Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you classic songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today’s featured track is “For Your Love” by the British-invasion band The Yardbirds. The 1965 hit, which features key “diamond” references, was the group’s biggest commercial success, but also triggered the departure of future superstar Eric Clapton.
The song is essentially a love treatise, with lead singer Keith Relf ticking off all the things he would give “for your love.” In addition to offering the moon, the sun and the stars, Relf starts off with a jewelry-related proposal…
Relf sings, “I’d give you everything and more and that’s for sure / I’d bring you diamond rings and things right to your door / To thrill you with delight / I’d give you diamonds bright/ There’ll be things that will excite / Make you dream of me at night.”
Even though the song rose to #6 on the US Billboard Top 100 chart and scored #1 spots in both the UK and Canada, “For Your Love” became a dealbreaker for the 20-year-old Clapton.
The lead guitarist left the band eight days after the song’s release because he believed it signaled that The Yardbirds were abandoning their blues roots and becoming too commercial. Music historians claim he was also disgruntled having to duplicate the song’s unusual harpsichord intro on his 12-string electric guitar when playing live.
On The Yardbirds official site, guitarist Chris Dreja said “For Your Love” was responsible for bringing the group international fame. He also said that the “weirdness” of the song’s time-signature change in the middle became a template for future hits.
“‘For Your Love’ was an interesting song,” Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty told songfacts.com. “It had an interesting chord sequence, very moody, very powerful. And the fact that it stopped in the middle and went into a different time signature, we liked that, that was interesting. Quite different, really, from all the bluesy stuff that we’d been playing up till then. But somehow we liked it. It was original and different.”
Ironically, The Yardbirds’ signature song and biggest hit wasn’t originally intended for the group. Apparently, songwriter Graham Gouldman wrote it for his own group, the Mockingbirds, but their demo was rejected by Columbia Records. The song was also turned down by the producers of Herman’s Hermits and the Animals before landing with The Yardbirds.
Musician Dave Liebman, who was hired to write the introduction to “For Your Love,” revealed years later that the use of the harpsichord was a total accident. Upon arriving at the recording studio, he realized that the organ he intended to use was nowhere in site. He had to settle for a harpsichord and history was made — the first rock song featuring a harpsichord.
The Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and are included in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.”
Please check out the video at the end of this post. It’s a rare 1965 clip of The Yardbirds performing “For Your Love” on Shindig!, a U.S. musical variety show. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along...
“For Your Love”
Written by Graham Gouldman. Performed by The Yardbirds.
For your love.
For your love.
For your love.
I’d give you everything and more, and that’s for sure.
For your love.
I’d give you diamond rings and things right to your door.
For your love.
To thrill you with delight,
I’ll give you diamonds bright.
There’ll be things that will excite,
Make me dream of you at night.
For your love.
For your love.
For your love.
For your love, for your love,
Well, I would give the stars above.
For your love, for your love,
Well, I would give you all I could.
For your love.
For your love.
For your love.
I’d give the moon if it were mine to give.
For your love.
I’d give the sun and stars ‘fore I live.
For your love.
To thrill you with delight,
I’ll give you diamonds bright.
There’ll be things that will excite,
To make you dream of me at night.
For your love.
For your love.
For your love.
For your love.
Credit: Photo by Epic, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The excruciatingly difficult task of finding rough diamonds just got a bit easier, thanks to new research that links the most coveted gem on earth with its yellowish-green traveling cousin called olivine, a mineral whose precious form is peridot.
Geologists from ETH Zurich and the University of Melbourne recognized a critical distinction between two types of olivine, which happens to be a key ingredient in kimberlite pipes, the molten rock that blasts diamonds from deep within the Earth to the surface.
The scientists learned that when olivine contains a high concentration of iron, diamonds are less likely to be in the mix. If the olivine contains high concentrations of magnesium, there's a high likelihood that diamonds will be present.
Diamond mining giant De Beers, which helped fund the study and supplied the scientists with kimberlite samples, is already reaping the benefits of this new, streamlined method of finding rough diamond resources.
