1) John Towner Willi… Read Full Bio ↴There are at least five artists with this name;
1) John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. With a career spanning over six decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable, and critically acclaimed film scores in cinematic history, including those of the Star Wars series, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, the first two Home Alone films, Hook, the first two Jurassic Park films, Schindler's List, and the first three Harry Potter films. He has a very distinct sound that mixes romanticism, impressionism and atonal music with complex orchestration. The classical music critic Marcus Paus argues that Williams' "satisfying way of embodying complex dissonances and avant-garde techniques within a larger tonal framework" makes him "one of the great composers of any century".
Williams has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all but three of his feature films. Other works by Williams include theme music for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, "The Mission" theme used by NBC News and Seven News in Australia, the television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants, and the incidental music for the first season of Gilligan's Island. Williams has also composed numerous classical concertos and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments. He served as the Boston Pops's principal conductor from 1980 to 1993, and is currently the orchestra's laureate conductor.
Williams has won 24 Grammy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. With 51 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney. In 2005, the American Film Institute selected Williams's score to 1977's Star Wars as the greatest American film score of all time. The soundtrack to Star Wars was additionally preserved by the Library of Congress into the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2016. Williams composed the score for eight of the top 20 highest-grossing films at the U.S. box office (adjusted for inflation).
John Towner Williams was born on February 8, 1932 in Floral Park, New York, to Esther (née Towner) and Johnny Williams, a jazz percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet. Williams has said of his lineage, "My father was a Maine man—we were very close. My mother was from Boston. My father's parents ran a department store in Bangor, Maine, and my mother's father was a cabinetmaker. [...] People with those roots are not inclined to be lazy."
Williams married Barbara Ruick, an American actress and singer, in 1956. Together they had three children: Jennifer (b. 1956), Mark Towner Williams (b. 1958), and Joseph (b. 1960), who is the lead singer of Toto. The two remained married until her death in 1974. In 1980, Williams married Samantha Winslow, a photographer.
2) John Christopher Williams is a classical guitar player.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, on 24 April 1941, to an English father (Len Williams) and an Australian-Chinese mother, Williams was taught initially by his father. At the age of twelve he went to Italy to study under "The Maestro," Andrés Segovia. Later, he attended the Royal College of Music in London, studying piano because the school did not have a guitar department at the time. Upon graduation, he was offered the opportunity to create such a department. He seized the opportunity and ran it for the first two years. Williams has maintained links with the College (and with the Northern College in Manchester) ever since.
Williams is best known as a classical guitarist, but has explored many different musical traditions. He has collaborated with Julian Bream and Paco Peña and was a member of the fusion group Sky. He is also a composer and arranger.
Williams has commissioned guitar concertos from composers such as Stephen Dodgson, André Previn, Patrick Gowers, Richard Harvey, and Steve Gray. He has also worked with composers from his native Australia, including Phillip Houghton, Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards (composer), and Nigel Westlake, to produce guitar works that capture the spirit of his homeland.
He enjoyed a worldwide hit single with his recording of Cavatina by Stanley Myers, used as the theme tune to the Oscar-winning film The Deer Hunter (1979). The piece had originally been written for piano, for another film ten years earlier, The Walking Stick (1970) but re-written for guitar and expanded by Myers at Williams' invitation. In 1973, Cleo Laine wrote lyrics and recorded the song "He Was Beautiful" accompanied by John Williams. A year later, it was a top-five UK hit single for Iris Williams (no relation).
At the invitation of producer Martin Lewis he created a highly acclaimed classical-rock fusion duet with celebrated rock guitarist Pete Townshend of Townshend's anthemic "Won't Get Fooled Again" for the 1979 Amnesty International benefit show The Secret Policeman's Ball. The duet was featured on the resulting album and the film version of the show – bringing Williams to the broader attention of the rock audience.
The relationship with Lewis led to Williams' classical-rock fusion band Sky being invited to give the first-ever rock concert to be held at Westminster Abbey – a benefit concert for Amnesty that Lewis produced in February 1981.
