Favourite Lyric / Part of a Hayley Song

[Jillian]

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering what are your favourite parts of Hayley songs!

I'll start:

Heaven:

From about 3:02 onwards. The part where she sings 'Be always by my side' followed by 'A star shining brightly, oohh, a star shining brightly, always let it be'.

Hine Hine

From about 3:29 onwards, when the song hits its crescendo. Amazing.

Dark Waltz

3:20 onwards. Need I say anymore. 'Turning me into the light'. That note.

Bless Me With Wings

Track 8 on HSJS1. 'Past the city lights and haze, through the autumn trees ablaze, in the sky I am truly free'.

Track 3 HSJS2

I'm not sure what this track is called! From about 3:50 onwards. 'Oh won't you look down upon your feet'.

Track 9 HSJS2

From 1:24 onwards. Hayley's 'la la la's and da da da's' are so sweet!

[grant]

Hi Jillian

To do Hayley's songs justice, this could take some time! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Track 3 on HSJS2 is called "Mirai e/To The Future" and track 9 is "Itsumo Nando Demo/Many Times Always"

One of my favourites that I always listen out for is when she sings "I will bring to you" in Track 5 - the emphasis Hayley puts on "You" make me feel that she is really imagining the person she is singing about in that song - just love it.

Best wishes
Grant

Edit: Have to play the CD again now!! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

[Jillian]

Hi Grant,

Is Track 5 'Love Love Love'? I just love the bit at the end from about 2:50 onwards when there's the vocalising and repetition of 'love love love'. Hayley hits some impressive notes!

[grant]

Hi Jillian

Apr 4, 2010 13:47:39 GMT Jillian said:

Is Track 5 'Love Love Love'?

Yes, That's the one!

Best wishes
Grant

[Libby]

I have lots of favorites! Jillian, I love that part in Dark Waltz too!

Never Saw Blue

"Were we ever somewhere else, you know it's hard to say".

"I’m so amazed it’s like a dream,
It’s like a rainbow, it’s like the rain.
Some things are the way they are
And words just can’t explain."

Songbird

"Cause I feel that when I'm with you
It's alright, I know it's right
And the songbirds keep singing
Like they know the score
And I love you, I love you, I love you
Like never before, like never before, like never before."

Sonny

"Nights are so long, silence goes on
I'm feeling so tired and not all that strong"


The Water is Wide; the notes on each of these lines are so beautiful:

"Give me a boat that'll carry two" , "It has a sweet and pleasant smell", "but not so deep as the love I'm in", "love grows old and waxes cold"

Hana

"I see your love escaping, flowing free and flowing true", and all the other lines like it in the song; but that line in particular because of the feeling she puts in it.

Pokarekare Ana, Vocalise

The vocal part in the middle; I could listen to it over and over all day!

and

"Kamate au
i te aroha e" (I could die of love for you) Especially the "au" part.


Melancholy Interlude

"I stood there waiting" There's a note in the word "waiting" that's so perfectly crystal clear and pure, I think it's one of her most gorgeous notes ever, as short as it is.

The Heart Worships

"Only I need and kneel again
Thy touch to win"

Majesty (Here I Am)

"And now I've found the greatest Love of all is mine"

[Jillian]

Hi Libby,

I agree about that line from Hana! That's my favourite part too! You can particularly notice it in her live performance on Japanese TV.

Cheers,
Jillian

[Libby]

Oh, I just thought of another one.

Scarborough Fair

"Between the salt water..."

It's the main reason I listen to that song!

[martindn]

Hi Libby,

You have just chosen so many of my favourites. There is just so much fabulous stuff, especially, as seems to be becoming the consensus, on her Japanese Songs albums.

Hana is probably my favourite Hayley song. It captures so well the way Sue and I felt on the beautiful May day when we met, both hurting from our respective broken marriages. In fact that album is almost the story of my life. That is its genius. To me it is very personal. Hayley has me saying to myself "how on earth did she know about that, I've never told anyone". But I can relate to every single song on that album, almost as if she recorded it especially for me personally. I do't know if anyone else feels like that, perhaps we all do

The lyrics on that album are fabulous. Not pretentious, just straightforward and direct, showing what a fine lyricist Hayley is. She isn't clever or cryptic like a Dylan or Cohen, despite even

"this boat is too weak and so in me please trust".

Her lyrics are strightforward and very powerful. The speak from and to the heart. Her imagery is often beautiful

"Together hand in hand, we walk through evening gloom
Long shadows on the pavement, cast from the sunset sky"

and from the same song

"watch as the city turns from grey to white,
amd day turns into night"

Isn't that gorgeous?

