These videos must be scene in conjunction with the other. You will understand why.
Prof Conf on Sexual Violence Aspects of October 7th, 2023 in Israel
I warn you this is highly distressing listening / viewing, but it needs to be forwarded so that people are aware of what happened and what we are faced with. People need to wake up to this terror threat right now. Our Governments need to head this straight on. At 59:00 minute is something that no one could forget. And most people shouldn’t hear it.
Open the Eyes of My Heart – Michael W Smith
The thing about contemporary Christian music is that it’s hard to find information about its origen, but I will do my best here. I’m sorry I’ve been away a while.
Michael W Smith is no stranger to this site. He is one of my favourite Christian singers. I remember singing Open the Eyes of my Heart endlessly at Mornington Baptist Church in South East Melbourne. It was thrilling. When Michael sings very high and loud at 2:17 ‘When we sing Holy, Holy Holy‘ there are few more powerful moments in Christian singing than this at at least from what I’ve heard.
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord
Open the eyes of my heart
I want to see you, I want to see you
(repeat 4x)
To see you high and lifted up,
Shining in the light of your glory.
Lord, Pour out your power and love,
As we sing holy, holy, holy.
Holy, holy, holy
(you are)
Holy, holy, holy
Holy, holy, holy
I want to see you
(repeat)
Thanks always to wikipedia: “Open the Eyes of My Heart” is a contemporary Christian song by Paul Baloche. The lyrics are based on Ephesians 1:18, a verse from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
I have been listening a lot to 2 exceptional Centre Place lectures from John Hamer which seem to embrace philosophically and historically the meaning of God; namely Divine Men in Antiquity and Aquinas’ Proofs of God. I couldn’t recommend them more highly about understanding the significance of God in the historic and current era.
Reference:
1. Open The Eyes of my Heart – Wikipedia
Only You (1982) – Alison Moyet (Yazoo)
If you take away anything from this, then read the interview with Alison Moyet below. I have spoken about Desert Island songs before and now we are getting down to the nitty-gritty. This song, everything about it will always come away with me to my Desert Island. When I was in grade 6, I sang this song in front of a whole school assembly. Sure I got laughed off and I wondered how my backup tambourine player could surmount the ordeal, but we got through. Rebecca went on to bigger and brighter things after that performance and I’m proud to say I did too. Man, what a song. I don’t have enough superlatives to describe the mastery and wonder of this song.
Looking from a window above
It’s like a story of love
Can you hear me?
Came back only yesterday
I’m moving farther away
Want you near me
All I needed was the love you gave
All I needed for another day
And all I ever knew
Only you
Sometimes when I think of her name
When it’s only a game
And I need you
Listen to the words that you say
It’s getting harder to stay
When I see you
All I needed was the love you gave
All I needed for another day
And all I ever knew
Only you
All I needed was the love you gave
All I needed for another day
And all I ever knew
Only you
This is going to take a long time
And I wonder what’s mine
Can’t take no more (can’t take no more)
Wonder if you’ll understand
It’s just the touch of your hand
Behind a closed door
All I needed was the love you gave
All I needed for another day
And all I ever knew
Only you
I have listened to Only You, I don’t know maybe 3 hundred times and I am still in awe of it. I know 80’s music gets a bad rap, but Only You is to me the best of this quagmire of synth sound. It is a song by English synth-pop duo Yazoo and written by member Vince Clarke, while he was still with Depeche Mode, but recorded in 1982 after he formed Yazoo with Alison Moyet. It was released as Yazoo’s first single on 15 March 1982 in the United Kingdom, taken from their first album, Upstairs at Eric’s (1982), and became an instant success on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number two on 16 May 1982.
Vince Clarke originally wrote the music for the song on a guitar, and transposed the riff into synthesizer notes. While writing the lyrics, Clarke remarked “It was a very simple arrangement. I just formed words on a piece of paper. I was just hoping Daniel Miller, Mute Records founder, would like it“. Before Clarke presented the song to Miller, he offered it to Depeche Mode, although they rejected it. Clarke had written Only You as a sentimental ballad, and wanted to find a vocalist who could sing with emotion. My God did he find it in Alison Moyet! One for the ages.
References:
1. Only You (Yazoo song) – Wikipedia
2. Alison Moyet: ‘My biggest disappointment? I am’ – The Guardian
Only Time (2000) – Enya
Two Irish lasses in a row….you could do worse.
Enya’s A Day Without Rain is my favourite piece that I’ve heard from her collection and it was one of the first songs I posted on here. Today’s song Only Time is from the same album and is arguably one of her most beloved songs. Sometimes Enya sometimes gets a bad rap for reasons that escape me, but I like this a lot.
According to Wikipedia: In the aftermath of the 11 September attacks, sales of the album and its lead single, “Only Time”, surged after the song was widely used during radio and television coverage of the events, leading to its description as “a post-September 11 anthem”.
[Verse 1]
Who can say where the road goes?
Where the day flows?
Only time
And who can say if your love grows
As your heart chose?
Only time
[Interlude]
[Verse 2]
Who can say why your heart sighs
As your love flies?
Only time
And who can say why your heart cries
When your love lies?
