Your Custom Text Here
Onwards!
They express the joys, hopes, triumphs and tragedies of the human race coming together, – mixed emotions, war to civil rights, weddings to funerals, religious and sports to military might to floral festivals. But where do they come up in song?
Read more
Who will get a pickup this week?
Breakdowns to what’s around the bend, picking up from last week’s topic’s many passengers, our guest driver takeitawayGuru takes us on a fabulous rockin’ rollin’ journey with his pick of songs that really catch a musical ride
Read more
Where to?
It’s time to give us all a lift, not only emotionally, but as Song Bar bus sets off on a road trip, picking up all sorts of musicians and other artists, in a quest to find for stories about hitching experiences – good, bad, scary or heartwarming
Read more
Any leads?
Possessions, pets, family members, or even personal identity, this week the musical mission is all about the missing, but also hopefully, with a story arc that also leads to rediscovery, finding more than what you were searching for
Read more
Fiddling for arachnophobes
How do songwriters face their arachnophobia? Spotting behavioural trends expressed through musical and lyrics, and weaving a beautiful and witty web, this week’s guest swawilg creates playlists from last week’s thread of song suggestions
Read more
What orange-ments are playing out this week?
Fresh, funky, bright and effervescent, spreading from Jamaica to India, France and America and all the way to Japan, this week’s guest playlister Hoshino Sakura captures the essence of this colour in all forms, sky to fruit to street
Read more
Orangutan. Of course
From animals to objects, plants to birds, and all of its cultural associations, the meeting of red and yellow, symbol of change, joy, entertainment and also warning, this week let’s explore songs are about anything clearly of this colour
Read more
Concrete evidence …
Cats, rats or bats, peregrine falcons to parakeets, foxes and rabbits, bears or boars, and a whole host of other creatures, as well as plants and urban sunsets, this week let’s explore how nature exists in the city as shown in song
Read more
Roy would …
This week’s topic takes a particular accent towards music inspired by the great British West Midlands city and its surrounding area, a rich cultural mix of ethnicities and styles, industrial history, upheaval and humour
Read more
Bright sparks ArcAttack make the Tesla connection
Capacitance, or resistance? This week on the circuit it’s time for bright sparks to plug in and make lyrical connections with songs that refer to electricity in all literal or metaphorical forms, from famous inventors to natural forces
Read more
Over the moon with Smashing Pumpkins
What a production! Cartoons to big-screen movie references, emotional stories, quirky comedies and extraordinary dancing, from a massive choice, this week’s guest Marco den Ouden chooses two perfectly eye-popping playlists
Read more
What will be your weapon of choice this week?
Music and film are often intertwined commercially, but where does a video become an artform to the level that the visual elements enhance, complement and become symbiotic with the song? Let the action commence …
Read more
Dare to be different. Mitski
Embarking on adventures into the avant-garde, hip-hop, jazz and more, crossing continents and skimming multiple styles from waves of nominations, this week’s guest Nilpferd creates playlists enduringly indefinable
Read more
Genres? What are they?
This week let’s push the envelope and dig out often lesser known artists and works that wriggle away from definition, those who or mix sub-genres and styles with such originality it’s hard to place them. But can you still define them?
Read more
Join us … the joint is jumpin’
… as well as knuckles, ankles, shoulders and any other key bendy and swivelling bits of the body, human or otherwise. It's all about making connections, and freedom of movement …
Read more
The striking ex-Welsh miner Adrian Street. But what song has he wrestled into total submission?
Worst week ever? Just how low can we go? This week’s counterintuitive topic brought hundreds of highly entertaining gems, out of which the wonderfully mischievous guest playlister Olive Butler created two terrifically torturous lists
Read more
Do your wurst: What could go horribly right? The Producers (1967) starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel
The brilliantly bad to the awesomely atrocious, whether in sound or lyrics, this week it's time to stretch the realms of musical and lyrical taste into the outer regions, and boldly go where we've never been before
Read more
What comes around …
This week we seek to search out and reclaim meanings for the months of the year, largely through the Gregorian calendar of the big 12 from January to December, whether that be by mood, setting, or different associations
Read more
Faces in rock: Samples from Japan’s famous Rock Museum
Rock face? This week we explore lyrics that attribute human characteristics to objects, concepts, natural forces and many other non-human things. Enjoy a few famous, inspiring examples in songs, poetry, literature and photography
Read more
Help! A knockout moment from Muhammed Ali and the Beatles in 1964
Every picture tells a story, but this time let’s do it with songs inspired by, or about photographs or photography, and to help inspire here’s a selection of rare and usual shots to provoke memory, imagination, mystery and wonder
Read more