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Confucius
After an surge of sagacity in song nominations from last week’s topic, our most astute guest playlister barbryn makes his picks, but can you match his memes to the musicians and their music? Every picture tells a story …
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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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He nose, but does she? Cyrano de Bergerac
Clandestine cravings and crushes? To spice up a romantic tradition, this week’s topic is all about secret love longings expressed through song, here inspired by real-life examples of musicians, alongside film, books and theatre
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King of swing: Django Rehinhardt
Jacques Dutronc to Jacqueline Taieb to Joni Mitchell, all the sights and sound of the great French city are captured in deux listes belles by our guru du semaine fantastique, swawilg. Take a stroll, stop at a café and enjoy …
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Café culture
Romance and glamour, café culture, perfume, protest, or grit and gangs? Paris means all things to all people, but if one thing unites these things, it is inspiration. This week the Bar Du Chanson, we try to capture its essence in song
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Put your deposits here …
Ruled by them or robbing them, debts and deposits to crises and economic crashes, this week it’s time to turn our musical attention to banks and bankers, and realise that aside from facts and figures, they are also all about people
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Barrrowland Ballroom, Glasgow
Glasgow to Chicago, London and Liverpool to Lisdoonvarna and all the way to Mali, inspired by many reader nominations around the globe, this week’s playlister pejepeine takes us on a tantalising tour of magical musical locations
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It’s just a stage I’m going through: Bregenz Music Festival in Austria
Bars, basements, intimate, sweaty or large or legendary, forests, festivals, stratospheric stadia, snug pubs to prisons, caves to operatic amphitheatres, let's musically celebrate venues and spaces mentioned by, or associated with songs
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Don’t do it, Father Dougal …
… and how can it all go right? This week let’s see if we can make musical manoeuvres in the current climate, causes and cures for crises, whether they be political social, economic or personal
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David Bowie and ‘family’ on the set of The Man Who Fell To Earth
Transcending distance and time, and sometimes in another dimension, space itself, this week we look to go the full distance to explore the trials and triumphs of enduring love, or otherwise, made or broken by absence
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Heartstrings are harder to repair that guitars …
From gaffer and duct tape, housing to mending a broken heart, let’s repair towards fantastic playlists created by the handy skills of our guest treefrogdemon, who was inspired by a full toolkit of suggestions from last week’s topic
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Global repair
From cars to people, mind and body, clocks or guitars, the world at large or little local difficulties, let’s start 2019 by fixing up and looking sharp with skills and toolkits on this topic
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Stop me if you’ve heard that one before …
Is there an echo in here? Those with sharp ears will enjoy some remarkable and fun comparisons as this week’s playlister Olive Butler perfectly picks out some of the soundalikes from a double topic over the festive period
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Superb lyrebird - sounds like everything else, but nothing sounds like it.
The topic over the Christmas holiday season is a form of convivial, parlour game in which pairs of songs can be nominated that share musical or other echoes - but which came first and where are the comparisons? You decide …
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Not so strange bedfellows: Eric and Ernie
The non-sexual, non-romantic sort is what makes up most of the love we experience in life, so whether that concerns real or fictional experiences, let’s define and explore it as expressed in song lyrics
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Guitar and singing legend Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Big flamboyant, expressive voices to call-and-response choirs, praise and looking for answers? This week we soul search into gospel’s musical styles infused into other genres, from soul to R&B, hip hop to rock, folk and indie
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Three-dog night
Triangles and holy trinities, this week let’s explore the musical dynamic within groups in which three artists perform as a self-contained unit, not merely pop, jazz, classical, or folk, but across all all genres
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Hot shot Lou Reed
Lou Reed to Tom Waits, Susanne Sundfør to Sandy Denny, inspired by a salvo of superb nominations, this week’s chief arms officer Suzi shoots out in all contexts to hit the target with two sharp-shooting playlists
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Wild West guitar wiz Wilko Johnson
Bang bang! This week it’s time to find your range, come out with all guns blazing with songs about bullets, guns, cannons, bows and arrows. Gun culture arguments and more, let’s shoot from the hip
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Towards armistice: some of the First World War determined
On the eve of the First World War Armistice centenary, this week we look at songs about striving through extremely difficult circumstances, whether in conflict or peacetime, extreme or daily situations
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