Songs That I Love #36 Natalie Merchant - The Gulf Of Araby

I have always followed Natalie Merchant from her early days in 10,000 Maniacs (A really great band) she started playing this track live and it was captured on the live album 'Live In New York City' although it was sadly omitted from the DVD of the same title.

It's a cover of a Katell Keineg song an artist I have never heard of who I think appears in this video singing with Natalie. I have never heard the original.

I have no idea what this song is about I have always been draw to how its sounds, there is so much passion in it.

If you could fill a veil with shells from Killineys shore
And sweet talk in a tongue that is no more
If wishful thought could bridge
The gulf of Araby
Between what is
What is
What is
And what can never be

If you could hold the frozen flow of new hope creek
And hide out from the one they said you might meet
If you could unlearn all the words
That you never wanted heard
If you could stall the southern wind
That's whistling in your ears
You could take what is
What is
What is
What is
To what can never be

One man of seventy whispers free at last
Two neighbours who are proud of their massacres
Three tyrants torn away in a winters month
Four prisoners framed by a dirty judge
Five burned with tyres
Six men still inside
And seven more days to shake at the great divide

The gulf, the gulf of Araby
The gulf, the gulf of Araby

Well, we would plough and part the earth to bring you home
And harvest every miracle ever known
If they laid out all the things
That these ten years want to bring
We would gladly give them up
To bring you back to us
O, there is nothing we would not give
To kiss you and believe you can take what is
What is
What is
To what can never be

One man of seventy whispers not free yet
Two neighbours who make up knee-deep in their dead
Three tyrants torn away in the summers heat
Four prisoners lost in the fallacy
Five, on my life
And six, I'm dead inside
And seven more days to shake at the great divide

The gulf, the gulf of Araby
The gulf, the gulf of Araby

Songs That I Love #35 David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Forbidden Colours

 

Taken from the film Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence which starred David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto, came this single featuring David Sylvian just as he was about to launch his solo career. The song is haunting and beautiful.

 

I have included 2 versions here, the first (the original) credited to Sylvian & Sakamoto and the one at the bottom of the page which is slightly different and appeared later on Sylvian's Secrets Of The Beehive album.

 

 

 

The wounds on your hands never seem to heal

I thought all I needed was to believe

Here am I, a lifetime away from you

The blood of Christ, or the beat of my heart

My love wears forbidden colours

My life believes

Senseless years thunder by

Millions are willing to give their lives for you

Does nothing live on?

Learning to cope with feelings aroused in me

My hands in the soil, buried inside of myself

My love wears forbidden colours

My life believes in you once again

I'll go walking in circles

While doubting the very ground beneath me

Trying to show unquestioning faith in everything

Here am i, a lifetime away from you

The blood of Christ, or a change of heart

My love wears forbidden colours

My life believes

My love wears forbidden colours

My life believes in you once again

 

 

 

Songs That I Love #34 Elbow - Newborn

The first song I ever heard by Elbow and still my favourite track. Guy Garvey has talked about how influential the band Talk Talk have been on his music and you can hear it in this track.

I was once reprimanded by Lauren Laverne on Twitter for killing the vibe of her show as I suggested this wasn't the most appropriate song to dedicate to all the new Mums listening. I still stand by my comments as the song is about an old married couple in the later stages of life...

This track has sadly been left out of Elbow's live set recently, but here it is live in all it's glory.

I'll be the corpse in your bathtub
Useless
I'll be as deaf as a post
If you hold me like a newborn
Whisper what you feel
My badly strung declaration
To You
You'll spend the end of your days
Gently smiling like a newborn
Love not by degrees

Press your lips
To my eyes
Taste my tears
On your tongue,
Pull the blinds
Play our song
Nothings changed
Nothing could be wrong.

Scream in the night
Kick and striked
Like a newborn
Holding me shaking
Awake in the dark
All of these promises
Kept and unbroken
Tracing the scars
Tracing the scars
Even and cold
As we both become older.
Your arms bound about me
The hush in your voice.
The warmth of your fingers
Entwined around mine
In the eve of our lives
Never a choice.

Songs That I Love #33 Johnny Cash - Hurt

I know it's a cover but Johnny sings every word as if he wrote this song himself. This track is never background music for me whenever I hear it, it makes me stop what I'm doing and listen.

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

[Chorus:]
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here

[Chorus:]
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way 

Songs That I Love #32 Lifehouse - Broken

 

 

 

 

When you realise that you love someone just a little bit more than they love you...



 

 

 

The broken clock is a comfort, it helps me sleep tonight
Maybe it can stop tomorrow from stealing all my time
I am here still waiting though i still have my doubts
I am damaged at best, like you've already figured out

I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart that's still beating
In the pain, there is healing
In your name I find meaning
So I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on
I'm barely holdin' on to you

The broken locks were a warning you got inside my head
I tried my best to be guarded, I'm an open book instead
I still see your reflection inside of my eyes
That are looking for a purpose, they're still looking for life

I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing
with a broken heart that's still beating
In the pain (in the pain), is there healing
In your name (in your name) I find meaning
So I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'), I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'), I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin')
I'm barely holdin' on to you

I'm hangin' on another day
Just to see what you throw my way
And I'm hanging on to the words you say
You said that I will be OK

The broken lights on the freeway left me here alone
I may have lost my way now, haven't forgotten my way home

I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing
with a broken heart that's still beating
In the pain(In the pain) there is healing
In your name I find meaning
So I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'), I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'), I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'),
I'm barely holdin' on to you

I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'), I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'), I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'),
I'm barely holdin' on to you 





Songs That I Love #31 Crowded House - Into Temptation

Can't really say too much about this one other than I guess most people will stand at this crossroads at some point. Which path you take at point could change your life forever...

You opened up your door
I couldn't believe my luck
You in your new blue dress
Taking away my breath
The cradle is soft and warm
Couldn't do me no harm
You're showing me how to give

Into temptation
Knowing full well the earth will rebel
Into temptation

A muddle of nervous words
Could never amount to betrayal
Sentences all my own
And the price is to watch it fail
As I turn to go
You looked at me for half a second
With an open invitation for me to go

Into temptation
Knowing full well the earth will rebel
Into temptation
Safe in the wide open arms of hell

We can go sailing in
Climb down
Lose yourself when you linger long
Into temptation
Right where you belong

The guilty get no sleep
In the last slow hours of morning
Experience is cheap
I should've listened to the warning
But the cradle is soft and warm

Songs That I Love #30 Glen Hansard - Song Of Good Hope

This song was written by Glen Hansard in response to a friend who was battling cancer. I can't tell you how many times I have listened to this in the last year, but safe to say it is a song very close to my heart for a number of reasons.

 

 

 

 

 

Well if we're gonna make it,
Cross this river alive,
You better think like a boat,
And go with the tide,

And I've known where you've been,
Has really left you in doubt,
Of ever finding a harbour,
Of figuring this out,

And you're gonna need, all the help you can get,
So lift up your arms now, and reach for it,
Reach for it...

And take your time babe,
It's not as bad as it seemed,
You'll be fine babe,
It's just some rivers and streams,
In between, you and where you want to be,

Watch the signs now,
You'll know what they mean,
You'll be fine now,
Just stay close to me,
And may good hope, walk with you through everything,

La da la... La da na da

Take your time babe,
It's not as bad as it seems,
You'll be fine babe,
It's just some rivers and streams,
In between, you and where you want to be,

Watch the signs now,
You'll know what they mean,
You'll be fine now,
Just stay close to me,
And may good hope, walk with you through everything,
May the song of good hope, walk with you through everything.