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Lounge lizard
We live much of our waking lives in them – working and socialising, swivelling to dining to reclining, sofas and couches, ornate thrones to humble stools, beanbags, pouffes, to the office, barber’s, dentist’s and beyond, but how do they sit up in song?
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Game on: all kinds of music are on board …
Not video or cards, this week it’s the turn of games played on a tabletop with moveable pieces, anything from chess to Monopoly, playing out the patterns of human life and behaviour in microcosm. But how are they expressed in song lyrics?
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Hot-dog! Fingers ‘n’ everything …
This week, from a previous idea of nothing, we go to ‘everything’ not literally, but the idea of it, from big promises of love, all-encompassing importance, the the whole shebang, totality, the full caboodle, enchilada, the big ball of wax, all within the prism of song
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Warning: diversions expected ahead …
Prepare for the unexpected. This week in song, it’s all about moments of divergence, digression, and distraction, of interruption and intervention, leading to the unplanned, whether that be because of oneself, another person, events, or circumstances
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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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But … who’s the ace?
Queens, kings, aces and jacks, jokers and dealers, tricks and games, winners and loses, gambling, risk, and making the best of the hand you’re dealt, this week it’s time to shuffle the musical pack and see what’s in hand on this theme
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Norway’s popular Pulpit Rock or Preikestolen
Actual or metaphorical, from windows to riverbanks, doorways to cliffs, to mental or physical extreme places, this week let’s go to a variety of precipices, stare into the abyss, but also find astonishing new perspectives in song
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It’s like dancing about architecture
Used in literature and everyday speech, it’s the verbal tool that compares one contrasting thing to another, by using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’. But where do they come up in song lyrics, and where, ideally, are they effective and original?
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The sublime Stevie Wonder
It plays out like the voice, beautifully expresses emotion, can wail like a train and is popular across blues, rock, pop, jazz, classical and other genres. This week it's time to inhale deeply and get harmonious with the harmonica
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From the cover of The Slits' guitarist Viv Albertine's book Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys (2014)
Let me tell you a story … this week we're looking for songs that capture the narrative or arc of a person's life, about themselves or others, famous or unknown, whether that's in the first or third person
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Dinner at Jack Rabbit Slims. Care to dance?
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, elevenses, afternoon tea or midnight snacks? This week it's time to serve up a musical smorgasbord that's as much about the social setting and time of day as the food
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