Tim McGraw

     This week I chose to write about the song “Tim McGraw” by Taylor Swift. Growing up, country music was easily the only music I listened to, and Taylor Swift was who I wanted to be when I grew up. Her country albums shaped my childhood, and I remember listening to this song and thinking what a pretty song it was. 

    This song has a strong acoustic guitar presence that compliments her voice perfectly. The song is slow and sad and sweet all at once, and the lyrics make you want to reminisce on your past loves, or someday experience something like she has. The lyrics “ When you think happiness I hope you think "that little black dress", show that she hopes that she reminds her Ex-Lover of happiness and that he thinks of her, just like she still thinks about him, and that she always holds onto memories of him.

    Although she’s still producing music and generating more fame, I don’t think anything could possibly beat her country albums. In my opinion they show more raw emotions, and honestly they just hit different. That could be because I grew up on them, but country Taylor Swift will always be the best Taylor Swift. 

Sweet Dreams

 This week I chose to write my blog on “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by Eurythmics. This song was released in 1983. Growing up, my mom always played music from her childhood for us, and this song was my favorite that she played. The song has a somewhat “techno” vibe to it, and I always associate the song with a dark room filled with lasers and other colorful lights. I don’t know why I associate the two, but I always have.

I love the beat this song has. If this song was ever played at a school dance, I’d totally vibe and dance to it. The lyrics of this song are extremely repetitive, but not necessarily in a bad way. I like that the lyrics are super simple, but also have a lot of meaning to them. 

Overall, this song is such a vibe! I love listening to this song and it always puts me in a good mood. I love the way it sounds and feels!

Here You Come Again

 This week I chose to write my blog about the song “Here You Come Again” by Dolly Parton. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Dolly Parton, and this song in particular is one of my favorites. I love Dolly’s voice, and I love the way her voice, the lyrics, and music all come together to make this song. 

A few of my favorite lyrics in this song are “ All you gotta do is smile that smile and there go all my defenses”. I love these lines because it shows how much Dolly loves whoever she is talking about in the song. Or rather it shows that whoever she is singing about has a killer smile :)  I also love the lyrics “You’re messin’ up my mind and fillin’ up my senses”. It shows that this guy  consumes not only all her thoughts, but all of her senses too, and that she is consumed with him. 

Dolly Parton is such a legend and has so many good songs! This song is super good and has a great beat to it. It is super catchy too! I highly recommend listening to this song if you haven’t yet! 

Purple Haze

This week I chose to write about the song “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix. The song came out in March 1967 and it was the second single for the Jimi Hendrix experience. 

My favorite part of the song was the guitar solo at the end of the song. It was very unique and unlike anything else I’ve heard. His voice matched with the music super good. He has a very specific sound to his voice, and it’s almost hard to describe. 

In my opinion, the lyrics are more of an afterthought, and the guitar is the vocal point of the song. His guitar skills are insane, and although this singing and lyrics are good, the guitar steals the show. The lyrics are nothing special, which is good, because that makes it so the lyrics don’t distract from the amazing guitar. 

Although the lyrics were the prominent feature of the song, I really enjoy the lyrics “Excuse me while I kiss the sky”. It’s a cool line, and could have many meanings, which is another cool part about it. 

I highly recommend listening to this song if you enjoy guitar. 

Sh-Boom

     Do you ever listen to a song and it reminds you of a specific thing, like a memory, a show, a movie, etc.? Well if you’ve ever seen the movie Cars, the song “Sh-Boom” by The Cords probably brings you right back to that movie! And if it doesn’t, go watch Cars again! 

    This song is very upbeat, and it has a happy, “life is good”, vibe to it! The lyrics to the song are very hopeful and happy. The lyrics, “ If you will tell me I'm the only one that you love, Life could be a dream,” show that all the singers need/want to have a dreamy life is for the person they are singing about to tell them that they love them. 

    I really love this song, partly because of the good memories it brings back from watching Cars as a kid (so many times it drove my parents insane), but also because of the hopeful and happy message it conveys! It has almost a “bouncy” feel to it, and I love the way it sounds and feels!

Gospel Ship

 This week I decided to write about the song “Gospel Ship”, by The Carter Family. This song is classified as a country song, but you could also argue that it belongs to the Gospel music genre (I mean look at the name!) Another classification of this song is Sacred music which is very similar to gospel music. The Carter family had 300 song recording between the years 1927-1941 and their main focus was old-time music.

The lyrics of this song talk about going on a trip in an “Old Gospel Ship” and ending up in Heaven. The lyrics show that they are a religious family, and that they aren’t ashamed of their faith. Towards the end of the song the lyrics say “If you are ashamed of me , you ought not to be”. I view this to mean that some people are ashamed of them because they show and sing about their faith in God and in Heaven, but they aren’t ashamed of their faith and want to show it to the world. 

The song has a very “Old Timey” feel, and I could picture my grandparents listening to it. I like how their voice sounds natural and “raw” so to say. They have a unique voice to them, and the guitar playing compliments it very nicely. 

Deed I Do

 This week I chose to write about the song “Deed I Do” by Ruth Etting. Ruth Etting was a major singer in the 1920’s and 1930’s. This song was composed in 1926 by Fred Rose and the lyrics were written by Walter Hirsch. This song is a jazz standard.

Much like last weeks song, this song is also a love song. It has that “old timey” feel that makes me think of black and white tv shows and movies. The lyrics are very repetitive, but they get the point across. A main phrase of lyrics are “ Do I want (or need) you? Oh my. Do I. Honey, ‘deed I do.” These lyrics show how she feels about this person, that she needs/wants this person. It shows a simplistic type of love, where she isn’t asking or wanting for a lot, but rather all she wants is this person. The lyrics also say “You brought sunshine just to brighten my loneliness” showing that the person who’s love she is singing about brought happiness and light to her life. 

The music in this song has a lot of brass instruments that compliment Ruth Etting’s voice very nicely. The music gives the song a little bit of a swing feeling, like jazz songs usually do.