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The classic poisoner’s choice …
Natural or handmade, animal or chemical, fast or slow, murderous or accidental, we inhabit a world of toxins and venoms, but how are they expressed in song? With inspiration here, the more specific and colourful the better but there’s also the mental and metaphorical …
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Freud’s famous paper was published exactly a century ago
It’s time to wrestle with the conflicts and complexities of the conscious and sub-conscious mind captured in song lyrics. From that famous paper published by Freud a century ago, there’s also inspiration here in film, literature, comedy, musicians and more …
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What goes around …
The end has to come, but how, in an outro or coda, does a song or piece offer something different, original, unusual or memorable, musically or even lyrical form, a twist, a mood change, upbeat, downbeat or even a sense of unresolved mystery?
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Shadowplay: from the video for Come, by French singer-songwriter Jain
Visual, auditory, via media, rumour, or any other distortion of perceptions, from personal experience to the political, this week we search for songs about the interplay of the senses and idea of illusions as a primary focus
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The monarch butterfly: a profound life cycle, and ‘a rainbow of chaos’
It’s a big question. But how might it be answered in song lyrics? Not merely through broad definition or metaphor, but also through philosophy, practical advice or experience. See many inspirational ideas here, but it’s also time to let your answers take flight …
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Musical minerals?
Music is indisputably good for you, but how is this expressed in song, for improvement of mood, brain and body? Firstly this might come up lyrics, but also this topic can get more subjective and more impressionist with songs that really hit the spot
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Eyewear icons: Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly
They correct or protect our vision, but can also change our appearance. But what do they signify and what happens to the wearer? Form distance to reading glasses, sunglasses to goggles to monocles, it's time to see how they look in lyrics
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Evel Knievel attempts to jump 13 buses in London, 1975. What could possibly go wrong?
Love, death, survival, creativity – at times they all seem impossible or insurmountable. After a seemingly inconceivable recent world history, it’s time to play with the idea of impossible in song, and work out what really is from what isn’t. Is it all down to perception?
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It’s a wrap: Claude Rains as the HG Wells’ Invisible Man in 1933
What’s hiding in plain sight, or completely obscured? From deceptive lovers to undercover governments, hidden worlds or he pleasure of anonymity, this week we find the power of invisibility to help fill in the musical blanks
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From 1920s speakeasy …
Even in the face of despair, it’s something in our DNA, focusing on the unknown immediate or distant future, where there's a feeling, a desire, a belief, or confidence that something good might happen that can be expressed in all sorts of lyrics and stories
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Forever falling upwards down MC Escher’s stairs
How to we capture or express it? Through love, art, death, heaven, hell or other forms? Particularly song. This week’s largely lyrical topic ponders on the forever, the permanent, the endless and goes to infinity and beyond …
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This week it’s half full
From formal politeness and etiquette to the deeply unexpressed and private, it’s time to find all forms of thankfulness in song form, covering a range of subject matter, from the self to others, simplicity in nature to wider society
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White nothing? Not quite
This week, with a host of guests to inspire, it’s songs all about nowt, nought, the big nada, zilch, and by association, no one, nobody, but of course in whatever context, there's always someone, a something, a story, a feeling behind it
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Stretch out in the spirit of the 80s
This could be a fine body of work. Everything from stiffness to full fluidity of exercise – bending, flexing, twisting, stretching, it’s time limber up and pick up on songs that capture corporeal movement in any context
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Something to reflect on …
Lens me your ears! This week we take more than a passing glance at eyes in song lyrics, whether as metaphor, as objects of beauty, as windows to the soul, and especially in the mystery of how what they see differs from how they are seen
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Koko and friend
Soothing words, a light touch; holding baby, stroking an animal; lifting a fragile glass a measured, restrained response to tense moments, rage or violence; the soft caress of a light breeze across the eyelids, let’s gently let it out in song
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Captain Beefheart. Not exactly a shrinking wallflower in the obstinacy stakes
Stupid or inspired? Annoying obstinacy, obduracy, inflexibility and bullheadedness, or admirable persistence, pertinacity, tenacity and indomitability? It can go both ways, but how might it shape up in song lyrics?
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It’s dragon on a bit. But how will it end? Gratuitous picture that has nothing to do with music
Sex, love relationships, work, politics, and war, appearances all play apart in the game of life, and this week with a huge cast of talent coming to visit the Bar, we discuss and explore the art and topic of false or true in song lyrics
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Ernest Hemingway wrote, on his final day: ‘The sun also sets’
It’s an important, topical theme, and has fuelled many songs, but has addressing it also saved lives? This week, from reasons to method, even with some dark humour, through music and more, we examine at this very serious issue
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Yoda. Seeing the lighter side
This week we’re not being clever,, simply seeking wisdom in individual lyrics or across a whole song. From philosophers to musicians to authors, how is is it gained, through humility, experience, courage, or a just turn of phrase?
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