Music Appreciation

With a name like Melodye, I suppose it was inevitable that I should wind up loving music. I collect music. I collect it like some people collect Hummel figurines, shot glasses, and the way my mom collects stamps. (yeah, my mom has a stamp collection. My brother, sister, and I all love to tease her about it.)

I love listening to the way the melodies (heh) and harmonies all weave together to form the music. I love a strong pounding bass line and drums. I love how music can instantly change your mood – how a fast song can make you feel like dancing, a hard heavy metal can make you feel like a rock star, and how slow piano music can instantly calm you down. I love feeling the texture of my favorite songs. (Yes, music has a texture. If you don’t get it, talk to me. I’ll educate you.)

I also love words. I enjoy finding a new word and rolling it around my mouth; getting used to and savoring the taste of it in my mouth like a piece of new and exotic chocolate. I like to use new words in my daily conversation and continue on my quest to find even more new words to fall in love with.

But I’m not so good with lyric interpretation. My appreciation of song lyrics mainly goes towards the arrangement of words. As a [wannabe] writer, I enjoy the way the words are combined and how the songwriter chose to put the words together. John Lennon, Noel Gallagher, Matthew Bellamy, and Brandon Flowers are some of my favorite songwriters because of the words they choose and how they’re arranged.

My appreciation also extends to the way the song makes me feel, the way the song makes me think, to the picture that is made in my head when I hear it. I enjoy the imagery that words produce in my mind.

Again, as a wannabe writer (of songs, books, articles, you name it), I wish my writing could compare to the writing of these three songs:

1. This is a recent discovery of mine, thanks to a good friend.

There's a shark shaped fin
In the water of my dreams
An alligator screams from the depths there
I'd swim with you there
I'd swim with you there, yeah yeah

In the house that I use
There's a psycho on the loose
He's playing with the fuse of a bomb there
I could live with you there
I could live with you there

Bye bye long day
I need to sleep so much
You shine on me
Too much is not enough

On the sheets and pillow case
In my bed for heaven's sake
The devil's dancing until late in my head there
But I could sleep with you there
I could sleep with you there
Fripp – Catherine Wheel

WOW! Holy CRAP do I love these lyrics. “There’s a shark shaped fin in the water of my dreams.” I’m not so hot with the symbolism but can’t you just picture a nightmare coming at you in those words? Can I just tell you how much I wish I’d written that??

2. John Lennon. Need I say more?

Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see.
It’s getting hard to be someone.
But it all works out,
It doesn’t matter much to me.

Let me take you down,
‘Cos I’m going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hungabout.
Strawberry Fields forever.

No one I think is in my tree,
I mean it must be high or low.
That is you can’t you know tune in.
But it’s all right.
That is I think it’s not too bad…
Strawberry Fields Forever – The Beatles

This is a John Lennon special; almost no help from Paul on this one (if any). I do get the symbolism in this one (thanks to my Beatles appreciation class at UNLV – most fun class ever!). I love how John is saying no one really gets him; he’s either so smart that no one can keep up with him, or so dumb that no one would bother trying to understand him. I also love the line about living is easy with your eyes closed and misunderstanding all you see. (Okay, we all know that I’m a major Beatles fan.)

3. From the album that inspired Sgt. Pepper…

I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I’ll make you so sure about it

God only knows what I’d be without you

If you should ever leave me
Though life would still go on believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me

God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you

If you should ever leave me
Well life would still go on believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me
God Only Knows – The Beach Boys

Yes, the same Boys who brought you Surfin’ USA and Fun, Fun, Fun. I truly love this song. The pure emotion in this song brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it. The speaker in the song is unabashed and unashamed to demonstrate the love he/she has for their significant other. (I’m being politically correct here. How am I doing?) Brian Wilson (the Beach Boy who authored the song) is a genius. ‘Nuff said.

There are many songs that I wish I could have written: these are but a few. I don't wish I had written these songs for the monetary rewards (though that would be welcome), but for the level of depth and emotion that are conveyed through the arrangement of commonplace words. None of the words used in these songs are particularly fancy or difficult – but because of the context and feeling behind the placement, the words have become more meaningful.

Rock on. (but really listen to the lyrics too.)

**These lyrics were NOT used with permission from their respective writers/estates, however: I lay no claim to these wonderful songs and hope that all who read this humble article will take my use in the spirit that it is intended.