In honor of Hanukkah here is Adam Sandler’s third version of the Hanukkah song. I remember the first time I heard the original song, and laughing so much. Also Hanukkah is one of the only words that rhymes with Veronica, which made me feel quite special.  It has become somewhat of a theme song for the holiday and I love that Adam Sandler had the talent to make it so.  Enjoy the latest version, it does not disappoint.

Adam Sandler – Chanukah Song Part 3 (HQ)

Concrete Blonde – Everybody Knows

I named my blog Who Knew? almost exactly one year ago.  I had no idea how aptly I had titled the blog and as a year passes it reinforces within me a certain innate ability to honestly say “I have no idea what the future holds.”

I am someone who lives in the day, which has it’s distinct positives i.e. I am very spontaneous and most of my travels have occurred very spur of the moment, and it’s devastating drawbacks.  It is who I am however and I make no apologies or excuses, it is how I live.

Things tend to come full circle in life so this post features a song called Everybody Knows by a legendary performer Leonard Cohen.

Cohen rose to the opportunity this audience represented by releasing two consecutive albums, I’m Your Man (1988) and The Future (1992), that not only rank among the finest of his career, but that perfectly capture the texture of particularly complicated times. Cohen had long documented the high rate of casualties in the love wars, so the profound anxieties generated by the AIDS crisis were no news to him. Songs like “Ain’t No Cure for Love,” the wryly titled “I’m Your Man” and, most explicitly, “Everybody Knows” (“Everybody knows that the Plague is coming/Everybody knows that it’s moving fast/Everybody knows that the naked man and woman – just a shining artifact of the past”) depict Cohen surveying the contemporary erotic battleground and reporting on it with characteristic perspective, insight and wisdom.

I first heard the song in a movie called “Pump Up The Volume“  in 1990 and it was performed by the band Concrete Blonde.  Later I learned it’s origins and became a Leonard Cohen fan.  It came at a time when everything was changing, I was going off to college and my senior year in high school was marked by a clinical depression which almost prevented me from going off to University.  Thankfully I was able to get through it and I remember listening to this song on repeat in my car almost compulsively.  I think it quite fits the brooding and scared teen I had become for the song is not very hopeful, and in many ways very true.

So here I am 17 years and half a lifetime later posting my first post-hiatus entry into this blog.  Who Knew? the poem I wrote asks many questions.  Everybody Knows offers many answers, some all too true and others can be debated.  I know though that it evokes for me a great deal of truth, some fear and it does so in a very poetic fashion.  Leonard Cohen wrote what he knew.  I say who knows?

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded

Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed

Everybody knows that the war is over

Everybody knows the good guys lost

Everybody knows the fight was fixed

The poor stay poor, the rich get rich

That’s how it goes

Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking

Everybody knows that the captain lied

Everybody got this broken feeling

Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets

Everybody wants a box of chocolates

And a long stem rose

Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby

Everybody knows that you really do

Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful

Ah give or take a night or two

Everybody knows you’ve been discreet

But there were so many people you just had to meet

Without your clothes

And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows

That’s how it goes

Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows

That’s how it goes

Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it’s now or never

Everybody knows that it’s me or you

And everybody knows that you live forever

Ah when you’ve done a line or two

Everybody knows the deal is rotten

Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton

For your ribbons and bows

And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming

Everybody knows that it’s moving fast

Everybody knows that the naked man and woman

Are just a shining artifact of the past

Everybody knows the scene is dead

But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed

That will disclose

What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you’re in trouble

Everybody knows what you’ve been through

From the bloody cross on top of Calvary

To the beach of Malibu

Everybody knows it’s coming apart

Take one last look at this Sacred Heart

Before it blows

And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows

That’s how it goes

Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows

That’s how it goes

Everybody knows

Everybody knows

Leonard Cohen

I am a sucker for Coldplay. The first time I heard them I thought it was U2 I was listening to. Chris Martin makes no bones about his desire to be the U2 of this generation. I know that for me that makes perfect sense. The music, the ballads are reflective and I know the melancholy is abundant, but I love it. This band touches me. Fix You off of X&Y is another one that hits deep and floods me.  Martin’s voice isn’t perfect, instead it’s vulnerable which makes him believable. 

Coldplay Viva La Vida Live Video Music Awards High Quality

The Gambler

Sometimes I get really sentimental, and this is what happens. So here is me, in a mood rarely shared.  I usually escape into my world and listen to whatever makes me feel like this, today I felt like it was time to share it with others.  Maybe we are all gamblers, just trying to make it through the hand we are dealt.  The lyrics in this song apply to so many things (the chorus specifically) in life.  But I would rather be a gambler, then sit by and watch the others play.

This Roberta Flack song kills me, and I am amazed at how much I loved his interpretation. David Cook may not win but he is a winner.

I take is back, David won American Idol and in my opinion the first time the best performer won.  Go David.

Jimi Hendrix is a legend for his groundbreaking guitar

playing.  In the few years he actually recorded music

he redefined rock and roll and made his contemporaries

wonder where this odd fellow had come from.

He also wrote some of the most interesting lyrics,  poetic

and evocative.  Studying him through various biographies

it is quite clear that most of his songs were written for his

mother, who had passed when he was a small child. This song

in particular was written for her.  It is my favorite song, with my

favorite lyrics, for it is a poetic expression of a great loss.  His words

however, are not so much sad as they are childlike, and wistful.

He imagines her in a magical place and keeps her memory alive

and vibrant, as she was said to be in life.  Thank you Jimi for

having so much heart and love in a world that did not always

show you either.

Little Wing 

WELL SHE’S WALKING, THROUGH THE CLOUDS

WITH A CIRCUS MIND THAT’S RUNNING WILD

BUTTERFLIES AND ZEBRAS AND MOONBEAMS

AND A FAIRY TALES.

THAT’S ALL SHE EVER THINKS ABOUT

RIDING WITH THE WIND. 

WHEN I’M SAD, SHE COMES TO ME

WITH A THOUSAND SMILES SHE GIVES TO ME FREE

IT’S ALRIGHT SHE SAYS, IT’S ALRIGHT

TAKE ANYTHING YOU WANT FROM ME

…ANYTHING 

FLY ON LITTLE WING

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH,

FLY ON LITTLE WING 

The Ballad of Lucy Jordan/Thelma and Louise clip

I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it as I watched Thelma and Louise. There are songs/movies that provoke feelings that can overwhelm you and so you listen/watch them when you know you want to go to those places. The lyrics, poetic and gritty, combined with Faithfulls voice are simply mesmerizing. It is a girl thing, and I rarely do girly. I have included the lyrics. Beautiful poetry from an extraordinary woman who lived the rock dream/nightmare and survived to tell.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!  FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO FORGOT

 THE WORDS (OR NEVER KNEW THEM). 

ALL TOGETHER NOW.

Words to Auld Lang Syne
by Robert Burns
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind
Should auld acquaintaince be forgot
And auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll be your pint stowp
And surely I’ll be mine,
And we’ll drink a richt guid willy waught
For auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne.

We twa hae run aboot the braes
And pu’d the gowans fine,
But we’ve wandered monie a wearie fit’
Since auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidled in the burn
Frae morning sun till dine
But seas a’tween us braid hae roared
Since auld lang syne

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne.

And here’s a hand my trusty fere
And gie’s a hand o’ thine
And we’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne.

It is worth noting that the original words to Auld Lang Syne were taken from traditional Scottish songs. Burns was the first to commit these to paper, and suggested that they be set to music.