As a person who really resonates with both music and with words, it is perhaps not surprising that one thing I really love doing is reading and thinking through song lyrics as I listen to the song. Doing this has really opened up lots of songs to me in richer, deeper ways that had gone unnoticed before. You know how it is: you've heard a song for a long time, maybe even really like the music or the words, but you've never really thought through what the heck it's actually saying, and one day something in the words of the song just hit home and then BAM you're listening along at a whole new level, heraing things and making connections you've never made before.
Well, maybe that's not a common occurence for some others, but it is for me. And today I offer an example (and they've got a rockin' violinist):
"Without You (I'm not alright)" - by Article One
Here are the lyrics:
I was lost, I was scared, and I was broken
I was never meant to fall out on my own
I should have known...
I could have turned to you for answers
But kept you further than the stars and off my mind
Was so blind...
[Chorus]
Tell me how, to turn my life around
Tell me how, I ever lived before I found you
Show me now!
Will you come and breathe the answers into life?
Cause living without you, I'm not alright
All I was in the past I left behind me
Now your love has cleared away all my mistakes
Walk by grace
When I see shadows in the distance
All the black and white can quickly turn to grey
Light my way --
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
You find me in the places I hide
Your love lights up the corners of my mind
Oh without you, I'm not alright!
I'm not alright
When I'm living without you, I'm not alright
Someone's lost, someone's scared and hearts are broken
But they were never meant to face life all alone
So I'll go, so I'll go, so I'll go...
[Written by Nathan Piche, Matt Piche, Tedd Tjornhom, Tasia Tjornhom, Lynn Nichols and Cindy Morgan]
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What thoughts/images/connections did you have while reading and listening? Please do share -- I love the community of ideas.
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I'm totally the same way! There are some songs I even have complex plots or choreographies worked out that play through my mind when I hear them, and yes - lyrics are so important. Processing music visually and imaginatively is something I couldn't do without.
ReplyDeleteThis was a fun song (and stringed instruments always add to music in my mind, even though I'm a woodwind person myself). ;) I was particularly struck by the line: "Your love lights up the corners of my mind." I was in a Beth Moore study once where she describes how Truth needs to infiltrate the lies of our minds and hearts to cast them out. A vision of light casting away shadows in a darkened room is delicious to picture with these song lyrics. Thanks for sharing! :)