Lateral Love Australia

29 September 2012 - 19,079 views in 105 Countries

Official Ongoing Count.

Official Ongoing Count. 18,289 views in 101 Countries

Thursday 20 September 2012 – Lateral Love Australia Song of the Week

There’s a kind of hush all over the world…by The Carpenters

Sing Along with The Carpenters

There’s a kind of hush
All over the world tonight
All over the world
You can hear the sound of lovers in love
You know what I mean

Just the two of us
And nobody else in sight
There’s nobody else and I’m feelin good
Just holding you tight

So listen very carefully
Get closer now and you will see what I mean
It isn’t a dream
The only sound that you will hear
Is when I whisper in your ear I love you
For ever and ever

There’s a kind of hush
All over the world tonight
All over the world
People just like us are fallin’ love

About the Carpenters

With their light, airy melodies and meticulously crafted, clean arrangements, the Carpenters stood in direct contrast with the excessive, gaudy pop/rock of the ’70s; yet they became one of the most popular artists of the decade, scoring 12 Top Ten hits, including three number one singles.

Karen Carpenter’s calm, pretty voice was the most distinctive element of their music, settling in perfectly amidst the precise, lush arrangements provided by her brother Richard. The duo’s sound drew more from pre-rock pop than rock & roll, but that didn’t prevent the Carpenters from appealing to a variety of audiences, particularly Top 40, easy listening, and adult contemporary. While their popularity declined during the latter half of the ’70s, they remained one of the most distinctive and recognizable acts of the decade produced.

The Carpenters formed in the late ’60s in Downey, CA, after their family moved from their native New Haven, CT. Richard had played piano with a cocktail jazz trio in a handful of local Connecticut nightclubs. Once the family had moved to California, he began to study piano while he supported Karen in a trio that featured Wes Jacobs (tuba/bass). With Jacobs and Richard forming her backup band, Karen was signed to the local Californian record label Magic Lamp, who released two unsuccessful singles by the singer. The trio won a Battle of the Bands contest at the Hollywood Bowl in 1966, which led to a record contract with RCA. Signing under the name the Richard Carpenter Trio, the group cut four songs that were never released. Jacobs left the band at the beginning of 1968.

Following Jacobs’ departure, the siblings formed Spectrum with Richard’s college friend John Bettis. Spectrum fell apart by the end of the year, but the Carpenters continued performing as a duo. The pair recorded some demos at the house of Los Angeles session musician Joe Osborn; the tape was directed toward Herb Alpert, the head of A&M Records, who signed the duo to his record label in early 1969.

Offering, the Carpenters’ first album, was released in November 1969. Neither Offering nor the accompanying single, a cover of the Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride,” made a big impression. However, the Carpenters’ fortunes changed with their second single, a version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “(They Long to Be) Close to You.” Taken from the album Close to You, the single became the group’s first number one, spending four weeks on the top of the U.S. charts. “Close to You” became an international hit, beginning a five-year period where the duo was one of the most popular recording acts in the world. During that period the Carpenters won two Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist of 1970, and had an impressive string of Top Ten hits, including “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “Superstar,” “Hurting Each Other,” “Goodbye to Love,” “Yesterday Once More,” and “Top of the World.”

After 1975′s number-four hit “Only Yesterday,” the group’s popularity began to decline. For the latter half of the ’70s, the duo were plagued by personal problems. Richard had become addicted to prescription drugs; in 1978, he entered a recovery clinic, kicking his habit. Karen, meanwhile, became afflicted with anorexia nervosa, a disease she suffered from for the rest of her life. On top of their health problems, the group’s singles had stopped reaching the Top Ten and by 1978, they weren’t even reaching the Top 40. Consequently, Karen decided to pursue a solo career, recording a solo album in 1979 with Phil Ramone; the record was never completed and she returned to the Carpenters later that year. The reunited duo released their last album of new material, Made in America, in 1981. The album marked a commercial comeback, as “Touch Me When We’re Dancing” made it to number 16 on the charts. However, Karen’s health continued to decline, forcing the duo out of the spotlight. On February 4, 1983, Karen was found unconscious at her parents’ home in Downey; she died in the hospital that morning from a cardiac arrest, caused by her anorexia.

After Karen’s death, Richard Carpenter concentrated on production work and assembling various compilations of the Carpenters’ recorded work. In 1987, he released a solo album called Time, which featured guest appearances by Dusty Springfield and Dionne Warwick. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

http://www.youtube.com/artist/Carpenters?feature=watch_metadata

17,067 views in 94 Countries

Unity through Lateral Love & Spirit of Care for all Humankind!

Friday 14 September 2012 – Lateral Love Australia Song of the Week

Nothing’s Real But Love…by Rebecca Ferguson

If pop music is infinitely surprising then the often circuitous route that brings a major star to our attention is surely exemplified in the wonderful Rebecca Ferguson.

Just over a year ago, this painfully shy, woefully under confident single mother of two was shown auditioning for The X Factor. In what is surely one of the best audition sequences ever shown on the programme, her story of dignified resignation – pregnant at 17, then again at 19, with no money and little hope – struck a chord with the nation. It seemed that this was a voice destined never to be heard. Then she opened her mouth and her stunningly raw rendition of Sam Cooke’s classic “A Change Is Gonna Come” set the bar on the show, oh, just a million miles higher….

It’s immaterial that she came second on the show – perhaps even preferable, as it has meant that the last year has allowed this Liverpudlian world-class singer/songwriter to hone her writing skills and to channel that remarkable soul voice into a selection of songs that will establish this 25 year old as the voice of her generation, and a global superstar.

