Is that tune speaking to YOU?

[Music Junkie]

Tony:

I was right there with you on the floor. I do have to admit that I am easily caught by the music, but it is the lyrics that MAKE THE SONG for me. I cannot even fathom trying to nail down the top song, but one that comes to mind for personal reasons is a song by Sawyer Brown called "The Walk". My grandfather died when i was 7 yrs old. My dad died when I was 25. I remember talking to my dad about his health and him telling me not to worry, cause he went through the same thing with his dad and that everything works out. At that time I just flat felt that life was rough.

A year or two later "The Walk" came out...... First song that ever REALLY brought tears to my eyes. Not for any other reason than the message. Hit home. I still love the song. Parts of it make me smile.... , and other parts make me not smile....

There are other songs that get to me in good ways and bad ways, but this is the one that really answers the question the best....



J

[BobR]

Well Tony,

Another thought provoking question. There's one song that I really like for the music and the lyrics especially. When I was dating my wife and we heard Color My World by Chicago it always made us think of our future together. There's only a few words but they said so much, to me any way . Maybe I need to make this into a guitar tune HMMM

As time goes on,
I realize
Just what you mean
To me
And now,
Now that you're near,
Promise your love
That I've waited to share
And dreams
Of our moments together
Color my world with hope of loving you

Bob

[AndyT]

To my ear, the lyrics are not words to understand, they are part of the music. I don't listen to a song to hear the meaning of the words. To me, that doesn't compute. The singers voice is another instrument in the mix, not a message to decipher. The singer could be saying "blah blah blah..." and that would be fine as long as its done in a very musical way. Listen to songs from a language you do not understand and you will get my point.

The song has to have a flow. It has to make an emotional connection to me. It has to grab my attention away from what I'm doing. If it does that, then it fits on my list.

I absolutely LOVE Pink Floyd. Not because of the lyrics, but because the music is so intertwined back in and on itself with themes and colors twisting in and out of it. I was wearing out their albums for a long time before I realized they actually HAD words! LOL!

[tovo]

I gotta say thanks to those who shared. Cori I'm hearning you, Bear, Cats in the Cradle is arguably a song that speaks to so many Fathers eh? We could all do better. MJ, Blue Collars of the World unite! Thanks for sharing man. Bob that was a nice one.

Andy thanks to you also. That's interesting. For me personally, music would lose so much if I didn't feel lyrics. If the tune has no meaning I struggle to take it seriously, even if there's a good beat. Don't get me wrong, powerful music can move me as well, but a message in a well thought out lyric does best. The tune I used as an example, the River, would be not much without it's message I think. Foreign language tunes can be moving, but it's the emotion in the words that moves me. I know there's a message even if I have no idea what it is! I don't think "blah, blah, blah" would hold my interest very long! You enjoy music in a different way to me. That's cool. Thanks for sharing your opinion mate.

[AndyT]

tovo wrote:
Foreign language tunes can be moving, but it's the emotion in the words that moves me. I know there's a message even if I have no idea what it is!

Tony, this is my point exactly. "Blah blah blah" was an example, not the lyric. LOL

[ceaser67]

Hi Tony,
Ime with the bear on this one,as you know i voted for cats in the cradle,
That song means so much to me its near impossible to put into words,as you know ive been a single parent to my son for the last 16yrs now,he is 21 and he is still with me,(just the 2 of us we can make it if we try just the 2 of us you and i,hahaha sorry that just came to me there,hahaha),but yes as tough as it was at some points through the years, i could listen to cats in the cradle sometimes 30 times tears streaming from my face,christopher 6yrs old sleeping,me watching over him promising i would never leave his side and never take him for granted, so to answer youre question LYRICS for me,
another great thread Tont
Youre scottish friend
Tommy

[neverfoundthetime]

At times I have wondered about the effect lyrics can have. I understand the power of suggestion on the young mind and use it every day to try to positively influence my daughter and the young people I teach. If you want to say, hey you're doing that really well, just mention it casually to someone else with the intended recipient of your message within ear-shot. Can be more powerful that telling the person directly. Of course, saying something stupid about someone within ear-shot will have the same powerful but negative impact. Flashbacks to childhood? Exactly my point!

