Hi guys! ๐
Today I’m just sharing a bit of a random song with you that I came across some months ago when looking for more music featuring harp that I could add to my Bibiel’s Playlist For Sleep on Spotify, and this was one of the songs that ended up catching my attention. It has a bit of a modern Celtic feel, while I generally prefer the more traditional and folklore-infused things, but it’s still really pleasant to listen to and I think many of you may enjoy it.
Hey people! ๐
I thought that today I’d share with you this lyrical piece by Cornelis Vreeswijk. I like it a lot because, well, Cornelis being one of my faza subjects, I’ve been very interested in him as an individual, and this song tells us a whole lot about what his love life and relationships generally looked like. I once found a Swedish programme called “Cornelis Och Kรคrleken” (Cornelis and Love) where a few people analysed in quite an interesting way some of his lyrics that are about love and women – since a lot of his lyrics and poems talk about various women – and how they illustrated the way his relationships looked like. Having had lived a stormy life overall, it was no less stormy and intense with love, because while on one hand he was seeking love and closeness quite desperately, he had some extreme difficulty with forming and maintaining relationships and whenever there was indeed a possibility of having a closer, deeper relationship with someone, he would basically run away almost in panic immediately. It’s flamin’ difficult having fears which conflict with your basic needs. He was also pathologically jealous – largely due to abusing alcohol and all sorts of drugs and other things, many of which can do such things to your brain – so it also wasn’t easy for the other side to be with him for sure.
And in this song, it really shows, in a both lyrical and raw way. Its lyrics weren’t awfully difficult to translate so I tried my best to do it although there may be some errors in here.
ย ย My beloved is like a sparkler,
like a sparkler easily ignited.
She burns so hot when she catches fire,
my beloved is like a sparkler,
like a sparkler easily ignited.
Red-hot like a kiln are my sweetheart’s embers,
but no fire is eternal.
Cold it is for the charcoal burner when his kiln dies out,
my sweethearts embers are so red, so red,
but no fire is eternal.
My beloved is like a race,
a race where neither of us can win.
Where no one catches the other,
my sweethearts lovemaking is like a race,
a race where neither of us can win.
Yes, love is like a sparkler,
like a sparkler easily ignited.
It burns red when it reaches us.
My soul – i am like a sparkler,
and no fire is eternal.
After some thinking, I decided to share this song by Lowri Evans that I mentioned in the previous post. I think her version is really good! Here’s my post where I shared this song performed by
where you can learn a bit more about it.
Hey guys! ๐
I’ve been planning to share this Norwegian folksong with you for ages, but somehow never did it in the end, so finally that’s what I’m doing today. This is one of the first Norwegian folk songs I’ve ever heard and instantly fell in love with it, the version I heard first was the one by Kirsten Braten Berg, and I just loved the harmonies in it, the way it sounded and just the general feel of it, even though I could understand barely anything out of it and it didn’t make too much sense. Usually if you can speak Swedish, you can understand Norwegian well enough that you can at least figure out the context, but my Swedish was only crawling at the time and even now I can’t really understand much out of it on my own, I guess because the lyrics are quite archaic.
Last year I also heard Helene Boksle’s versioon for the first time, Helene Boksle is a well-known Norwegian singer to me whom I like a whole lot and have shared a
in her interpretation ages ago, so you may or may not recall her.
I really love both versions of this song, so, like I often do, I had a hard time deciding on one, and in the end chose to share both of them with you, as they are quite different from each other. Kirsten Braten Berg’s feels more raw, solely with the accompaniment of Ale Moler, and Helene’s is more rich and contemporary. Both are very expressive in their own, different ways.
The song is about a young girl called Heiemo – I couldn’t find any information on the origin of the name so it’s possible that it’s somehow changed and functions in a different form these days or fell out of use. Nykkjen is a creature in Norwegian, but also generally European folklore, also known as Neck, Nokk and lots of other similar things. It is some sort of a water sprite which “by default” has the form of a water-horse, but is also a shapeshifter, and it likes to lure people to the water with singing and music, quite like sirens, and then kill them. So this Nykkjen creature fell in love with Heiemo upon hearing her singing, and decided to kidnap her and then kill her. But things turned around and Heiemo courageously stabbed Nykkjen to death.