With a writing skill that belies her years, Rebecca Ferguson’s debut album does not pander to fashion. It’s not a hybrid of every current hip musical genre, shaken around a bit and mixed into an amorphous lump. This is soul; raw emotion pours out of every fibre of every note making the others sound… ordinary. Fiercely proud of her working class Liverpool roots, Rebecca’s route here hasn’t been an easy one, but it’s given her a dignified fighting spirit, which bursts through her lyrics and informs the path she hopes her career will follow. Basically, she is a true artist, in it for the long haul.

Until now all Rebecca’s admirers have had are her TV appearances. That audition of ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ has had 2.9million views alone on YouTube, whilst her inspired renditions of Eurythmics’ ‘Sweet Dreams’, Chris Isaac’s ‘Wicked Game’ and Candi Staton’s ‘You Got The Love’ showed that her range of influences was stunningly diverse. But the show itself gave Rebecca something that money can’t buy. “It completely changed me as a person. I’m strong now. Singing used to just be a dream, now it’s my focus. I had begun to give up hope and then the show happened and now, with this first album, I just wanted to get to a point where my voice and my songs are as good as they can possibly be”.

It got her here, to her first single, ‘Nothing’s Real But Love’; passionate yet displaying the control that only a great singer can muster, the subject is one close to Rebecca’s heart – what’s really important in life – “No money, no house, no car, can beat love.”

“People used to say to me ‘Being rich doesn’t make you happy, Rebecca’’’ she says. “And I’d think I’ve got no electricity, nothing – tell that to my empty fridge. But now I’m doing okay, I realise, they were right. It doesn’t matter what you’ve got, as long as you’ve got love. I know that sounds cheesy, but that’s everything”.

It’s a theme continued on much of her searingly honest debut album. “I spilled my soul out. A lot of it comes from writing about relationships I’ve been in, so I think everyone can probably relate to the lyrics – we’ve all been there.” A self-confessed perfectionist, Rebecca, who has always written her own material, wrote a song every day for months. “People just made an assumption, ‘She came off The X Factor she won’t be able to write.  We’ll just write her songs.’  Then as time passed they realised, ‘Oh, she can actually do this!’”

Working with a roll call of song-writer/producers including Eg White (Adele, James Morrison, Duffy) Fraser T Smith (N-Dubz, Tinchy Stryder, Cee Lo Green) and Claude Kelly in New York (Britney, Whitney Houston, Jessie J) Rebecca has bared her soul, and admits creating it wasn’t always easy. “Some days in the studio I’d been crying and say ‘Ok I’ve had a really bad week, I’m not going to lie but we’re going to write about it, and hopefully something good can come out of that. Someone can listen to it, and think, ‘She’s been there too. She knows how I feel.’”

Created over the last 11 months the album is a highly accomplished and timeless piece of work; from the sweet pared back piano led ‘Teach me How to Be Loved’ to the big band sound of ‘Fairytale’, Rebecca’s voice soars effortlessly. And if ‘Shoulder To Shoulder’ doesn’t make you cry then there must be androids amongst us….

Whilst her direct musical influences are soul based, a quick arbitrary scroll through her iPod veers between;  Ben Howard, Ray Charles, Bombay Bicycle Club, Tupac, Sam Cooke, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Florence and The Machine, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj and, of course, Adele.  “She’s been such a support and said such lovely things about me,” she says of her fellow chanteuse. “She even admitted she voted for me 80 times when I was on the show. She means every word she sings, which I love.”

At times still shy, but with a surprisingly big laugh, creating this album has also rewarded Rebecca with a new level of assertiveness and self-belief, “I refused to re-vocal some of the songs on the album. I meant every word of those songs when I sang them, and I’m not going to do them again, and not mean it. I don’t care if that makes me sound like a diva.”

Growing up in a chaotic one-parent household, life was far from diva-ish. With three brothers and two sisters, music was an escape for Rebecca, “I didn’t have a very easy childhood to be honest and to get away from that I dreamt my life away; dreamt of singing.” Even from a tiny girl Rebecca could see her future, “I used to write songs age three,” she laughs, “There’s pads and pads of lyrics I wrote as a teenager at my mum’s house.”

Although well behaved, she admits she didn’t enjoy school; always wondering why she was there, when she knew her musical destiny. One that wasn’t going to be easy to get to, “My mum was really strict and I was only allowed to listen to Christian music. But I remember one of her friends who knew I loved singing giving me two tapes – Cher and Whitney Houston. I’d sit there for hours and hours listening to those two albums on repeat.”

There wasn’t any money to spare for Rebecca to follow her passion for singing, so at 14 she got a job in a clothes shop to pay for singing lessons. Performing Arts College followed, but then at 17, everything changed when she got pregnant with her first child Lillie May, followed by Karl two years later.  “People would say to me, ‘Well your life’s ruined now!’ For a while I started to believe it, but you don’t have to get rid of your dreams just because you have kids. They’ve just pushed me to succeed, to want to do better for them. And for me.”

Incredibly humble, but with an eye trained firmly on the future, her potential is vast. “I am very proud of this album. It wasn’t easy to write and I poured that much of myself into it that if people don’t like it, it’ll be hard; but I’ll take that on the chin,” she says. “As long as people can say ‘I believed what she was saying’, that’s the ultimate.”

http://www.rebeccaofficial.com/gb/biography/