When I look back on some moments, I wonder. Cliff Richard's Summer Holiday "We're going where the sun shines brightly, we're going where the see is blue..." from way back in my early childhood. Then I find myself living driving through Switzerland in an open top car in the mountains and there's this flashback to that song and a scene from the movie of Cliff and the Shadows driving through the Alps in London double-decker bus down to the Greek islands. Cut to student Chris waking up on deck of a Greek ferry as it eases into the breath-taking harbour of Santorini and the azure skies and white buildings cluttering the massive skyline a thousand feet straight up. I suddenly feel connected and almost overwhelmed. I spend many months on the Greek Islands (especially Crete) over the next 15 years and each moment spent there felt "right" connected and as if I belonged there. And I'm left wondering if there is some ancestry (I was told by the locals I look Greek!) there or if I've been drawn there through images and moments and songs absorbed unconsciously in childhood. Something was connecting me for sure. Never felt like anywhere else.

Did all those Moody Blues songs cause me to be so concerned about the environment?

Men's mighty mind machines, digging underground
Steeling rare minerals where they can be found
Concrete caves with iron doors bury it again
While a starving, frightened world fills the sea with grain
(How is it we are Here )

Did they colour my take on love and relationships?

I'm looking for someone to change my life
I'm looking for a miracle in my life
And if f you could see, what it's done to me
To lose the love I knew would safely lead me to
The land that I once knew to learn as we grow old
The secrets of our souls
(Question)

Just what you want to be
You’ll be in the end
And I love you, yes I love you
Oh how I love you!
(Nights in White Satin)

Or my views on life style?

Over a barrel, under a spell
Money’s the daemon that drives you
Limping through heaven or running through Hell
Happiness smiles but denies you
(Times like These - Dan Fogelberg)

I do remember the glorious agony of rejected teenage love listening to Harry Nielson’s Without You. Wasn’t glorious at the time, just painful, it’s only as an adult I could see I was pathetically wallowing in self pity.

Politically there’s Jackson Brown ringing in my ears

I've been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headline
and the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you've seen it before
Where a government lies to her people
And a country is drifting to war

That never seems to become obsolete.

I know my daughter will never forget Dan Fogelberg’s Sand and the Foam. She was about 3 or 4 years old and she asked me what the words mean as I sang it to her at bed time (she was mostly hearing Swiss German and only English from me). I took here out early the next morning to see the dew on the grass like the tears the night wept and her eyes absolutely glistened with wonder. A moment we both will always remember!

Dawn...like an angel
Lights on the stair
Muting the morning she heralds
Dew on the grass
Like the tears the night wept
Gone long before
The day wears old
Times stills the singing
A child holds so dear
And I'm just beginning to hear
Gone are the pathways
The child followed home
Gone, like the sand and the foam.

Hope I haven’t rambled too much… made some sense to me anyway .

[abiliog]

Tovo,
Many songs come and go for a while, but a few somehow speak to me.
Lyrics, to me, are a very important part of the song, despite some instrumentals also send a very strong feeling.
Along the years, a few songs came and stayed.

For Free - Joni Mitchell
As a young child, I've always had a great empathy with people I saw playing in the street.
I guess that I just wanted to be one of those guys with a guitar playing here and there for some coins. Was my childhood idea of hapiness. :ohmy:
Many years later, when I listen this song for the first time (Allies - CSN) I felt something like love at first sight, until today.

Soon - Yes
This one, always brought me an idea of paradise to my head. When I met my wife, this one became our song.

High Hopes - David Gilmour
This one touch me in a nostalgic way. Makes me think about my youth, my dreams, what life was supposed to be.
As I grew up, I begun to see a different world, full of greed and desire for power and all this human vanity crap.
This song send me back to my late 70's happy green days. I guess I'm still a teenager.

Each Small Candle - Roger Waters
Another love first sight song. I heard this song the first time in a concert and touched me immediately.
It has a strong message that lights my heart.

Some instrumentals are also so intense:
Clap and Mood for a Day - Steve Howe
Mediterranean Sundance - Al Dimeola

And more recently,
Summer Morning Rain, Prelude to a New Morning and Fantasia De Fuego - Muriel Anderson

Abilio

[sws626]

Hi Tony,

Catching up after a break for work and stumbled on your thread. For me, it's not a single song, but an album and the choice is easy: Dylan's 'Blood on the Tracks.' I read not long ago that Dylan said he couldn't understand how anyone could enjoy listening to that much pain. But I think it has a lot to do with the consolation that comes from realizing the experience is not unique and that it is possible to come out the other side -- damaged, yes, but more or less in tact. Those days are fortuntely now a distant memory, but the songs still have a special place and I guess there's some pleasure in tracing the scars.

-Stuart

[tovo]

Hey Stuart thanks for sharing those thoughts, and as I read yours and the last few responses I realised that I hadn't given thanks to some others who really shared some personal stuff as well. So thanks all!