I dedicate my song today to my Facebook friend, Amanda Katina Bright from Manchester. Thank you for being my friend, Amanda and enjoy your day. Bill x
Today’s song is ‘Forever Tonight’ that was recorded in the fifth solo album ‘One Clear Voice’ by Peter Cetera in 1995. Following his departure from Warner Brothers in 1993, Cetera met Steve Devick while on vacation in Maui with his daughter. Devick had created the Chicago-based label in 1985 and was looking to expand from its Gospel roots into popular music. Cetera, who was looking for a new label at the time, signed a multi-album deal in October 1993.
Teaming up again with Andy Hill, who had produced his previous album, ‘World Falling Down’, Cetera took a more active role songwriting, this time, writing six new songs for the album. The song "(I Wanna Take) Forever Tonight" had been given to Cetera by its composer Eric Carmen who had himself recorded it some five years previously for an abandoned album: (Eric Carmen quote:)"Peter...toned down the lyric and made it a little less sexual.”
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It is the most natural thing in the world to want something that feels so good to last forever. Drink a glass of vintage wine of the highest quality or eat the most delicious food from your plate and notice how we make the delicious taste linger in our mouth as long as possible. It is no different from anything we find extremely enjoyable or satisfying in our life, and sexual pleasure and satisfaction are of no less consideration to our life. The better and more exciting and exhilarating it is, the longer we want it to last! I will readily acknowledge that there have been one or two nights of sheer bliss when I regretted the morning sun rising; nights I wish had gone on forever, or indeed nights with one or two women I have known, that did seem to go on forever.
I remember as a child, saving the best food on my plate to last, as I forked the peas and sampled the other vegetables before cutting into the juicy steak or succulent pork chop that I relished devouring. There have been books that I enjoyed reading so much that I deliberately delayed reading the end, to prolong the pleasure when it does come. As an author myself, there have been stories I have read up until the point, I thought ‘this would have been the most appropriate place to end, leaving one not knowing the outcome’. So, I read no further, in the belief that I’d read far enough. I have spoken with so many artist friends and all tell me that knowing when one is done with the painting is such a subjectively personal thing. After all, none of us ever knows how it will end until the moment arrives when it does!
Very little can be said about this song apart from its sexual overtones. I came across it by chance when I was searching for a song to sing in my daily singing practice sessions I’ve been doing over the past two years. The primary purpose of my daily singing practice is to increase the oxygenation in my blood.
Having exhausted my own repertoire of songs with which I am acquainted, I now need to find and learn new songs to daily practise and record on my Facebook page. I found the composition of this song, with its steep rises in a note and varied tone and pace exceedingly challenging, but good practise.
I often sing songs that stretch my vocal range, and which are clearly outside my comfort zone. These types of songs are the hardest and best songs for me to practise as they oxygenate my lungs the most.
I thoroughly enjoy my daily fix of singing now these days but assure all my listeners that I sing not out of false pretence that I can sing at all. No! I sing for joy and for health enhancement. I now sing because I am glad to be alive each morning that I wake up. This is my 'Song of Life'.
I can truly testify, however, that within a space of six months after commencing my two-hours per day singing practice, the oxygenation levels had increased almost twenty percent. Today my lung capacity is far nearer the normal range than it was before I started my daily singing practise two years ago and I would recommend anyone who wants to improve their lungs significantly without donning shorts and running half a marathon to commence singing practise. If your experience of singing mirrors mine, I promise that you will find it fun, pleasurable and highly satisfactory. If you need others around you, then why not consider joining a local choir or musical drama group.
I often wonder what my mum would think today if she knew that I did a few hours daily singing practise? She’d probably exercise her inalienable right to join in, as she loved singing, every day, all day long.
As the firstborn of my parent’s seven children, there was never one day I can remember when my mother wasn’t singing a song as she cleared a mountain of housework. My mother loved singing even though she couldn’t hold a note longer than a boiling pan or string a bunch of notes together in any manner of musical resemblance. She was, in fact, a bit like the late comedian Lez Dawson who would play his piano out of key, only mum didn’t sing wrongly deliberately. Mum would always sing all the right notes but unfortunately, in the wrong order! And, never once did mum sing the proper words to whichever song she was singing. The words she didn’t know or had forgotten, she just made up and inserted her own. I never knew if to laugh or cry. When I heard her sing as a child, I laughed, but whenever I hear a song today that mum used to sing, I cry.
When I was about 7 years old, I once rebuked mum for her singing and told her rudely that she couldn’t sing for toffee. Mum simply looked puzzled and asked that I show her the book or where it was written down that God decreed only those people who could sing like a bird and hold a note were allowed to sing at all? Naturally, I couldn’t find any reasoning to support my argument to ban mum singing. Mum then said, “Well then, Billy Forde, get out of my way because I’ve got loads more work that needs doing, and many more songs to sing!”. If ever there was a person to both put me in my place and keep me there it was my mother.
Her message about one's 'Song of Life’, taught me in my adult years that we each have a song to sing and that our 'Song of Life’ will spring from our daily endeavours and the natural talents we display. When we do not demonstrate our 'Song of Life’ through our vocal cords, we may reveal ‘our song’ through other things, like our listening abilities our instinctive and boundless compassion, our wisdom to understand and our strength to forgive. Some may paint, some sculpt, some write, some excel at sport and some may be the closest comrades a man might have. The 'Song of Life' for some people can be found in their willingness to honestly toil for a fair day’s wage. Some hew coal from the face of the underground like my mining father did, some are the best cooks, the finest of friends and the most loving of mothers. Not forgetting all those who help the stranger in want, and give that which the stranger needs.
