I love being able to share experiences with my friends around the world that wouldn’t have been able to be shared without all of this wonderful technology. I also love the shift toward a more mature and evolved embrace of sharing those experiences, such as the allowing of recorders and cameras during live performances. This didn’t use to be the case! Photography and recording were explicitly prohibited because there was money to be made by those who had exclusive privileged and equipment for documenting these events. With the maturity of our culture comes the realization that to document and share these does not impact sales, but actually increases them, not only through this widespread, free advertising, but because friends of friends who would have have listened to an artist promoted by a corporation would not give those artists a chance. Besides, the consumer level of recording is nothing compared to professional recordings and we all know that. And so I present to you one of my humble recordings of Patrick Wolf performing LIVE last night at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City’s West Village, Bleeker Street.

Patrick was stripped down to acoustic sets using piano and violin for most songs, and occasionally the ukulele or the dulcimer. Beautiful. His deep, mournful voice so full of rich maturity is in such contrast to his sprite-like, humble, charming, boyishness. I was pleasantly surprised by how engaging and sweet he was with the audience. I was worried he might be another Rufus Wainwright, full of flippant pompousness and an air of presumption that we should be so honored to be in his presence. Patrick was not like that. At All. And the stories he shared behind his songs made me add a new dimension to my experience of listening to him.

Below is an acoustic, live version of BLUEBELLS. The video imagery is so pointless that I’ve superimposed the lyrics so you can follow along. The audio is very good. Below that is the original video/studio recording for the same song. I think you will enjoy both.

[link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir3f0mskGoo&fmt=18]

[link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0dVFFOgClY&fmt=18]

Well, people did not like that I had my morbidly mopey moment yesterday when posted the balloon song, so I just want to clarify that I DO NOT feel permanently like the song sings… I just thought it a rather universal feeling we all can relate to at one point or another.

So on a much lighter note, I wanted to give your theme song for the week ahead! For the year ahead! Of course, this song is far more along the lines of a Troy Theme for life… Sing along with me now!

Still in celebration of THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO releasing their wonderful, delightful, adult playsongs and lullabies, here is: WHEN LIFE GIVES ME LEMONS, I MAKE LEMONADE from their new album, THE LAW OF THE PLAYGROUND.

When Life Gives Me Lemons, I Make Lemonade

I’ve been up
I’ve been down
I’ve always got my head in the clouds
Hoping that I can find
One of them that’s silver-lined
I don’t care
It could rain
All at once on my parade
Because when life gives me lemons
I make lemonade
lemons, I make lemonade

I’ve got a bucket
Filled it with raindrops
Then i put it in the fridge
And now whenever the sun is shining
I make rainbows out of it
I’ve always been a hopeless romantic
Things don’t always go our way
There’s not a lot you can do with lemons
Except make them into lemonade, lemonade, lemonade

I’ve been up
I’ve been down
I’ve always got my head in the clouds
Hoping that I can find
One of them that’s silver-lined
I don’t care
It could rain
All at once on my parade
Because when life gives me lemons
I make lemonade
lemons, I make lemonade

I wake up every morning feeling sad
And I sleep with a light on
Sometimes you go to places in your dreams
That are hard to get back from
And I don’t know what it is I’m afraid of
I just know that I’m afraid
There’s not a lot you can do with lemons
Except make them into lemonade, lemonade, lemonade

I’ve been up
I’ve been down
I’ve always got my head in the clouds
Hoping that I can find
One of them that’s silver-lined
I don’t care
It could rain
All at once on my parade
Because when life gives me lemons
I make lemonade
lemons, I make lemonade

One of my favorite bands, THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO, just released their new album THE LAW OF THE PLAYGROUND.

I tend to resonate strongly with child-like, lullaby, playful melodies that encourage you to sing along, but hidden within the lyrics, dark truths about growing up, being alive, loving, and being. Sing along with me now… la la la… I wonder how many of you will find familiarity in this song.

If not, what’s a video/song that is the story of your life right now?

PLAY THE AUDIO HERE so you can sing along! La La La…
A Balloon on a Broken String

I’m not a boy,
I’m a big, fat balloon
Flapping in the wind
Floating over the treetops
On a broken string
I’ve never been tied down
To anything

Because I’m free
I suppose
I can go
Where I want to go

I drift carelessly
On a summer breeze
I bounce above the trees
I try to be cheerful
But I can feel myself
Deflating all the time
Up in the sky

Because I’m a balloon
On a broken string
I’m not attached to
Anyone or anything
Anymore
Oh-oh-oh
Schooby-doo
Tra-la-la

I’m sad and alone
But you’d never know
It to look at me
I look ever so happy
Up here by myself
But I wish sometimes I looked
The way I felt

Because I’m a balloon
On a broken string
I’m not attached
Anyone or anything
Anymore
Anymore

I’m a balloon
On a broken string
I don’t belong
To anyone or anything

I know I look shiny and bouncy
But I’m all empty inside
And I worry that if I was to just burst suddenly
That nobody would even notice me

I know I look shiny and bouncy
But I’m all empty inside
And I worry that if I was to just burst suddenly
That nobody would even notice me