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Where would stars be without the dark…?
It’s a vast spectrum of a topic that occupies half of Earth’s rotation, filled with emotions, stories, assocations, and styles. With the recent death of one famous rock figure, what other forms of darkness come to mind in song?
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Cultured vultures: The Jungle Book brings about surprise levels of support via the medium of song
This Bar creates them too, but what about songs in playlists? From assorted human and animal encounters, generational pals to cultural social crossovers, guest Loud Atlas brings them all together in wonderful entertainment inspired by last week’s topic
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A commemorative model of Apollo-Soyuz on 17th July 1975
To commemorate the Apollo-Soyuz space link up, exactly 50 years ago today, on 17th July 1975, let’s celebrate strange, unusual bonds of friendship in song lyrics and shake hands with the unexpected …
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Neil Young, playing at Live Aid in 1985, also features on this week’s playlist
Inspired by last week’s topic about the 40th anniversary of Live Aid and song nominations, guest of the week tincanman reflects on the outcomes, Bob Geldof, and some songs that made it against the odds
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A world united? Live Aid, 13th July 1985
It will be 40 years ago this weekend. An extraordinary event and background story, and a global sense of positivity, but what did all mean then, and now? To mark the anniversary, let’s celebrate and reflect with this theme
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Bird’s eye view? Ever seen … Immortel Ad Vitam
Tricks of mind and memory to recurring lifestyle loops, our senses are sometimes working overtime, and guest Sidecar Shiv makes superb sense of it all with playlists picked from last week’s topic nominations
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James Stewart is one of several hanging out at the Bar this week …
Mixing memory and desire, situations, faces, sounds and experiences, it’s a common psychological experience of misplaced memory. But how is it expressed in song, and what others induce that feeling?
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From the 1959 film Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro), a key year for bossa nova …
It’s time to source and serve out this charming, cool Brazilian rhythmic genre that began in the 1950s, whether it’s songs by the original artists, with different twists and mixes, as well as in many later songs it has flavoured
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Simmering power? That’s Cat Power
Renewed, re-imagined, whether by the same artist or covered by another, with a stripped back, unplugged sound, a song can be opened up anew in emotions and lyrics. Guest Loud Atlas artfully explores the magic of the acoustic, inspired by last week’s topic
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Time to grab a different instrument …
Revamped and newly performed by the original artists or as covers by others, the unplugged, undistorted and stripped back acoustic version can bring new feeling, meaning, audible lyrics and sometimes a sense of a whole new song
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Unchained vocals: Big Mama Thornton
Shackled or bound by love’s emotions, our DNA or the constraints of body or mind in and out of slavery or imprisonment, guest of the week MussoliniHeadkick finds all the right links to pull listeners in
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Grow the chain …
Everything’s linked, but this week we get more specific, literally or in metaphor on these metal or other material sets of serial bindings, all they pulling, confining, binding or joining, on any scale …
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Counting down…
It’s in the eyes, but also now in the ears. From the spellbinding to the entrancing, the auto suggestive to the regressive, it’s time to subliminally enter the super spiral – this week’s countdown is by VikingChild, who will mesmerise you with playlists inspired by last week’s topic
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Playing along? A hypnosis entertainment poster from 1900
From medical, curative, psychological and mystical to magical, illusionary entertainment hypnotists and subliminal suggestibility, this week it’s time to go under and come back with song on the mesmerisers, mesmeric and mesmerised
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Hit it …
It’s the heartbeat of so much music, but what about songs that lyrically pay tribute to the striking of these instruments? Inspired by last week’s topic, Uncleben’s resulting playlists and writeup are nothing short of top whack!
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Doubly great: John "Jabo" Starks and Clyde Stubblefield
Hit it! It’s a lyrical topic, where perhaps the singer might address, direct, encourage, or praise the band's drummer, any real or fictional player, or the beat, rhythm or instruments themselves
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Ibeyi: French-Cuban twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz
They cover a wide variety from identical, fraternal, or conjoined, but also doppelgangers, lookalikes, and twin objects. Marco den Ouden gets at the double with covering many aspects inspired by last week’s topic
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Double trouble: The Grady twins from The Shining (1980)
Especially when identical they almost always mesmerising, but even if not, and different genders, twins say a lot about human nature. They, as well as doppelgängers, and other sorts of pairing mirror a fascinating subject …
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Prickly points: the absurdity of the war shown in this striking image of Vietnamese women and children prisoners
Songs of protest, despair, grief and more, from western and Vietnamese artists, set during and in the aftermath of this lengthy, catastrophic war, poignantly brought to you by guest Loud Atlas from last week’s topic nominations
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Vietnam in ‘65
It’s 50 years since this devastating conflict ended, yet its consequences and lessons remain largely unlearned. But it also coincided with, and help inspire, a wealth of music. Here is some background …
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