Below is the translation of this song that I found
apparently written by a lady called Sheila Louise Wright.
โ wake up you noble youngsters-
The Water spirit heard it, striding on the sea,
โ Because you now have overslept โ
Heiemo sang her poem, it was singing in the hillside
The Water spirit heard it, the pagan dog.
The Water spirit spoke to his helmsman:
โYou steer my ship upon christian land!โ
โI will go upon christian land,
the beautiful maid I will have.โ
He then enters her house
with high hat and rosy cheek
The Water spirit danced and Heiemo sang her poem
it pleased all folks in the houses
โNow every one has to go to his own home,
Heiemo I bring with me on the ship.โ
โHeiemo, Heiemo, quiet your wrath,
You should sleep on water spiritโs arm.โ
She stabbed the water spirit in his chest,
the nail ran into the root of his heart.
โHere you lay water spirit, naked to raven and dog.
Still I have my singing need.โ
Would you take a bullet for someone in your life?
My answer:
If there was an actual reason for that – absolutely yes! – I don’t like when people make such foolish declarations “I love you so much that I could die for you” when there is totally no need for such radical acts, and even less so for empty words like that. But if someone I loved a lot, like my Mum or anyone in my close family or my online friends, or perhaps even Misha (although why would anyone want to kill or shoot Misha, and who would be capable of doing this, I have no clue? The only reason I can think of why someone might even consider that is if they somehow really hated me passionately for some reason and were desperate to make me miserable, and I am not aware of having such desperate enemies) or maybe even people whom I not necessarily love but who are somehow important to me and who I care about, or whose life I think is very important, if any of them were in danger where their life could be at risk, and my death could make the situation better in any way, then hell yeah, I’d do that, although it surely would be scary. I think it wouldn’t be quite as scary though as living the rest of my life with a consciousness that I could help save the life of someone who was dear to me in some way or who needed it, but did not do that. It would be more difficult if it was a shot that would only impair me in some way, as that would have some longer consequences for me and I’m not sure how I’d deal with that my whole life, but I’d try to think about how I was able to help someone through that and I suppose that would be at least a bit of comfort for me to know that I somehow helped their cause. My Mum recently asked me what would I feel like living in a country where Christians are persecuted in a major way, where their lives may be in danger because of their faith, and how I’d feel like about giving my life up for Christ, because she read a book about Christians in muslim countries and that made her think about it hard. Now this is such a difficult thing to think about. When you read about the martyrs in ancient Rome for example, and the ways they were tortured, I’m really not sure I would be able to deal with that and keep being faithful. On the other hand, it’s not really these people’s merrit entirely that they were strong and brave enough to go through it but they were supported by God’s grace, I don’t think anyone would willfully agree to such suffering and not give in at some point without some help. But I think I would at least try my best if I was in such a situation and try to have as much courage as possible. And in the case of this question, if I was in such a situation that I would have to take a bullet for Christ, I feel that would be easier than the fancy tortures people had to endure ages ago, so I would take the risk, I think.
How about you? ๐
If someone you loved was killed in front of you, but someone created a copy of them that was perfect right down to the atomic level, would they be the same person and would you love them just as much?
My answer:
My first thought in reaction to that question: that would be creepy! ๐ But Sofi says I’ve been overusing the word creepy lately (which is true because since my last sensory anxiety episode everything still seems kinda creepy) so I should probably come up with something more original. Okay… um… I don’t know really. ๐ I mean, I guess it’s the sort of situation where you’d have to actually experience it to know what it feels like and what you’d think about it.
I often think that I’d like if cloning animals was a legal thing to do, because then I could pay any money for someone to clone Misha for me, but on the other hand even my own conscience is against it so I’m feeling very conflicted about it and would never actually do it even if someone came to me offering to do it, if it was legal and if I had the money.
