Minnie Riperton- Inside My Love

I stumbled on this song when I was listening to the Jackie Brown film soundtrack. It's a beautiful and sensual love song with fairly explicit lyrics (amazingly allowed in 1975), and what a song it is, sung by an incredible singer. Minnie Riperton's voice lifts it into the ether; it's not hard to imagine her and her husband Richard Rudolph writing it together when they were first in love. I love it. 

Inside My Love

Two people, just meeting, barely touching each other
Two spirits, greeting, tryna carry each further
You are one, and I am another
We should be, one inside each other

You can see inside me, will you come inside me
Do you wanna ride, inside my love
You can see inside me, will you come inside me
Do you wanna ride, inside my love

My love, my love, my love
My love, my love, my love

Two strangers, not strangers
Only lacking the knowing
So willing, feeling
Infinite growing
While we're here, the whole world is turning
We should be, one, fulfilling the yearning

You can see inside me, will you come inside me
Do you wanna ride, inside my love
You can see inside me, will you come inside me
Do you wanna ride, inside my love
You can see inside me, will you come inside me
Do you wanna ride, inside my love

Say that you'll ride, inside this love with me
Come ride, inside this love with me

You can see inside me, will you come inside me
Do you wanna ride, inside my love
You can see inside me, will you come inside me
Do you wanna ride, inside my love

You can see inside me, will you come inside me
Do you wanna ride, inside my love
You can see inside me, will you come inside me
Do you wanna ride, inside my love

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Leon Ware / Minnie Riperton / Richard Rudolph

Inside My Love lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Overpowered by Róisín Murphy

This song is from 2007; strange that I don't remember it from that time. A good song in any case, regardless of how old it is.....

 


And the lyrics.....

"Overpowered"

When I think that I'm over you
I'm overpowered

Your data my data
The chromosomes match
Exact as in matter
A matter of fact

These amaranth feelings
A cognitive state
Need the love object
To reciprocate

When I think that I'm over you
I'm overpowered
It's long overdue
I'm overpowered

When I think that I'm over you
I'm overpowered
It's long overdue
I'm overpowered

As science struggles on to try to explain
Oxy-toxin's flowing ever into my brain

As science struggles on to try to explain
Oxy-toxin's flowing ever into my brain

A chemical reason
If reason's your game
A chemical needing
Is there in the brain

With preprogrammed meanings
Like a little more pep
Alien feelings
We have to accept

When I think that I'm over you
I'm overpowered
It's long overdue
I'm overpowered

When I think that I'm over you
I'm overpowered
It's long overdue
I'm overpowered

As science struggles on to try to explain
Oxy-toxin's flowing ever into my brain

As science struggles on to try to explain
Oxy-toxin's flowing ever into my brain

I'm overpowered

Caledonia--a beautiful song by Dougie MacLean

I'll be writing a post soon about our Scotland adventure, but before I do, I wanted to post this song--Caledonia (the Latin name for Scotland)--that one of our tour guides played for us when we were driving toward Loch Lomond on the first bus tour that we took during the week we were in Edinburgh. I fell in love with this song; although MacLean wrote it about Scotland, it is a song for all of us who miss our home countries, who feel that longing 'for home' intensely. I can absolutely relate to it. I'm also including the lyrics.





I don't know if you can see
the changes that have come over me
In these past few days I've been afraid
that I might drift away
So I've been telling old stories, singing songs
that make me think about where I came from
and that's the reason why I seem
so far away today

Oh Let me tell you that I love you
that I think about you all the time
Caledonia you're calling me
now I'm going home
and if I should become a stranger
no it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had

Oh and I have moved
and I've kept on moving
proved the points
that I needed proving
lost the friends
that I needed losing
found others on the way
Oh and I have tried and kept on trying
stolen dreams yes there's no denying
I've traveled hard with conscience flying
somewhere with the wind

Oh Let me tell you that I love you
that I think about you all the time
Caledonia you're calling me
now I'm going home
and if I should become a stranger
no it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had

Now I'm sitting here
before the fire
the empty room
The forest choir
the flames have cooled
don't get any higher
they've withered now
they've gone
and I'm steady thinking
my way is clear
and I know what
I will do tomorrow
When the hands have shaken
And the kisses flowed
and I will disappear