Other favourites are

"couldn't speak when I saw you in town"

and

"black as night, the colour I used to be
no one could ever stain me"

And then there is the wonderful HSJS2

"This road is my story,
Why would I give up
What have I to lose.
Blank pages before me
Cry out for words."

"Mama please don't cry
You helped me to fly"

"The sky is a clear blue
no matter what we do
the road is long
but I see the light
that shines at the end
the arms reaching in
I know that you are waiting for me"

There is a deep sprituality about many of Hayley's lyrics that is just mindblowing. And even a bit of humour in some.

"The moring comes without fail
it never waits for me
the sun shines too brightly
I'm, always late out the door
I'm always wanting more
that's every day for me".

I know just how that feels Hayley, since every working day I am, as I think Shakespeare wrote "from my bed untimely rippd".

Then there is Cosmos. What a woderful, sensitive song that is.

My point is that quite apart from her fabulous voice and the way she uses it, Hayley has a wonderful way with words too. Yes I know many of them are translations from the Japanese, but not direct translations; Hayley puts her own original stamp on them.

In my book these are the two finest albums ever by a female singer. It is a crime that they aren't better known or even widely available in the west.

Martin D

[Libby]

"black as night, the colour I used to be
no one could ever stain me"

I love that part too, because of how well she sings those low notes. I admit I don't know the HSJS2 songs as well as #1, except for my favorites.

[Elliot Kane]

Dark Waltz

3:20 onwards. Need I say anymore. 'Turning me into the light'. That note.

This. Sends chills up my spine every time. How anyone human can hit a note that perfect, that pure, is a mystery to me. Just love it.

[sharon]

My favourites:

Hanamizuki:

May the dreams you hold
The dreams that shine like rosen gold
Last forever
Iwish for you to shine above
To radiate your endless love
May it last a hundred years from now

Yuki No Hana:

Cold winds from the North blow
The sky casts its last glow
But you and I are standing strong

A Thousand Winds:

Please do not stand and my grave and cry
I am not there, I did not die
I am the swift rush of birds in flight
I am the stars that shine at night

(by the way, in the booklet, this lyric is written wrong. It simply says:
'Don't stand at my grave and cry/weep
and it says that 'Soft stars that shine at night)

I Believe:

In this world full of lies
I see you trying to smile
A smile to survive

I have many many more, but I think this is enough for now.

Sharon

[amptique]

Apr 12, 2010 13:36:42 GMT Elliot Kane said:

Dark Waltz

3:20 onwards. Need I say anymore. 'Turning me into the light'. That note.

This. Sends chills up my spine every time. How anyone human can hit a note that perfect, that pure, is a mystery to me. Just love it.

I agree, Elliot. It gets me every time too. So does "Songbird" at 2:31+. For me the list of "chillers" is endless.

Bill

[martindn]

Another one occurred to me today

"The sky shimmers with love"

It is amazing how many of Hayley's own lyrics we all love. Today I was listening to one of the finest lyricists of all time in my opinion, Leonard Cohen. I recently bought copies of his early stuff on CD, and listened to them for the first time for over 30 years. And do you know, I knew all the words. That's how memorable his lyrics are.

But then I thought about Hayley and this discussion. You know Hayley and Cohen are quite alike as lyricists. That may sound strange, since Hayley is always positive and uplifting, and Cohen is supposed to be music to commit suicide by.
What I mean is that both have a gift for words, both sing from the heart, both try to express their inner feelings, both write many songs concerned with love.. Hayley doesn't quite have the detail and delicacy of Cohen, but she is getting there. You only need to think about the progress she made between the two HSJS albums, recorded only 6 months apart.
Of course the two songwriters have almost opposite outlooks on life. "The rain falls down on last years men" is very different to "The Sky shimmers with love" to be sure. And Hayley is as positive and uplifting as Cohen is depressing.

But the more I think about it, the more I see flashes of genius in Hayley's lyrics. I can't wait to see what she does on the new album.

Martin D

[comet]

Hi Martin,

I see you have come back to the master of lyrics.

He is many things, cynical, sarcastic, funny, spiritual, soul searching, loving and hating.

I suppose some people would consider these things depressing,
but surely that is better than the trivial dross that is pumped out by the music industry every year as "product" for the marketplace.


and to keep it on topic.

A kiss in a dream from Listen to the Wind,

I'm sure most people have experienced that one at some time or another.

[Jose]

Hi! Jillian,

Another part of a Hayley song that I always love, is, in Dark Waltz:

Sacred geometry
Where movement is poetry
Visions of you and me forever
(and the I also like chorus).

-And the finally part of "The water is wide" is amazing (and also the entire song ).

And fades away like morning dew...

-And finally, In HSJS2, the song Cosmos:

My love, my love, stay behind...
And on this warm auttum day we stay mother daughter...

Jose Joaquin