“Diamond producers sometimes wish they were mining gold, copper or some other raw material, because nothing is as complicated as finding and mining diamonds,” stated Andrea Giuliani, Senior Scientist at ETH Zurich’s Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology. “There’s no method that guarantees that you will find diamonds.”
His team's breakthrough finding relies on how the chemical composition of olivine can become altered 150 kilometers below the Earth's surface.
When melt from underlying layers infiltrates the lithospheric mantle (just below the Earth's crust), it makes the olivine richer in iron. The melt also destroys diamonds.
When only a small amount of melt or no melt can penetrate the lithospheric mantle, the olivine will contain more magnesium and diamonds will remain intact.
“Just looking for a kimberlite is like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Giuliani explained. “Once you’ve found it, then the arduous search for diamonds really gets underway.”
Now miners can inspect kimberlite samples for magnesium-rich olivine and be confident that diamonds are nearby.
The study was recently published in Nature Communications.
Credit: Image by Parent Géry, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
If you're lucky enough to live along the narrow path that runs from Eagle Pass, TX, to the eastern tip of Maine, April 8th will bring you a fantastical total solar eclipse, complete with a bonus celestial display that looks remarkably like a diamond ring.
The “Diamond Ring Effect,” which was first explained by Francis Baily in 1836, occurs when the moon completely masks out the sun during a total solar eclipse. Due to the rugged lunar landscape, the black outline of the moon is not smooth. Tiny beads of sunlight can still shine through in some places and not in others as the moon slowly grazes past the sun.
These are called Baily’s Beads. When only one dazzling “bead” remains, momentarily, the view of the eclipse resembles a diamond ring. The ring’s glow is produced by the sun’s corona remaining dimly visible around the lunar silhouette.
The Diamond Ring Effect will actually happen twice on April 8. The first time will occur in the moment just before the total eclipse, and the second will occur just after the total eclipse. The solar eclipse will last about 4.5 minutes in most locations along the path, and effectively turn day into night. The grey path shown on NASA's map is about 115 miles wide and represents the viewing area where the Moon will completely block out the Sun in the sky.
Skygazers southwest of San Antonio will experience the solar eclipse at approximately 1:30pm Central time, while those in the easternmost reaches of Maine will close out the US light show just after 3:30pm Eastern.
Ironically, one of the best places to view the “Diamond Ring Effect” on April 8 will be at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, AR, the only diamond site in the world that’s open to the general public.
The park will experience 3 minutes and 48 seconds of the total eclipse, which will start at 1:47pm and last through 1:51pm. Visitors to the park on April 8 will see the start of a partial eclipse at 12:30pm and the end of the partial eclipse at 3:08 pm.
Reservations at the park are booking up fast, so those planning a trip to the park should order tickets online at this site…
While snacks and drinks are available in the Visitor Center while supplies last, guests are encouraged to bring a picnic lunch and plenty of water for every person in their group. Visitors are also encouraged to bring their own buckets, shovels, wagons, and sifting screens, as rental equipment is likely to sell out.
NASA warned that skywatchers should NEVER look at a partial solar eclipse without proper eye protection. Looking directly at the sun, even when it is partially covered by the moon, can cause serious eye damage or blindness. Only during totality, when the sun’s disk is completely covered by the moon, is it safe to view the eclipse with the naked eye, says NASA.
During the solar eclipse, the moon’s shadow will pass over half of the US. The path of the umbra, where the eclipse is total, will stretch on a fairly straight path from the Tex-Mex border to the Maine-New Brunswick border. Cities in a great position to view a total eclipse and the "Diamond Ring Effect" include Little Rock, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo and Burlington, VT.
Credits: Diamond ring solar eclipse photo by Lutfar Rahman Nirjhar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Solar eclipse map by Michala Garrision and the Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS), in collaboration with the NASA Heliophysics Activation Team (NASA HEAT), part of NASA's Science Activation portfolio. Eclipse calculations by Ernie Wright, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Crater of Diamonds image courtesy of Arkansas State Parks.
