Definitely ironic. He was broke and going through one or two problems and as an Englishman he would definitely react to these problems with deep irony. Anyone going through a break up (or other problems) during summer, while everyone else seems happy and the sun is shining, would definitely relate to this song at the time. Colin sadly passed away 7 years ago after a car crash, aged 53.
One of greatest songs of the 1980s. RIP Colin who sadly died in a car accident in 2016 in Ireland too young to go .Its a cruel world but its a great song he sung .
Still blows my mind that he wrote this song to be sarcastic, his life had been flipped upside down, one tragedy after the next, he became homeless, he then wrote "Wonderful Life".
His death was an appalling tragedy. His voice really did have a melancholy quality, whatever he was singing. I used to see him play the Kashmir Klub in the early 2000s, and he was a magnetic performer, with immense charisma, and a voice that was if anything even better than when he was having hits a couple of decades earlier. Here's a wonderful song from that later period: ruclips.net/video/G8wyAMyPnZM/видео.html
the artists name is Colin Vearncombe, he had a few things happen to him, he was in a couple of car accidents his mum was pretty sick, his marriage went 10 toes up, his record label dropped him, and he ended up homeless, so he sat down and wrote this song
Люблю старые песни, они от сердца пелись. Никто не пел про насилие наркотики ненависть к полиции и тому подобное. И заметьте как просто одевались. Рубашка , брюки всё так просто без каких то попыток выглядеть лучше кого то. Вот за это и люблю старые песни и музыку.
Hey you two gorgeous ladies ! Thanks for all your videos ! To me this song has a very huge part of my life back in the 90´s since i was a sailor (Still Am) .. A sailor is always split between to worlds.. He have his love at home but he also have his love for the sea . So no matter what he is in pain by leaving his love ones but he is going to sea which is also his love and life .. My wife and i always listen to this song the evening before i left and still gives me chills today when i listen to it so thanks for giving me a reminder about how wonderful life is .. This id just how i see the song and why it´s both sad and happy in the same time .. Hugs to you from Denmark ;o))
RIP Colin Vernacombe (lead singer of black) tragically killed, I live in Liverpool and am now looking across the River Mersey from my home at the Light house in the video which was shot in New Brighton
Another great reaction, and a pretty accurate interpretation of the contrast between the "wonderful life" lyrics and happy tropical music, and the reality of his less-than-wonderful present situation. But it's definitely a wonderful song!
I agree with you both a sadness in his voice He is lonely. It’s almost like he is trying to convince himself that it’s a Wonderful Life even though he needs a friend. I agree that tropical sound gives it a beach sound. Kind of an ironic song.
I completely forgot about this song. I liked it a lot back then when it was released and somehow I completely forgot about it. It's great song and I'm happy that it is back in my life again. If you want something similar (velvety male voice, bittersweetness etc....) please check Cousteau - Last Good Day of the Year.
Its a beautiful song, lovely voice. I don't hear his voice as sad, I hear it as mellow, sitting back with your feet up thinking about it. Its timeless and a tribute to the man who wrote and sang it so well I love the way you two sway together to the music❤❤
Yes, his voice is lovely and mellow, but listen to the lyrics, ‘no reason to run and hide, it’s a wonderful wonderful life,‘ ‘they seem to hate you, because you’re there.’ In the first example the words themselves indicate something is clearly wrong despite the ‘wonderful wonderful life,’ in the second example it’s obvious the singer is very troubled. The music is mellow but the words are telling you this is someone who’s far from happy. It’s a sad, and very beautiful song.
Thanks so much for reacting to this. It's a song I've always loved since I bought it in the mid '80s. It is quite an unforgettable melody; rather melancholic as the music and (some of) the lyrics are uplifting albeit with an undertone of sadness.. The artist I believe was at a low point (lonely, but hiding it (masks) I guess) when he wrote it and so there is a touch of irony attached that shouldn't take away from the message that although life is full of ups and downs, it is wonderful in the main. Black (Colin Vearcombe) unfortunately died 27 Jan 2016, about 2 weeks after a car crash in Ireland, so I thought it was a fitting moment to get you to share this song and introduce others to it. Thanks again to you and Todd 🙂 Here I go out to sea again The sunshine fills my hair And dreams hang in the air Gulls in the sky and in my blue eyes You know it feels unfair There’s magic everywhere Look at me standing Here on my own again Up straight in the sunshine No need to run and hide It’s a wonderful wonderful life No need to laugh and cry It’s a wonderful wonderful life The sun's in your eyes The heat is in your hair They seem to hate you because you’re there And I need a friend Oh I need a friend to make me happy Not stand here on my own Look at me standing Here on my own again Up straight in the sunshine No need to run and hide It’s a wonderful wonderful life No need to laugh and cry It’s a wonderful wonderful life I need a friend Oh I need a friend To make me happy Not so alone....
