Women's Choice - Life Journeys Seen Through Music
Sheila Day and Lettice Maltravers
1 Micachu and The Shapes: Calculator
Micachu and The Shapes - Calculator - YouTube
I came across this track, which I suppose could be described as ‘post punk' entirely by chance, when I was reading about film composers. I was very impressed with some film scores and surprised to find out more about this composer.
Micachu is Mica Levi, from a musical family (father a Professor of Music and mother a cello teacher). Mica was classically trained at the Purcell School of Music and Guildhall School of Music, has had work performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and has made an album with the London Sinfonietta, in addition to appearing at music festivals like Bestival. Mica, born 1987, is adventurous in many different fields and is interested in experimental music, including inventing instruments. This track is from an early album, Jewellery, released in 2009. I like it for several reasons - its attitude, lyrics and refrain of "I don't think I can work this one out", its punky percussion with unusual instruments and its questioning of the future. Mica Levi's progressive pop led on to great things. In 2014 Mica received the European Film Award for Best Composer for the score of Jonathan Glazer's film Under the Skin. Mica wrote the score for the film Jackie, and the music for some instalments of Steve McQueen's BBC/Amazon recent production Small Axe. These days, Mica prefers to be described as non-male: some may find that a challenge. The point I want to make is that people's potential is enormous: great things can be achieved if we don't try to put people, music, film, cultures into boxes that exist now. Sometimes we don't know where we are going until we arrive. We should lift the lid on those old boxes and let the creativity fly. Mica said in an interview with The Guardian, "Everyone does stuff, everyone makes stuff. If you're going to make something, you should try and be wild. But, I don't know, everyone's different, aren't they?". Mica has been described as "one of the most original artists working in the UK today, and compositions have been described as "thrillingly improbable pop made by a grade-A maverick".
Read more about Mica Levi if you wish
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micachu
https://thegentlewoman.co.uk/library/mica-levi
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/mar/15/mica-levi-under-the-skin-soundtrack
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/12/mica-levi-of-michachu-and-the-shapes
2 London Grammar: Wasting My Young Years
London Grammar - Wasting My Young Years [Official Video] - YouTube
https://youtu.be/FzCb4pperfM - Live performance
The CD that includes this song was a gift to my daughter's family from friends as a thank you for an overnight stay and an evening of entertainment at the Village Hall. I would never have come across it otherwise. When it was played for me, I was impressed by the emotional effect that the singer, Hannah Reid, produces. Her wonderful voice has an affecting and memorable quality of truthfulness and honesty. The song peaked at number 31 on the UK Singles Chart in 2013. The album's lyrics are mainly based upon Hannah Reid's personal life, in particular her troubled teenage years. Some of us may feel, particularly in this time of Covid 19, that we have not made the best choices in our younger lives, and regret is usually retrospective. But it is sad to see the effect of the current lockdowns on young women who should be discovering themselves, learning about life by meeting and going out and enjoying themselves with friends. Youthful angst is hard enough to survive without being incarcerated in the house. Young love hasn't had a chance to flourish over the past months. This song shows regret contemporaneously, at the time it is happening. But time only flows in one direction - the young years wasted will never be regained. One critic suggests that this was "the first quarter-life-crisis album.
Read more about London Grammar if you wish
Lyrics to Wasting My Young Years https://youtu.be/fLTazgzhGMM
https://www.londongrammar.com/#
http://www.somamagazine.com/london-grammar/
http://spillmagazine.com/spill-album-review-london-grammar-truth-beautiful-thing/
3 Cyndi Lauper: Girls Just Want to Have Fun:
Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want To Have Fun (Official Video) - YouTube
Cyndi was born in Brooklyn and this song was taken from her first album She's So Unusual which came out in 1983. This was the first debut album in the US to have five number one singles on it.
She has recorded 11 studio albums and musical scores, most notably Kinky Boots for which she won a Tony award in 2013 and was the first woman to win one on their own. A Grammy and Olivier Award followed.
This track, when I first heard it, lifted me out of doldrums having just been divorced and encouraged me to go out there and have some fun. I remember driving around with the stereo on full blast, with my best friend, both of us singing at the top of our voices. We went clubbing, had parties, flings and fun. I hadn't had much fun for years and I was making up for lost time having been a single mum or unhappily married since I was 18. I guess it was a 32 year old's teenage blast.
4 Madness: Driving in My Car
Madness - Driving in My Car (Official Video) - YouTube
I liked Madness from the start. They grabbed attention in the late 1970's and early 80's with their inventive and wacky videos, their danceable ska/pop rhythms and most of all their great musicianship. I was given the cassette tape Complete Madness for a Christmas present and it was a favourite to play in the car - especially my car when I got it. We women usually get the rubbish car of the family, the second car, the second best. Neither of our cars was up to much, but as we were living in a rural location it was essential to have two cars if the woman, (the wife and mother) was going to go out to work. I invested in a rusty Renault as my trusty transport after being stranded for five years at home as a full-time mum, five years which I enjoyed enormously and which were also limiting and confining. I drove myself to work with great satisfaction, intoxicated by the release from household occupations. Oh the freedom! Beep beep!!
