Origin/Composer: Glenn Frey and Don Henley (of the Eagles) Year: 1973 There’s definitely more Eagles to come as songs of the week, but this is a good place to start. A classic.
Origin/Composer: Kanye West, Devon Harris, John Barry, Don Black Year: 2005 So back in 8th grade, our Social Studies teacher, Mr. Iverson, started us on this service project to help the kids suffering from the civil war in Sierra Leone. We learned all about their war, the RUF, the lack of foreign support, the amputating of arms, and the problem with the blood diamonds. It was one of the most exciting and disturbing service projects I’ve done, so I’ll remember it for a long time. Then, in 10 grade, for Enriched English Block, Mr. Holm assigned our research paper on the diamonds and civil wars, specifically those in Sierra Leone and Nigeria. So this whole thing with diamonds and civil [more . . .]
Origin/Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven Year: 1798 It’s amazing how many people recognize this piece, especially the second adagio cantabile movement. Many people even recognize the first and third movements. However, most people unfortunately do not know the name of this piece. It is a piano sonata, nicknamed the “Pathétique” by Beethoven himself (the only nickname of Beethoven’s sonatas to have that distinction). It is a relatively difficult piece requiring sustained tremolos and extreme precision of rhythm and finger pressure.
Year: 2005 There are so many things that make this song great. First of all, the length of the song is 3 minutes 14 seconds, which has a remarkable similarity to pi. Secondly, Bond is a classical/dance group from Australia. All four of their members are very good string players, and base their songs off of famous classical pieces, and combine it with a techno beat and sound. This one is obviously using “Summer” from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, which is one of my favorite classical pieces.
Origin/Composer: Phill & Company Year: 2004 Half our dorm watched the hilarious music video for this movie, and decided to make it kind of our unofficial dorm song and dance. Watch it. You’ll see. It’s Europop at its greatest and worst, all at the same time.
Origin/Composer: Originally by Free, performed by the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band Year: 1975 This is THE song. Played by the notoriously famous Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band, this song celebrates the victories of the Stanford athletic teams and good times. There’s a part in the song called “The Jump” where all students jump. It occurs at the end of the transition section. Go Stanford!
Album: Final Straw Year: 2003 I don’t really have time to think up a good obscure song and write about it today, so I just went with this. It’s one of my favorite songs, and it kinda fits with the leaving for college thing.
Album: Sparkle and Fade Year: 1995 From the best band ever to be named after a strong liquor product, “Santa Monica” is their best song (for me at least). Since I’m heading over to California in just over a week, this is the song to pump me up. So you, get pumped up too! Sing along!
Album: Silent Alarm Year: 2005 Holy crap, gas is expensive. That’s the only reason I chose this song. The lyrics are interesting, probably with some deep meaning, but I haven’t taken the time to decipher those meanings yet. Bloc Party is an awesome band, with this song not being one of their better ones, unfortunately. I remember adding gas last week, and thought it was incredibly cheap at $2.79 at Costco. Of course, it’s still much cheaper than that of Europe and the rest of the world, so we should have nothing to complain. We should switch to hydrogen cars and harvest the fuel from the sun. Or not.
Origin/Composer: Joey Tempest (of Europe) Year: 1985 I think I first heard it sophomore year of EPHS at someone’s house, because I remember humming it during my first debate meet (where I went 0-4). I heard it a few times after that, and every single time, I tried to find the name of the song, since I really liked it. I actually never found the name until I saw “How to Kill A Mockingbird,” quite coincidentally made be a Stanford student. The song was in there again, but fortunately, there was a soundtrack-like think on the page too, where I finally discovered the real name of the song. This was in February, near the beginning of AP English, as I [more . . .]