Who Wants to Live Forever
As a musical interlude between blogs, I'd like to offer you this video of one of my favorite songs:
It's "Who Wants to Live Forever" - written by Brian May, performed by Queen, from the album A Kind of Magic (1986). It also appears prominently in the Russell Mulcahy film Highlander. Queen = Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor.
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It's "Who Wants to Live Forever" - written by Brian May, performed by Queen, from the album A Kind of Magic (1986). It also appears prominently in the Russell Mulcahy film Highlander. Queen = Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor.
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This is my favorite song by Queen.... I cry almost every time I hear it... even if I listen to it 10 times in a row.... thanks for posting...
Elton John's song Original Sin will do it too.... and one or two others...
I guess I'm having a PMS sort of day... I better stop here...
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Thank you, Chris! Sorry to make you cry.... This song tends to give me chill bumps when I hear it. Interestingly, as much as I love it, I can't commit to calling it my favorite Queen song - which is, I suppose, a testament to their songwriting ability. Other candidates would be "Innuendo," "The Show Must Go On," "Bohemian Rhapsody," and "You Take My Breath Away" - depending on my mood, I suppose. Interestingly, though I was a huge Queen fan before prison, back then I owned every disc they'd ever made except A Kind of Magic, and I'd never seen Highlander, so I did not know this song. I first discovered it when a friend sent me a Queen collection on cassette in prison (I believe it was Classic Queen).
Though I'm a big fan of Elton, I never heard his "Original Sin" until I came home in 2004. It's one of Geri's favorite songs, too. I My cellie Martin had Elton John and Queen songbooks in prison, so I taught myself to play as many of their songs as possible - but that was before he was transferred in 2000, and "Original Sin" hadn't come out yet. Here's another song called "Original Sin" that I've liked since high school, by INXS:
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My favorite all-time Queen song (and one of my favorite songs) is Bohemian Rhapsody.
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Thank you, Lady! I remember Mr. Shonk, my 7th grade music appreciation teacher who we considered dreadfully unhip (he was also organist at The Church of the Open Door), taking a break from the classical and devoting a whole class to playing A Night at the Opera (which included "Bohemian Rhapsody"). He called it the greatest rock album of all time. And I never considered him unhip again.
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I too love Bohemian Rhapsody. One of my favorite songs to write to. But then Night at the Opera is a nearly perfect album (I say nearly because I think Dark Side of the Moon is about as perfect as it gets!) I was so sad when Freddie died--what a voice!
And The Highlander was a very cool movie. It was a story line before its time, considering all the best selling genre fiction about hunky ass-kicking immortals who kill the bad guy and get the girl in the end. And those aren't even the ones with vampires, werewolves or demons--ick!
(I'm as sick of Twilight as I ever got of selling Harry Potter and the DaVinci Code--one of the drawbacks of being a bookseller--you actually have to sell the public what "they" want, not what you think they should read!)
Anyway, good choice of video, song, and group...
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Thanks, Pinky! Believe it or not, I'm totally unacquainted with Twilight. Since I've already responded to Lady with the "Bohemian Rhapsody" video, and I can't find any Dark Side of the Moon videos (unless I use songs from the Roger Waters-less Pulse DVD), here's another of my favorite Queen songs, "The Show Must Go On":
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This song breaks my heart. It is so poignant since Freddy Mercury didn't live forever but his voice remains to remind us that we all must go on in spite of our
mortality.
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Freddie Mercury (sp wrong in my comment)
died of Aids shortly after this recording.
but his voice is so tremendous that one forgets that he was near death then.
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heh... my security code is 00666
word of warning, avoid the newest highlander movie like the bubonic plague! aside from being quite possibly the worst movie ever made, they were unable to license the queen songs from the other movies and tv show for use. (rumor is brian may saw the script and said no way in hell.) so instead they get these gods-awful europop bands to do covers of them. they do a "montage" scene as the group of immortals travel to their destination with a horrid version of "princes of the universe" playing, and all i can think of is the "montage" song from "team america: world police." "who wants to live forever" is redone out-of-tune folk style, so bad you'll find yourself taking the dvd out and smashing it to stop the pain.
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Cool code... And thanks for the tip, VX! I'm tempted to respond with the theme from Team America: World Police, but the thought of it makes me nauseous this early in the morning... lol. So instead I offer you another Queen song from Highlander, "A Kind of Magic":
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"Touch my world with your fingertips."
Beautiful.
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Indeed... thank you, Michelle! Here's yet another of my favorite Queen songs, the title song from the last album they released before Freddie Mercury's untimely death, Innuendo:
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Who wants to live forever
When the scent of faded flowers
Is forever haunting me?
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What is so original about sin? It goes on all the time and the Show Must Go On!!
The apple and the snakes still exist and the Garden of Eden is now a war zone.
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The same Bible from which the concept of original sin was culled says that God created everything and called it all good. Either he was lying, he was mistaken, or there is no sin. He had to have created the snake, too, if he created everything - and with a purpose. Either the snake carried out his purpose (God's purpose) or didn't - and if he didn't, then God's plan must have been fucked up or hit an unforeseen snag. But of course we're talking about myths here - and while we're on the subject of apples, a little Dean Martin might be appropriate:
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Like that thought.... had never heard anyone point that out. But you are correct of course... it does say God made everything and it was good... So either he isn't as masterful as claimed and doesn't have control over everything... or it was deliberate... Joseph Campbell's take on it was the snake did exactly what he was meant to do... He in essences gave woman/man the opportunity for self-awareness or consciousness of who they were and sent them into the wide world for their adventure.
Otherwise we would still be mucking around blissfully ignorant back in that garden.
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And what's Highlander but a variation on a myth?
Isn't that what most stories are?
Isn't an immortal what the ancients called a god (or goddess)?
Or a thing they vilified as a demon? (There were certainly lots of bad guys in all the holy books! But then if you didn't have the bad guys, how would you know who the good guys were?)
Anyway, back to work. Today I don't want to live forever... just sleep forever... no, wait, wasn't there a princess somewhere that did that...
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I don't want to live forever, but I don't want to die either. Knowing that we are going to die, I think this is a conflict we all live with.
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