I am aware that ‘left’ has always been the dispised younger brother of right. The Romans used the word ‘sinister’ for left and we have taken the word to indicate something uneasy. Left-handed people have always been look on with suspicion. Indeed my father was forced to become right handed at school because left-handedness was […]
Right
The next direction on our list for research is ‘right’. I would expect that there will be many songs using the word in the title bearing in mind it’s other meaning of ‘correct’. Anyway we will see if my suspicion is well founded as well head into the archives. “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and […]
Down 2
My researches yesterday turned up a wealth of songs with ‘down’ in the title and so it seemed appropriate to take a second bite at the cherry. So here is our second post on the subject of ‘down’ in song. Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” is a song by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. […]
Down
In the second of our directional posts we tackle the subject of ‘down’. This should be relatively easy as not only is it a direction but also a state of mind. Songwriters are notorious for having the blues and feeling down, so let’s see what a rifle through the archive can produce. “Downtown” is a […]
Up
Today we are beginning a new series – this time on directions. We have already looked at the cardinal points of the compass (East, West etc.). This series will focus, rather like an early video game, on the simpler – Up, Down, Left, Right, Forward and Back. It may be that the world is populated […]
Dona Nobis Pacem
“Dona nobis pacem” (“Give us peace”) is a round for three parts to a short Latin text from the Agnus Dei. The melody has been passed orally. The round is part of many hymnals and songbooks. Beyond use at church, the round has been popular for secular quests for peace, such as the reunification of […]
Song Dates
The use of numbers in song is not limited to the number itself, quite often the writer includes a date in the title of the song,either to set it in a period or because that date might be of significance. So in our final, final numerically inspired post we are going to seek out some […]
Honourable Mentions – Numbers
Having decided to conclude the series of numerical songs at 21, I realised that there would need to be at least onepost of ‘honourable mentions’ for songs where they are the only one to refer to a particular number, especially when that number was higher than 21. So here we go. “Land of a Thousand […]
21
Finally, we have arrived at the last of our series of post on numbers from 1-21. The series comes of age today and because this number has for many years been the age at which adulthood begins – at which one symbolically receives the ‘key of the door’, I asume that this right of passage […]
19-20
And so our journey through the ‘teens’ comes to its inevitable conclusion with a combination of the last teen and the first twenty. Tomoorow will see the final post in this sereis of individual numbers, although there might be a couple of posts of honourable mentions. I have chosen to combine 19 and 20 because […]