Sting does a classic Italian aria...

My old accompanist, who is now a music professor at my alma mater, posted a very funny Buzzfeed article called "A Definitive Randing of 'Twenty-Four Italian Songs and Arias'".  This is a very familiar book to anyone who has studied voice.  It's a basic primer on classic Italian songs designed to teach beginning vocal students how to sing.  I myself sang four songs from that book...  #21, #18, #2, and #1...

And I see that I have singing "Caro mio ben" in common with Sting, who performed it in Italy during his "Nothing Like The Sun" tour.  I give Sting props for his classical chops, though I'm pretty sure he'd be dinged for not memorizing the piece and being lazy about his vowels.

Gosh he was young in 1988... but then, so was I.

Actually, I like his pianist.  Now I wish I'd brought my music with me.

Fields of Gold...

As a red blooded child of the 70s and 80s, I am familiar with Sting and his beautiful song, "Fields of Gold"…

Later, this song was covered by Eva Cassidy and immortalized by Michelle Kwan, who skated to it…

Being a bit of a purist, I was never a big fan of Eva Cassidy's version of this song.  But then my Scottish YouTube pal shargram played two versions on his channel…

So I decided to try it too… and I did Eva's version, because the key worked better and I didn't feel like changing the key in a different program.

I think it turned out pretty nicely.  Maybe I should listen to more of Eva Cassidy's stylings.  

Children's Crusade...

Back in the 80s, I went through a weird phase that made me a little obsessed with Sting and his then brand new solo album, Dream of the Blue Turtles.  The song on that album that I liked the best was "Children's Crusade".

 

Sting was so young back then.  So was I.  Back then, I had some rather unhealthy fixations with dieting, of all things.  To look at me today, you'd never believe it.  To look at me then, you'd never believe it... unless you spent time with me.  I talked about dieting all the time.  For some reason, this song stuck in my head.

So did this one...

I used to obsess over calories and exercise and these songs seemed to really facilitate those obsessive feelings.  I have long since given up the whole thing.  I can no long starve myself like I used to and even if I did, it would make no difference.  But when I head these songs, it takes me back to when I was 13 or 14 and a little crazy and obsessed.  A lot of Sting's songs are about obsession... and so are some of the later Police songs.

  

"Every Breath You Take" was a notoriously obsessive song...  as "Wrapped Around Your Finger" and "King of Pain"...

Those days seem so long ago now...  I wouldn't want to revisit them, except maybe to tell my teen self not to waste my time.  

Sting: Covering Them... and other rare CDs

Back in the summer of 1996, a friend and I took a bus from Yerevan, Armenia to Istanbul, Turkey.  Not being particularly savvy or wealthy back then, I made a few purchases.  One of them was a cassette tape copy of Sting's 1990 live album, Covering Them.  I still have that tape, which I bought in a music store in Istanbul.  But I only have one tape player that works and all my cassettes are packed up in the garage.

I decided I wanted to hear that album again, so I went to Amazon.com to see if I could score a copy.  Sure enough, someone was selling it.  It cost about $35, which is a lot for a CD... but it's a rare import and, having a copy of the cassette, I knew it was a good album.

My new CD arrived today and I'm listening to it, enjoying a younger, more rock oriented Sting do live covers by people like Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix, Woody Guthrie, and Bob Marley.  It takes me back to my youth, which is a good thing...




According to Amazon today, it looks like I got the last copy for now.  It was worth the money, though.  I take pride in my very eclectic and expansive music collection.  It's one thing I can be very proud of.

I have another rare CD on its way from Ireland by Christian new age band, Eden's Bridge.  I don't normally go for contemporary Christian music, but Eden's Bridge is not your typical CCM... plus, Sarah Lacy, lead singer of Eden's Bridge, has one of the most beautiful, serene voices ever.

When I die, I'd love this played at my funeral...

Fragile...

This is probably one of my favorite songs by Sting.  It seems appropriate this month, as so much tragedy has swept the nation with the West, Texas explosion and the Boston Marathon bombings...

Dog Eat Dog...

Welcome to Monday, another week here on planet Earth.  My husband and I had kind of exciting weekend.  We got ourselves a new hound.  He came from a beagle rescue, but actually looks more like a blue tick coonhound miniaturized.  We named him Arran, after a beautiful island in Scotland that we visited in November.

All this dog stuff made me think about doggie songs...

Of course, there's the ever popular "Walking The Dog" by Rufus Thomas...  This song always reminds me of 7th Heaven, because it was used on an episode starring Ashlee Simpson.  It's sort of an innocuous song for Monday, don't you think?

What rock and roll lover doesn't love "Dog Eat Dog" by AC/DC?  This song provides a much needed jolt to the system on a Monday morning...  Actually, I don't think I've had enough coffee for this one yet.

"Hound Dog" was originally a Big Mama Thornton" song, but Elvis had a huge hit with it too...

"Perfect Love... Gone Wrong" is probably the most appropriate song under the circumstances... perhaps from our other dog Zane's perspective, anyway.  Actually Zane seems to like Arran, but I could tell he was a little worried we'd replaced him.  There's no replacing any of our beloved dogs.  They're all special.

Arran likes my husband and me just fine and I think he's found his forever home.