We also wish a happy birthday to David Dunne, and Margaret Doyle, and Willie Allen who live in Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary, Ireland: Ann O Dwyer who lives in Piltown, Kilkenny:Marjorie Davidson who lives in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Enjoy your special day, and thank you for being my Facebook friend.
My song today is ‘Something’. This song was recorded by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album ‘Abbey Road’. It was written by George Harrison, the band's lead guitarist, and is widely viewed by music historians as having marked his ascendancy as a composer to the level of the Beatles' principal songwriters, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney. The song topped the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ chart in the United States as well as charts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and West Germany, and peaked at Number 4 in the UK.
‘Something’ received the Ivor Novello Award’ for the ‘Best Song Musically and Lyrically’ of 1969. By the late 1970s, it had been covered by over 150 artists, making it the second-most covered Beatles composition after ‘Yesterday’. Other artists to cover the song have included Shirley Bassey: Frank Sinatra: Elvis Presley: Ray Charles: James Brown: Smokey Robinson. ‘Something’ is the 17th-most performed song of the twentieth century, with 5 million performances, and it is ranked as being Number 14 in the magazine's list of ‘The 100 Greatest Songs of All Time’. In 2004, it was ranked 278th on Rolling Stone’s list of ‘The 500 Greatest Sons of All Time. In 2002, a year after Harrison's death, McCartney and Eric Clapton performed it at the ‘Concert for George’ tribute at London's ‘Royal Albert Hall’.
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We have all had experiences of coming across people, or being a part of some event, or encountering some aspect of life for which we think feel somewhat uneasy. While we cannot pinpoint precisely what it is which intrigues, attracts, or cautions us, 'something' tells us that all is not as it should be or is as it seems to be.
How many times have we heard somebody say, “ I don’t know what it is but there is ‘something' about him/her that does not ring true?” Or “I know it may not seem to be the wisest thing to back a 100-1 outsider in this year’s Grand National when I am already short of cash, but ‘something’ is telling me that I will regret it if I do not follow through with my hunch!” Or “I probably should not buy that item on impulse today, but it is the last one on sale, and ‘something’ tells me it will have been sold to somebody else before I come back!”.
There is an inner voice that does not use words and which we would all be wiser to listen to from time to time. It is called one’s ‘intuition’ and it is allied more of one’s belief system than any rational thought rooted solely in the seed of reason. A person’s belief can hold out the ‘possibility’ whereas fact and rationale alone can never explain all that is going on in the machinations of the human mind and body.
I was once told that ‘intuition’ allied to ‘inspiration’ forms the human bedrock of original thought. Original thought is a process so elusive that even the greatest genius of the past ten thousand years never once captured its very essence. What geniuses are often credited with first saying or inventing, was probably envisaged by another, long before the initial thought ever entered the head of a new creator in a different form, or was spoken and described in embryonic modernity.
Select any word in the English language and look up all quotations pertaining to that word on your laptop. Do not be the least surprised to find so many variations of the same/similar quotation by so many different people. Search for the creator of one colour and you will find one hundred shades of grey, all similar at first sight but each marginally different in some significance.
Some quotations will differ by no more than a few changed words, or be altered by the placing or removal of an additional comer, whereas the mere exchange of a full stop for an exclamation mark may significantly alter purpose, and slightly amend meaning. Such significant change is enough to depart sufficient distance from the original thought, that had been expressed so often by so many people before. In any event, there is unlikely to be any hard evidence or concrete proof of the identity of the original thinker into whose mind was conceived a thought that is credited with having given birth to its original intent.
I believe that we will never follow our own inner voice while we remain preoccupied with the mutterings of others. I believe that greater clarity will constantly evade us until we have each dispelled the doubts we hold today. My mum would always tell me to trust my instincts. She would remind me that our brain can play tricks and that our heart can blind our true vision, but our gut instinct is usually right! I have always believed that we recognise truth best through the way it feels to us. We should follow our gut instinct, for that is where our wisest and bravest of actions usually reside.
The advice of another is usually a good indicator where one’s instinct is often being unknowingly followed. It is a well-known fact that most people are poor advice-givers and even poorer recipients of advice proffered. For instance, when advice is offered (whether or not sought) the advice-giver should always be aware that the only time any person accepts the advice of another is when the advice given echoes the secret oracles of their own soul. Tell the person seeking the advice what they want to hear, and you will be at your most persuasive and have their most attentive ear. But dare to tell them what they do not want to hear, and your advice will be discarded as instantly as it was given.
I remember the first time I ever came face-to-face with my wife, Sheila. I don’t quite know what it was that drew me to her magnetic personality and human qualities. 'It was something in the way she moves, attracts me like no other lover. Something in the way she moves me, I don't want to leave her now.'
Love and peace
Bill xxx