I was just driving home from dropping my son off to school, it’s wet, raining and cold! Then this song came on the radio, my whole morning just flipped. I turned it up LOUD in the car and didn’t stop singing until I got in the house, and started this blog post LOL. This is one of my favouite songs, I find it so beautiful. I also love when contestants on shows like X-Factor do a really good job during their audition, or performances when they sing this song. Did you know this song was written in 1987 by Seal originally? Then released later.
It’s the year 1995, the Batman Forever movie has just been released and we’ve all been blessed with Seal’s talent. What were you doing in 1995? I was just leaving school.It’s karaoke time and throwback Thursday…. ready ?Baaaaaaaaaaaaaabay, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey… ohhhhhhhhh the more I get from you the stranger it feels, yeaaaahh!
Okay it’s not ‘Throwback Thursday’ it’s more like TGIF but…all National Novel Writing Month writers around the world, this song just came on the radio and it’s probably how many of us feel. I dedicate it to all of us. We are mid point (hopefully) with novel writing so let’s take it back to 1979 … “Aint No Stoppin’ Us Now’ we’re on a roll!…. with writing. Get your dancing shoes, get up from behind your laptop, celebrate reaching mid point of this great challenge to push our creativity for one full month.
Throwing it back musically as usual on a Thursday! This week I thought a bit about Tupac, after a movie marathon the other night. I was up until 4:00 a.m watching the biopic “All Eyez on Me” recently released in memory of him. I was impressed with the casting, the actor who portrayed Tupac is not only as drop dead gorgeous as the real man, (sorry no matter what you think of him, this man is a stunner!! 🙂 ), the actor also put over Tupac’s characteristics we know him for well.
One thing that I’ve always felt about Tupac is that no matter how “gangster” some my find him, he was at times a very conscious rapper and a poet. He was in love with Shakespeare! His lyrical content at times was intelligent. Sometimes this may have been ignored. Or it could have been that sadly he was not “media friendly enough”, as his way of showing his consciousness upset and reminded certain groups of society members, about the struggle they turn a blind eye to… but those from poorer backgrounds facing the struggle could relate, no matter what side of the Atlantic they hail from.
Interestingly, I have read things that suggest Tupac was a contradiction to himself, conscious on one hand but everything that young black / Hispanic males are stereotyped as, like he lived up to what society expect from young males of this background. Personally, I feel his delivery of consciousness came from a certain place, his environment, and who he was skin deep and may always be seen as due to history. And if you don’t understand or acknowledge that environment you won’t get his consciousness! He was associated with the Black Panthers. His mother is a very strong woman and supported the human/civil rights movement in the USA. You can’t get more conscious than that. He was a voice for a certain demographic of people around the world facing oppression, only some understood it while others saw it as aggression. I’ll never forget him, his voice represents the thoughts and feelings my own son, who is just three may feel one day growing up in a harsh world.
Today I’m throwing back two of my favourite hits from this award winning, platinum selling actor, poet and yes rapper… “gangster rapper” if that’s what you want to label him as… whatever… using his own words “middle finger up! Only God can judge him.”
R.I.P Tupac
16th June 1971- 13th September 1996
Died age twenty five!!!
Keep ya’ Head Up: Love this song with its conscious words, I can’t help but two step dance!
I ain’t Mad at Ya: Video made just a week before his death… makes you wonder about his death.
It’s Thursday. This week I’m throwing it back to the year after I was born. I was one year old this song came out. But I love my old school 50s-80s music. I remember hearing this a lot at home growing up. I heard this song twice on the radio in one week, each time I sang, danced and felt good…. Let’s go back with Kool and The Gang! Get ready to boogie for a full four minutes. She’s fresh, exciting … she’s so exciting to me…
It’s Thursday! New followers you’ll soon see I love to throw it back musically on Thursdays. Music is a big part of my life. This week’s Throwback Thursday tune came to me last Saturday night. I was at home in the late evening, just about to pick up my e-reader and escape. I tuned into a station I’ve not listened to for a long time, Radio 1 in the UK. They play a variety of music from hip hop, dance and indie-pop. Sia came on, I said to myself ” I remember this song” I turned it up and started to sing along. Sia is such a talented lady, who I think is so underrated!! She’s wrote so many of the big songs we hear on the radio. She has made stars like Rhianna a huge success. Not to mention her actual singing voice, amazing too. I never would have imagined such a voice could come out of her. A bit like Lady Gaga when she actually sings the woman can sing! No need for auto tune, Gaga.
This song here is the original of “little Man”, I read her Wiki page and learned she was in a jazz band in her early days. Listening to the throwback tune it makes sense. This song here it reminds me of a jazzy Amy Winehouse, or I should say Amy may have been influenced by Sia back in the day, if you listen to Amy’s first album Frank you can see the relation between the two singers. I like the jazzy, soulful feel.
I’m throwing it back to about 2000 with some old school Sia, when we could see her face. Which I don’t think she should hide. I love the original and the remix UK Garage version too. One of the UK’s well know underground DJ’s called Wookie remixed this tune. OMG the beat is so so so out of this world! I remember dancing in the clubs in my early twenties to the remixed dance version. Great nights! Some very tipsy nights too! Thanks Sia (and Wookie) for your great music, these lyrics highlight the relationship between a mother and son, I can relate. And the UK remix is such a great tune to dance to :).
It’s a grey cloudy one in London. I’m sitting here about to crack on with the final touches on my first, of two published books this July. You know me by now right? The music is going, coffee is being made, I’m in the zone. This song came on the radio as I was in the kitchen waiting for the kettle to boil, giving it so much attitude as I sang along, doing my best Beyonce impression. (Not a very good one, but plenty of attitude though).
This song came out in 1999… Woah I was sixteen years old ! How old were you in 1999? Do you remember singing along to this song?
It set me in a good mood to work. I like Beyonce’s work ethic too. Eighteen years she has been a successful woman since this first song came out. Inspirational being the same age too.
Music will always be my saviour in life! And what I write to.
Author, Kim Knight 