I was in 4th grade, I used to love this song. This was a huge hit in France. This is maybe the first time a song hit me so hard in terms of melancholy and bitter sweet sadness.
Ditto, same age then. Many years later after a bitter divorce and multiple other problems I appreciated it even more. In my teens it just sounded cool. As an adult it was gut wrenching. Masterpiece. RIP Colin. I often saw him around town (we lived very close, like 100 meters close) before his big hit and despite it all he always looked cheerful. Great guy.
When I got hypothermia in 1999 and saved me from death, the doctor and all the staff laughed because this was the song I sang all the time. Despite being convalescent, I had an accident and fell into a frozen lake, my heart sank. stopped but came back here, i can guarantee i saw the other side but came back here somehow, this song is everything to me, greetings from a survivor
I have had 2 heart attacks, the first at 37 just after my horrible divorce (the 2nd at 47) and learning I had a congenital defect i had never known about, yet with hindsight it was there all along, only it was put down to 'growing pains', and a cardiac arrest and have a defibrillator fitted and I can 100% guarantee ppl out there, it goes on. So be good and don't waste one day of your life!
I think it is that feeling of owww all those bad things happen to me and immediately realizing you will survive as you are still not in a bad place but then thinking... But I am alone.... but I guess I will survive.... surely... I hope... ;-)
Just to quote a quiet good explenation of the "deeper" meaning of the song: On one hand, “Wonderful Life” can be labeled as sarcastic, and on another it can be viewed as the singer trying to make the best out of life, as in maintaining an optimistic disposition. This track was actually founded in the artist going through a very-trying period where he had recently gone through a divorce, amongst other issues. And the lyrics have him celebrating and lamenting simultaneously. He is appreciative of life in its entirety, as in having the opportunity to behold the beauty of nature. But at the same time, he is suffering from loneliness and depression. In fact it seems quite obvious that he is making a conscientious effort to remind himself that it is indeed “a wonderful, wonderful life”. He apparently does this in order to prevent cowering in the face of the challenges which confront him and buckling under pressure in general.
I loved this song back in 1987. I was recovering from a car accident and it just hit me when he sang "Look at me standing here on my own again up straight in the sunshine." It really got to me because I had broken my back and was bedbound for six months.
It's simple. Life in general is wonderful, a miracle, one in a billion , call it what you want. But in times through life there is sadness, I don't think I need to explain this sadness part. But life is still I guess is a wonder. Hope this helps
Much of British music has lots of contrast, varied and unusual juxtapositions in it. Happy, upbeat sounds mixed with very meaningful lyrics, or the total opposite. You're not really supposed to try and interpret much of it literally at all, the point is to just feel it. For instance, try to interpret something like “Carpet Crawlers” by Genesis, you just can’t. You can only listen to how it feels and how the words wrap around each other and let it paint pictures in your imagination.
I've always enjoyed hearing this song but never really listened to the lyrics until your reaction, you have got me in deep thought mode. . 🙂 this is why I enjoy your reactions so much.
A melancholy song... To help visualize it, the B&W helped and sax helps push the mood. He needed a friend to make him fulfilled I think and it mostly evaded him.
@@annettegreen6689 Yes, it's a beautiful song but the fact it's on a minor scale and most people perceive minor scale songs sad, not happy. In addtion to that if you look at the lyrics: "The sun's in your eyes, the heat is in your hair They seem to hate you because you're there And I need a friend, oh, I need a friend To make me happy, not stand there on my own Look at me standing here on my own again, up straight in the sunshine" and "I need a friend, oh, I need a friend To make me happy, not so alone". So basically it's about being alone and I don't think those are happy lyrics.
I always took it as a song about depression. The video was used on an advert in Britain in the early 90's. The singer passed away in Ireland a few years ago.
This song grew on me as it played. I think you weee both right about the message. It was kind of cryptic. I really liked the lighting in the beck and white. As a photographer, I always notice lighting. In liked the saxophone too.
