Lyrical Thoughts

Lyrical Thoughts

It's tough to find good topics to write about. I often have an idea, write about it, then throw it out - maybe not enough to write about, maybe it sounds uninteresting after I see it in writing, maybe I decide it makes me sound too strange. I will take a bit of chance today.

I listen to songs for the music, not the lyrics. I like the voice as a musical instrument, but I don't much care about the lyrics. (Occasionally the lyrics will be so disturbing that it ruins the music.) I love many of Schubert's songs and the singing that is integral to them, even though I don't understand the German lyrics. And I like much instrumental music - symphonies, piano pieces mostly, but that's incidental to this post.

(At last - I have reached the point of this post.)

Sometimes a phrase from a song, along with its melody fragment, sticks with me and makes me think. Here are a few.


"Obladi, Oblada, life goes on, brah, Lala, how the life goes on" - no matter what happens, life goes on (so far). (In my head it's "Lalalala life goes on".)

"All that you have is your soul" - my new philosophy as I get older.

"A line from a poem of my childhood has said that visions of sugarplums were gonna dance in my head" - ideas are always good, even bad ideas.

"Going to the candidates' debate, laugh about it, shout about it, when you've got to choose, every way you look at it, you lose" - why can't we put "none of the above" on the ballot?

"And wept when it was all done for bein' done too soon" - whenever I finish a project - it's the journey, not the destination.

"And the first one now will later be last" - whenever things change.

"Today can last another million years, today could be the end of me" - live in the present.

"Oh lord above, you gotta save the fool" - whenever I do something stupid.


In case you want to quiz yourself on where these came from -
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In order (which was just the order that they came to mind as I wrote this) -

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - Paul McCartney
All That You Have Is Your Soul - Tracy Chapman (for me, Emmylou Harris' cover)
Leftover Wine - Melanie Safka
Mrs. Robinson - Paul Simon
Done Too Soon - Neil Diamond
The Times They Are A-Changin' - Bob Dylan
11:59 - Jimmy Destri (Blondie)
Sweet Misery - Melanie Safka

(The internet can be very useful. The lyrics for just about any song are a quick search away.)