Childhood Ditties, that I still remember. Links are examples; these were common, like folk songs.
- Molly Malone
“Singing cockles and mussels, alive, alive-O.” - Mares Eat Oats (1948)
“Mairzy dotes and dozey dotes and little lamsey divey. A kiddly divey too, wouldn’t you?” - Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Friends
When I heard it, growing up, it was “for they live in the cold and the damp” with the last word as pronounced in this video
Sentimental songs, from the 1950s and 1960s.
I’m linking some YouTube videos for now, even though they seem to not have a long shelf-life…
- Try to Remember – Andy Williams, with a focus on the nostalgia of a simpler past.
- It was a very good year – Frank Sinatra, about a sophisticate looking back on his romantic past
- Sunrise, Sunset (from Fiddler on the Roof), with a focus on how fast children grow up
- Those Were the Days – Mary Hopkins, with a focus on the idealism of youth (“older but no wiser, for in our hearts our dreams were still the same”) remastered
- Turn Around – Harry Belafonte, another song about how quickly children grow and depart
- The Green Leaves of Summer! (from the film The Alamo) “Was so good to be young then. To be close to the earth.”
\\
There will be two big segments of this page. The first, popular music, both singers and groups. The second, classical and contemporary composers, both of concert music and film music.
Popular music
- Joan Baez
- Paul Simon
- Elton John
- Springsteen
- R.E.M.
- U2
- Crowded House/Neil Finn
- Savage Garden/Darren Hayes
- Radiohead
Classical and contemporary composers.
Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, sure sure, but especially:
- Bruckner
- Mahler
- Shostakovich
- Pettersson
- Schnittke
- Ligeti
- Glass
Film composers:
- Delerue
- Zimmer
- Preisner
Notes.
Radiohead:
- Pablo Honey. Meh. “Creep” was a hit, but I didn’t care.
- The Bends. Getting there. Three songs I like: “High and Dry,” “Fake Plastic Trees,” and “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”. With Radiohead, even when I read the lyrics, the songs don’t necessarily mean anything profound; they’re all about the sounds, the singing, the melodies…
