Celebrate Life
celebrate the joys and pains of existence with tommi tikka
featuring artists like
Elvis Presley, The Impersonators, Robb Murphy, HOAX, Elton John, Neil Diamond, DD Allen, The Modern World
The great Oscar Wilde once remarked:
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that’s all.
This famous quote pretty much sums up what Music To Celebrate Life is about: living. More precisely, it celebrates the life lived, all of it – not just the good bits. Hence, the music featured here is about the joys and pains of existence. The songs selected for this playlist will have strong vocals and compelling melodic structures. However, given the nature and the theme of this playlist, special emphasis is placed on the lyrical content.
Harvest Moon – Neil Young
31 July 2018
There are so many love songs out there in the cosmos – perhaps a zillion. And the older you get, the less they resonate with you because you know that while falling in love might be fun and easy, staying in love is all about hard work and determination. So as you age, listening to love songs with a straight face becomes a tad difficult, an experience that can be compared to watching movies you adored when you were a teenager – they just don’t seem to work anymore…
Himalaya – Ellipsis
24 July 2018
The most difficult things for a man to do are to climb a wall leaning towards you and to kiss a girl leaning away from you.
– Marion de Velder (often mistakenly credited to Winston Churchill)
I Can See Clearly Now – Johnny Nash
10 July 2018
Sometimes when you are busy living your life a special moment arrives or rather you find yourself in one. It’s there without a warning and as you live through it, you realize that you’ll remember it for the rest of your life. These moments are hard to describe…
Art Of Dying – George Harrison
2 July 2018
Ever had one of those mornings when you are on your way to work and you are tense and stressed? You have so many projects waiting for you that it’s hard to fathom how to get it all done in a timely manner and to top it off, you have one or two people in your life, like most of us, who are being insanely difficult. Sounds familiar?…
The World Stopped Turning – The Oho
26 June 2018
I remember watching a Canadian TV series called Black Harbor about twenty years ago. It’s a show about a couple moving to Nova Scotia from LA with their two children and ultimately getting divorced. In one of the episodes, Nick, the father of the family, says to his kids, upon reminiscing on how he met their mother, that he doesn’t know which hurts more falling in love or falling out of love…
So Alive – Jon Worthy
18 June 2018
Muhammed Ali once stressed the importance of positivity in achieving your goals in life by stating: “I am the greatest; I said that even before I knew I was.”
I admit the ability to stay positive is perhaps one of the most important skills a person can have. However, being continuously happy and satisfied is very difficult, if not impossible. In fact even staying content requires conscious effort, doesn’t it?..
Sleep Tonight – Robb Murphy
18 June 2018
Here’s a line from one of my all-time favorite TV shows:
Good night Seattle. This is Dr. Fraser Crane wishing you all good mental health.
I wonder how many fans of Fraser have truly ever pondered on the significance of that line – after all, we’re talking about a sitcom here and not a documentary on mental illnesses. However, anybody who’s ever been depressed, even for a little while, knows the importance of good mental health. In fact, good mental health is one of the most important things in life and as with health, we should always prioritize it.
Geronimo’s Cadillac – Michael Martin Murphey
11 June 2018
One of the most famous pictures from the American West portrays the Apache warrior Geronimo behind the wheel of an early Cadillac. Most of us have seen this picture countless times in magazine articles, schoolbooks, newspapers and documentaries. There’s something about this image that both shakes you up and moves you at the same time…
Lonely Road – Paul McCartney
30 May 2018
It’s weird how some people are born with powers of persuasion. They can talk you into anything or at the very least, they can change your mind – sometimes without you even noticing it…
A Short Obsession With Time – The People The Poet
22 May 2018
Time isn’t the main thing. It’s the only thing.
– Miles Davis
Indeed it is. And we will get to the importance of time in a little bit, while discussing The People The Poet’s excellent new album A Short Obsession With Time, but let’s first take a look at what I’ve written about the two singles preceding the new record:
Clarity – Ellipsis
22 May 2018
Long, long time ago in Mexico, I woke up on a beach in Puerto Vallarta. My head was hurting and I was nauseous. I had gone south of the border to have some fun, to take a break from my complex, draining life but instead, I had taken it upon myself to attempt to drown my sorrows in drink. And just like the old joke goes, the bastards had learned to swim…
Let’s Lie Here For A While – Lynz Crichton
15 May 2018
There is no cure for love other than marriage.
– Irish proverb
A long time ago in London, as I was walking down King’s Road, I was approached by this lady who said that if I gave her a few minutes of my time, she could open my eyes in the matters of love. She was gorgeous. And no, she was not a streetwalker. Rather, she claimed to be part of a research group and asked me to follow her to this courtyard to fill out a questionnaire. The idea was that she would then create a love profile for me…