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What we have are lyrics
The words we can’t find ourselves
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Hello You,The last two weeks of content have been meaty topics. Who doesn’t like ideas worth chewing on? We do, and you do too. This week is a little more reflective. Lyrics. A very simple type of connection is made possible through the understanding and adoption of these words. Taking them on, interpreting them as needed, and then keeping them forever. Let’s get wordy → |  Photo by cottonbro studio from Pexels |
Feature Story
What we have are lyrics
Photo by cottonbro studio from Pexels
All of us, writers
And that’s true, we can all write to some degree. But the space between what you or I might write and say, and Stevie Wonder, Florence + The Machine, or Benson Boone. Is vast.
Putting pen to paper to express what we’re feeling, we might well end up with something that barely scratches the surface, and therein lies the truth of why lyrics settle on our shoulders and are imprinted on our brains.
Because some lyric writers write the things we were trying to say.
And, further, they write the things we couldn’t even begin to try to say.
Now is a great time to press play on one of the tracks that does that for you, especially if you haven’t heard it in a while.
A word time capsule
Here’s the thing, we all have that one song, or a handful - think of yours now - that reminds us of a point in time, a moment, a feeling, or a person.
No matter where or when you hear these words, you’re transported to that tiny moment. Time and space become nothingness, and instead, you’re sitting in the living room of your parents’ house, the dance floor of a club, or the moment you found out you got that job you wanted.
Someone else penned those lyrics, but to you, they’re an old friend offering a glimpse of nostalgia and your personal time machine.
Some people celebrate and commemorate moments with tattoos of lyrics, as these words are vital to them. We need them emblazoned on our skin, until we ourselves are no more. Giant emotions and relationships distilled into a short sentence penned by someone else, capturing everything you thought and felt.
Aren’t lyrics incredible?
Why do they get us?
The bigger question is, why do lyrics resonate with us so deeply? And why does one set of lyrics hit someone so hard, but miss others entirely?
Personal experiences.
Similarly to forming friendships, we tend to base many of our decisions about who and what we let into our lives on our personal experiences. We enjoy things that feel familiar and resonate with us. Things that make sense to us and our lives.
And lyrics fall entirely into this category of things we surround ourselves with.
Something that tugs on our heartstrings in just the right way. And we keep them there forever. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, they’ll stop you for a nanosecond. Isn’t that something a bit magical?
It might be time to create a playlist of songs that capture these feelings for you.
Best lyrics out there?
This is not an easy question to answer, and as we said, lyrics can hit us right in the feels because of our personal experiences. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some stunning lyrics that people love. We turned to Reddit to check out what people think are some of the best lyrics out there. (Add yours in the comments!)
One of the highest-voted sets of lyrics comes from Love With Tear Us Apart - Joy Division: “When routine bites hard and ambitions are low, And resentment rides high but emotions won't grow” from SkySawLuminers.
In a ‘best single line’ thread, Pink Floyd had hundreds of votes on almost any line from Wish You Were Here, but this one took the most upvotes: “Did you exchange a walk-on part in a war for a lead role in a cage?”, from as012qwe.
Spec, a master of list making on SputnikMusic, put Neil Young top of their list of 100 with the infamous line: “It is better to burn out than to fade away”.
A thread focused on clever or impactful lines has a considerable range, from Bob Seger's “I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then” to lines like “real Gs move in silence like lasagna” by Lil Wayne.
Buzzfeed gathered up some answers, with some brilliant suggestions, and one from Tupac Shakur: “They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor”.
Let’s get personal
One of the things we love doing is sharing. We have a couple of our songs that remind us of people and places, and perhaps some of you can relate. We got to thinking about music and lyrics that give us that, and we have a couple for you.
“Elvis Presley's "My Way", this one has a special place in my heart, simply because it reminds me of my beloved grandpa who passed away, not only because he loved Elvis and had a couple of his CDs in his collection, but also this songs somehow naturally seems to be about his life, if there were something that he wanted to do, he would totally go for it and do it His way. And perhaps I'm stupid in believing such things, but during the first anniversary of him passing away the first songs that I heard that day was actually this one, just right after switching on the TV, the first words that came from the speaker was immediately this song, so it was literally like a sign from him” and “November Rain by Guns N'Roses – simple reason, always when I hear it, it's like getting back to my childhood, seeing my parents slowly dancing together to this song and I also treat it like their small anthem, going through ups and downs but never giving up on each other.”
“For me, Johnny Cash. My Granda, listened to him in the car on long drives after he picked me up from the airport. If I had to choose one, though, it would be The Man Comes Around,” and “one of my others would be Mr. Pitiful by Otis Redding; my dad was in a Blues band for years, and this was on the set list! Although if I had to choose a version I liked more, it would be The Commitments”.
A Final Note
“You don’t need to know a single note that you hear for it to mean something to you, so why not go and dig out all of the music that makes you feel something and listen for a while?”
Until next time,
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