MICHAEL JACKSON: HIS BEST TEN SONGS

Michael Jackson, or the "King of Pop" is considered to be one of the greatest artists of the whole twentieth century. With no doubt, Michael Jackson has become one of the most important icons of popular culture over the last four decades.

His contributions were not only to music but also to dance and fashion although quite unfortunately, he will also be remembered by the scandals that appeared along his life.

Michael Jackson will never be forgotten and neither will be the dance techniques that he popularized such as the robot or the moonwalk. His sound and style have been a great influence on later hip-hop, disco, R&B, pop and rock artists.




BILLIE JEAN

This song appeared in Jackson´s sixth solo album, Thriller (1982). This worldwide success was based on "groupies" Jackson said to have encountered along his life.

                                                       















BEAT IT

The third single of the same album, Thriller (1982). The song was promoted with a short film in which Jackson brought two gangs together thanks to the power of music and dance.

       


                                             
BLACK OR WHITE

The first single from Jackson's eighth album, Dangerous (1991) has one of the best-known guitar riffs in ythe history of pop music.

                                                         

THRILLER

This song had a 13-minute music video and was released in December 1983 and it is still considered the most influential pop music video of all time.

SMOOTH CRIMINAL

The seventh single of Jackson's 1987 Bad album. The lyrics of the song talk about a girl called Annie, who has been attacked in her appartment by a "smooth" assailant.

THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL

Another single from Jackson's Bad album, this song quickly became one of his greatest hits. It showed Jacson pursuing and dancing with a woman.

             The Way You Make Me Feel

BAD

Jackson said about this song that it was influenced by a real life story he had read about. In the video-clip made by Martin Scorsese, Jackson and a group of background dancers did some dance routines in a subway station.

                                 Bad

MAN IN THE MIRROR

One of the most acclaimed songs by Michael Jackson, it contains a gospel choir and speaks about the need to change oneself first  in order to change the world later.

                      Man in the Mirror

HEAL THE WORLD

This song of 1991 showed childrem from countries suffering unrest and hunger. Jackson also created the Heal The World Foundation, a charitable organization to improve the lives of children.

                           Heal The World

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

This R&B ballad was perhaps the last hit of Michael Jackson and it was an instant commercial and critical successs. It's a fantastic song about love and isolation.

                  You are not alone

MISSISSIPPI RIVER: THE BIG RIVER THAT CROSSES AMERICA.

                                                               

The Mississippi River, one of the most famous rivers in the world, forms the largest drainage system in North America, flowing southwards along 3.730 kms. from Northern Minnesota to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico.

                                                                                 

 It is the second longest river in North America, slightly shorter than its tributary the Missouri River. At its widest point, the Mississippi River stretches out over 11 kms. in width.

                                                                   

The Mississippi River watershed is the fourth largest in the world, extending from the Allegheny Mountains in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West and including all or parts of 31 states and two Canadian provinces.

                                                                       

It goes across ten US states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana and it was used to define borders between them.


                                                                   

The word Mississippi comes from the French rendering of the Native American name for the river, Misiziibi, (Great River). It would not be until 1541 when the first European reached the river (Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto). Later colonization of the areas bordering the river took place in the following centuries, carried out by French and British.

                                                                     

We cannot speak about the Mississippi River without referring to the Steamboat era (between 1830 and 1870). During all these years, steamboat transport, both of passengers and of freight was a viable industry and contributed to give the river one of its most legendary images. Modern ships finished this era, which is probably the most iconic one in the history of the river.

                                                                       

                                                                     
The main cities to be crossed by the "Big River" are Minneapolis, St. Louis, Memphis or New Orleans. The first bridge across the mississippi River was built in 1855, in Minneapolis.

                                                           

View of downtown Memphis with the Hernando de Soto Bridge
over the Mississippi River

                                                      When The Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin)

                                                                         Big River (Johnny Cash)

                                                                       

                                                             Mississippi River (JJ Cale)

                                                                    The Great Flood of 1927

AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC FROM THE 60s and 70s. DYLAN & Co.

The USA is such a big country that when we want to talk about American folk music we have to precise the period and, many times, even the 'place'. Yes, the place. This entry will deal with the great singers of the sixties and seventies, most of them songwriters as well, who lived not only in the USA but also in Canada.

