Lyrical

by Diane Wild | Oct 4, 2008 | Music, Video

I’m a fairly analytical person. I like things to make sense, have order, be logical, and I puzzle over them until I can make them fit into some semblance of sense, order, and logic. I also believe that life rarely makes sense, has order, or is logical, and for some reason that thought comforts me more than the platitudes of “Everything happens for a reason, blah blah blah.” That’s where the poetry of life comes in, and actual poetry, and even some song lyrics.

I’m the DJ of my shared office at work by virtue of my better computer speakers, so my officemate and I were talking about examples of lyric snippets we love, but we realized that talking about why they affected us killed what it was we loved. Sometimes analysis needs to make way for simple appreciation of wordplay, or the evocation of a particular feeling.

These are some random examples that have popped up for me lately (these are lines of lyrics that affect me for ineffable reasons, not necessarily overall songs that do):

“I could change my life to better suit your mood.”
– from Smooth by Santana with Rob Thomas

“Every time she sneezes, I believe it’s love.”
– from Anna Begins by Counting Crows

“Beautiful minds, trying to keep it independent in recruitable times.”
– from Breath by Swollen Members with Nelly Furtado

“It’s 3 am, I must be lonely”
– from 3 am by Matchbox 20 (hmm, making it two for Rob Thomas in my top-of-mind examples)

“In the cathedrals of New York and Rome, there is a feeling that you should just go home, and spend a lifetime finding out just where that is.”
– from Cathedrals by Jump Little Children