Ok, Ok, I know perhaps it's not what you were looking for, but on the other hand you have to be thankful for I haven't chosen 'Piano Man' once more...
Well, the thing is that you want to use songs IN CLASS and, as you know, in class is the teacher that rules, so, here are my 'rules' for bringing songs to classroom:
- The one who chooses a song has to be responsible for it, that is, to find a good version, upload it, find the lyrics, explain any language problems that might help understand it, give a reason why we should spend half a lesson listening to it and finally propose some language activities for the teacher to prepare and to be done either before, during or after the listening... Don't try the "Maestro, pon esta canción, verás qué chula" because it just won't work.
And now, for a start, here is my selection: "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" It's an old (1962) Bob Dylan's 'Peace Songs' which has been extensively versioned -the last one in Spanish by Amaral- and that deals with fear, soldiers lost in far away hostile battlefields, crying children... and over all, the threatening of the 'Hard Rain' which is going to fall. Does this 'hard rain' refer to the nuclear fallout that many people were were fearing after the 'crisis of the missiles' between Cuba and the USA?? Some people claim so, but Bob Dylan himself gave another explanation on a radio interview:
"No, it's not atomic rain, it's just a hard rain. It isn't the fallout rain. I mean some sort of end that's just gotta happen... In the last verse, when I say, 'the pellets of poison are flooding the waters', that means all the lies that people get told on their radios and in their newspapers".
I think these words are really meaningful nowadays and the whole lyrics is a 'topical issue'
So, here is a first listening and the first language task: You just have to note down all the numbers that you hear in the song. Easy, ain't it? (tune up because there are a lot)
(os voy a 'convalidar' la versión original de Bob Dylan y pasamos directamente a mi favorita cantada por Edie Brickell)
Second task: listen again and check your answers (this time, pay attention to the lyrics)
And finally the Spanish version. Just for fun. With all of you... Amaral. Enjoy!!
