Mathematical Institute Bulletin: Song of the Week

Christine McVie, singer and songwriter with Fleetwood Mac, died this week, Christine was part of the band's most commercially successful period, but its first incarnation was as a blues band led, as on this track, by Peter Green.

Ageing musicians playing the songs they wrote when young can be a little 'awkward'; but in this case Paul Weller makes it work. Boy About Town from his Jam days is a song about a defiant 21-year-old. Nearly 40 years of life later, with the same words, it is something different. 

Young first, then older.

Ballet music, where the music is as important as the dance, was a product of the late 19th Century onwards and was led by Russian composers such as  Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and, here, Sergei Prokofiev. You can almost picture Cinders' dream.

For musicologists, the period between rock & roll and the Beatles first single in 1962 (Love Me Do) is often seen as rather quaint, but Runaway is certainly not quaint with Del's vocals and the instrumental break from the Musitron, an instrument, according to Wiki, based on the Clavioline, a forerunner to the synthesizer invented by Constant Martin in France in 1947. Check it out.

Lovers' Rock, romantic reggae put crudely, came to prominence in London in the 1970s, and has been a huge influence in the decades since, especially on R&B and hip-hop. One of film director Steve McQueen's recent Small Axe films was entitled Lovers Rock and featured this song, probably the best known of the genre.

Like TV ballroom dancing, the Eurovision Song Contest survived ridicule by becoming ridiculous. However, it has thrown up some talented winners. Remember Diggi-loo Diggi-Ley by Herreys?

France Gall was French but won in 1965 when representing Luxembourg. This track wasn't her winning effort but is superior and has a great video, 20 years before MTV. It was written by Serge Gainsbourg, last week's Song of the Week artist.

Serge is probably best known outside France for 'Je t'aime', but he was responsible for many other and better works across various media including film and prose and especially via 16 albums.

This track is from 1968. It is based on an English language poem written by 'Bonnie' Parker, one half of the 1930s outlaw couple after whom the song is named. Brigitte shares the vocals with Serge.

To the untrained ear, like your Song of the Week editor's, this piece sounds as though it might have been written in 1582. In fact it was written in 1982. John Tavener was one of the leading composers of choral religious music in the 20th century. The Lamb, a setting to music of the William Blake poem of 1789, is featured in the soundtrack for Paolo Sorrentino's Oscar-winning film The Great Beauty.

You may also be interested to know that John Taverner (sic) was a sixteenth century writer of choral music.

Some of us have a jukebox (see wiki if under 40) in our heads. You know how it is, someone speaks and a song is already playing.

So when Maria and Beth from the Events team were discussing whether a black sculpture could sit on a black tablecloth (it couldn't) the song was ready and waiting in your editor's head. He suspects he had the (inferior) disco version in mind, but just in case here are both well-known versions, the first by the Spanish band Los Bravos, the second by French disco divas Belle Epoque.

As you know, we often accompany our research case studies on social media with a short video introduction by the author or authors. But sometimes words are not enough.

Read the case study

Revising work isn't just for mathematicians. Charles Dickens edited his novels for new editions, Henry James rewrote many of his novels late in life and musicians from Gustav Mahler to Joni Mitchell have revised or re-recorded their work as their perspectives changed.

Jonathan Richman recorded several versions of Road Runner including this one without his usual band, The Modern Lovers (despite what YouTube claims below). Richman described it as an ode to Massachusetts Route 128.

So when you are next driving late at night think of the Roadrunner.

Bill Evans sounds like the name of someone running a haulage company, but this Bill Evans was a pianist and one of the most influential figures in modern jazz. Peace Piece, from 1958, will you send you peacefully in to the weekend.

The cover version is arguably a product of recent times. In the past there were songwriters and performers. With the advent of bands and singers writing their own material, the cover version became more explicit.

Cover versions often work well when they jump genres and this song by Ivorian (Ivory Coast) reggae artist Alpha Blondy is a perfect example. He often sings in his native Dyula or French but he has also dabbled in covers of English language songs including Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love'. This is a cover version of Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here'.

Forgive a cliché, but musician. political exile and government minister Gilberto Gil's life certainly throws some light on Brazilian culture and politics from the 1960s. Musically he is a mix of Samba and wider African and Caribbean beats as well as Rock Music (he likes punk as well). Andar com fé (walk with faith) is one of his most popular songs.

Dance away the heartache.

Let Eugene Record, lead singer and songwriter of the Chi-Lites, tell you a story. And then just listen to those harmonies.

'Sunday Girl' may not be Blondie's best song ('The Tide is High' anyone even if it isn't theirs?) but it's from their heyday and still sounds good (there's a French version as well).

Your Song of the Week editor saw them live in Leicester when Debbie Harry came on stage and uttered the opening line "hello Manchester".

There is much to be said about Wagner but whatever you think he is one of the few artists who can confidently claim to have changed an art form; in his case, opera.

The Flying Dutchman has been doomed to an eternity of wandering the seas. Once every seven years, he is able to leave the ship to search for a woman whose perfect love will redeem him. Senta perhaps?

You get the picture. Wagner is dramatic, controversial, usually long, but if you get the chance, go and see it. This performance is by the legendary Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson.

Popular music is full of bad luck stories but Badfinger's takes some beating. Not that they weren't without some success, which makes for the saddest stories of all.

There is a lot of construction, renovation and general moving of stuff going on around the University and City just now.

Now, no doubt it is all being done with 100% efficiency, but just in case here is the definitive 'work not getting done' tribute. Incidentally the song was recorded in the same studio where, a few months later, the Beatles changed the face of popular music.

As you will have read above (we hope), James Sparks will be talking about Bach's Goldberg Variations at the Spitalfields Music Festival. James says of Glenn Gould's interpretation. 

"Variations 3n+2 are all of this type (n=1,2,..,9) - two melodies, fast, one in each hand, with crossing of melodies/hands in every conceivable way you can imagine!"

Disco (or D-I-S-C-O as the song has it) has its critics. Music for people who don't like music being one barb. However, nothing beats a good hook and More, More, More more than delivers.

With the summer party on the horizon, let Chuck get you in the party mood. There are one-hit wonders and no-hit wonders and Chuck might just fall in to the latter category though this song has cult status among the Northern Soulters and has been covered by the likes of Dexy's Midnight Runners.

Written and recorded by Jamaican artist Junior Murvin in protest at police and gang violence in his home country, this song became a success in the US and UK and an anthem of the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival in London which broke out in to riots. The Clash also recorded a version as part of their fusion of reggae and punk.

See second Bulletin item.

Popular music has often borrowed from its classical colleagues, and even from poetry, but often with mixed success. But in this 1939 song by Hoagy Carmichael all falls in to place. The main melodic theme is based on the Fantaisie-Impromptu in C sharp minor by Frédéric Chopin and the lyrics are based on a poem by Jane Brown Thompson. There are many versions. In this one by the Lew Stone Band, vocals are by British crooner Sam Browne.