Welsh singer Sir Thomas John Woodward (known professionally as Tom Jones) is 81 today! 🍕 In December 1967 he recorded “Delilah” (lyrics by Barry Mason and music by Les Reed) and, singing it in his dramatic fashion, he managed to make it a top hit all over the world. This song is about a crime… Read More Tom Jones
I Travel as a Phantom Now I travel as a phantom now,For people do not wish to seeIn flesh and blood so bare a boughAs Nature makes of me. And thus I visit bodilessStrange gloomy households often at odds,And wonder if Man’s consciousnessWas a mistake of God’s. And next I meet you, and I pause,And… Read More I Travel as a Phantom Now
HAPIf but some vengeful god would call to meFrom up the sky, and laugh: ” Thou suffering thing,Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,That thy love’s loss is my hate’s profiting!” Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die,Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than IHad willed and meted… Read More Hap
Thomas Hardy and his first wife Emma had long been estranged when she died in 1912: her death prompted a series of poems which are viewed as being among his best work. In “The Voice”, which deals with love, death, grief, and memories, the poet aments over the loss of his beloved, whose presence is… Read More The Voice
On 5 May 1967 the Kinks released “Waterloo Sunset”, a single which was also their first single available in true stereo.The song was originally entitled “Liverpool Sunset”, because songwriter and singer Ray Davies loved the city and its music.But when The Beatles released “Penny Lane”, the title changed because another song about Liverpool may have… Read More Waterloo Sunset 🎶
“Waterloo” was Swedish pop group ABBA’s breakout song and also the first single to be released under the name “ABBA” It won the nineteenth annual Eurovision Song Contest broadcast from The Dome in Brighton in 1974 .In England, the song peaked to No. 1 on 4 May 1974 and it sold nearly six million copies… Read More Waterloo 🎶
Louise GlĂĽck, the American poet who was awarded The Nobel Prize for Literature in 2020, was born on 22 April 1943. AT THE RIVEROne night that summer my mother decided it was time to tell me aboutwhat she referred to as pleasure, though you could see she feltsome sort of unease about this ceremony, which… Read More Happy Birthday, Louise GlĂĽck! 🎉
Across The Red Sky Across the red sky two birds flying,Flying with drooping wings.Silent and solitary their ominous flight.All day the triumphant sun with yellow bannersWarred and warred with the earth, and when she yieldedStabbed her heart, gathered her blood in a chalice,Spilling it over the evening sky.When the dark plumaged birds go flying, flying,Quiet… Read More Across The Red Sky
Here in This Spring(Dylan Thomas) Here in this spring, stars float along the void;Here in this ornamental winterDown pelts the naked weather;This summer buries a spring bird. Symbols are selected from the years’Slow rounding of four seasons’ coasts,In autumn teach three seasons’ firesAnd four birds’ notes. I should tell summer from the trees, the wormsTell,… Read More Here in This Spring
On 16 April 1964,  The Beatles recorded A Hard Day’s Night, one of their first hit singles, at EMI Studios in London.  It’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dogIt’s been a hard day’s night, I should be sleeping like a logBut when I get home to you I’ll find… Read More A Hard Day’s Night 🎶