Only time
[Bridge]
Who can say when the roads meet?
That love might be in your heart?
And who can say when the day sleeps
If the night keeps all your heart?
Night keeps all your heart
Enya Patricia Brennan known professionally as Enya, is an Irish singer, songwriter, record producer and musician. She began her music career with her family band Clannad but left in 1982 with their manager and producer Nicky Ryan to pursue a solo career. She has sung in 10 languages; eight more than me. The commercial and critical success of Watermark (1988) propelled her to worldwide fame. You could describe her music as new-age Celtic.
In 2001 she wrote and performed two tracks for the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) at the request of director Peter Jackson.
References:
1. Only Time – Wikipedia
Only a Woman’s Heart (1992) – Eleanor McEvoy
Today’s featured track has got everything that captures my musical senses: An impassioned Irish lass by the name of Eleanor McEvoy and an achingly haunting melody and lyric. I can see why Only A Woman’s Heart headlined the best-selling Irish album in Irish history. After Eleanor got an honours degree in music from Trinity College, Dublin she went to New York where she spent six months busking. She has gone on to release several albums and her ever evolving style has earned her many glowing reviews from critics over the years. Now if that isn’t the stuff of legend, I don’t know what is.
She even played in the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra for four years from 1988-1992. When she left she began to concentrate on her songwriting. In 1992, she performed a solo gig in which she sang a song she wrote herself called Only a Woman’s Heart. Mary Black, an Irish folk singer ( and a major recording artist) happened to be in the audience and was very impressed with the song and the singer. At the time, Black was working on an album that featured tracks from several female Irish vocalists. When she heard Only a Woman’s Heart, Black invited McEvoy to be a part of the project.
A few days before A Woman’s Heart was released, Tom Zutaut A & R from Geffen Records, who had previously signed Guns & Roses, Mötley Crüe, and Edie Brickell, offered McEvoy a worldwide recording deal after watching her perform at The Baggot Inn in Dublin. I was juggling between which versions to put here of A Woman’s Heart. So we have the original and a standout performance with Mary Black which made this all happen. Between you and me there is another cool version on a Spanish show here.
My heart is low, my heart is so low
As only a woman’s heart can be
As only a woman’s, as only a woman’s
As only a woman’s heart can know
The tears that drip
From my bewildered eyes
Taste of bittersweet romance
You’re still in my hopes
You’re still on my mind
And even though I manage on my own
When restless eyes
Reveal my troubled soul
And memories flood my weary heart
I mourn for my dreams
I mourn for my wasted love
And while I know that I’ll survive alone
References:
1. Eleanor McEvoy – writer of A Woman’s Heart – Irish Music Daily
Ones Who Love You (2014) – Alvvays
Like most of the songs from Alvvays spectacular self-titled debut album, Ones Who Love You is some sweet indiepop. The album topped the US college charts. I didn’t even know they had college charts until now. This is the third song to appear here from the album after their previous entries Next of Kin and Archie, Marry Me. They gave a powerhouse performance of some of these songs live on KEXP including today’s track (see below). Alvvays know their stuff; just listen to how the second verse is launched into as the guitar sound ramps up and then the snarly organ synth insertion. To me, the whole performance on KEXP is a bastion of great musicianship.
[Verse 1]
Take, take from the ones who love you, ooh
Leave, leave with the ones who don’t, ooh
Lie, lie to the ones who like you ooh
Lay, lay with the ones who won’t
[Verse 2]
They, they are the ones who love you, ooh
We, we are the ones who don’t, ooh
Hang up on the ones who need you, ooh
Watch out for the ones who won’t
[Chorus]
When lightning strikes
I will be on my bike
I won’t be stuck inside
I will be taking flight
And when the wheels come off
I’ll be an astronaut
But I won’t be lost in space
I will be skipping rocks
[Bridge]
When you live on an island
Nothing ever falls in place
The winters are violent
And you can’t ever feel your face
You can’t fucking feel your face
Alvvays (pronounced “always”) is a Canadian indie pop band formed in 2011, originating from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and subsequently based in Toronto, Ontario. Molly Rankin, the group’s singer-songwriter, is the daughter of John Morris Rankin, a fiddler with the Celtic folk family collective the Rankin Family, who enjoyed international success in the 1990s. Rankin grew up in Mabou, Nova Scotia, writing music with her neighbour, keyboardist Kerri MacLellan. She later met guitarist and partner Alec O’Hanley at a concert. With the help of O’Hanley, Rankin quietly released a solo extended play titled She in 2010. Alvvays was formed the following year, with Rankin recruiting MacLellan, O’Hanley, drummer Phil MacIsaac and bassist Brian Murphy.
Rankin picked the name Alvvays because it had a “shred of sentiment and nostalgia.” The spelling of the band name was due to the fact that there was already a band named Always signed to Sony.
I find Alvvays music just really puts me into a really pleasant mood. It takes me back to when I was about their age and just enjoying the carefree spirit of youth. They also conduct themselves unabashedly normal for a successful pop group which is refreshing.
References:
1. Alvvays – Wikipedia
2. Music representing the dissonance of loss: Molly Rankin and ‘Archie, Marry Me’ – mialondonblog
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