I admit it…I’m a word geek. Let me rephrase, I love words that, when strung together just right, maybe with a bit of cheek, say something profound or at least more than just what’s on the surface.
Clever word play can be found in all sorts of places, but I especially like song lyrics. Granted, most pop songs today will not be remembered as great literature. But every once in a while, a turn of phrase comes along catches my attention.
Here are a few examples:
My favorite adult love song ever is Out Of The Grey’s So We Never Got To Paris. When I say adult, I mean for married adults and not x-rated or for teenagers with no concept of a committed, lifetime relationship. It is about a couple who dream of going to Paris and Venice, thinking that they’ll find what they are looking for somewhere other than where they are. Paris is the metaphor for the life you think you want, what you think you need in order to be happy. The reality is that life happened while they were making other plans. Isn’t that the truth? They found their normal everyday life together to be so much better than a romantic ideal.
The line, “So we never got to Paris and found the cafe of our dreams, but our table holds a whole world of memories,” is perhaps one of my all-time favorite song lyrics. I’ve traveled around the world and still agree that my kitchen table is where my most special memories are made.
You might have missed this little pop gem, but Jessica Riddle’s Even Angels Fall contains a pretty accurate summary of marriage. “It’s the secret, no one tells. One day it’s heaven, one day it’s hell. It’s no fairy tale. Take it from me. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.” Our culture programs us to find a partner, fall in love and live happily ever after. The lie that’s pushed on us from childhood on is that we “fall in” love and that a relationship just happens. The reality is that it takes a lot of works to build and maintain a healthy marriage relationship. Being married, if you do it right, basically means agreeing to not be happy all the time, to not leaving when you don’t get everything you want. But there is joy to be found in every aspect of a relationship, walking through it all together and staying faithful, even when it isn’t easy. It was a bit refreshing for me to hear a relationship song that wasn’t all roses.
Pink’s Raise Your Glass. (Warning – profanity! And I’m not linking to the actual video because it contains more than a bit of provocative and controversial imagery.) Only an American could have written or sung this song. Why? It’s about “being wrong in all the right ways”. It’s a call celebrate being an individual, an underdog and on the outside. Not accepted by the cool group? No problem, “We can party on our own.” One line in particular summarizes something uniquely American. She sings, “We will never be, never be anything but loud.” I have to admit, this made me laugh the first time I heard it. In my family, we have been called “gentle souls”. We aren’t the loudest people you will ever meet, that’s for sure. But when we lived overseas, even when we were consciously trying to be quiet, we were still the loudest people on the street. In fact, in Europe, you can usually pick out the Americans because they are yelling things to each other like, “Hey, get over here, you gotta see this!”
Boys Like Girls Love Drunk is a fun song with one of the funniest lines I’ve heard in a long time.
I used to be love drunk, but now I’m hung over. I love you forever, forever is over. We used to kiss all night, now it’s just a bar fight. So don’t call me crazy, say hello to goodbye.
Yeah, I’ve seen young people who think they’ve found the one descend into misery rather quickly.
Recent Comments