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10 posts!

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Working Class Hero – John Lennon song review by C.W. McGee

Every one of the Beatles songs will forever hold a candle to my heart, being the first band I ever listened to as a child, the fact they started in Liverpool my home town. Watch the incredible music video below showing Strawberry fields, and the all too familiar struggles of being a lone wolf child in a predator filled school.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMewtlmkV6c.

John Lennon and The Beatles all came from humble beginnings, not born into richness like snooty narcissists, cough Donald Trump cough. They used their good and bad experiences as every day people like us- to influence their song lyrics. I love how they began climbing the ladder of success step by step in the underground tavern and earned their well-know success from humble beginnings.

Getting to the point, this solo song by John Lennon is one of my favourites because of its relatability of struggles in life; feeling like an outsider for so many years myself makes me empathise with John’s melancholy lyrics.

The working-class context in the song shows the life of a schoolboy going through another day being ignored, judged, and forced to listen to brainwashing lessons all young people must accept without question.

You can tell the way John sings these lyrics he spoke his lyrics instead of exaggerating them through loud voice tunes and background instrumentals. The genre of this song is country, which flows nicely with the strums of the calming guitar instrumentals. You can hear the emotion in his voice, squeaks of hurt as if these memories of unfair struggles of being middle class left a scar in his heart.

The first lyrics: ‘As soon as you’re born they make you feel small, By giving you no time instead of it all ‘Til the pain is so big, you feel nothing at all, A working-class hero is something to be, A working-class hero is something to be.’

This line shows John Lennon admired people who managed to keep their hopes up despite the disadvantages being middle class always dragging you down. I share John’s belief in the lyric sentence ‘As soon as you’re born they make you feel small, By giving you no time instead of it all ‘which I believe is one-hundred per cent true’ as we are all taught you must work to provide structure for the rich people who step on us to get to the top. These experiences of not fitting into the brainwashing social systems do leave scars on people; as society tries desperately to drain our individuality into branded cogs, to work forever as everlasting slaves in their societal factories.

Other lyrics: ‘They hurt you at home and they hit you at school

They hate you if you’re clever and they despise a fool ‘Til you’re so fucking crazy you can’t follow their rules’ I feel those lyrics come from John’s experiences, as he sings these in a low, slightly frustrated tone. Again he shows the unfairness of being in school environments trying so hard to fit in with others expectations but failing at every turn.

More lyrics: ‘When they’ve tortured and scared you for twenty odd years

Then they expect you to pick a career, When you can’t function, you’re so full of fear.’ Being a current university student this statement about being forced to pick a career is so relatable, the fact John sings these lyrics with such believable sadness and passion in his voice makes me love this song even more.

I give this song 10/10 for being so relatable and bringing out the home felt country vibe of the guitar instrumentals.

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Song review of ‘Look through my eyes’ Phil Collins.

This song has always been one of my top 5 favourites for magical soundtracks. This song is an early 2000’s Disney movie: Brother bear. This engaging story shows the stubborn views of a young Inuit native named Kenai, who kills a mother bear in grief; and is transformed into a bear by the spirit of his deceased brother. I’ve linked the song below, check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZfkYYa_keM

This song is an upbeat pop genre that wants to emphasise messages of life in Phil’s collins voice. The song lyrics relate to Kenai’s character ark of believing all bears are killers, and he must learn from the eyes of a bear why it’s not all black and white. This song always speaks to me due to talking about an issue of mankind that I am very passionate about, treating all life besides ourselves equally, and not to look for the things that make us different, but things we all have in common.

The pop music/rock creates a catchy beat that is meant to give hope and happiness, rather than other songs that talk about delicate topics, which usually are blues  music. Phil Collins voice has a captivating ring to it, a loud soothing voice that gives life to the lyrics he’s telling us.

The lyrics ‘There’s a better place

Somewhere out there

Just take a look through my eyes

Everything changes

You’ll be amazed by what you find’

-means we should see things through the animal’s point of view; instead of dismissing those different from you and me as mindless killers, maybe we should look at ourselves, and see how our actions affect others on Earth.

Some lyrics such as:

‘There are things in life you learn,

And oh in time you’ll see

It’s out there somewhere,

It’s all waiting

If you keep believing

So don’t run

Don’t hide

It will be alright

You’ll see

Trust me

I’ll be there watching over you, Just take a look through my eyes’

These lyrics talk about how everyone should let go of their fears holding them back and go out and find the best parts of life with an open heart and mindset. It could mean go through life with a positive outlook by not letting shackles of hate and bitterness hold you down.

You can tell by listening to Phil’s bellowing vocals the song was influenced by pop and rock music to create a catchy beat alongside his tuned voice. His voice goes from encouraging and loud to a lower calmness; as if he’s talking to the listeners directly in between as the background rock pauses, this casual singing is his way of conveying to us clearly what he’s saying in the lyrics has a more significant meaning.

