The first time I saw your face

I've just listened to this song in the car. Got home resourced who sang it. A woman called Roberta Flack. So beautifully sung and they kinda remind my of my first love. Wow so moving.

The first time ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
And the moon and the stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the endless skies, my love
To the dark and the endless skies.

And the first time ever I kissed your mouth
I felt the earth move in my hand
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird
That was there at my command, my love
That was there at my command, my love

And the first time ever I lay with you
I felt your heart so close to mine
And I knew our joy would fill the earth
And last 'til the end of time my love
And it would last 'til the end of time

The first time ever I saw your face
Your face, your face, your face.

Published by Lulu_2000

2 years ago

Comments

karo57 1 year ago

you are so rich, and with you, we are to......thanks

Onlooker2022 2 years ago

Another great Roberta Flack song is one that the Fugees sampled years later, "Killing Me Softly" . That was the follow-up hit that Flack released after the fame that came from The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, KMS has an equally interesting back-story. It was written and releaed by American folk singer/songwriter Lori Liebermann in 1972 but it did not chart. Liebermann was at a DOn McClean concert, and during his performance of his song "Empty Chairs", Liebermann was inspired to write KMS, and she wrote the idea down on a napkin. She went to her songwriter Charles Fox and they made the song. Roberta Flack heard the song while on a flight from New York to LA and liked it but thought it could be improved. She was a clasically trained musician and she was able to use her skills to reorchestrate it. She added background vocals and harmonies to the song and picked up the tempo, by incorporating the emphatic beats of the drums. She played around with the rhythm, often going off-beat only to return to the point of conjunction, which really lifted the vibe of the song as a whole, a factor that the original by Lieberman was lacking. She performed the song for the first time as an encore live on stage in LA and it got a great reception. So, it became her next single and the title track to her 1973 album. KMS earned Flack the Grammy Award for the Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1974.

Onlooker2022 2 years ago

There's a great story behind how this song became a hit in the US. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" was written in 1957 by British folk musician Ewan MacColl for Peggy Seeger, who later became his wife. MacColl wrote the song for a play that Seeger was in, and it became a popular folk song in the United Kingdom during the 1960s folk revival. Roberta Flack first heard "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" when a friend brought the track to her attention. She was immediately struck by its beauty and emotional depth, and regularly included it in her set-list. She included it on her debut album First Take in 1969. The song initially met with little success and her producer Joel Dorn suggested she retake the song using a faster tempo. But Flack refused and insisted on her slower, more tender interpretation of the piece. It was only when Clint Eastwood, while driving in his car, heard the song and was deeply moved by it that the track found new life. Eastwod was in the process of shooting the film "Play Misty for Me" on location in Carmel, California. He was looking for a song to accompany a prolonged love scene in the film, and when he heard Flack on the radio, he wanted her song. When the film was released in 1971, it was a huge hit and it bought the song, and Roberta Flack to a huge auduence. It hit the top of the Billboard charts in 1972.

damiens 2 years ago

Right

damiens 2 years ago

Her best song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4A5XuMz_Tw

SeaStories1983 2 years ago

Aww, Lulu, thank you. It's also all right to just go with the flow and the feel of the tune. I confess I drive my wife nuts with cultural trivia sometimes. But Roberta Flack did a lot of wonderful tunes, and her collaborations with Donny Hathaway are particularly sweet. And this take on the old Leonard Cohen classic is damn near perfect. . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKWhXZJKAxg&ab_channel=MemoMusic

Lulu_2000 Publisher 2 years ago

to curiosityalive : Thankx Alison i for sure didn't research those facts. Just got me thinking.....hope you're keeping?

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Lulu_2000 Publisher 2 years ago

to SeaStories1983 : Wow who would've known that. Not me!!

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curiosityalive 2 years ago

The song was written by an English Folk singer/writer Ewan MacColl in 1957 for Peggy Seggar who became his wife and subsequently was recorded by Roberta flack. Ewan married again later on and his daughter Kirsty MacColl was born. Please listen to some of hr songs too. She is quite brilliant about words and melody, especially about men! She died in Mexico in tragic circumstances saving her sons life as they were swimming from being run down by a power boat! Alison xxx

SeaStories1983 2 years ago

Ladies, I am with you on this. . . by far and away the most soulful and beautiful rendition of this tune. I think I even recall seeing that particular performance on the telly that year. Oddly enough, her release of the song followed its being used in the soundtrack of Clint Eastwood's directorial debut, "Play Misty for Me." Maybe too much information, but it seems to reflect something about Clint's taste that he thought THAT was the quintessential version to play. And she had so many wonderful tunes to share. . . Gordon Lightfoot, among many others, had recorded a version as well a few years before Roberta, but none of them plumbed the depths of its emotional power as well as she did. For what it's worth, it had been written by an English folksinger named Ewan MacColl. I can't help but wonder what he thought of this take of his heartfelt love ballad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Time_Ever_I_Saw_Your_Face Sorry. . . bit of a music nerd here.

Lulu_2000 Publisher 2 years ago

to Nickyhere : It does leave a lump in my throat hearing it again

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Lulu_2000 Publisher 2 years ago

to Nickyhere : Oh wow 1972

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Nickyhere 2 years ago

Cry with me? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d8_fLu2yrP4

Nickyhere 2 years ago

I’m always transfixed when I hear the song. She sings it so exquisitely.