It's a sad song but so beautiful it was a major hit in europe colin vearncombe, what is his real name, is sadly died in a car crash in 2016, i myself have i think 5 or 6 cd's from him and his music is different on each CD but very beautiful. Thank you for reacting to this one, another great song from the 80's, and there are a lot of them, is the alan parsons project with the song old and wise i think i recommend this one earlier to you. Best wishes from the netherlands
My take on this is - it's a single moment in time. When life has brought you a storm, and you battle through, then there's that single moment when you emerge battered and bruised but somehow still in one piece even though you never expected to be. Quiet reflection on what just happened and just before you start celebrating your survival. That kind of thing.
This is actually the second version of the song - the first version (recorded for an indie label) was jazzier and less tropical in tone. Despite a career hiatus, he went on recording into the mid-'10s - yet his only other big hit came early with The Sweetest Smile (which is another minor-key song, but a bit of a son-of-Nature-Boy). There are some other Black songs you might have heard somewhere before. esp. (This Could Be) The Big One, Everything's Coming Up Roses (aka "I should've known...") and Now You're Gone (which casually plays into the album title Black Comedy)
@@Dairy917 He doesn’t mean those happy, uplifting words. Either he’s being ironic, or these are things are what other people say to him. This is an entirely sad song.
A great, moody song by Colin Vearncombe, aka Black. You're right to identify him as one of those deeper voiced male singers - evidently inspired by the great Scott Walker. The 'island' sound you identify is an emulation of the steel drums, created using a synthesiser. Before his tragic early death he produced some wonderfully evocative music. Similar in vain and quality to 'Wonderful Life' is the arguably even more beautiful 'Sweetest Smile'. For variation listen to the up-tempo rocker 'Everything's Coming Up Roses'.
Colin Vearncombe ( Black ) talked about the deep irony behind this tune. "I'd been in a couple of car crashes, my mother had a serious illness, I'd been dropped by a record company, my first marriage went belly-up and I was homeless. Then I sat down and wrote this song called Wonderful Life."
@@generationgapreacts Yeah to have all those things happen at once and then do a song called " Wonderful Life" when it was anything but for him is truly ironic. It's rather a haunting sounding song to me
But let's just extend it to the northwest and the entire old Lancashire region, the corner of the world that has gifted it with the greatest music in history.
You from the wirrel? I'm not far myself. I first heard this on granada's tea time show as a 15 year old, was it 'granada reports'... can't remember now. Now, years after a horrible divorce, financial issues and a hundred more problems it resonates with me so deeply. Genius song.
I like Black. He was big in the 80s I kind of lost track of him. Nice to hear him again. Another artist you might like is Josh Turner. You might give "Would you go with me" or "Long Black Train" a listen or "Let's just Dance".
Love the song, it feels like a repressed gay man in a time where homosexuality was not the norm, friend =lover. There is a beautiful melancholy about the piece. The line “ up straight in the sun shine”with the extended note is powerfull. Still generates a tear…
Man...I need to look in my closer and see if I still have my white Linen jacket ( gotta roll up the sleeves ), the matching pants and boat shoes. And of course, a blue "V - neck " silk shirt! Now...who wants to loan me their 1980's Ferrari....one of my college buddies used to have a mid 1980's Ferrari, but traded it in for a brand new, 2022 Corvette! I am too tall for either car!!! 😂 I'll stick with my F-250 Ford truck!!! Another excellent 1980's song...Asia, "Extraordinary Life" It's very uplifting! One of the songs I I listen to when I am having a bad day physically! ruclips.net/video/jovBSxZL76k/видео.html
Yeah it's OK. But doesn't come close to this. If you grew up in this area, as I did then this is the sound of that environment and I don't think anyone from anywhere else in the world, however talented they may be could sing (let alone write) a song like this. The northwest of England is the most fertile place for producing great music, ever since the beatles. The list of great artist from around these parts is endless and I could be here all day listing them and I might get someone close to about a 1/4 of them, in every genre. It's just THE music capital of the world, and it isn't by coincidence. There's a very real reason for it.
How many out there like myself that's liking this channel but maybe thinks they've gone down down that "Soft Hand" music road a bit Long, not since Freebird have they hit a real American make you move song, I just got done listening to Blackfoot's-"Highway Song", if you don't know of or haven't heard this YOU are Missing Out. P.S.- play the studio version first, these guys can't do a live concert without being Stoned Drunk, although the 1982 Zurich concert's pretty good if played remember to put the trey in the upright position, strapped in and all items, including hands & feet are stored properly.
