- Posts tagged Music
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It's fast (like 3 minutes start-to-finish) and does just what it says.
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Stardust Memories - Some of the best lyrics ever
Even though I have loved Nat King Cole's singing since "Chestnuts roasting blah blah . . . " and even more when I found an old tape with his non-Christmas stuff, it was not until I saw a music documentary by BBC that I heard this song.
Nat King Cole's version was the first I heard and I am writing this blog with him in mind.
It always amazes me that Nat King Cole's voice is so exceptional; there truly is no-one that sounds like he does. He takes his time when he sings, leaving space for you to hear his voice and the instruments.
Nat King cole
The music is by Hoagy Carmichael, who wrote it in 1927. His stardust is below and it's awesome. The whistling at the end is one-of-a-kind.
Hoagy Carmichael
Apart from the exceptional music, the lyrics are timeless. Parish uses some heavy-hitting words, song-wise but none are excessive or out of place.
And now the purple dusk of twilight time
Steals across the meadows of my heart
High up in the sky the little stars climb
Always reminding me that we're apart
Leaving me a song that will not die
Love is now the stardust of yesterday
The music of the years gone bySometimes I wonder why I spend
The lonely night dreaming of a song
The melody haunts my reverie
And I am once again with you
When our love was new
And each kiss an inspiration
But that was long ago
Now my consolation
Is in the stardust of a song Beside a garden wall
When stars are bright
You are in my arms
The nightingale tells his fairy tale
of paradise where roses grew
Though I dream in vain
In my heart it will remain
My stardust melody
The memory of love's refrain
Mitchell Parish wrote the lyrics in 1929. Thanks to www.sing365.com for the lyrics.
The slow introduction (not present in the other two equally awesome versions posted below) is typical of several of his songs which have a definite intro, middle and conclusion.
The lyrics manage a concise description of general feelings - love, joy, sadness and regret.
Both Cole and Carmichael capture the feeling of a man still in love with a woman who is out of reach. The song is set in the nighttime and gives me the feeling of a man thinking to himself about his lost love as he looks up at the stars.
Parish keeps the star imagery throughout the song, setting the mood with "twilight time" and moving on to "little stars climb" and "stardust of yesterday".
My favourite reference is "consolation" at the end of the third verse. It's nearly a homophone (same sound) of constellation and is the kind of subtlety that really makes the song worth it for me.
"Each kiss an inspiration" is such an excellent description of new love. Then, just as as the lyrics and music are bursting with passion they both make a sudden, sad switch. The change gives the feeling of someone rushing themselves along before they start to feel to much.
But in the last verse he seems unable to help himself and he describes an idyllic scene "of paradise where roses grew" - note the past tense here. Everything is right with the world when again the mood changes with the last four lines. They sum up the song and it's feelings; he is sure that he loved her and still loves her. Although she is gone he still thinks of her often.
Though I dream in vain
In my heart it will remain
My stardust melody
The memory of love's refrain
I like the use of refrain as well since it suggests that his experience with her was the chorus of love; more than a verse it a special part that repeated and summed up the feeling of love for him.
Of course maybe they just didn't spend enough time together for him to get to know all the things that tarnish that ideal view of love. Or maybe they did and that's why he's singing alone.
At any rate, the feelings are worth expressing and are expressed very well. There are no wasted words and no awkward moments, two of my favourite things in a song.
The absolute most wonderful thing however, is that we are all made up of stardust; every atom in your body and every element that we know of comes from exploded star matter. Ask physicist Lawrrence Krauss:
That fact adds a real timelessness for me and gives a whole other dimension to the song.
I love that I know at least three versions of this song and each one is unique. Each one says the same thing in a completely different way; Cole's is sad and romantic, Carmichael's is more memory than feeling but still very touching and personal. Listen to Louis' version last if you want to understand any of the words. Once I knew what he was saying I understood why he sang it the way he did and of course his trumpet gives him something of an advantage.
One might make the argument that Louis' style is lazy or sloppy but I think of it another way. Many of the songs he performed were songs that everyone already knew very well. For them it would be easy to recognize the words. I think he manages to distill the songs down to the feelings, which he captures very well. Let me know what you think in the comments.
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Easily share a song with anyone online
Want to share a song with someone online but you're not sure how?
There's a really easy way to do it at www.tinysong.com. It's a minimal site that could not be simpler.
- Go to www.tinysong.com
- Enter the name of the song you want
- Check the search results for your song
- Click on either the play button (for you) or the share button to get a link to the song
- Click on the link at the bottom that says "Copy Tinysong link to your clipboard"
- Paste it in an email, messenger window, Facebook link, whatever
As you can see from the photos I was searching for 'Nah Mean' by Damian 'Jr Gong' Marley and Nas. I used that as an example partly because it was the song I was searching for when I wrote the blog but also because IT'S FREAKING AWESOME! Big up to Jr Gong and his excellent production, I been down with Damian since 'Mr Marley'.
Biggest thanks for this blog goes to DJ Ampero (his awesome music blog is at http://music.wodensway.com/) who showed me all about tinysong and has been pushing me to use it more from that time.
