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One of Bono\u2019s best songs, \u201cOne\u201d, showed up on the 1991 U2 album \u201cAchtung Baby\u201d, but the song reached a whole new emotional level when Mary J. Blige lent her voice to U2\u2019s backing track fifteen years later. I was totally stunned when I heard it for the first time on the radio, though it wasn\u2019t played much at all in Sweden it seems. I loved U2\u2019s version too, but Mary\u2019s singing transcended Bono\u2019s and gave it a whole new dimension. I\u2019ve bought many U2 albums, including \u201cBoy\u201d, the day after they played live on Swedish TV for the first time in 1980, but I\u2019ve never seen them live. Bono preaching from the stage is not something I\u2019ve ever longed for, however sincere he is, but if the opportunity to see them comes along again, I\u2019ll go for it. I won\u2019t hold my breath for an appearance from Mary, though. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I have a pretty big garden which demands a lot of lawn-mowing and with that I have no problem at all. When I\u2019m not immersed in my own thoughts I like to listen to an album while I\u2019m mowing. A few years ago I reached out for the Kate Bush album \u201cHounds of Love\u201d on Spotify and listened to the whole of it in my mowing bubble. I bought the vinyl album when it came out in 1985, but had never listened so intensely to the whole album on earphones as I did on that day, with the resulting flood of emotions. The intimacy you get from the lack of distractions! \u201cHounds of Love\u201d is a genuine masterpiece from beginning to end from a true artist. Kate forever!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last up, a bunch of men\nso utterly removed from life as we know it in Europe, that even I have\ndifficulty understanding my connection to them: Eagles. I watched a video of a\nconcert recorded in Melbourne from their first farewell tour and when Don\nHenley stepped up to the microphone to sing \u201cWasted Time\u201d, something hit me\nright between the eyes and I was done again. Gone again. I was something of an\nEagles fan in the early 70\u2019s and bought both \u201cDesperado\u201d (1973) and \u201cHotel\nCalifornia\u201d (1976) and my friends had all the others, but then along came punk\/new\nwave and I lost all interest in the band. And never regained it, though naturally\nthat didn\u2019t stop me watching the video concert. So what was that about?\nNostalgia? Mourning lost youth? Who knows. But what I do know is that the song\nis great, Henley sang it very well and I\u2019ve always loved the timbre in his\nvoice. And I can still listen to \u201cHotel California\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s really weird is\nthe vast number of songs that I\u2019ve loved and which have affected me greatly or\nbeen an inspiration over the years, but which haven\u2019t provoked this sort of\nemotional response, or anything close to it. What about all the Beatle\u2019s stuff?\nNope. This could be an interesting subject to discuss with my psychoanalyst. If\nI had one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two songs and a whole album had such an emotional impact on me in the last 10 years that tears rolled down my cheeks. Music from three different decades, totally different genres and definitely favourites from these three artists. One of Bono\u2019s best songs, \u201cOne\u201d, showed up on the 1991 U2 album \u201cAchtung Baby\u201d, but … <\/p>\n