5 Sade: Smooth Operator
Sade - Smooth Operator - YouTube
This track came from Sade's Diamond Life album in 1984. This album won the 1984 Brit Award for best album. Sade's unique voice and style has been in and out of the music business for thirty years with her taking a break of 8 years in 1992 after the birth of her daughter Michaila who is now a trans-gender man. She was born in Nigeria and lived in Essex since the age of 4.
Sade was a talented fashion designer and dabbled in modelling before she settled into the music life. In 2002 she was awarded an OBE for Services to Music. I believe that she has only toured once, in 2011, a tour that grossed £50 Million. In 2018 she composed the score for the film Widows.
I guess we have all experienced a ‘smooth operator' both female and male. It's such an iconic song that it was actually the only Sade song that I have heard.
6 Portishead: Glory Box
Portishead Glory Box Live At Roseland NY ( Best Audio) - YouTube
This band formed in Bristol in 1991 when Beth Gibbons and Geoff Barrow met in a coffee shop. They were joined by Adrian Utley who co-produced their first album and co-wrote 8 off the tracks Their first album Dummy in 1994 won the Mercury Music Prize and was voted Best Newcomer at the Brits. They are avid tourers and have attended most of the Festivals both in Europe and of course our Glastonbury.
The term Glory Box is an Australian slang word for dowry, or we would say ‘bottom drawer', a collection of things to prepare a girl for marriage. Their music was featured in the 1990 series, based in London about young lawyers called This Life.
To me, the song and video shows the huge difference between the way women approach their love life and need understanding and emotion from men. Some critics have said that the song is about seduction but the jury is still out on that.
7 - Clean Bandit - Rockabye (feat. Sean Paul & Anne-Marie) [Official Video] - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=papuvlVeZg8&feature=youtu.be
Clean Bandit were formed in 2008, with founder members Grace Chatto and brothers Jack and Luke Patterson and are primarily an electronic band. Their debut album New Eyes was released in 2014 but they had released and had some success with singles.
The song Rockabye was taken from their second album What Is Love, released in December 2018. Rockabye was released as a single in October 2016 and topped the charts for 6 weeks before Christmas and was the Christmas No. 1 in 2016.
The band often had guest singers performing and Rockabye features Anne-Marie, an English singer songwriter and Sean Paul a Jamaican dancehall singer.
This song appealed to me and struck a chord by illustrating what life can be like as a single Mother. I admired that it isn't a ‘poor me' song, but an anthem to a mother's love. I loved the mix of Anne-Marie's clear voice and Sean's Jamaican rap. The two styles work so well together.
8 Bessie Smith: Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
Bessie Smith - Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out (Official Audio) - YouTube
Ah, Bessie Smith, the blues singer's blues singer. She is such a great singer that it's hard to know where to start in a brief paragraph like this. In her too short life, which ended in a horrendous car crash, she experienced the heights of success and the depths of poverty. She was the most popular blues singer in the 1920s and 30s, and a huge influence on those who followed after her. She has been described as a ‘libidinous, raunchy, fearless blueswoman', and that says it succinctly. I chose this track because it looks at the consequences of some of the choices that women make, and that sometimes are unavoidable. And, sadly, it's the truth.
Read more about Bessie Smith if you wish
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Smith
9 Harry Chapin: My Old Lady
Harry Chapin My Old Lady - YouTube
Dear Harry, one of my all time favourite singer songwriters. For those who are not familiar with his work his career was tragically cut short at the age of 39 in a car crash. He made 11 albums and had 14 hit singles from them. This track, released in 1977, is from his Danceband on the Titanic album. Interestingly he has had 16 albums released posthumously with the proceeds going to his foundation, which is run by his wife and family to continue his fight against World Hunger and injustice.
Harry dedicated his work and proceeds from his concerts to his campaign to end World Hunger and was posthumously awarded The Congressional Medal of Honour for his humanitarian work.
I have included this light-hearted song as it represents the tables being turned on a man. His bemusement at being ‘cuckolded' and surprise, is very well portrayed. Harry does have the knack of creating songs from a woman's point of view. One that springs to mind is Manhood. It is on the same album.
10 The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices ft. Lisa Gerrard:
The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices ft. Lisa Gerrard - Pora Sotunda - YouTube
I wanted to choose a piece of music that shows the power of women working together, and the Bulgarian Voices was one of my lines of investigation. My sister-in-law went on a short course to learn how to sing in the Bulgarian manner, and was very enthusiastic about the techniques used. At a family wedding we learned some Bulgarian dances, and that interested me further.
This song and its accompanying video struck me immediately: I found the music and the ideas that the images convey absolutely fascinating. The short film Is in itself a surrealistic work of art, reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. The women are singing in Bulgarian but I can't anywhere find a translation of the meaning of the title. The blending of the choir of Bulgarian Voices and the soloist Lisa Gerrard is matched perfectly by the video performance artist, and I love the story that the video tells of life, death, aging, acceptance, freedom, and being at one with the environment.
Read more about The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices if you wish.
https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/world/the-mystery-of-the-bulgarian-voices/