BOB DYLAN (Minnesota, 1941. USA)

Robert Allen Zimmerman (Bob Dylan) is one of the greatest songwriter singers of all times. He has written more than 500 songs about politics, war, religion, human rights, loneliness, hate, love,... His lyrics are just poetry. In fact, he has been nominated for Nobel Prize in Literature and most of his hits have been recorded over and over again. It is impossible to select just one of his songs because all of them are very popular so we will pick one that we are sure you all can recognize even without knowing anything about Dylan.

Some bands such as Peter, Paul and Mary, became popular thanks to Dylan's songs, among other merits. Listen to the version of Blowing in the Wind (1962). Even when the look of the trio may seem funny, they were very trendy at that time!!!

Others, as the great Jimi Hendrix with All along the Watchtower (1967), made them number one. Legend says that when Bob Dylan listened to Hendrix, he was so astonished with the performance that he refused to play it for many years.

More or less the same happens with Like a Rolling Stone (1965), chosen the best song ever by Rolling Stone magazine. Let's listen to Their Satanic Majesties' version.

CAROLE KING (New York, 1942) and JAMES TAYLOR (Boston, 1948)

You've got a friend (1971) is one of Taylor's number one hits. In fact, the song was composed by Carole King but they have recorded it together so many times that it is very difficult to guess who the composer of the song is. The lyrics are devoted to friendship. 

The recording we have selected has been taken from the concert in 2010 at the Troubadour, the legendary club placed in L.A. where many singers from the 60s made their debut.


CARLY SIMON (New York, 1945)

Carly Elizabeth Simon rose to fame in the 70s. She has won Grammy and Academy Awards as well as Golden Globe Awards. Her best known song is You're so vain (1972) and, apart from being one of the greatest songs of the early seventies, it has become very popular as she has never revealed who the song was devoted to. Carly has never let the cat out of the bag!!!
Just one more thing, her first husband's name has already been mentioned in this post and both their children are singers!!

  
KRIS KRISTOFFERSON

Kris Kristofferson (Texas, USA, 1936) is just mentioned in this article for being the composer of Me and Bobby Mc Gee. But as you may imagine, the video we are going to select is Janis Joplin's version of it. The story of Kirstofferson, Joplin and the song belongs to the mind boggling stories that make up the mixture between the history and the legend of music.

CANADA

JONI MITCHELL (Alberta, Canada, 1943)

Roberta Joan Anderson is considered an artist in many fields: music, painting, literature,... Her songs have poetic lyrics, and listen to Mitchell singing them. It is something out of the ordinary. Her voice has got such a range of registers that I should advice: Don't try Mitchell in the Karaoke!!!! Don't try A Case of you.

GORDON LIGHTFOOT (Ontario, Canada, 1938)

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot does not have the appearance of a songwriter. At first sight, he looks like a "lorry driver", but once you listen to his songs you realise his touching lyrics go straight to your heart. We cannot finish this post without giving you chance to listen to If you could read my mind.

Eventually,  those who love this type of music can feel jammy as all of the composers mentioned in this post are still alive (and kicking!!)

LORDE, A SINGER-SONGWRITER FROM NEW ZEALAND

    We have a new contribution to the blog by one of you, the students at IES Álvaro Yáñez. As we have already said on previous occasions, this was one of the main goals we had when we decided to launch this blog. We know that it is difficult to write one of these posts, but we can also assure you that all your contributions have been great. Thanks to you all, to those who have written something so far and to those who, for the moment being, simply read some of the posts from time to time.
                                                               

     If I talk about Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O'Connor, it ist most likely that you won't know anything about her, but I'm pretty sure you have heard her successful single, Royals. Quite obviously, if you have heard Royals, you will know about this singer, better known by her artistic name, Lorde. 2013 has probably been like a roller-coaster for Lorde, as she started the year like an average seventeen-year-old girl, and ended it like the new artist of the year.

                                                                 

    Lorde was born in Devonport, a very little town near Auckland, New Zealand. Her musical career started with a video sent to Universal Records, and at the age of twelve she was signing her first contract. It was at that time that she chose the name of Lorde, which was taken because she was always very interested in royalty, kings and queens, topics that appear very usually in her lyrics. (Lorde would be the "female" form for Lord)

                                                                           

   Lorde´s debut EP (a small group of songs that are usually released separate and then are gathered together in a single album) was released when she was 15. Its name was "The Love Club" and was uploaded to SoundCloud, where everybody could download it by free. At first, it was'n quite successful, but in two week the EP had already been downloaded 60.000 times, and so Universal Records decided to put it in Itunes. This was the beginning of Lorde´s success.

