All My Loving

So I've been watching YouTube clips of old Beatles videos, and I saw a recent one that showed Paul McCartney watching the footage of The Beatles playing on the Ed Sullivan show for the first time. His expression was just great, full of reminiscence and nostalgia. Now if you haven't seen the footage, watch it. Their performance just sums up the early Beatles experience, the happy-go-lucky and affectionate songs, the girls, the fame. Just watch it, I promise you won't regret it. Well this song was released on With The Beatles,   in 1963, but never got an abundance of popularity, until the song was released as a single in Canada, where it was a number one hit (thank you Canada, for recognizing a classic song). Paul also thought of this song as personal accomplishment, as this was the first song that he'd written the music after the lyrics, which he came up with while shaving. It's obvious what the song is about, and that's what's so wonderful about it, the song is so blatant in its meaning, it's about love! The thing that drives us all! Well I hope you enjoy this song as much as I, so take a listen, to a beautiful song.

King of Pain

Alright, little new wave-ish, but what can you do, this is a beautiful song. This was released as a single, but was on  Synchronicity in 1983. I've been feeling a little down lately, running on empty, so to speak, and this is a tune I like to play during those down times. Now this song was their second most popular single, following, you guessed it, Every Breath You Take, even though I consider this to be a lyrically superior song.  Now Sting is a superb bassist and vocalist, and is one of the few bassist frontmen, but this entire band is mind-blowing, Andy Summers is of my favourite guitarists, and Steward Copeland is a very proficient drummer, though the latter band members don't get to show off their trade that much during this song. This song is not given the symbolic credit that it deserves, every line is chalk-full of fantastic analogies and meaning that takes more than a few listens to get. Now what I think to be the most powerful lyric in this song is
"There's a little black spot on the Sun today,
It's the same old thing as yesterday."
Now this may seem simple enough, but when you look at the Sun, you're purposely damaging yourself, and I think this symbolizes the downward slope of self-destruction that many are faced with and live their lives doing. I hope you enjoy this song as much as I do, because it's something fantastic.

Believe in Love

So the Scorpions are officially my favourite band, and this song is just exquisite. The way they contrast the intro, verse, and chorus is one thing that many bands unsuccessfully attempt to succeed in, but this song has exhibited that the Scorpions can do this style flawlessly. Believe in Love was released in 1988, on Savage Amusement, love that album title, and is a pretty standard Scorpions song, lyrics by Klaus Meine (vocalist), music by Rudolph Schenker (rhythm/lead guitarist). If you enjoy soft metal, then this song is the epitome of metal love songs, and Schenker does a fabulous job with the lead, I just love the sound. If you concern yourself with the meaning, it's pretty simple, love is worth pursuing, and maybe you can achieve that happiness that most spend their entire lives searching for, that's my take.

Michelle

I consider this my favourite Beatles Ballad of all time. Why? Simply because of the placement of the minor chords, and the use of two languages to convey meaning, it's a simply satisfying song that suggests the spiritual sundering of their sizzling, sensational, sentimental passion due to a language barrier. You thought he only spoke English? Listen closer, the words you may be unable to make out are actually French; it was quite the revelation when I first learned of this. This song was originally written as just a party song by Paul McCartney, with just some French sounding mumblings, for an artsy party, but later, John suggested that he write words to it, and so the song was born. The line "Michelle, ma belle", was actually rhymed by Paul's French teacher,as well as the other main French line, "Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble", which is a translation of "These are words that go together well". The song was released on the Beatles' sixth studio album, Rubber Soul, in 1965, and only hit the top charts in Austria and Norway, reaching three and one, respectively. In my opinion, this song is about a couple who can't verbally communicate due to the lack of a common language, and Paul is pining to tell her how he feels. What's your favourite Beatles Ballad?

The Show Must Go On

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Ambiguous title, right? The thumbnail doesn't even help! This could be one of the dozen popular songs of this title, the plays, the movies, the episodes from TV shows, just about anything!  Can you guess? This is about the song by Queen, and it's one of those that never cease to draw goosebumps from within my skin. While listening to this song, note that this is from Queen's twelfth, and last studio album with Freddie Mercury  Innuendo, in 1991, and still contains the anthem-like quality that they're most popularly known for, and have written since 1977, with the release of News of the World, which contained We Will Rock You, and We Are The Champions. This song is one of those that have an epic feel about it, and I'm talking about a real epic, an extended journey on the basis of overcoming some sort of oppression and following the righteous, honorable, and chivalrous life. When it comes to the subject of this song, Freddie was fighting AIDS at the time, and this was his way of living, show biz, putting on a mask and playing for audiences night after night. Freddie knew he couldn't win this one, and this was his acceptance song, his will. In a broader sense, I believe this song is about the never-ending, enduring, ever-present presence of rock and roll.