The message of life overall is the theme of the song:

Other lyrics from the song below:

‘There will be times on this journey,

All you’ll see is darkness,

But out there somewhere

Daylight finds you

If you keep believing

So don’t run

Don’t hide

It will be alright

You’ll see’

These lyrics quote the inevitable hardships life has install for all of us, but Phil Collins points out that no matter how bad we feel in parts of life, it won’t last forever- like a great sea, there are ups and downs its how you bounce back is what really counts.

I believe the theme of this song is Humans won’t progress until they jump down from their high horses and look at every living creature, and race around them as equals whom are worthy of love and respect.

The cultural aspect of this song is about the Inuit people who lived in Alaska, Greenland and Canada, and centres around their cultural beliefs and relationship with nature and the spirits.

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Song review ‘Cry me a river’ Ella Fitzjerald./ Things that make a good writer. By C.W. McGee.

Callum McGee.

Hello everyone, I’ve taken some time to discover what kind of writer I’d like to be now that I’ve adjusted to university. I’ll be writing reviews of novels, scripts, songs, movies et cetera whilst posting some of my creative writing draft samples; make sure to check out my new posts.

After listening to the song:

Today I am reviewing the song ‘Cry me a river’ by Ella Fitzjerald. Her voice is full of emotion as she bellows sweet lyrics about moving on from a past partner. I love how she covers such a delicate topic and mixes it with RnB/Soul music; it creates such a calming flow that chilled me right out.

Though this song has no narrative, it clearly describes the feelings of heartache and makes the context of wanting to move on clear.

“Now you say you’re lonely, You cried the long night through Well, you can cry me a river, cry me a river” she is telling us she doesn’t care about her ex-partner’s feelings and rejects his attempts to come back to her.

But later similar lyrics “Told me you were through with me and Now,

now you say you love me Well, just to prove you do Come on and cry,

cry, cry me a river, cry me a river Cause I cried a river over you”

She still feels the wounds of lost love- but will not allow her heart to be vulnerable again.

You can tell just by listening this song is full of emotion and harmonises so well with the calming soul music.

‘You drove me, nearly drove me, out of my head While you never shed a tear Remember,’ She shows how much this affected her mental health in the song , and how she wants him to cry a river over her in the past, rather than now when it doesnt matter to her anymore.

I’ve always been a fan of writers, and singers et cetera; who use their emotional experiences to fuel their writing; as I believe the passion for creativity comes from painful experiences, it adds a sense of realism and relatability in my opinion. Her genre is heavily jazz based, which creates a calm flow in the background that goes well with her blues voice.

Her voice is low and deep like the blues music genre; mixed with African American soul beat. The qualitites of her voice go from high when she is humming inbewteen the lyrics.

The genre music of RnB mixed with soul creates a smooth flow to melancholy lyrics, though her voice goes well with the instrumentals. I love how the song deals with a breakup context that is widely relatable to most people, and me as well. Overall, I give this song 9/10 for connecting to my emotions and giving me a new tune for my writing, Spotify playlist.

I will be reviewing more novels, movies, shows, and songs in the future with different contexts and hidden meanings, stay tuned.

Here are three paragraphs of advice if you want to be a good writer.

One of the most important things that make a good writer is how well you write a character story ark/journey; what human flaws do they possess? How do their actions create conflict that keeps the narrative going? What is the purpose of your side characters? These are many things you need to consider when writing a game, novel, show or movie narrative. Why should they care about your world and story? Make the characters relatable with genuine flaws. Find your theme for your idea what emotional memories are buried deep within your heart? Use that to bring out the passion and magic in your creations.

Consider what themes your story narrative surrounds? Go to a library and look into history the tragic events many cultures and races have dealt with over the centuries will inspire your storytelling. J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin, for example, inspired their fantasy worlds by Britain’s wars and industrialisation, and Martin using brutality of medieval bloodshed for power. I look around and see nature dying as well as innocent people hurting- this is what inspires me to want to make a positive difference through storytelling.

I have mentioned this a few times in previous posts, but I reiterate in any form of writing in script, poetry, short/novel stories, you should rely on using your five senses to show how your characters are experiencing their journeys. Instead of telling me ‘Mike felt something behind him’ try ‘Mike’s throat clenched as an ice-cold chill bounced of the nape of his neck.’ See, doesn’t that sound way more interesting to read?

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You must stand out from the rest, believe in your abilities and you will go further then you ever imagined. ✨✨✨

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Star book challenge. 📖🌈♠️

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Some of my personal inspirational, writing quotes. ✨🌈📖

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Some quick poems of mine. 😄🌈

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Some writing setup from my Instagram, check it out for more stuff. 😄

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Hi, I’m a new aspiring fantasy fiction author. I’m currently writing books for young adults. I’m an equalist type of person, I believe all races, and nature of Earth- deserves equality, love, and respect. Feel free to check out my Instagram, and blog. 😄🌈✨