He is visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
Williams and his artist wife Kathy Panama reside in London and Australia.
3) John Williams
John Williams is internationally regarded as one of the foremost players of Irish music today. With five All-Ireland titles to his credit, John is the only American-born competitor ever to win first place in the "senior concertina" category. His additional talents on flute, button accordion, bodhran, and piano distinguish him as a much sought after multi-instrumentalist in the acoustic scene around the world.
Born and raised on the Southwest Side of Chicago, John spent his summers during college on the Southwest coast of Ireland in his father’s village of Doolin, Co. Clare. Like Chicago, Doolin became a major musical crossroads for John and countless other local and international musicians to meet and exchange music. Gigging every night in the pubs of Doolin and Lisdoonvarna soon led to performances in Galway, Cork, Dublin, Belfast, Paris, Britanny, Zurich, and New York City (bio http://www.johnwilliamsmusic.com/bio.htm).
3) John Williams
A blues/jazz guitarist in Seattle, Washington, whose music is available at Magnatune.com (bio http://magnatune.com/artists/john_williams).
3) John Knowles Williams
An experimental/indie musician. Music is available at sweetnuthin.letsneverdie.net/Music/My_Recordings/ or www.myspace.com/JohnKWilliams.
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
John Williams Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea
I forgive you, 'cause I can't forget you
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea
[Repeat: x2]
I ought to cross you off my list
But when you come a-knocking at my door
And I come running back for more
I should hate you, but I guess I love you
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea
The devil and the deep blue sea
The song "Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea" by John Williams talks about the dilemma of being torn between love and practicality. The lyrics describe a situation where the singer is in a difficult position because they cannot decide if they should leave their lover or stay with them even though they know it might not be good for them. The lyrics imply that the singer loves their partner, but they are constantly being hurt and are unsure if they should continue the relationship.
The metaphorical use of the “devil and the deep blue sea” suggests that there are two unpleasant choices that the singer must choose from, either the devil or the deep blue sea. They don't want to be with their lover but don't want to lose them either, creating a conflict within their heart. The singer forgives their lover, even though they know the behavior is toxic and holds them hostage to the relationship.
The line, “I should hate you, but I guess I love you” reveals the singer's internal battle with conflicting emotions. They cannot help but love their partner, despite knowing how they make them feel, and cannot bring themselves to hate them for it. Overall, the song explores the struggle of being in a toxic relationship and the difficulty of letting go, which can be relatable to many people.
Line by Line Meaning
I don't want you, but I'd hate to lose you
I have mixed feelings about you; I'm not sure if I want to keep you in my life or if I want to let go. Losing you would hurt me deeply, but being with you also brings a lot of pain.
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea
You've put me in a very difficult situation where I have two equally bad options, and I can't decide which one is better. It feels like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I forgive you, 'cause I can't forget you
Even though you've hurt me before, I can't seem to forget about you. It's hard for me to move on when I still have feelings for you, so I try to forgive you in hopes of finding closure.
I ought to cross you off my list
I know I should let go of you and move on, but it's easier said than done. I try to tell myself that I should forget about you and move on with my life, but it's not that simple.
But when you come a-knocking at my door
Every time you reach out to me, it's hard for me to say no. Even though I know I should keep my distance, I can't resist the temptation of being with you again.
Fate seems to give my heart a twist
It feels like destiny is playing a cruel joke on me. Every time I try to move on, something happens that pulls me back towards you. It's like my heart is being twisted in different directions.
And I come running back for more
No matter how hard I try to resist you, I keep coming back for more. I'm stuck in a cycle of getting hurt and trying to heal, but I can't seem to break free from it.
I should hate you, but I guess I love you
It's hard for me to admit it, but I still love you despite everything that's happened between us. I know I should hate you for hurting me, but my feelings for you are too strong to ignore.
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea
This line is repeated because it reinforces the idea that you've put me in a difficult position that I can't escape from. I'm forced to choose between two bad options, and neither of them gives me a way out.
Lyrics © S.A. MUSIC, BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Songtrust Ave, MUSIC.INFO FINLAND OY, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind