Oooh...Song Lyrics!!!!

Ok, readers of this blog will quickly learn that I have a fettish for really well-written song lyrics. You see, I am something of an amateur guitar player/musician myself and have made several unsuccessful attempts at putting pen to pad. Or even when I do put pen to pad, it sounds pretty close to something someone else has already written. Well, let's be honest...William Shakespeare earn a fat living plagiarazing someone else's work, but I'm better than him.

And the sad part is, I actually have a very vivid imagination. Remember all that alone time I told you about before? Well, I used to be able to fill the vacuum with very vividly constructed narratives. Yes my imaginary friends and I used to spend entire weekends together. Tolstoy would have asked me for private writing lessons if he had seen the "character development" I was capable of with my own toys. Seriously, I can construct narratives from whole cloth and in less time that any liberal on the planet. Dang! Low blow...the judges just deducted a point from me.

So I guess, in a wierd way, my obsession with really cool song lyrics is a manifestation of my inabilty to pour my cerebral cortex onto a sheet of paper. I'd rather worship the tradecraft of others and pretend like I had something to do with it.

On to the songs. First, John Mayer's "In Your Atmosphere"






"I'm gonna stear clear...I'll burn up in your atmosphere..
I'm gonna stear clear...Cuz I'd die if I saw you, I'd die if I didn't see you there"


Watching John Mayer sing this song on the Where the Light Is DVD changed my life last summer. Why on earth does he not play this song more often? This song speaks to anyone who has had a relationship that has ended NOT on their terms. A bad break-up? An awkward break-up? A friendship break-up (yes I am having a lot of these lately)? You know the feeling of really wanting to see someone, but also the feeling of hoping you DON'T run into that same someone? I had an ex-girlfriend once who lived 4 blocks away from me, and I had to take a 3 block detour around her apartment for an entire year everytime I had to head in that direction. Yes John, you nailed this one, kid.

Ok, song #2 is James Morrison's "You Give Me Something"


"For every piece of me that wants you, another piece backs away....
Cuz you..give me...something, that makes me scared alright
This could be..nothing...but I'm willing to give it a try"

This is pretty much self-explanatory. We all have been scared, right? That precipice right at the end of the "dating" stage and right before the "commitment/relationship" stage? When we start making these absurd calculations about how much we gain from having the exciting and scintillating companionship of someone who really lights up your life when he/she smiles...versus how much we lose in independence, liberty, and all the intrinsic benefits of being single. But be careful, as James Morrison warns, because once you figure it out, "it might be a second too late."

Ok, on to song #3. #3 is Keith Urban's "You'll Think of Me"



"Take your records, take your freedom...
Take your memories, I don't need 'em...
Take your space and all your reason's
But you'll think of me..."

Almost, but not quite, the diametric opposite of James Morrison's song. While James Morrison's song preaches something like "Hey, i'm scared too....what have we got to lose," Keith Urban preaches "hey you are ending this now for obviously superficial chickenshit reasons, but in a few months time you are gonna regret making this move. And you will suffer more, not me" Anyone who has never felt this way is a really good fabulist or simply very delusional.


And lastly, the duet performed by Eric Clapton and John Mayer "Broken Hearted"



"So you've gone beyond your means, and every wound is open,
You're best-laid plans are out of reach, and all your fears unspoken
Lord, how will you get thru this night, with your dreams departed,
Who alone will comfort you? Only the broken-hearted"

Just pure poetry, brother. Taking a stand for someone and failing...only to find comfort with those who have been thru the same situation.

Class dismissed. Gotta go hit the cafe for a tall caffeine drink. Til next time!