                                                                        

    The name of Lorde started to be better known in New Zealand and Australia, and her EP was ranked at the number 20-25 in many charts like the Billboard 200. The song "Royals" was the culmination of her career. In two weeks, the song was number one in more than 20 countries, and it broke the charts, making Lorde the youngest person to have ever made a number one in the billboard at only 16.

                                                                                   

    But we all knew it wasn't the end of her career. She wrote some new songs and took the old ones and put them together in "Pure Heroine" (Heroine mustn't be misunderstood, since it refers to a heroine and not to the drug, which is spelled heroin), her first album. By the end of the year it had already sold more than half a million copies around the world. Lorde also won two Grammy Awards at the categories of "Song of the Year" for "Royals" and "Best Pop solo interpretation".

                                                                     

   Controversy is always around celebrities and Lorde is not an exception. She is very good at music and singing, but she is frequently criticized because of her style and look. Some people think that she lies about her age, since she looks older than seventeen. Moreover, Lorde has made some bitter comments about other singers. For example, she said that Selena Gómez abuses of the autotune, and that her lyrics treat women like objects. After being attacked by all the media, she also said that she is very talented and she coul improve those things.

                                                                         

    Lorde composes her own songs, with only some help of the producers. Her lyrics talk about teenage dreams, torn-up towns, drugs and alcohol, and all the problems that a teenager can have. I feel very identified with her lyrics, and I think everybody might feel like that in some moments. Her songs are full of metaphors and double-meanings, a fact that, in my opinion, makes them very interesting. She doesn't abuse of the music to improve her voice; all the songs have a very simple melody with a piano, a drum or some synth sounds. Lorde's kind of music doesn´t fit in only one category. Her music is indie, but she has also some rap influences and she sometimes goes a little bit harder with a soft pop. She has been compared to Lana del Rey, Nicki Minaj and Birdy.

                                                                 

    All these things make Lorde a very good composer and singer, and I recommend you all to give her a try. You won't regret it!

    SONGS:

                                                                     Team

                                                                        Tennis Court

                                                                        

                                                                               Royals

                                                                       Buzzcut Season


                    This article has been entirely written by ALBERTO PINTOR, alumno de 1º Bachillerato CT.                                                        

THE BEST MOVIE QUOTES.

We all like to use sentences we have heard in movies, or at least, we all recognise many of them. There are some of these sentences which have become part of every day language, not only in the United States but also in the rest of the world.

We want to present you some of the most famous movie quotes. We are sure that you already know most of them, as they belong to some of the most important films of history:

-"Frankly, my dear, I don´t give a damn."  Rhet Butler (Clark Gable) says this to Scarlett O´Hara in the last lines of Gone With The Wind, after she asks him: "Where shall I Go?, Where Shall I Do?"

-"I´m gonna make him an offer he can´t refuse." Vito Corleone says this to Jonny Fontane in The Godfather I to make him sure that he will help him get the part he wants in a movie.

-"Toto, I´ve got a feeling we´re not in Kansas any more." Dorothy tells her dog, Toto, that it´s quite obvious they are not at home. It´s The Wizard of Oz, of course.

- "Go ahead, make my day." These are the famous words that Harry Callaghan (Clint Eastwood) says to the robber who is threatening to shoot a waitress while he points his gun at his head. It belongs to Sudden Impact.

-"May the Force be with you."  Han Solo (Harrison Ford) wishes good luck to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope before a battle.

-"Well, nobody´s perfect." This is one of the most famous endings of any film ever and belongs to Some Like It Hot. Osgood Fielding III tells Jerry ("Daphne") that no matter how he/ she is, they will marry.

-"The stuff that dreams are made of." This sentence pronounced by Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) at the end of The Maltese Falcon has its origin in The Tempest, the tragedy by W. Shakespeare.

And to finish with, we are presenting here three of the most popular quotes from Casablanca. Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) say lots of memorable sentences. We could have published an entire post with them. These ones are good examples:

-"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a long friendship."

-"We´ll always have Paris."

-"Play it, Sam. Play "As Time Goes By"."

´

These are only ten examples of some well-known movie quotes. There are hundreds of sentences we could have included together with, or instead of, them.

Which ones do you prefer? Are there any quotes you think we should have included? Don´t hesitate and tell us about them!