With humans it would be even more of a problem. I had a brief period when I got interested in cloning after reading Mary Modern by Camille DeAngelis, about a woman who decided to clone her own grandma. It was ages ago so I don’t remember the plot line very well now, but what comes to my mind now is that while she wanted to get her back as her grandma, that is at the age at which she knew her, the genetic material she had available was of her grandma at a much younger age. So, while you could consider her the same person physically, she was actually a different person than the one her granddaughter knew.
Also there is that quote saying that “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”. How would that new person be the same as the one I lost if we always change?
Also cloned people don’t have a soul. Surely that would be seen somehow in that new person’s behaviour or something, or even if not, that would make them different. It just evades my mind how can someone be death and then someone else can be put in their place who would be exactly identical in all spheres – well, except for not having a soul. –
Maybe if I didn’t see any huge differences I would be able to love them in a similar way I did the original person, but I am pretty sure when thinking of it now that they would be like two distinct people in my mind. Perhaps incredibly similar, almost indistinguishably, maybe somehow not distinguishable at all in a straightforward way, but still distinct.
What do you think? ๐
Hi guys! ๐
Today I’d like to introduce to you a singer and harpist who is very new to me. I only heard her for the first time on Blas Folk Radio Cymru a couple days ago and I really liked her. For now, I don’t know any more of her music, but I am definitely going to check it out. I think both her vocals and harp play are really nice. I didn’t know what cowrie meant when first hearing this song, so just in case you don’t either, that’s how sea snails are called.
I’d like to hsare with you another song by this mysterious and multi-instrumentally talented duo. This is a popular Irish folk song apparently originating in county Donegal. The first version of it that I’ve heard was by Celtic Woman and I still really like it, but I also really like this one a whole lot. The “Lagan” in the title seems to most likely come from the river Lagan in Belfast.
Hi people! ๐
I’ve found a new British artist that I really like lately. Her stage name is Hamzaa, which apparently comes from her stepfather’s surname, and her real name is Malika, and she has a gorgeous voice. This song of hers is my absolute favourite, also because I think the lyrics are quite cool.
Here’s a song I’ve recently grown to really like. In case someone of my more long-term readers would be confused, this is not that Declan I’ve had a faza/music crush on, that one is Declan Galbraith. I do like Declan J Donovan too, even though I don’t think I could ever have a faza on him, and this is my absolutely favourite song of his. I’ve only just learnt about it when preparing a bit for this post that this song was actually played on Love Island, which I suppose might be an interesting bit of info.
Here’s another Polish song I have for you.
I used to have very mixed feelings about it, and I’ve seen quite a few different interpretations of what it really is about, including that it shows all men as being awful or that women are super picky. I liked the sound of it immediately when I heard it. It’s trip-hop but the song has a bit of a folksy feel and I liked that it was sort of ironic and humourous. The song is about a woman who wants a boyfriend, and she has a whole list of what he should not be, looks like she’s such an idealist and wants just someone very exceptional who only has good traits. Yet something in this song really stung me, ’cause on her list of things he cannot be is “not a Pole”. I mean, it’s completely okay not to want to have a Polish boyfriend, even if you’re Polish, but the whole list was made up of various negative things and “not a Pole” thrown in-between, it made it look very bad and very offensive to me, and I’m sure could feel even more so to Polish guys. And I’ve seen many other people finding it controversial too.
But these days I think this song does not contain any anti-Polish messages. I think you can see this song in two ways, depending if you are an optimist or a pessimist, although I have no idea what Natalia Grosiak – the vocalist and author of the lyrics – had in mind writing this song. If you are an optimist, you can think that the girl speaking in the song is very young, romantic, idealistic and picky to begin with. She wants someone who won’t change her life overly and will just be perfectly the way she imagined him. Then, as the song progresses, she changes her mind. She decides that “yes, give me a boy who is ugly, who is a bit crazy, who has his weaknesses”. She finds someone that she loves despite the traits in him that are difficult and she happily accepts the fact that there are no perfect people and that there is no way to fall in love with someone who is perfect. If you are a pessimist, you can see this song as showing how bad life can be and often is. You begin with having dreams and hopes and wanting someone special and perfect. Only that, as you gain more experience in life and in relationships, instead of happily accepting that we all have weaknesses and it’s okay and finding someone whose weaknesses are complementary with yours and you are able to live with him the way he is, as it should be in a proper romantic movie with a happy end, you give up. Because whoever you’ll choose, it will be difficult and nothing will work out the way you want. You don’t care what he’s like anymore, maybe not even whether you love him, you just want someone and you know you have very limited choice.
