Three Tune Tuesday Week 57 - Dido.
I was recently asked to select between music and movies and it's a tough pick. Music is powerful and it speaks volumes. You can listen to music on the go but I don't think I can say the same for movies to some extent.
Music cuts across the board because it's all about how you feel... giving you the feeling you want or validating what you feel sometimes. Music is a healer and a consoler too. There are songs for every mood. Three Tune Tuesday is a way of showcasing amazing songs that would have passed unnoticed or reaffirming the amazing power of an already known song to serve as a reminder to us all. Some songs are evergreen and there are songs that would just drag you down the memory lane and that's why I am going with the songs I am going with today.
I just got into the University in 2003 when one of my roommates then named Iyke wouldn't stop playing this lady's song. I didn't find any offence with it because I love everything about her song. This guy made me fall in love with so many songs back then and this is a trip down the memory lane to my freshman year at the University.
The first song I would be recommending today is this:
Title: "White Flag"
Artist: "Dido"
Video Link:
The title of the album this track is featured in is titled "Life For Rent". This "White Flag" song can be termed "Surrender" because to throw a white flag means you have chosen to surrender and have no fight left in you anymore to give. It is to concede and be at the mercy of whoever the oppressor was.
This song was a personal one for Dido after she endured a divorce from her partner then in 2002. The particular line I love in her track says:
"I promise I'm not trying to make your life harder
Or return to where we were
But I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be"
I am sure we are familiar with the word "ship" where fans support the relationship of those they feel deserved to be together by mutual interest. This is what she was describing here saying she will go down with their ship and won't give up on the relationship with her former partner. She admitted her wrongs and hope things would be better between them but didn't. She remarried again in 2010 though. Looks like she threw the white flag when there was no hope again.
It's a song about not giving up on her former love, about loving people and not being willing to throw in the towel. It was the first song I heard back then and I am still in love with that song. She made an album before this one titled "No Angel". There was no hit song in that album and I think she managed to sell about 200,000 copies. When Eminem used her "Thank You" chorus in one of my favourite songs of all time titled "Stan" everyone started giving attention to Dido and this is why "Life For Rent" album went off the roof.
The second track I am recommending today is:
Title: "Life For Rent"
Artist: "Dido"
Video Link:
This is the song for the album and I must say it's a wonderful song too. I carefully selected this one too because she appeased me with her words, lyrics and even the tune for this song.
This song is about the reality of life with Dido making us understand here that this life we have isn't really ours. We have it for rent and a short while. If we don't do everything we can to own it, to make the most of it and "buy" it back then nothing we have is truly ours since the life is on rental anyway. It's like a slave to a slave owner. You know whatever the slave accumulates or owns belongs to the owner and not the slave unless the slave manages to secure freedom and have a life of his or her own... That's the perfect explanation for this song.
Here is my favourite part:
"I haven't ever really found a place that I call home
I never stick around quite long enough to make it
I apologize once again I'm not in love
But it's not as if I mind
That your heart ain't exactly breaking
It's just a thought, only a thought
But if my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy
Well, I deserve nothing more than I get
'Cause, nothing I have is truly mine"
That's just the whole summary of what I can say about this lovely song. This song was also featured in Smallville and Nikita (US TV series).
The last but not the least would be:
Title: "Thank You"
Artist: "Dido"
Video Link:
This song would always get me and I fell in love with it more when I listened to "Stan" by "Eminem". I watched the video of this song and I understood everything Dido was saying and all she felt too. Dido wrote this particular song after she met her lawyer boyfriend; Bob Page in 1995 and she fell hard for him. That is what inspired the lyrics of the song:
"My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why
I got out of bed at all
The morning rain clouds up my window
And I can't see at all
And even if I could, it'd all be grey
But your picture on my wall
It reminds me that it's not so bad
It's not so bad"
Chorus:
"And I want to thank you
For giving me the best day of my life
Oh, just to be with you
Is having the best day of my life"
Her tea's gone cold and the rain has clouded her window, but seeing his picture on her wall reminds her that it's not as bad as she thought. Dido is a lover girl and she wrote some of her songs due to love and they were personal as I mentioned with "White Flag" for the same guy she met in 2001 and broke up with in 2002. She also wrote "Here With Me" for this same guy and now, this "Thank You" song. She thanked Page for giving her the "best day of her life," and that's the inspiration behind the song after she reminisce about when they met in a club and how they had their first encounter.
That's all for this week.
Thank you for your time.
My pen doesn't bleed, it speaks, with speed and ease.
Still me,
My tongue is like the pen of a ready writer.
Olawalium; (Love's chemical content, in human form). Take a dose today: doctor's order.