SATURDAY NIGHT JUKEBOX! - Aqualung - 'Strange And Beautiful (I'll Put A Spell On You)'
Aqualung - 'Strange And Beautiful (I'll put A Spell On You)' (2002)
I fell in love with this song which was used for the new shape VW Beetle launch adverts because I had a classic 1974 bright red VW bug as my first car. I felt it really captured the hypnotic trance I fall under when I see these beautiful vintage cars. It's a shame I wasn't really a fan of the new design though.
Now this song has a completely new meaning to me. It started when I was putting on my BCD jacket (Buoyancy control device) during the Open Water Divers course I took whilst in Thailand last month. The brand of jacket was Aqualung and I chuckled to myself thinking everything in my life is connected to music! The first day of the course was spent in the pool learning skills and experiencing the feel of breathing under water, but I was looking forward to getting into the real underwater world! It was then that the first line of the lyrics had significance, "I've been watching your world from afar, I've been trying to be where you are". I felt like I was saying this to the sea. Having grown up in Jeddah which is by the Red Sea, I spent a lot of time snorkeling there and on holidays. I've always been in awe of what was under the surface but never got close enough to be in amongst it. Scuba diving by a gorgeous island called Racha Yai for me, was like being awake for the first time. I felt weightless and free and was surrounded by a whole new undiscovered world. It was as if I belonged there, gliding in between schools of fish and this song with it's beautiful but delicate piano is what I thought of. It really was an awesome experience and I have truly fallen under the sea's strange and beautiful spell.
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| Breathtaking |
Aqualung (who is Matt Hales) is still actively recording although his last album Magnetic North, was released a couple of years ago. For those of you who who are Twilight fans (I am!) he co-wrote and sang a duet with Lucy Schwartz, a beautifully haunting track from Breaking Dawn part 1 called 'Cold' which was very poignant during certain scenes. Well worth checking out! Sign up to his mailing list on his site www.aqualung.net and read his blog.
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| He'll put a spell on you |
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