Definitely ironic. He was broke and going through one or two problems and as an Englishman he would definitely react to these problems with deep irony. Anyone going through a break up (or other problems) during summer, while everyone else seems happy and the sun is shining, would definitely relate to this song at the time. Colin sadly passed away 7 years ago after a car crash, aged 53.
wasnt he Irish?🤔
@@mirceapintelie361 No, he was English. He moved to Co Cork, Ireland though. His death in a car crash was very sad. He had a wife and three children
One of greatest songs of the 1980s. RIP Colin who sadly died in a car accident in 2016 in Ireland too young to go .Its a cruel world but its a great song he sung .
I would never have guessed that someone would request _this_ song. Wow! Black. Memories.
Why not..? 🙂
Still blows my mind that he wrote this song to be sarcastic, his life had been flipped upside down, one tragedy after the next, he became homeless, he then wrote "Wonderful Life".
His death was an appalling tragedy. His voice really did have a melancholy quality, whatever he was singing. I used to see him play the Kashmir Klub in the early 2000s, and he was a magnetic performer, with immense charisma, and a voice that was if anything even better than when he was having hits a couple of decades earlier. Here's a wonderful song from that later period:
ruclips.net/video/G8wyAMyPnZM/видео.html
the artists name is Colin Vearncombe, he had a few things happen to him, he was in a couple of car accidents his mum was pretty sick, his marriage went 10 toes up, his record label dropped him, and he ended up homeless, so he sat down and wrote this song
...and died in a car accident in 2016.
Oh wow, I love Black. The whole album is so good. Kinda like Sting, I would play this all day during times alone, singing to myself.
I've loved this song since it came out. Always listen to it when I'm having issues, and always makes the world seem a better place.
colin was great went to his memorial service when he passed
Люблю старые песни, они от сердца пелись. Никто не пел про насилие наркотики ненависть к полиции и тому подобное. И заметьте как просто одевались. Рубашка , брюки всё так просто без каких то попыток выглядеть лучше кого то. Вот за это и люблю старые песни и музыку.
Hey you two gorgeous ladies ! Thanks for all your videos ! To me this song has a very huge part of my life back in the 90´s since i was a sailor (Still Am) .. A sailor is always split between to worlds.. He have his love at home but he also have his love for the sea . So no matter what he is in pain by leaving his love ones but he is going to sea which is also his love and life .. My wife and i always listen to this song the evening before i left and still gives me chills today when i listen to it so thanks for giving me a reminder about how wonderful life is .. This id just how i see the song and why it´s both sad and happy in the same time .. Hugs to you from Denmark ;o))
RIP Colin Vernacombe (lead singer of black) tragically killed, I live in Liverpool and am now looking across the River Mersey from my home at the Light house in the video which was shot in New Brighton
Another great reaction, and a pretty accurate interpretation of the contrast between the "wonderful life" lyrics and happy tropical music, and the reality of his less-than-wonderful present situation. But it's definitely a wonderful song!
Love this song, it's so beautiful and relaxing to listen to, great reaction guys
One of the most memorable songs from my teenage years
That‘s my Absolute Nr.1 , My Therapy...🥰❤️😭👍👍👍
I agree with you both a sadness in his voice He is lonely. It’s almost like he is trying to convince himself that it’s a Wonderful Life even though he needs a friend.
I agree that tropical sound gives it a beach sound. Kind of an ironic song.
I completely forgot about this song. I liked it a lot back then when it was released and somehow I completely forgot about it. It's great song and I'm happy that it is back in my life again.
If you want something similar (velvety male voice, bittersweetness etc....) please check Cousteau - Last Good Day of the Year.
This was one of my favourite albums of the 80s. I don’t know why Black wasn’t more successful. His music was varied and unique.
Right?! The entire album is a top favorite.
Its a beautiful song, lovely voice.
I don't hear his voice as sad, I hear it as mellow, sitting back with your feet up thinking about it.
Its timeless and a tribute to the man who wrote and sang it so well
I love the way you two sway together to the music❤❤
I suspect they dressed especially for the occasion as well 🙂
Yes, his voice is lovely and mellow, but listen to the lyrics, ‘no reason to run and hide, it’s a wonderful wonderful life,‘ ‘they seem to hate you, because you’re there.’