A British anesthetist, who accidentally left her diamond ring in the pocket of her scrubs while working in a hospital in West Suffolk and then at the end of her shift dropped the protective garment in the laundry, was surprised to learn that the ring reemerged five days later, 100 miles away at a hospital in London.
Dr. Radhika Ramasamy explained how she put the ring — a birthday gift from her husband — in the pocket of her scrubs before giving a patient a spinal anesthetic at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust in Bury St Edmunds.
“I meant to put the ring back on afterwards, but ended up doing another procedure and forgot about it," Dr. Ramasamy said in a press release. "It wasn’t until the evening of the next day that I realized it was missing and then it was the weekend, so I didn’t report it to my facilities team till the Monday. To be honest, I never expected to get it back as I thought it would be crushed in the machinery at the laundry.”
Flash forward five days and nearly 100 miles southwest on the M11 motorway where we find Suraj Shah, an anesthetics registrar based at London's Royal Free Hospital (RFH), getting ready for his ICU shift by donning a freshly laundered pair of scrubs.
“As I put the scrubs on something clattered to the floor and a colleague spotted the ring and alerted me," Shah noted. "At first I thought maybe one of the nurses here had lost the ring and I put the word out through the nurse in charge. I checked with the doctors, as well, but nothing, so I contacted our facilities team."
Shah was deeply touched by the gravity of the situation.
“I knew how downhearted my wife would be if she’d lost a ring that had sentimental value to her so that was in the back of my mind," he added. "As healthcare workers, we often take off rings for procedures so it’s an easy mistake to make.”
The RFH facilities team contacted the commercial laundry about the newly found ring and, by good fortune, there was a match as Ramasamy had reported it missing just days earlier.
Amazingly, the delicate diamond ring was able to endure the high-powered agitation of the commercial washers and the extreme tumbling of its dryers — all while remaining tucked in the pocket.
A reunion was quickly arranged and Ramasamy couldn't have been more pleased with the colleagues and professional staff who made it happen.
“I’m so happy to have it returned," she said. "It just shows how honest people are and I want to say a huge thank you to all the people involved — my end at the West Suffolk Hospital and at the Royal Free Hospital — in reuniting me with a ring that has real sentimental value to me as it was a birthday present from my husband a few years ago."
"I know it’s been an incredible team effort," she continued, "and I am so appreciative of how so many people have gone the extra mile to track me down and return it to me.”
At RFH, Shah said, “It’s nice to feel part of a bit of a little miracle. I’m delighted the ring has been reunited with Radhika.”
Credit: Image courtesy of West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.
The same Oxford University mathematician who this past fall calculated that young children were most likely to pitch a tantrum exactly 27 minutes and 48 seconds into a flight, has revealed his newest formula — this one for a perfect proposal.
The 34-year-old Dr. Tom Crawford, who is widely known by his YouTube handle @TomRocksMaths, cooked up a way to quantify whether a marriage proposal is likely to be a roaring success or an embarrassing bust.
His methodology, which is based on an Asda engagement survey of 2,000 Brits, establishes an individual's "proposal score" (S) out of possible 100 points.
"If you follow this recipe for success," he told the Daily Mail, "you'll be giving yourself the best possible chance of getting that 'Yes.'"
Here's how it works…
Dr. Crawford's formula rewards points in four areas and then adds bonus points for superior behavior and subtracts points for each thoughtless faux pas.
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Assuming the proposal will be taking place during a home-prepared dinner, the four key factors include the exact time of the meal (M), the staging of the proposal (T), the amount of advance planning (P) and the cost of the engagement ring (C). Each one of these is worth 20 points.
Dr. Crawford calculated that the optimum time to start the momentous meal is exactly 8:06 pm, with the proposal set to occur after the main course, but before the dessert.
The mathematician noted that the suitor should have been planning for this special moment for 68 days and that the ring's value should reflect 2.5 months' salary.
Proposers can supplement their point totals (and thereby increase their chances of a "Yes" response) by delivering a heartfelt engagement speech (+8 points), setting an attractive environment with mood lighting and flowers (+7 points) and queuing up a romantic playlist (+5 points).
These same suitors needed to be mindful of potential score busters…
Checking one's phone is a definite "no-no." If it happens, deduct 20 points.
Leaving the TV on in the background is a distraction that will cost an additional 14 points.
Burning the dinner is a 10-point deduction, and having kids in the house when popping the question is a negative-6 on the score card.
"In terms of things to avoid," Crawford told the Daily Mail, "keep those phones switched off and out of sight, drop the kids off with a babysitter, and don't burn the food!"
Dr. Crawford, a self-proclaimed numberphile, began teaching at the University of Oxford in the 2017. His Tom Rocks Maths YouTube channel claims more than 178,000 subscribers.
Credit: Screen capture via YouTube.com / TomRocksMaths.
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you great songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, former Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis sings about having the courage to jettison a failing relationship in the 2007 release, “Silver Lining.”
Penned by Lewis, the song builds up to the moment our heroine breaks up with her boyfriend because she knows that — in the long run — she’ll be better off without him.
She sings, “I never felt so wicked / As when I willed our love to die / and I was your silver lining as the story goes / I was your silver lining but now I’m gold.”
The phrase “now I’m gold” reflects Lewis's return to a fresh and idyllic view of life after having the confidence to break ties and set out on her own. She is no longer defined as her boyfriend’s silver lining — the glimmer of hope in his bad situation.
In the song’s official video, Lewis and fellow bandmate Blake Sennett are seen exchanging vows in a church. But then, Lewis hands Sennett a gold coin and leaves him at the altar. Both child actors, Lewis and Sennett dated in real life until 2002.
“Silver Lining” is the first track on the indie rock band’s fourth and final full-length album, Under the Blacklight. In retrospect, some critics believe that the song foreshadowed the band’s breakup, which would take place in 2014.
Both the single and the album earned critical acclaim. Rolling Stone magazine rated Under the Blacklight as the 8th best album of 2007, and picked “Silver Lining” as the 27th best song that same year.
Founded in Los Angeles in 1998, Rilo Kiley was named for a mythical Australian rules football player that came to Sennett in a dream. According to a 2005 interview with syndicated radio show Loveline, Sennett dreamed he was being chased by a sports almanac.
“When it got me, I leafed through it… and I came upon an Australian rules football player from the 19th century named Rilo Kiley. It’s kind of embarrassing,” Sennett admitted.
After the band's breakup, Lewis has gone on to have a successful solo career. She is currently touring, with stops planned in California, Arizona, Texas, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Georgia and Tennessee.
Trivia: As a 13-year-old, Lewis starred alongside Shelley Long in Troop Beverly Hills (1989).
Please check out the official video of Lewis and Rilo Kiley performing “Silver Lining.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“Silver Lining”
Written by Jenny Lewis. Performed by Rilo Kiley.
And I’m not going back into rags or in the hole
And our bruises are coming
But we will never fold
And I was your silver lining
As the story goes
I was your silver lining but now I’m gold
Hooray hooray I’m your silver lining
Hooray hooray but now I’m gold.
And I was your silver lining
High up on my toes
Well you were running through fields of hitchhikers
As the story goes
Hooray hooray I’m your silver lining
Hooray hooray but now I’m gold
Hooray hooray I’m your silver lining
Hooray hooray but now I’m gold
And the grass it was a ticking
And the sun was on the rise
I never felt so wicked
As when I willed our love to die
And I was your silver lining as the story goes
I was your silver lining but now I’m gold
Hooray hooray I’m your silver lining
Hooray hooray but now I’m gold
Hooray hooray I’m your silver lining
Hooray hooray but now I’m gold
But now I’m gold
But now I’m gold
But now I’m gold
Credit: Screen capture via YouTube.com / rilokiley.
If pop icon Taylor Swift's avid fans get their wish this Sunday night, Kansas City Chiefs' star tight end Travis Kelce will be popping the question to the 14-time Grammy winner on the gridiron at the conclusion of Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
With 200 million people expected to tune in to the contest between the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, the Swift-Kelce union could be the most-viewed proposal ever.
