My Kids’ Family

mkm and I have been watching the HBO mini-series “John Adams“. It is a wonderful and fascinating look at the life of our 2nd president and founding father of the United States. If I were asked what historical figure I would like to meet, I would probably say John Adams (or perhaps his wife!).

I have always loved early American history and I think the first thing that put me on to this was the movie (and later I saw the Broadway show) 1776. This is a classic piece of American musical theater and is a great example of a musical that can put together wonderful songs with a series story.

There are two songs that stick out for me in 1776 and I am going to include them both here. The first appears near the end of the play when it looks like there is little hope for the congress to declare independence. John Adams has a solo where he sings about his vision of the future of America. The second scene is earlier when they are debating the declaration itself. Jefferson had included a paragraph that would have basically abolished slavery in America. We know that this paragraph actually existed and that congress removed it from the final document. What we don’t know is how the debate went. This 2nd scene is one idea.

Enjoy!

Every once in a while you get that song in your head. You know, the one that just wont leave you no matter what you do. You try thinking about something else, or even another song, but still you can’t get it out of your head. Sometimes the best thing to do is take the “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach and just go with the song. Sing it, hum it, listen to it.

That is what has happened to me today. Sometimes you can tell why you have the song in your head and sometimes you cannot. In this case I can.

Avi has graduated from wanting to listen to The Beatles all the time to now wanting to listen to Wings instead. He understands that Paul McCartney is in both, but does not get it yet that if a Beatles song is on the live Wings Album it is still a Beatles song.

We were listening to “Wings Over America” in the car and “I’ve Just Seen a Face” came on. It is a song from the album “Help” in the UK and “Rubber Soul” in the US. It is a fun song, very fast paced and makes us remember back to the early Beatles hits. The song is simple yet sophisticated at the same time.

Here are three youtubes of this song! The first is the original recording, the second is Paul singing this live in Russia and the third is the full scene of the cover from the movie “Across the Universe“.

Enjoy!

It’s once again time for Favorite Lyric Friday. Being girl group week, I needed to find a lyric that I really like from a girl group. Not too difficult if you ask me.

One of the reasons I love girl groups so much is their ability to sing so well together. Generally (anytime anyone says that, watch out!) women have better voices than men. Generally (there it is again) women can harmonize better than men. I love the harmonies that I hear from girl groups. My favorite girl group were masters of harmony. Despite their being together as a girl group for such a short time, my favorite girl group is…….. drum roll please…….Wilson Phillips.

Wilson Phillips was a group made of of three women, two daughters of Biran Wilson of the Beach Boys (Carnie and Wendy Wilson) and the third the daughter of Michelle and John Phillips of the Mama’s and the Papa’s (Chynna Phillips). They were together for two years from 1990 to 1992 and then came back together to record an album of covers in 2004. Beyond that they have gone their separate ways.

It is favorite lyric friday, so here is my pick from Wilson Phillips. On their first album, “Wilson Phillips”, their biggest hit was the song “Hold On“. I particularly like the lyrics these days as life with Avi makes things difficult, but we always have to remember to just hold on and things will get better.

Here is the original music video.

Enjoy!

Well, this week obviously turned into girl group week, so I might as well continue in that slant. There are so many to choose from , it is very hard. Most of my favorite girl groups are from the 80s and 90s, but the whole girl group concept started in the late 1950s with the group The Chantels. After their success dozens of girl groups were formed many trying to team up with established songwriters. The famous Brill Building produced many of the songs made famous by these groups.

Perhaps the first real smash girl group hit was “Will You Love me Tomorrow” by The Shirelles. The song was written by the Brill Building team of Gerry Goffin and Carol King (at the time husband and wife). The song may be more well known today by King’s recording with James Taylor and Joni Mitchell doing vocal backup , but the Shirelle’s version is still the first and perhaps greatest.

Here is a rare video of the Shirelles performing this song on American Bandstand. Clips of weddings were added to this clip but it is still ncie to watch

Enjoy!

Keeping with my girl group theme, I decided to add a song that because a mega hit but unfortunately for the group, their only one. The group is the Weather Girls and the song is the amazing “dance anthem” “It’s Raining Men“. Yes I know this is a song loved by many women and by lot of gay men, but even though I am neither, it is a great dance song and a real kooky video.

Enjoy!

PS.  I am also including a newer version of the song by Geri Halliwell (of the mega mega girl group the Spice Girls).  I LOVE this video!  It is sort of a tribute to the movie and tv series Fame (which I loved) and the dance is quite good in the video.  So enjoy this too!

After sagas of the past few weeks (to be written about here soon) I am going back to work again today and the only thing that came to mind was “Manic Monday” by The Bangles. Of course the song is about a woman wanting to be back with her man rather than going to work, but the sentiment of not wanting to be at work on Monday morning is totally the same.

In my case, I just want to be back at home with my son helping him to get through his days, but instead, I need to be at work. So in many ways my life parallels this song.

Here is a version from youtube that is called an acoustic version. It is only partially acoustic, as there is one electric guitar and a keyboard, but it is very nice nontheless.

Enjoy!