In the first example the words themselves indicate something is clearly wrong despite the ‘wonderful wonderful life,’ in the second example it’s obvious the singer is very troubled. The music is mellow but the words are telling you this is someone who’s far from happy. It’s a sad, and very beautiful song.
Thanks so much for reacting to this.
It's a song I've always loved since I bought it in the mid '80s. It is quite an unforgettable melody; rather melancholic as the music and (some of) the lyrics are uplifting albeit with an undertone of sadness.. The artist I believe was at a low point (lonely, but hiding it (masks) I guess) when he wrote it and so there is a touch of irony attached that shouldn't take away from the message that although life is full of ups and downs, it is wonderful in the main.
Black (Colin Vearcombe) unfortunately died 27 Jan 2016, about 2 weeks after a car crash in Ireland, so I thought it was a fitting moment to get you to share this song and introduce others to it.
Thanks again to you and Todd 🙂
Here I go out to sea again
The sunshine fills my hair
And dreams hang in the air
Gulls in the sky and in my blue eyes
You know it feels unfair
There’s magic everywhere
Look at me standing
Here on my own again
Up straight in the sunshine
No need to run and hide
It’s a wonderful wonderful life
No need to laugh and cry
It’s a wonderful wonderful life
The sun's in your eyes
The heat is in your hair
They seem to hate you because you’re there
And I need a friend
Oh I need a friend to make me happy
Not stand here on my own
Look at me standing
Here on my own again
Up straight in the sunshine
No need to run and hide
It’s a wonderful wonderful life
No need to laugh and cry
It’s a wonderful wonderful life
I need a friend
Oh I need a friend
To make me happy
Not so alone....
Great choice, always loved this song
Superb! Glad they rereleased in 87/88...
I was in 4th grade, I used to love this song. This was a huge hit in France. This is maybe the first time a song hit me so hard in terms of melancholy and bitter sweet sadness.
Ditto, same age then. Many years later after a bitter divorce and multiple other problems I appreciated it even more. In my teens it just sounded cool. As an adult it was gut wrenching. Masterpiece. RIP Colin. I often saw him around town (we lived very close, like 100 meters close) before his big hit and despite it all he always looked cheerful. Great guy.
When I got hypothermia in 1999 and saved me from death, the doctor and all the staff laughed because this was the song I sang all the time. Despite being convalescent, I had an accident and fell into a frozen lake, my heart sank. stopped but came back here, i can guarantee i saw the other side but came back here somehow, this song is everything to me, greetings from a survivor
I have had 2 heart attacks, the first at 37 just after my horrible divorce (the 2nd at 47) and learning I had a congenital defect i had never known about, yet with hindsight it was there all along, only it was put down to 'growing pains', and a cardiac arrest and have a defibrillator fitted and I can 100% guarantee ppl out there, it goes on. So be good and don't waste one day of your life!
I think it is that feeling of owww all those bad things happen to me and immediately realizing you will survive as you are still not in a bad place but then thinking... But I am alone.... but I guess I will survive.... surely... I hope... ;-)
Just to quote a quiet good explenation of the "deeper" meaning of the song:
On one hand, “Wonderful Life” can be labeled as sarcastic, and on another it can be viewed as the singer trying to make the best out of life, as in maintaining an optimistic disposition. This track was actually founded in the artist going through a very-trying period where he had recently gone through a divorce, amongst other issues. And the lyrics have him celebrating and lamenting simultaneously.
He is appreciative of life in its entirety, as in having the opportunity to behold the beauty of nature. But at the same time, he is suffering from loneliness and depression. In fact it seems quite obvious that he is making a conscientious effort to remind himself that it is indeed “a wonderful, wonderful life”. He apparently does this in order to prevent cowering in the face of the challenges which confront him and buckling under pressure in general.
Fantastic song.
you should listen to I Just Grew Tired or Sweetest Smile, they are both as mellow as this.
I loved this song back in 1987. I was recovering from a car accident and it just hit me when he sang "Look at me standing
here on my own again up straight in the sunshine." It really got to me because I had broken my back and was bedbound for six months.
