Musically speaking

It is morning, and it is good. Therefore, I can say "good morning" without even a hint of malfeasance. All feasance here, baby. So chickity check this out: I wrote about certain song lyrics yesterday, and I'd like to continue with that and keep this hey-look-it's-a-theme going strong. I'll give you to the count of three to speak your mind and alter my path before I continue on. One...two...three. Suckas! It is so on.

Ok, here's the deal: I love words, especially those which are well-placed near other ones. I love music, especially the kind that connects with me in one way or another. Therefore (much like my "good morning" equation earlier), it's safe for you to assume that I have a particular fondness for good song lyrics.

I remember having a conversation with my friend Lisa years ago about this. She asked which was more important for me to like a song, the music or the lyrics. At the time I said the lyrics, but I'm here to rescind that a little. Without a doubt, I will love a song for my entire life if the lyrics move me or make me think. However, I can hear the Beatles belt out "Why Don't We Do It in the Road" over and over again and it doesn't stop me from liking the song. If the music is well done or particularly catchy and the lyrics aren't horrible, I can still easily like the song. After all, I like "Dominique" by the Singing Nun and I don't understand a word of it (besides "Dominique").

At the same time though, I'm a lyrics snob. I've used this space to decry the songwriting of both Alannis Morissette and Joan Osborne loudly enough that you'd think they personally assaulted me. Here are a couple of stories about me and lyrics that I'd like to share.

In 1989, the New Kids on the Block had a hit song with "Hangin' Tough." I remember hearing it on the radio with my mom and telling her I didn't like it when they sang, "Get loose everybody 'cause we're gonna do our thing/'cause you know it ain't over til the fat lady sings." "That's a real phrase though," she said, thinking that I didn't like it because it didn't make sense to me. What I didn't have to vocabulary for as a 12 year-old was that I didn't like it because it was way too easy and trite. Anyone can use an entire line of a song on a long, very common phrase, so this wasn't anything special. To top it off, those two lines are the only two lines in the verse before they go back into their chorus which is comprised solely of "Hangin' tough" and several "ohs." It was catchy and popular, but I didn't like that they took the easiest road possible with those lines.

My second story involves one of my favorite bands. I was just recently telling this story to my co-worker Rob, and I realized in the middle of telling him that it was a pretty telling story about my relationship with lyrics. When Counting Crows burst onto the scene with "Mr. Jones" during my high school years, I liked that song. I didn't love it, but it was good enough that I picked up a copy of the cd one night while out with my friend Jon and a girl named Sara. We got back to Jon's place, and Sara said that she needed to talk to Jon privately for just a minute. I went into his brother's room and waited. After it was apparent that it would be more than just a minute, I opened up the cd. This was still the early 90s though, and his brother didn't have a cd player in his room. I know, the horror. So I sat there for the next hour reading and re-reading the lyrics to songs I'd never heard and fell in love with them. Specifically with "Anna Begins" and "Round Here," I said to myself, "It almost doesn't even matter what the music is like. These are some of my very favorite songs already." It was poetry, it was beautiful, and it made me not care at all that my friend was probably making out with a pretty hot girl on the other side of the wall. That's some powerful shit, my friends. When I got home that night, the accompanying music didn't disappoint, and that cd hasn't budged from its extremely high position on my all-time favorite list (which doesn't actually exist).

Lastly, and briefly, the same Jon made me a cd with some songs he thought I'd like. I popped it in and gave it a listen while driving home from work. A song started by the Alkaline Trio, who I'd hadn't yet heard of. I looked at the hand-written case and saw that this was one of four or five songs by them on there, so I hoped I liked it. When the second verse started with, "If you're up to your ears/in blood-" I had a quick thought. "If he says 'blood, sweat, and tears' here, I don't think I'm going to like this band." It kept playing: "In blood, sweat, and wasted years." I was thrilled. Not only wasn't it the trite phrase anyone else could've thrown in there, but it was a nice turn of that same phrase, telling me that I could trust them to do this thing right. That song and the others are indeed good, and I guess Jon knows my taste.

Ok, really "lastly" now, I'd be remiss if I ended this post on lyrics without mentioning the Indigo Girls. Not only are they my lovely wife's favorite band, but Amy and Emily are fantastic lyricists. Their songs are so packed with good lyrics, that half of one line in a verse of the song "Ghost" is, "I am baptized by your touch." If almost any other band thought of that powerful phrase (seriously, absolving someone of Original Sin with a touch is a pretty loaded metaphor), they would've built the entire song around it. It would've been the first and last line of each chorus, the name of the song, and probably the name of the album. They're so good that they can afford to put it where it might get missed.

Ok, I'm going to stop here because I went on longer than expected. Here's the moral of my stories: Lyrics - good lyrics - mean a lot to me. There's a reason I like Bob Dylan, and it sure as hell ain't his voice. Bad lyrics, therefore, piss me off more than they probably should because I take personal offense to them. "Really, Train, you're gonna rhyme 'life' with 'life' and 'life' in your chorus? Fuck you." Ok, I'm really stopping now before I get my blood pressure up again.

Have a great day, gentle readers. I'll be here tomorrow with another Follow Up Friday, including a story to meet the challenge that reader Wendy presented in the comments section of Monday's post. See you then.