As the decade draws to a close and with new music in a lull, I've been listening to various older songs for the past few days. I've gone right back in fact and have downloaded all sorts of random songs with the iTunes gift card I got for Christmas. Pachelbel's sensational classical work Canon being one of them - not by him of course, recording equipment didn't exist in those days!!! Probably one of the most famous classical songs, and certainly one of my favourites, it inspired modern pop music in a huge way. The sweeping and gorgeous strings, the sorrow in the piece - it's a song that never gets old, and subsequently one that has been reimagined in many ways by various musicians from all genres. I can think of these songs off the top of my head that have clearly either sampled it or borrowed from it in terms of the chords used;
Pet Shop Boys - Go West
Coolio - C U When U Get There
Scatman John - Scatman's World
The Farm - All Together Now
Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger
and one I've only very recently discovered which is apparently huge at graduation ceremonies and proms in America (and was a #2 hit in Australia); Graduation (Friends Forever) by Vitamin C;
It's quite clearly no coincidence that I like, well love, all of the songs listed above, Canon has clearly, subconsciously up to now, had a profound effect on my life!!! As far as leaving school songs go, I love the Vitamin C song but having finally left high school for good in May 2003, this song, which reached #2 in the UK at the time, seemed like the most fitting tribute.
Unfortunately it wasn't a very popular choice with the 'cool' 16 year olds in my year, and R Kelly's Ignition (Remix), the song that kept S Club from topping the charts with their final release, ultimately became the final high school anthem.
No comments:
Post a Comment