It's simple. Life in general is wonderful, a miracle, one in a billion , call it what you want. But in times through life there is sadness, I don't think I need to explain this sadness part. But life is still I guess is a wonder. Hope this helps
Much of British music has lots of contrast, varied and unusual juxtapositions in it. Happy, upbeat sounds mixed with very meaningful lyrics, or the total opposite. You're not really supposed to try and interpret much of it literally at all, the point is to just feel it. For instance, try to interpret something like “Carpet Crawlers” by Genesis, you just can’t. You can only listen to how it feels and how the words wrap around each other and let it paint pictures in your imagination.
I've always enjoyed hearing this song but never really listened to the lyrics until your reaction, you have got me in deep thought mode. . 🙂 this is why I enjoy your reactions so much.
Thank you Stephen!! I'm glad our videos give you some food for thought!
A melancholy song... To help visualize it, the B&W helped and sax helps push the mood. He needed a friend to make him fulfilled I think and it mostly evaded him.
Couldn't get enough of this song when it came out, and it always makes me so happy when I hear it still 😍❤️
Thanks for reacting 😊❤️
Why it makes you happy, it's a sad song.
@Sausage Salesman It's so beautiful, it just makes me feel good
It is a beautiful song and I don't think it's specifically a sad song. You can take from it what you want I guess..
@@annettegreen6689 Yes, it's a beautiful song but the fact it's on a minor scale and most people perceive minor scale songs sad, not happy. In addtion to that if you look at the lyrics: "The sun's in your eyes, the heat is in your hair
They seem to hate you because you're there
And I need a friend, oh, I need a friend
To make me happy, not stand there on my own
Look at me standing here on my own again, up straight in the sunshine" and "I need a friend, oh, I need a friend
To make me happy, not so alone". So basically it's about being alone and I don't think those are happy lyrics.
Really great song, RIP Colin Vearncombe
He was so handsome and what a voice❤
Yep, I'm 100% straight but his voice melts my soul
I always thought this song (beautiful) is about recovering from depression or mental illness.
I always took it as a song about depression. The video was used on an advert in Britain in the early 90's. The singer passed away in Ireland a few years ago.
Always resonated with my own loneliness in my teens and persists into my fifties. What a wonderful life indeed!! smh
I just thought of Sade, she has a smoooth velvet voice, pls react to Smooth Operator :)
Love this song
All time classic. Timeless. Contender to be played at my funeral.
@@peteowen3539 I want this song on my funeral too
This song grew on me as it played. I think you weee both right about the message. It was kind of cryptic. I really liked the lighting in the beck and white. As a photographer, I always notice lighting. In liked the saxophone too.
It's a sad song but so beautiful it was a major hit in europe colin vearncombe, what is his real name, is sadly died in a car crash in 2016, i myself have i think 5 or 6 cd's from him and his music is different on each CD but very beautiful. Thank you for reacting to this one, another great song from the 80's, and there are a lot of them, is the alan parsons project with the song old and wise i think i recommend this one earlier to you.
Best wishes from the netherlands
My take on this is - it's a single moment in time. When life has brought you a storm, and you battle through, then there's that single moment when you emerge battered and bruised but somehow still in one piece even though you never expected to be. Quiet reflection on what just happened and just before you start celebrating your survival. That kind of thing.
This is actually the second version of the song - the first version (recorded for an indie label) was jazzier and less tropical in tone. Despite a career hiatus, he went on recording into the mid-'10s - yet his only other big hit came early with The Sweetest Smile (which is another minor-key song, but a bit of a son-of-Nature-Boy). There are some other Black songs you might have heard somewhere before. esp. (This Could Be) The Big One, Everything's Coming Up Roses (aka "I should've known...") and Now You're Gone (which casually plays into the album title Black Comedy)
Colin Verncombe ( English ) did a couple of nice easy albums but tragically died in a car crash some years ago!😢
He is alone he needs a friend. However there’s no need to run and hide (isolate yourself). It’s ok. It’s a wonderful life (Don’t despair).
@@Dairy917 He doesn’t mean those happy, uplifting words. Either he’s being ironic, or these are things are what other people say to him. This is an entirely sad song.
A great, moody song by Colin Vearncombe, aka Black. You're right to identify him as one of those deeper voiced male singers - evidently inspired by the great Scott Walker. The 'island' sound you identify is an emulation of the steel drums, created using a synthesiser. Before his tragic early death he produced some wonderfully evocative music. Similar in vain and quality to 'Wonderful Life' is the arguably even more beautiful 'Sweetest Smile'. For variation listen to the up-tempo rocker 'Everything's Coming Up Roses'.
