Y IS FOR YEARS

For each letter of the A to Z, I'm going to give you a KEYWORD. You post in the comments a song with that word in the title. I will give you one to start (along with a video). If you like, you can go to YouTube and embed your video in the comments, so that readers can also listen to your song. No repeats and only post one song so that everyone can participate. If you're just brimming with songs, come back in a few days and lay it on me! If you want to see who else is participating in the A to Z click here.

You guys did great with the last keyword: Stop. Some of you really wanted to play around with the letter X (and I apologize for not being more obliging by providing the ideal X word... ;). In any event, you know that the rules aren't hard and fast here, so you just did as you pleased and posted a song with X. Or a band that started with X. Whatever. Ha! Anyway, here are the songs you thought of with Stop (or X somewhere) in the title:

Mary: Stop! In the Name of Love by The Supremes

Michele: Stop Stop Stop by The Hollies and Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac

Rosey: He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones

Jeffrey: Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me (hilarious, btw) by "Weird Al" Yankovic

and Xanadu by OliviaNewton-John

Ericka: Don't Stop Believing by Journey

Alex: Stop The World by Extreme and Xanadu by Rush

Andrea: Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough by Michael Jackson

Arlee: Dance Stop by Daniel Amos

Holli: Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy) by Rob Zombie

Robyn: Stop! In The Name of Love (again)

Debbie: Stop! by Jon Bonamassa and X Offender by Blondie

Birgit: Xanadu (again)

Dixie: Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now by Daniel Padilla and Morissette Amon

Stephen T. McCarthy: The X-Ray (El Rayo-X) by David Lindley 

and Stop The World and Let Me Off by Waylon Jennings

Larry: X & Y by Coldplay and Stop Breaking Down by Todd Rundgren

Liza: Stop! In The Name of Love (again)

D.G.: I Can't Stop Loving You by Ray Charles

Cherdo: Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship

Marcy: Crystalised by The XX XX

If you can think of more songs from previous letters and WANT to post them now, feel free to go back and add them:)

It's a new day and a new letter!

What is the KEYWORD?

Obviously year is also okay. Any variation with year as the root is acceptable!

I present to you... This'll Be My Year by Train.


You can comment with a song or insert the video by copy/pasting the code in the search bar. Thanks for playing along!


Special thanks to Arlee Bird and the A to Z team who make this possible!

Arlee Bird @ Tossing it Out
Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh
Jeremy Hawkins @ Hollywood Nuts
Damyanti Biswas @ Daily Write
Heather M. Gardner @ The Waiting is the Hardest Part
Author AJ Lauer
Pam Brown Margolis @ An Unconventional Librarian
Zalka Csenge Virág @ The Multicolored Diary
Joy Campbell @ The Character Depot
John Holton @The Sound of One Hand Typing

You Can Quit At Any Time. But This Could Be Your Year.

Well, I missed a few days. Duh.

Did you miss me?

Yeah, I figure you were busy, too.

Funny how you can have great intentions and they can just get shot straight to someplace else. Well, that is what you call LIFE, I think.

Oh well.

Let's get back to California 37 and Train. Can you believe that the concert is only two days away? Me either.

I am absolutely ready for it. It is going to be outside, so I am really hoping that the weather cooperates. Last time I checked there was only 30% chance of rain, so that is good. And it has been cooling down in the evenings... another plus. So, I have fingers, toes, and anything else that is crossable... crossed.

Okay, let's get down to the music. I do believe that I referenced a blog or two back that the band did figure out what the problem was for their lack of ongoing success after they achieved success. In other words, just having a couple of great songs doesn't mean that you will continue to put out great songs. I think that there is a lot of pressure once you have made it to continue to make it. Before you make it, you can write whatever you want. After you make it, everyone seems to have an opinion about your music. And that is aside from the fans.

I found what Pat had to say during this studio session very enlightening.



Let's listen to the whole thing...



If if made you think of Billy Joel's song We Didn't Start The Fire at first listen, you are not the only one. Of course, the listing of events is the only thing those two songs have in common. BJ's song spans decades and isn't remotely personal. Train's song is an intimate look at Pat's life. I look at the timeline of it and I see that at various times there was hopelessness there. Gaping hopelessness. Couldn't you feel it? He even says "this is the time I felt most alone."

I love these kinds of songs because he is offering the entire spectrum of his life to date. There was some terrible places, black places, with sunlight filtering in here and there. However, he kept going and then KABOOM... the universe rewarded all of his tenacity with bounty. Train took off. Train crashed and burned. Train took off again. His marriage crashed and burned, but finally he met the true love of his life in 2004, and it was true and good, and he finally felt at home. The lesson is that you can quit at any time on the timeline, but if you do, you won't get the reward.

So, Journey has the right of it DON'T STOP BELIEVING. And so does Train because MAYBE THIS WILL BE YOUR YEAR.

This is another song I just really like off of the new album. They didn't create a Studio Session for it. And it hasn't been deemed radio worthy... yet. But, it is one of my personal favorites.

If I go before I say to everyone in my ballet

Let me take this chance to thank you for the dance
If I run out of songs to sing to take your mind off everything
Just smile, sit a while with the

Sun on your face and remember the place we met
Take a breath and soon I bet you'll see
Without you I would never be me
You are the leaves of my family tree

Sing together
If you knew me from the very start,
Or we met last week at the grocery mart
Just sing together
It's the least that I can do
My final gift to you
Oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oooo

When I'm past the pearly gate, I will find some real estate
Where we can settle down and watch the world go round
We'll send down all the love we got and let them know we got a spot
For them to be and it's all free,

The sun on your face and remember the place we met
Take a breath and soon I bet you'll see
Without you I would never be me
You are the leaves of my family tree

Sing together
If you knew me from the very start,
Or not at all you're still a part, just
Sing together
It's the least that I can do
My final gift to you
Oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oooo
Oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oooo

So, let's all sing together. If you knew me from the very start, or not at all you're still a part of it all. It's the least that I can do.

Without you, I would never be me.


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