About a thousand years ago I would hang out in a club before it opened. As a regular I had carte blanche to come and go as I pleased. Well, unless the cops showed up then I was ushered under a trench coat down the back fire escape. It wasn’t easy being 14 in the rock and roll world.
When the crew would show up and start the taping and wiring of the stage and the over head played some strange euro beat trash I would barefoot spin in circles ala’ Stevie Nicks middle of the dance floor all alone. Just waiting for the bands to show and the night to begin. There was less smoke in the air, the lights were up and the filth more evident. No one noticed me really, I never got in the way I was just a fixture.
One particular day I was doing my usual twirls and had a particularly dizzying episode and lied down right in the middle of the dance floor and looking up to the balcony saw Davide Byrne, writing. A serious expression oblivious to whatever was going on around him. He wasn’t to play that venue that evening but another a town over. I remember feeling someone uncomfortable at seeing him up there. I wasn’t a fan so I had no interest in “hello’ing”. I turned away I felt I was intruding. There is a unity and sacred quality to a man and his writing. Even at a young age I respected that. In retrospect he could have been jotting a note to him mom, or a to do list, hell it could have been the lyrics to”Burning Down The House” for all I know. It didn’t matter. I turned my head.
Song Lyrics.
Amazing aren’t they? They can turn a mediocre beat and twang into ‘our song’ or a rally cry, or a cry or a whimper.
Back to the band X, (sorry darling) lyrics such as “the worlds a mess, its in my kiss”, so well put. Its true, Ive felt the desperation and that quote is so meaningful to me.
“On my own I faced a gang of jeering in strange streets. When my nerves were pumping and I fought my fear in, I did not run. I was not done” from The Clash song “I’m Not Down”, to this day gets me through my toughest hours. Most recently the lyric “there were many miles between us, but they didn’t mean a thing” from Presleys “Trying To Get To You” has been on constant mind repeat. Simple words, inked on a page years and years later ushering me through my daily world.
Fun Lyrics
It’s not all trauma and strife. On the contrary. Hang out with me and you’ll get an absurd “Knock A Little Loudahh Shugggahhh”, from the B52’s “Love Shack” at the most inopportune moments. Or those days in the office when I belt out in my loudest voice “Welcome To The Jungle, It Gets Worse Here Everyday” or “My Eyes Feel Like Theyre Going To Bleed”. Lyrics out of context are best.
Hell, put an ear to Iman and I when we’re in discussion. Half of what we say is some obscure lyric there are times I believe we can create a whole conversation with song lyrics. But a that’s cuz he and I are cool as hell.
Sacred Lyrics
Any song that anyone has ever been given to you to hear is a gift. Simple. Someone took the time to send you the words of someone else and to me they’re better than a Hallmark card. Suppose it goes back to the mixed tape courting days or something. But when you’re handed songs they mean so much more. I almost find it impossible to share even in this forum my feelings of those songs given to me. I want to tuck them in my heart and horde them. They’re mine like love letters and you have no right to know what I think of them or what they mean to me and how I interpret them.. well that’s belongs to me and my love. Sorry. Here I draw the blinds. You should too. Keep it private so you don’t water down the impact.
What the author of these songs intended to relay to us means nothing. We can hear a song that would bring us to our knees but if you first hear it stuck in rush hour traffic that song forever will carry the image of that discomfort. Its such a twist. I have to pull lyric sheets all the time, I feel like I’m missing something especially in pop music. I figure if I read them then I wont be jaded by the tone or inflection of the performer. Sometimes it works mostly it doesn’t. The power of a great lyric is boundless. Making audible art of the highest caliber. I’m pretty sure half of the lyrics I love most, have a totally different meaning to their author and other listeners. That’s OK though, that’s the beauty of art. We interpret it how we need to, and it is a need. We need the art form of analyzing. Words set to music are more memorable, that’s why you sing your ABC’s. Words are magical.
I have always admired those who could sit alone and write in meter stories that cling to my senses like some elaborate cloak.
I have sat on the arm of many a chair as a writer has written song lyrics. Pretending not to peek. I have heard songs and thought ‘oh crap was that about me?’.. narcisistic? Heck yes it is but again thats what a lyric can do to you. Not only can you make it your own it can be about you even if you were just the little girl watching from a distance waiting for the show to start.