Thank you Kevcall? for requesting that very nice song. I had not heard it before. I don't know how on earth you guessed Todd.
Colin Vearncombe ( Black ) talked about the deep irony behind this tune. "I'd been in a couple of car crashes, my mother had a serious illness, I'd been dropped by a record company, my first marriage went belly-up and I was homeless. Then I sat down and wrote this song called Wonderful Life."
Brett, that makes the song make so much more sense to me. I could sense his sadness in the song. Now I know his backstory.
@@generationgapreacts Yeah to have all those things happen at once and then do a song called " Wonderful Life" when it was anything but for him is truly ironic. It's rather a haunting sounding song to me
loved this song when i was a teenager...even then i knew...it'a just a matter of time
Scousers rule! i did recommend this to you both some time ago - as it has very special memories for me. You won't forget this song; believe me....
Yes it's still one of my favourites even after all these years.
I thought he was from the Wirral and thus NOT scouse??
But let's just extend it to the northwest and the entire old Lancashire region, the corner of the world that has gifted it with the greatest music in history.
Sounds like the steel drums usually associated with bands in the Caribbean, or something that produces that effect.
Decent hit song, similar in style to some of Richard Marks songs and i can imagine him doing cover version
Paradise by Black is a fantastic track
Glad it got you thinking, the lyrics are a little deep..
I think the instrument you are hearing is the “steel pan drum”
Irony it's about Colin being broke like I was once plus he lived with us for a bit when writing it
It's mostly about his divorce actually, the being broke and homeless just compounded. But even beautiful flowers can grow in the gutter.
You from the wirrel? I'm not far myself. I first heard this on granada's tea time show as a 15 year old, was it 'granada reports'... can't remember now. Now, years after a horrible divorce, financial issues and a hundred more problems it resonates with me so deeply. Genius song.
@@Darrenski I was living there around about the time
Dammit, he died in a car crash before his time. P.S the island he's from was Ireland.
Please, react to the band called "Cigarettes After Sex". Their song "Sweet" is amazing.
I like Black. He was big in the 80s I kind of lost track of him. Nice to hear him again. Another artist you might like is Josh Turner. You might give "Would you go with me" or "Long Black Train" a listen or "Let's just Dance".
yes...the allegory...
Love the song, it feels like a repressed gay man in a time where homosexuality was not the norm, friend =lover. There is a beautiful melancholy about the piece. The line “ up straight in the sun shine”with the extended note is powerfull. Still generates a tear…
One of his other hits was Sweetest Smile, also melancholy, but very classy song. Everything Is Coming Up Roses has a faster tempo :)
Man...I need to look in my closer and see if I still have my white Linen jacket ( gotta roll up the sleeves ), the matching pants and boat shoes. And of course, a blue "V - neck " silk shirt! Now...who wants to loan me their 1980's Ferrari....one of my college buddies used to have a mid 1980's Ferrari, but traded it in for a brand new, 2022 Corvette! I am too tall for either car!!! 😂 I'll stick with my F-250 Ford truck!!!
Another excellent 1980's song...Asia, "Extraordinary Life"
It's very uplifting! One of the songs I I listen to when I am having a bad day physically!
ruclips.net/video/jovBSxZL76k/видео.html
I like this song by Zucchero the italian singer !
Yeah it's OK. But doesn't come close to this. If you grew up in this area, as I did then this is the sound of that environment and I don't think anyone from anywhere else in the world, however talented they may be could sing (let alone write) a song like this. The northwest of England is the most fertile place for producing great music, ever since the beatles. The list of great artist from around these parts is endless and I could be here all day listing them and I might get someone close to about a 1/4 of them, in every genre. It's just THE music capital of the world, and it isn't by coincidence. There's a very real reason for it.
Achingly beautiful. See also Radiohead's 'Street Spirit (fade out)'
How many out there like myself that's liking this channel but maybe thinks they've gone down down that "Soft Hand" music road a bit Long, not since Freebird have they hit a real American make you move song, I just got done listening to Blackfoot's-"Highway Song", if you don't know of or haven't heard this YOU are Missing Out. P.S.- play the studio version first, these guys can't do a live concert without being Stoned Drunk, although the 1982 Zurich concert's pretty good if played remember to put the trey in the upright position, strapped in and all items, including hands & feet are stored properly.
Steeped in irony. His life isn't wonderful
'I may be laying in the gutter but I'm looking at the stars'