Let me tell you that I love you
that I think about you all the time
Caledonia you're calling me
now I'm going home
and if I should become a stranger
no it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had

A Star is Born--2018

Bradley Cooper's A Star is Born is a beautiful movie. I saw it this past Thursday evening, and it has stayed with me since then. Besides being a beautiful movie, it is a moving one--a love story that reaches in, grabs your heart, and doesn't let go. I haven't felt this way about a film since Brokeback Mountain from 2005. A Star is Born has gotten excellent reviews all the way around, and that is not surprising. I was thinking about why the film works so well; after all, this is the fourth remake of the original film from 1937. I haven't seen the original film or the other remakes, but I feel sure that this film, apart from the original, is the best. I think it comes down to the two leads, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. Both play vulnerable characters who open up to each other and who fall in love. Both are singers, one on the way up (Ally, played by Lady Gaga) and one on the way down (Jackson Maine, played by Bradley Cooper). Jackson Maine is struggling with alcoholism and drug addiction; his career as a country singer has peaked and he knows it. When he begins to sing together with Ally after 'discovering' her in a drag bar where she performs at times, he understands that she is what he needs, both professionally and personally. But other people recognize her talent and do not want him and his addictions to stand in her way, with a tragic outcome. It's a story that's been told many times in many different ways, but this one works. It's been brought up-to-date, with Ally being able to move between a number of different song genres, from country music to pop.

In my opinion the film works because the chemistry between Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga is real, raw, palpable. You feel it every time they look at each other, hug each other, or touch each other. You feel that they care for each other, and you feel for them when their relationship falls on hard times. Their chemistry has been commented upon by many movie reviewers and the stars themselves. The movie is filmed in an intimate manner, with close-ups of their faces and expressions, which creates the effect that we are right there with them. There is a vulnerability and an ease between them that works; there is nothing slick or superficial about their relationship. I found myself thinking that this is the way many romantic relationships start, with that vulnerability and ease. They are beautiful things if you are lucky enough in your life to experience them; they are what we are always seeking a return to, and if we are lucky enough, we find them again and fall in love with our partner all over again.

But it occurred to me as well that both Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga experienced that vulnerability in their real lives when making this film, not just in their characters' lives onscreen. Cooper is an actor, not a singer (or director--this is his first time as director), and Lady Gaga is a singer, not an actor; yet both of them moved out of their 'safe' zones to try something new, with amazing results. Cooper can sing, and Lady Gaga can act. Additionally, Lady Gaga knows what it takes to reach the top, and I feel sure that she drew on those experiences and used them in creating Ally. The performances of the other actors in this film are also worth lauding--Sam Elliot as Jackson's brother Bobby, and Andrew Dice Clay as Lorenzo Campana, Ally's father.

Cooper and Lady Gaga supported each other and brought out the best in each other, and created a film that will last, that will still move you half a century from now. That is an amazing feat and one to be proud of--to know as the director, and as actors, that you have created a film that is already assured a place in posterity.

'Until Tomorrow' by Gail Ann Dorsey

I have fallen in love with a song--this song. Pure poetry set to music. It's beautiful, both the music and the lyrics. It is a song from the soundtrack to the movie Phoenix, itself a very good and very underrated little movie, just like this song. I tried finding the lyrics online and couldn't, so I listened carefully to the song and wrote them down. I believe Gail Ann Dorsey wrote this song and sang it. If so, she is as good a songwriter as she is singer and musician. Here are the lyrics to 'Until Tomorrow'. Enjoy........


These are the pieces
Of all that I was
My troubles will never define me
Overcoming them does.

If I try to stand up
Would you hold me down?
The choices I made
Were all my own
All my own.

(chorus)

I have fallen in too deep
Miles to go, before I sleep
Before I sleep.
Give me peace
I am lost
Give me wings, to rise above
To rise above.

If I ask forgiveness
Would you give me that now?
If I wanted to hold you
Would you show me how?

No need for reasons
No time for sorrow
Each day is a new day
And lasts only until tomorrow.

(chorus)