Money Music Musing #7: Barrett Strong
Lyrical Lessons from “Money (That´s What I Want)” by Barrett Strong The money-themed song Money (That’s What I Want) performed by Barrett Strong was released in 1959. The song written by Tamla founder Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford became the first hit record for Gordy’s Motown enterprise. Lyrically, there are only two lines of verse, […]
Money Music Musing: Lyrical Lessons from “Dime, Quarter, Nickel, Penny” by Nappy Roots
The money-themed song Dime Quarter Nickel Penny (contains strong language) by Nappy Roots was released in 2002. Though the lyrics focus on drugs and money, my focus is on the title. Whether you use cash or plastic you always have the question of what to do with the change. What?, there’s no change with plastic […]
Money Music Musing: Lyrical Lessons from “Billionaire” by Travie McCoy
The money-themed song Billionaire (contains strong language) by Travie McCoy and featuring Bruno Mars, was released in 2010 and worked its way up the Billboard charts to number 4. The lyrics convey the myth of being rich and hanging out with famous people but also recognize the basic needs of food, safety and security. I […]
Money Music Musing: Lyrical Lessons from “Rich Girl” by Hall and Oates
The song Rich Girl, written by Daryl Hall and John Oates, was released in 1977 and worked its way up the Billboard charts to number 1. The story line is about relying on OPM – Other People’s Money – and not caring about your actions because of the money. For me, this has a dual […]
Money Music Musing: Lyrical Lessons from “She Works Hard for the Money” by Donna Summer
The song She Works Hard For The Money, written by Donna Summer, was released in 1983 and may be best known for its association with the movie Flashdance. Lyrically, there’s not much to the song, two verses, a bridge, and the chorus. While I feel the chorus was overly repeated and the lyrics have little […]
Facing West: Flash fiction based on song titles
Sometimes the real world turns the spotlight on you making you wish it was your last day on earth. You want that rat hole where you can curl up into a fetal position and silently drift into the void, thinking the weightlessness and nothingness will solve your problem. It happens at that point of feeling […]
#Money #Music Musing: Lyrical Lessons from “Mo Money Mo Problems” by The Notorious B.I.G.
By Source, Fair use, wikipedia The song Mo Money Mo Problems written by The Notorious B.I.G. was posthumously released in 1997 and covers a lot of ground with its lyrics. The song opens with the line “Now, who’s hot, who not?” and sets the tone for the story, which describes the struggles for acceptance and […]
#Money #Music Musing: Lyrical Lessons from Smokin’ In The Boys Room
By Source, Fair use, wikipedia The 1973 song Smokin’ In The Boys Room written by the band Brownsville Station may be about breaking school rules for smoking and not getting busted, but what’s the money angle? This kid didn’t want to learn or work. Without education how do you begin to understand money? If you […]
Book review: Anne & Christopher Rice’s Ramses the Damned: The Passion Of Cleopatra
I read the first in this series, The Mummy: Ramses The Damned, shortly after it was published, and this book wonderfully picks up where the first one ended. Julie, Ramses, the Earl of Rutherford, his son, and Cleopatra are seamlessly brought back to life. Two new characters, Queen Bektaten and the author Sybil Parker are […]
Book review: Jasper Fforde’s Something Rotten
Fforde carries forward the cast of characters from Jurisfiction, Book World, the Goliath Coporation, and Spec Ops, with a greatly increased role for the Neanderthals. The book opens with Thursday & Commander Bradshaw chasing the Page Running Minotaur into Nebraska and into a western shoot out. Thursday […]
Book Review: Jasper Fforde’s The Well Of Lost Plots
For her own safety from the Goliath Corporation, Thursday has been chased into Book World. She is pregnant with her eradicated husband’s child, and through the Character Exchange Program she is taking over a role in a book under development in the Well of Lost Plots. The Well is where books are developed and exists […]
Book Review: Jasper Fforde’s Lost In A Good Book
Fforde continues the wordplay in this next installment of the Thursday Next series with a theme of coincidences. Acheron is gone, but we meet his sister Aornis and she has a major impact on Thursday. Her husband Landen has been eradicated, changing her life so that no one remembers him, and she has to decide […]