During a presser on Monday, Kelce was asked if there was another ring on his mind besides the one that comes with winning Super Bowl LVIII.
“I am focused on getting this [third Super Bowl] ring,” Kelce said. “That’s all my mind is focused on right now.”
But the gambling community believes there's an outside chance that Kelce will end up on bended knee.
According to USA Today, an astounding $23.1 billion in wagers will be placed on Super Bowl-related outcomes.
No longer do bettors simply choose a winning team. Now they can engage in "prop bets," such as the temperature at kickoff time, the duration of the National Anthem and the color of Gatorade poured on the winning coach.
An online betting site in Canada even established a line for the question: "Will Travis Kelce propose to Taylor Swift," noting specifically that the proposal has to take place on the field after the game.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the "Yes" position would deliver +820, which means that a $100 bet would yield a winning sum of $820. Essentially, the site believes there is a 10.87% chance that it will happen.
That yield has crept steadily downward from +1060 (8.62% probability) earlier in the day, which means that more people seem to be willing to gamble that the proposal will take place.
The "No" position stands at -2000 (95.24% probability), which means that a $2,000 bet would generate winnings of $100. That number is down from -3500 (97.22%) earlier in the week.
One sports betting site even established odds for whether Swift will reverse traditional roles and propose to Kelce on the field after Super Bowl LVIII. The site is offering a "Yes-only" option at +2500 (3.85% probability), which means a $100 bet would generate winnings of $2,500 if it happened.
“[Swift] is absolutely the number one fan right now,” Kelce told USA Today. “I love having her at every single game she can make, and we’ll see. I don’t plan anything after Super Bowl. My focus is on trying to win this game. Everything afterward will just fall in place.”
Will bridal jewelry become part of celebration as the game clock ticks down to 0:00 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas? Stay tuned and enjoy the game.
Credits: Taylor Swift photo by Paolo Villanueva from New York, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Travis Kelce image by Adam Schultz, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Flaunting an intense vivid purple color with flashes of red, this 401.52-carat stunner is one of the finest and largest faceted amethysts in the National Gem Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.
The Brazilian-sourced, emerald-cut gem was a gift from the Smithsonian Gemstone Collectors group in 2012 and checks all the boxes for what a Smithsonian-quality gem should be. In addition to its impressive size, it displays superb color, clarity and cut.
Amethyst is February's official birthstone and the most coveted variety of quartz. The gem is colorless in its pure state, but gets its purple color from a few atoms of iron displacing some of the silicon in the gem’s molecular structure. These traces of iron can give amethyst a wide range of colors, from almost white to deep purple.
Amethyst has been coveted for thousands of years and is one of the oldest recorded gemstones. Amethysts have been recovered from ancient Egyptian tombs and were prized by the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians and Hebrews.
The color purple was traditionally the color of royalty, and amethyst was used to adorn the richest and most powerful monarchs and rulers. The English revered the stone for its majestic properties — creating emblems and insignia featuring amethysts during the Middle Ages to symbolize royalty.
Amethyst gets its name from the Greek word “amethystos,” which literally means “not to intoxicate.” Apparently, the Greeks believed amethyst could reverse the effects of drunkenness. Other characteristics attributed to amethyst include peace, balance, courage, stability and inner strength.
The color rating of an amethyst is determined by hue, tone and saturation. Hue is the color; tone is relative lightness or darkness of the color; and saturation relates to the color’s intensity, from dull to vivid.
While Brazil is the primary source of this gemstone, fine-quality amethysts also can be found in parts of Zambia, Mexico, Uruguay, Italy, Germany, Canada, Maine, Colorado, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Credit: Photo by Ken Larsen / Smithsonian.
Greenville, SC, resident Melanie Harper is singing the praises of local Public Works employees who went above and beyond the call of duty to rescue her diamond wedding band from a huge pile of recycled trash.