Despite I am a pessimist, in this particular song I have a feeling the optimistic theory looks better not only because it’s more pleasant. It’s just easier for me to imagine such a scenario. Personally I’d rather be lonely than look for all means for whoever to be my boyfriend, even if he is a drunkard to whom I don’t feel anything.
So, here are the lyrics that I’ve translated and the song.
Mr Fate, please give me someone who won’t stir the water in my pond
Someone who won’t fade away like a bad dream
When there are no more fish in my pondWhere will I find someone so
beautifully kind?
Where will I find someone so
beautifully kind?Give me a boyfriend
Not a crazy one, give
Not a smoker
Not a poor one, give
Not a drunkard
Not a Pole, give
Not an ugly oneSend me a boyfriend
not a crazy one, give
Not a dodge
not a clown, give
Not a drunkard
not a Pole, give
Not a poor one
Send meMr Fate, please give me someone who won’t pick all the roses from my garden
Someone who won’t eat all the apples
and run away overseasWhere will I find someone so
beautifully kind?
Where will I find someone so
beautifully kind?Give me a boyfriend
Not a crazy one, give
Not a smoker
not a poor one, give
Not a drunkard
not a Pole, give
Not an ugly oneSend me a boyfriend
not a crazy one, give
Not a dodge
not a clown, give
Not a drunkard
not a Pole, give
Not a poor oneSend me a boyfriend
Give me a Pole
yes, I want a crazy one!
I want a drunkard
Yes, give me a strongman
An ugly one
Yes, give me a PoleSend me a boyfriend
a boyfriend like this
a boyfriend like this
a boyfriend like this
like this
Hi! ๐
Today I have a cover for you. A cover of “Make You Feel My Love” by Bob Dylan, only not in English but in Norwegian. Just like there are lots of versions of this song in English, there are also a fair few in Norwegian, as it seems, and I chose the one by Lykke Kristine Moen. Of course the lyrics are slightly different to fit the melody, hence the different title for example, but mostly they make the same sense as the original.
Hi hi hi lovely people! ๐
It feels like I haven’t written anything in quite a while again, so let’s first catch up on some music, as I haven’t posted any music for a particularly long time.
I’d like to show you a few songs of one of my very first favourite Celtic music singers – Loreena MCKennitt. – Alongside Enya, Aine Minogue and a few others, she was keeping me sane during a time that was particularly difficult emotionally in my life, and she was one of the first artists associated with Celtic but also generally folk music that I’ve started to listen to a lot, and one of the first harpists whose music I’ve heard. I really like her dramatic soprano, my friend Jacek from Helsinki loved her and he used to say her voice is chil inducing, it indeed is very very expressive. I love the wide range of inspirations Loreena uses in her music, she’s not only into Celtic music but also oriental music, she has adapted various poems or pieces of literary work into pieces of music or has written her own music inspired by literature, legends, myths, historical/legendary figures etc. It’s like her each album has a bit of a theme that is going on throughout the album. I like how self-sufficient she is. Apart from being a singer, songwriter, composer and harpist, she has also her own record label – Quinlan Road – and also plays a few other instruments other than harp, she’s her own manager and seems to like running the show just on her own. And I like her harp play so very much. She’s one of the better Celtic harpists out there in my opinion.
Loreena MCKennitt is from Canada, she has Irish and Scottish roots (and her father’s name was JACK! that explains everything, doesn’t it? ๐ ) and she currently lives in Ontario.
