Norwegian Wood festival website and Facebook site

For those of you who want to know more about the Norwegian Wood four-day music festival that takes place in Oslo each year in June, you can find information on their website: http://www.norwegianwood.no/

They are also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/NORWEGIAN-WOOD-FESTIVALEN/115503931808030

Check these sites out. Each year there are a lot of good bands and artists that make their way to Frogner Bad in Oslo's Frogner Park. You can read about who has performed at this festival previously on the website.

A great song by Steely Dan

I heard this song this morning, one of my all-time favorites--Deacon Blues--a phenomenal song by Steely Dan. The lyrics are pure poetry. As someone who writes poetry, I take my hat off and acknowledge ‘best in class’. “I crawl like a viper through these suburban streets; Make love to these women, languid and bittersweet.” And the end of the song—“I cried when I wrote this song, sue me if I play too long; This brother is free, I'll be what I want to be”. And finally, "I want a name when I lose". You can just imagine them writing and living the song—taking their experiences and weaving them into a song that perfectly captures what they’ve experienced. Wonderfully inspired and nothing I could write here could do these lyrics justice—they’re perfect (at least to me), as is the rest of the song. It’s interesting to read about the different sources of inspiration for Steely Dan on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deacon_Blues).

I grew up listening to Steely Dan’s music, but never got a chance to see them in concert before the year 2000, when they played at the Oslo Spektrum concert arena. And what a terrific concert that was. Their music has aged well, considering that the song Deacon Blues is from the 1977 album Aja. Listening to their music was not just a trip down memory lane. Their music and lyrics are as relevant now as they were when they first appeared. You can find the song on YouTube, as always. Here is one link to the song:

Deacon Blues

This is the day
Of the expanding man
That shape is my shade
There where I used to stand
It seems like only yesterday
I gazed through the glass
At ramblers
Wild gamblers
That's all in the past

You call me a fool
You say it's a crazy scheme
This one's for real
I already bought the dream
So useless to ask me why
Throw a kiss and say goodbye
I'll make it this time
I'm ready to cross that fine line

CHORUS:
I'll learn to work the saxophone
I'll play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whisky all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues

My back to the wall
A victim of laughing chance
This is for me
The essence of true romance
Sharing the things we know and love
With those of my kind
Libations
Sensations
That stagger the mind

I crawl like a viper
Through these suburban streets
Make love to these women
Languid and bittersweet
I'll rise when the sun goes down
Cover every game in town
A world of my own
I'll make it my home sweet home

CHORUS

This is the night
Of the expanding the man
I take one last drag
As I approach the stand
I cried when I wrote this song
Sue me if I play too long
This brother is free
I'll be what I want to be

CHORUS

Some really good Norwegian bands and musicians (and some Swedish too)

These are some of the rock/pop Norwegian bands and musicians that I have listened to during the past twenty years and really like. Junipher Greene and Ruphus are from the 1960-70s, but I have heard some of their music and really like it. It reminds me of Mountain and some of the heavier American rock bands from around the same time. a-ha are internationally-known. I remember watching the MTV video for ‘Take on me’ in the 1980s when I was still living in New Jersey. The DumDum Boys and the RagaRockers are the first rock bands that my husband introduced me to—he bought me their LPs as gifts when he first came to visit me in NJ. I spent hours trying to translate some of their songs, and didn’t do such a bad job as I remember. Briskeby was an amazing band—with a terrific female lead singer, Lise Karlsnes. It’s too bad the band is no longer recording. Royksopp is into electronic music and they have done some really terrific songs. You will find most of the groups on YouTube—well-worth checking out and listening to. I’ve seen a-ha, Dance with a Stranger, DeLillos, and Hellbillies in concert in Oslo.

·         a-ha

·         Briskeby

·         Bjørn Eidsvåg

·         Dance with a Stranger

·         DeLillos

·         DumDum Boys

·         Hellbillies

·         Junipher Greene

·         Kurt Nilsen

·         Madcon

·         Madrugada

·         Morten Abel

·         Paperboys

·         Raga Rockers

·         Royksopp

·         Ruphus

·         Sivert Høyem

As far as Swedish musicians go, ABBA is known to just about everyone on the planet, especially after the movie Mama Mia. We grew up in New York listening to ABBA songs. Bo Kaspers Orkester is a jazz-pop band that sings in Swedish; I wish they sang in English—their lyrics are just so good, like poetry. The Swedish list is a short one, but nevertheless worth checking out. I saw The Cardigans in concert in 1999 at the Quart Festival in Kristiansand, Norway. That was a great festival—with The Cardigans, Garbage, Skunk Anansie, Everlast, and Marilyn Manson. I think it’s pretty amazing that they got all those great bands to perform at one festival.

·         ABBA

·         Bo Kaspers Orkester

·         Kent

·         The Cardigans

"Sometimes Your Voice is not Enough"--from the song Silver Rider by Low (version by Robert Plant and the Band of Joy)

As those of you who know me know, I enjoy writing and reading poetry and am always on the lookout for poems and song lyrics that touch my soul. This song Silver Rider, by the band Low, is one such instance, and the version of the song by Robert Plant and his Band of Joy (2010) is simply one of those songs you have to listen to. I want to know who or what Low wrote it about. Who is the Silver Rider? The song is almost like an elegy. And yes, 'sometimes your voice is not enough' in life--it rings true to me. The song will stay with you long after you hear it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxPrwol5lJE). 

Silver Rider  (by Low)


At times I see you, you silver rider
Sometimes your voice is not enough
Your face in windows, outside forever
Nobody dreamed you'd save the world
Nobody dreamed you'd save the world

Your march is over, the great destroyer
She passes through you like a knife
Oh take me with you, you silver rider
Sometimes your voice is not enough
Sometimes your voice is not enough

Lyrics to a classic song by Pink Floyd---'Breathe'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qsxpXqq1pA 


Breathe, breathe in the air.
Don't be afraid to care.
Leave but don't leave me.
Look around and choose your own ground.

Long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be.

Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don't sit down it's time to dig another one.

For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race towards an early grave. 

-----------------------


I never tire of hearing this song, or of listening to the album 'Dark Side of the Moon'. It made such an impression on me when I was a teenager. I don't think there is another album that even comes close to it. 'Breathe' is such a good song and one that got me interested in listening to song lyrics because in this song they really are pure poetry. My father did not like the lyrics--he found them depressing and he meant we should spend our time listening to happier music. But even if he was right, it never stopped us from listening to this song and the album from which it came. There is something about the combination of the music and lyrics that made Dark Side of the Moon a perfect album.