For serious music lovers

 Listening to music this morning, I noticed that the opening of one of my favorite songs had the kind of intro I remembered from my school girl days. And I wrestled with the idea that I knew the experience better than other people, after all, in addition to being an artist and writer, I sing like a little bouquet of daisies. 

No, we all know what it is like to wait for our music teacher to finish the generic introductory piano chords to prep us for a good sing. Ah, holiday recital. Ah, chorus. To thee do I owe the bounteous gift of knowing which has made muse of me and song of this whole blog!

The song I listened to was "Nobody Home". It has that intro, so empty, when something about piano I was talking about on Facebook a couple of days ago, about these piano playing pop stars, is how they have the best songs. I have no talent for music. At least, as a young teenager, I was unable to do those things. (Insert whole other blog about the choices we make in life, who we become, and the decline or rise of human genius moving forward into the new millennium)

I am an artist though. I read something once about an architect who said his preliminary study of buildings was to have passed by them and criticize them and form visions of improvement, which led him to create his masterpieces. Someone who was quoteworthy. But my talent has never been for music writing. 

So I listened to this song by Pink Floyd that is a favorite of mine and I hated the piano chords. 

When I was in college, I wanted to teach creative writing. One of my teachers who taught me my core English courses played us songs by two artists, an original, the author, and someone who covered the song, a copycat.  We heard "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails and by Johnny Cash. And she had us write about it. That was the coolest thing to me. I wanted to do that, too. I have always been a fan of lyrics, so I decided I would teach a class and it would be about lyrics to songs. This could be a college level course if it were for music students and not for English ones, right?  They don't do lyrics in classes.

Pink Floyd's music was the most well versed in my opinion. I heard in the years between my dream of professorship and now that Bob Dylan received one of those awards that is so popular we all know of its existence, Pulitzer or Nobel, for his lyrics. But Pink Floyd hasn't received this honor yet. That's a bummer. "Nobody Home" is a little piece of magic for me. What else do you call something like that? It's art. 

His voice, art, over his grade school piano chords, his words art, like from his little book. And because we know art, we hear art.  

Even studying 20th century music would be fun. I am listening to Elvin Bishop's "I fooled around and fell in love". His voice reminds me of the kind of love that really would have a hold on you. It is like nothing Bach ever wrote. 

Now plays, "Ram on" by Paul McCartney. Now "The One" by Elton John. 

But somehow, I still want to return to my little song. See his "wild staring eyes"? See his little black book with his poems in? Without good lyrics a song may fall flat on its face. And this song, with nothing laid over top, no familiar Floyd guitar, no eerie voice, is just a recital tune.

 Now plays The Platters "Smoke gets in your eyes" ...