is Real" features a sparse piano-based arrangement and a melancholy tone. It is also one of the few Mercury songs whose lyrics were written before the music ("Killer Queen" being another). The title may be a reference to the lyric 'love is real', from Lennon's 1970 song "Love", or the line 'nothing is real', from The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever". It begins with three bell-like piano notes, meant to recall the opening bells in Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over", and "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)". Also, the first two words, 'Guilt stains...' are virtually identical interval-wise (though in a different key) to Lennon's first two notes in his song, "Mother".

Who knows if all this jazz ^ was coincidental or intentional in Mercury's songwriting.  

Anyways, here's the song:

Did you like that?  I hope so.  

Fun fact, I caught a rare Pokemon and named him Lennon.  It's a ditto and apparently is super rare.  

Hugs.  

The Secret of Mana Soundtrack: Into the Thick of It

This morning I got a rude awakening from this adorable kid-

"Dad!  Come play 'Secret of Mana' with me!"

Like the grouchy old guy that I am, I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.  But this melody from this 1993 classic Super Nintendo game weaseled its way into my head.

Thank you internet, for informing me that this song is called "Into the Thick of It"

Did you ever play this game?  It's super fun.  Highly recommend.

Hope you enjoyed today's Earworm and maybe trip down memory lane.  

Tha Crossroads

This is a song I've had stuck in my head for year in spite of limited listens.  R&B/Rap/Hip Hop super-group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony emerged in the early 90's after having been discovered by Eazy-E.  After his untimely death, they wrote and dedicated this song (which was a worldwide hit in 1996.)

Here's "Tha Crossroads" which I'll never forget watching on M-TV waaaay too many times.  I'll never forget this strange (to me) song, it's unforgettable music video and waaaaaaay too many 16th notes in the melody (rap?)  

Nothing makes me feel more white than having to blog about this song.  Here it is yo.

If I weren't now half-assed in my blogging efforts, I would elaborate more, but alas, this is all you'll hear from me.  I hope this post made you laugh, cry and go "hmmm"

BRADY

A Little Respect

Erasure! 

Here's the 1988 hit "A Little Respect"

Good times, good times indeed. 

Last week's post should hopefully be up soon too. 

LOVE YOU ALL!