The song I want to show you in this post is a ballad called “Annachie Gordon”. If I remember well, this is one of the balads in the collection of Child’s Ballads, and it is English. I like many contemporary versions of this piece but Loreena’s is the best, because of her vocals and because of the magnificent harp! It was also the first version of this song I’ve heard, and I immediately fell in love with it. The plot of the ballad is quite, um, cliche, and now as I’m older than when I discovered “Annachie Gordon” it’s hard for me to listen to it without my sarcastic brain commenting and criticising the storyline (I basically think looking at it from these days perspective, the heroine, Jeannie, makes an impression of someone quite manipulative, I understand her pain when she was faced with having to live being married to a man she didn’t love instead of her beloved Annachie, but the scene where she falls on her knees before her father and dies looks, well, yeah, manipulative, you start to wonder if she’s going to suddenly rise up as soon as everyone leaves her alone and run away with Annachie as far from lord Sulton and her family as possible. ๐ I know, I know, I’m crazy and overanalysing). I also think life would be so easy if we really could just switch off and die when life throws sh*t at us as in the case of Jeannie and Annachie. But well, it is a ballad. And still, it is a beautiful one. I remember being absolutely fascinated by it, and for some reason because of it I really loved the name Annachie, which, you must admit, is a very unusual name, I’ve never heard in any other context or on anyone other than Annachie Gordon. I’ve even named a character in one of my short stories Annachie after him. Though now my tastes have changed and I think it lacks masculinity and looks like a fancy elaboration of Anna in the style of Annalee or Annamae, but of the more kreativ kind. ๐ Well, I guess it was apparently recreated from some old feminine name actually. Anyway, here’s the song. Hope you’ll enjoy it too. ๐
Hi hi people! ๐
Today I have something very very unusual for you! In some respects, I think it’s more out of the box than anything I’ve ever shared with you in the song of the day series. It actually appears so niche that I had a little bit of doubt if I actually should. But, while even BBC was writing about him on their website, and he’s been talked about a little bit around the Internet, it feels like the echo wasn’t too big, so I thought it deserves sharing, even just to show what sort of things disabled people can do with the right support, I know for many people that would seem unbelievable.
But what am I talking about. Jac Richards is a 22-year-old boy from Llangennech, Wales (yeah, a Jac from Wales, that’s my territory) who has a severe form of cerebral palsy. In his case, that means he can’t walk, speak, sit or use his hands. He is though well developed intellectually and his senses function properly. Jac has always loved music and going for concerts and his biggest dream was to be able to make music. His dream has become achievable thanks to Forget-Me-Not Productions, who are an UK organisation helping disabled people to express themselves through arts with the use of assistive technologies. They made it possible for Jac to study music and film production and he is able to create music using his eye muscles.
The funny thing is that I read about Jac yesterday… on a Polish website! ๐ Really! I’m always into quirky music undertakings that people make so I just had to look his single up, and read more about him. You can read more about him here
and here.
By the way, I’ve recently noticed some particular tendency that there are quite a few inspirational disabled people in Wales that have been talked about recently in media or such, even in Polish media, although it could be just that I pay more attention to it or something.
Anyway, Jac wrote the lyrics to his song – which is called “Only Love” – he also composed and produced it, and played all the virtual instruments. The director of Forget-Me-Not Productions is a vocalist in this piece.
I must say that it felt rather odd to me when I listened to it for the first time. It feels highly electronified (does such a word exist? Don’t care ๐ ) which shouldn’t be a big discovery since of course all the instruments in there were electronic and it’s bordering on R&B, but, even though I do like some electronic music, even very electronic at times, what exactly bothered me in it the first time I listened to it was that it felt kind of overdone. Like, too much of everything at once, a bit chaotic, I’d say subtly aggressive even! But there was something haunting about it! I sometimes have such songs that I don’t really feel convinced to but still there is something that will make want to listen to them again. And so I had a few listens to it so far, and I must say it’s grown on me. I guess the impression of it being overdone was just temporary. There’s indeed plenty of strong emotions (how couldn’t there be, it’s Jac’s first single and I can imagine that, not being able to speak, music is now a huge emotions releaser). So, while it doesn’t feel exactly my style, and doesn’t strike exactly that special chord in my brain, I do like it! And, since that single was made last year, I’d really like to hear something else from him, I really hope we will be able to enjoy more of his music, and that more people will know about him.
