Len Horowitz - Tommy Cooper - Martin Luther - The Sopranos TV - Woody Guthrie - Wilfred Owen - William Cecil - Voltaire - James Maher - Charlotte Alington Barnard - Heinrich Heine - Plato - Johnny Cash - Tom Waits - Percy Bysshe Shelley - Bob Marley - John Keats - Lord Byron - Psalms 96:1 - Psalms 98:1 - Psalms 144:9 - Psalms 149:1 - Isaiah 42:10 - Psalms 149:1 - Britain’s Most Dangerous Songs & More Dangerous Songs TV - Thomas Kyd - William Shakespeare - Attenborough’s Wonder of Song TV -
The only solution that we have is choosing to sing a new song. You hold the choice of living a lethal lie resulting in a shallow and enslaved existence or celebrating the greater truth about the sacredness of your spirit, your genetics, your divine connection and your ability to uniquely contribute to humanity at this crucial time. It is time for a new song. Dr Len Horowitz
‘So I’d like to close now with a little song …’ Tommy Cooper, Prince Philip’s 60th birthday dinner
Who loves not woman, wine, and song
Remains a fool his whole life long. Martin Luther, attributed 1837
Egregious Saccharin fucking Italian ballads. The Sopranos s4e2: No Show starring James Gandolfini & Lorriane Bracco & Edie Falco & Michael Imperioli & Dominic Chianese & Steven van Zandt & Tony Sirico & Robert Iler et al, Meadow in therapy
I hate a song that makes you think you’re not any good, born to lose, bound to lose, no good to nobody. Woody Guthrie
Thou suck’st away the intoxicating air,
Trailing a wake of song in trilling bubbles. Wilfred Owen, The Swift, an Ode
What! All this for a song? William Cecil to Queen Elizabeth I when ordered to pay £100 to Spenser for poems
Anything too stupid to be said is sung. Voltaire
Song is the wind-chime of memory. James Maher, writer
I cannot sing the old songs
I sang long ago,
For heart and voice would fail me,
And foolish tears would flow. Charlotte Alington Barnard aka Claribel, 1840-69
On Wings of Song. Heinrich Heine, 1797-1856, title of song
Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet. Plato
You’ve got a song you’re singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you’ve got to make them think that you’re one of them sitting out there with them too. They’ve got to be able to relate to what you’re doing. Johnny Cash
Sometimes the magnetism of a song is impossible to ignore, and it demands that it be sung in a certain way. Tom Waits
We look before and after,
And pine for what is not;
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell
Of saddest thought. Percy Bysshe Shelley, To a Skylark
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter. John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, 1820
For ever piping songs for ever new. ibid.
Fools are my theme, let satire be my song. Lord Byron
O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Psalms 96:1
O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. Psalms 98:1
I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee. Psalms 144:9
Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. Psalms 149:1
Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Isaiah 42:10
Throughout the history of popular music there have been fears it could turn gullible young groovers into anarchic drug-crazed sexual deviants. Britain’s Most Dangerous Songs, BBC 2014
The story of banned records is the story of the rise of the teenager. ibid.
Written by singer Ray Davies, Lola is about a relationship between a man and a woman, who turns out to be a transvestite. More Dangerous Songs: And the Banned Played On, BBC 2014
The Sex Pistols’ debut single Anarchy in the UK was banned following their controversial appearance on the TV news programme Today. ibid.
My son – and what’s a song? A thing begot
Within a pair of minutes, thereabout,
A lump bred up in darkness. Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy, 1592
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song:
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid’s music. William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream II i 149
On a clear spring morning like this the dawn chorus is at its peak. There are surely few more enchanting natural soundscapes than this. But this avian choir does not sing for us. These are songs of seduction and weapons of war. Males are defending territory and attracting mates. Attenborough’s Wonder of Song ***** BBC 2022
Song 1: Mandagascan Indri lemur 1960s: Using my new equipment I made the first ever audio recording of the Indri … There are such things as battle-songs. ibid.
Song 2 United Kingdom Great Tit 1970s: We suspected that songs could be weapons of war, but it was the next recording that proved it … Female great tits do not sing. ibid.
Song 3 Germany Nightingale 2010s: A male singing for a mate … females do not sing … Up to 250 songs … Better singers are better fathers. ibid.
Song 4 Australia Superb Lyrebird 1930s: Amazes me every time I hear it … The talent a lyrebird has for mimicry … at least 20 different species … [and] incorporates other sounds he hears in the forest. ibid.
Song 5 Australia Superb Fairy-Wren 1980s: It’s extremely promiscuous … It’s not just the male that sings. ibid.
Song 6 Bermuda Humpback Whale 1960s: This was the first time that anyone had ever identified the sound of a whale. ibid.
Song 7 Hawaii Kauai O O: There are few songs more haunting that this … since been declared extinct. ibid.
How many more songs have been lost on other parts of the planet? ibid.