Great Music with Lyrics 歌詞付きの素晴らしい音楽

My students can ask me questions about these songs in class or in chat. I will post many artists–first, Rush…. What you will notice is many of these are meaningful songs in a social and political way–important as much for their lyrics as for the groundbreaking musicality of the musicians. I grew up with this music, with the rock tunes you will hear below representing the ones that were often blaring from the speakers of the cars I drove around in with my friends….

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I will add more Rush, later. I particularly want to add Red Barchetta!, But now for some Led Zeppelin:

Now look at the visuals in this iteration (below) of the song and see what influenced Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and maybe John Bonham… You can hear it in the lyrics, too….
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This is a beautifully heart-breaking love song.

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This one I loved to sing in Karaoke and Nore bang in Korea! Yes, I can do falsetto!
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Now, Warning to any Prim & Proper types, this next one is quite suggestive–but the music, singing and groove are unparalleled in their goodness, so must be included here. In fact, much of Led Zeppelin’s music dealt with the more visceral excitement of love, but I think most who love led Zeppelin did and do so because the music was so incomprehensibly fantastic and original. It just gets inside you and won’t leave.

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Now, switching gears… This is one, below, I often sang in Nore Bang in Korea, too–especially with a new girlfriend…. Billy Joel is a long islander, like me and my friends growing up–and boy can he write songs that became like anthems for us….

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And the next one is for the ones who want to assure their lovers…. I sang this a bunch too.
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And no collection of Billy Joel could be complete without this next one (especially for new Yorkers):