Hi guys. ๐
Here’s another question I have for you.
Who was the first non-relative you said “I live you” to?
My answer:
Emmmm. Misha? ๐ … I don’t know! I’m not one for saying that too often and to just anyone, the more that it’s such an overrated phrase nowadays as if just plain saying “I love you” really meant something in the grand scheme of things. And I’m generally not too good at expressing my emotions, it’s quite a problem for me still. Also, I’ve never been in a romantic relationship, so I’ve never had a chance to use it in that context. That doesn’t mean of course that I haven’t loved anyone who wouldn’t be my relative, but, as far as I can remember anyway, I simply never told them that, for different reasons, usually just because it makes you vulnerable. I’ve had friends who would tell me in this or that way that they love me, like you love a friend, and then I’d say the same if I did love them like that too, but I don’t think I’ve ever said “I love you” as such to anyone other than my family and Mishmish, who is also my family, so doesn’t count here separately of course.
How about you? ๐
This is a relatively new artist for me, she is a folk vocalist, and she seems to write very interesting lyrics, often about politics or social stuff that – I think – aren’t too easy to write about in songs. Grace Petrie is from Leicester, and she is also an avid Shakespeare fan, and this song has been inspired by Shakespeare’s play “Othello”, more exactly the main antagonist Iago, the one who was supposed to be Othello’s best friend and manipulated him. The Iago in Grace Petrie’s song is more like a metaphor, it’s about insecurities that people struggle with in their love life, and Iago is a personification of those insecurities, so it’s like each of us has our own Iago who’s telling us bullshit. I really like this Shakespeare inspired metaphor! And the song is fabulous!
Hi guys. ๐
Here’s another of my most favourite songs by Kate Rusby. I think it’s one of the most melancholic, at least musically, songs that I’ve ever heard, and the lyrics are also touching especially because of Kate’s expressiveness. The song is from the point of view of a ghost, who is witnessing that the love of his life no longer loves him and both she and the man she now loves live on his land. While I am not extremely fond of paranormal novels with ghosts or stuff like that, for some reason I find folk songs written from a ghost’s perspective very touching and interesting. I’ve shared another quite similar one in a way some time ago, it’s
I think they are both very evocative though in a bit different ways.
Hi people. ๐
I decided to show you another song from Janice, this time in Swedish, and with a rather different feel. It is a collaboration between her and another Swedish pop star – Ji Nilsson. – I’ve always thought I listen to a relatively big amount of Swedish pop, I mean not crazily enormously huge, but definitely more than Polish or English pop, and I know some popular Swedish pop singers. But turns out I’m still too niche/too ignorant because before I looked her up today, I had no idea who is Ji Nilsson, haven’t heard her music before, at least consciously haha.
I also had no idea who X Models are, which is though probably even more understandable because I’m not particularly crazy about the typical eighties pop in any language, and X Models are a Swedish band that was popular in 80’s. But why am I talking about them now?
Because another thing I didn’t know, although I know this song since… I guess a couple months, is that this is actually a cover. And X Models were the band who performed it originally. The song was written by Efva Attling.
To prepare somehow for this little post, I looked up their version, but, meh, it’s so eighties-sounding, not for me.
I’m not crazy about Janice and Ji’s version either, but I do like it, hence I share it. I think it’s much more interesting than the original, although it’s just a plain and very catchy love song.
I’m not a particular fan of this song in its original version by Rihanna, generally I’m not a fan of Rihanna I think, but I kind of like this song in this girl’s version. It’s nothing particularly original, especially for those who think I listen only to very niche music, as many people in my surroundings seem to still believe ๐ but it’s just cool. And as for Ingeborg Fosse, she is another Norwegian singer I want to show you – I’m having a little Norwegian period as for the music I listen to right now – and she was a participant in Norwegian Idol. Tomorrow I’m also going to show you another Norwegian singer who covered a popular, mainstream song, she was also discovered thanks to a music show, and even her name is the same – Ingeborg. But that will be tomorrow, today I have “Love On The Brain” for you, and I hope you’ll like this version. ๐
