Friday, April 30, 2010

When David Bowie met Anastasia met Sia... in my mind.

I have a bizarre and somewhat contestable habit of finding similarities in things that are not... well, similar. But in my mind, they blend seamlessly into some kind of emotional expression! Aka, they remind me of each other.

That happened today when I was listening to my friend's 8tracks playlist that started out with Sia's "Soon We'll Be Found". It is an amazing, somewhat heart breakingly painful song that mixes minors with majors to create a dark, but melodic masterpiece. [Yes, I said masterpiece. I really like it!]

As I listened to it for maybe the 13th time in a row [why do we do that, people?] I started to remember this similar sensation from my childhood... from a song I couldn't really remember, not the words, nor the actual melody, or even the film it came from exactly. But I remembered the feeling. And it was the same feeling as this new song from Sia.

After some digging [both inside the caverns of my mind and on google] I found the other song - "Once Upon A December" by Liz Callaway. I first heard the song as a child in the animated film "Anastasia" [some high quality old school animation, before PIXAR came in and took over the genre]. However, I found an awesome video of the song featuring DAVID BOWIE and Jennifer Connolly in Labyrinth, another film I haven't thought about in ages. Whoa. [It's kind of an elaborate version of the actual song, with some enhanced choral backings, but its an awesome reminder of Bowie's creepy awesomeness, so it's the one I am using.]

Here they are, side by side, above and below, for your own comparisons and enjoyment.

[Sia, "Soon We'll Be Found"]

[Liz Calloway, "Once Upon A December" circa "Labyrinth"]

2 comments:

mary said...

I, too, listened to that song 13 times over when I first heard it! I love it when a song hits you like that.

rachel best henley said...

You hit the nail on the head. I also thought there was something very familiar sounding to the Sia song when I first heard it. I knew that silly "Anastasia" song too, but had forgotten about it. Good investigative work, haha.