Love and peace Bill xxx
Today’s song is ‘Forever Tonight’ that was recorded in the fifth solo album ‘One Clear Voice’ by Peter Cetera in 1995. Following his departure from Warner Brothers in 1993, Cetera met Steve Devick while on vacation in Maui with his daughter. Devick had created the Chicago-based label in 1985 and was looking to expand from its Gospel roots into popular music. Cetera, who was looking for a new label at the time, signed a multi-album deal in October 1993.
Teaming up again with Andy Hill, who had produced his previous album, ‘World Falling Down’, Cetera took a more active role songwriting, this time, writing six new songs for the album. The song "(I Wanna Take) Forever Tonight" had been given to Cetera by its composer Eric Carmen who had himself recorded it some five years previously for an abandoned album: (Eric Carmen quote:)"Peter...toned down the lyric and made it a little less sexual.”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It is the most natural thing in the world to want something that feels so good to last forever. Drink a glass of vintage wine of the highest quality or eat the most delicious food from your plate and notice how we make the delicious taste linger in our mouth as long as possible. It is no different from anything we find extremely enjoyable or satisfying in our life, and sexual pleasure and satisfaction are of no less consideration to our life. The better and more exciting and exhilarating it is, the longer we want it to last! I will readily acknowledge that there have been one or two nights of sheer bliss when I regretted the morning sun rising; nights I wish had gone on forever, or indeed nights with one or two women I have known, that did seem to go on forever.
I remember as a child, saving the best food on my plate to last, as I forked the peas and sampled the other vegetables before cutting into the juicy steak or succulent pork chop that I relished devouring. There have been books that I enjoyed reading so much that I deliberately delayed reading the end, to prolong the pleasure when it does come. As an author myself, there have been stories I have read up until the point, I thought ‘this would have been the most appropriate place to end, leaving one not knowing the outcome’. So, I read no further, in the belief that I’d read far enough. I have spoken with so many artist friends and all tell me that knowing when one is done with the painting is such a subjectively personal thing. After all, none of us ever knows how it will end until the moment arrives when it does!
Very little can be said about this song apart from its sexual overtones. I came across it by chance when I was searching for a song to sing in my daily singing practice sessions I’ve been doing over the past two years. The primary purpose of my daily singing practice is to increase the oxygenation in my blood.
Having exhausted my own repertoire of songs with which I am acquainted, I now need to find and learn new songs to daily practise and record on my Facebook page. I found the composition of this song, with its steep rises in a note and varied tone and pace exceedingly challenging, but good practise.
I often sing songs that stretch my vocal range, and which are clearly outside my comfort zone. These types of songs are the hardest and best songs for me to practise as they oxygenate my lungs the most.
I thoroughly enjoy my daily fix of singing now these days but assure all my listeners that I sing not out of false pretence that I can sing at all. No! I sing for joy and for health enhancement. I now sing because I am glad to be alive each morning that I wake up. This is my 'Song of Life'.
I can truly testify, however, that within a space of six months after commencing my two-hours per day singing practice, the oxygenation levels had increased almost twenty percent. Today my lung capacity is far nearer the normal range than it was before I started my daily singing practise two years ago and I would recommend anyone who wants to improve their lungs significantly without donning shorts and running half a marathon to commence singing practise. If your experience of singing mirrors mine, I promise that you will find it fun, pleasurable and highly satisfactory. If you need others around you, then why not consider joining a local choir or musical drama group.
I often wonder what my mum would think today if she knew that I did a few hours daily singing practise? She’d probably exercise her inalienable right to join in, as she loved singing, every day, all day long.
As the firstborn of my parent’s seven children, there was never one day I can remember when my mother wasn’t singing a song as she cleared a mountain of housework. My mother loved singing even though she couldn’t hold a note longer than a boiling pan or string a bunch of notes together in any manner of musical resemblance. She was, in fact, a bit like the late comedian Lez Dawson who would play his piano out of key, only mum didn’t sing wrongly deliberately. Mum would always sing all the right notes but unfortunately, in the wrong order! And, never once did mum sing the proper words to whichever song she was singing. The words she didn’t know or had forgotten, she just made up and inserted her own. I never knew if to laugh or cry. When I heard her sing as a child, I laughed, but whenever I hear a song today that mum used to sing, I cry.
When I was about 7 years old, I once rebuked mum for her singing and told her rudely that she couldn’t sing for toffee. Mum simply looked puzzled and asked that I show her the book or where it was written down that God decreed only those people who could sing like a bird and hold a note were allowed to sing at all? Naturally, I couldn’t find any reasoning to support my argument to ban mum singing. Mum then said, “Well then, Billy Forde, get out of my way because I’ve got loads more work that needs doing, and many more songs to sing!”. If ever there was a person to both put me in my place and keep me there it was my mother.
Her message about one's 'Song of Life’, taught me in my adult years that we each have a song to sing and that our 'Song of Life’ will spring from our daily endeavours and the natural talents we display. When we do not demonstrate our 'Song of Life’ through our vocal cords, we may reveal ‘our song’ through other things, like our listening abilities our instinctive and boundless compassion, our wisdom to understand and our strength to forgive. Some may paint, some sculpt, some write, some excel at sport and some may be the closest comrades a man might have. The 'Song of Life' for some people can be found in their willingness to honestly toil for a fair day’s wage. Some hew coal from the face of the underground like my mining father did, some are the best cooks, the finest of friends and the most loving of mothers. Not forgetting all those who help the stranger in want, and give that which the stranger needs.
Love and peace Bill xxx