A routine Sunday visit to her town's recycling plant turned into a nightmare for Harper, whose cherished band slipped off as she tossed her recyclables into the container at the Rutherford Road recycling center.
"I know the likelihood of finding this is slim to none," she wrote in an email to the City of Greenville’s Public Works department. "But, if the ring is found during the course of processing the recycling, I would be most appreciative if someone could contact me."
On its official Facebook page, the Public Works department wrote, "Finding a needle in a haystack = hard. Finding a ring in a recycling bin = nearly impossible. Unless you're the City of Greenville Public Works, where employees truly dive into their work!"
On Monday morning, instead of processing what was in the bin, Public Works supervisors and litter crew members agreed to dump the recycling materials on the ground and sort through each item, piece by piece.
After hours of searching, "Travis Golden struck gold. White gold," reported the Public Works department on its Facebook page.
The department contacted Harper and invited her to the plant to be reunited with her ring.
Besides Travis, the Facebook post gave a shout-out to the other team members involved in the search efforts: Jeff Hammond, James Burnside, Frank Daigneault and Manny Cruz.
Credits: Images courtesy of City of Greenville.
Starting in 2025, a Paris agency known for outrageous and lavish engagement proposal packages, will be offering couples a robot-hosted, seven-hour romantic adventure to the stratosphere and back for the tidy sum of 750,000 euros ($808,000).
ApoteoSurprise described how the couple will board a sleek, futuristic spherical space capsule hours before sunrise. Equipped with state-of-the-art comforts, the cabin will be equipped with an elegantly set dining table reminiscent of the most refined Parisian eateries.
As they start their slow, two-hour, pilot-assisted ascent into space, the couple will be introduced to StellarEmbrace, an AI-trained robot who will present the soon-to-be fiancée with a bouquet of roses.
StellarEmbrace is able to recognize body language, facial expressions, tone and vocabulary. The robot will respond to the couple's beck and call and is ready to field questions, converse, serenade and dance.
Propelled by a helium-inflated stratospheric balloon, the craft will pass through the troposphere (10 km, 6.2 mi) and into the stratosphere at about 32 miles (50 km) above the Earth's surface.
ApoteoSurprise noted that the towering windows of the capsule will offer awe-inspiring 360-degree views and a unique perspective of our planet. In the darkness of night, they will be able to see the countless networks of luminous cityscapes and roadways.
In the first phase of the trip, the robot will serve glasses of champagne, orange juice, coffee, tea, hot chocolate and freshly baked croissants.
As the sun rises, the capsule will be at its full cruising altitude. From that vantage point, the couple will see the bluish halo of the atmosphere, and the pitch-black expanse of space, bejeweled by a multitude of stars. It's a view that only 600 humans have ever experienced. ApoteoSurprise noted that the couple will feel a profound connection with all of humanity, forever altering their perception of our world.
StellarEmbrace will then invite the couple to gather around the central table, where it will serve a food and wine pairing curated by a French Michelin-starred chef. The menu features puffed scallops, a duet of lobster and truffles, matured caviar with milk flower, honey-lacquered roast supreme and a crisp grapefruit.
Also accompanying the experience is a space-theme playlist, including iconic tracks, such as "Space Oddity" by David Bowie, "Across the Universe" by The Beatles, "Rocket Man" by Elton John and "Walking on the Moon" by Police.
But just before dessert, StellarEmbrace will playfully interject that something very important has been forgotten.
ApoteoSurprise noted that the robot will then make its way backstage and promptly return, clutching a luminous chest straight out of a science-fiction film. The suitor will input a secret code on the chest's screen, and a resonant electronic tone will announce the unveiling of a box containing an engagement ring.
At that moment, the suitor will pop the question, "forever sealing your love within the eternity of space!"
StellarEmbrace will break into applause, moved to tears, joyously sharing in the celebration.
A bit later, noted ApoteoSurprise, the capsule will begin its two-hour descent.
All the while, the robot will have filmed every moment — from the couple's arrival at the capsule to their final farewells.
Credit: Image courtesy of ApoteoSurprise.