Tag: Song Lyrics

Song Lyric Sunday-Singer/Songwriters 10-2-16

https://helenespinosa.wordpress.com/2016/10/01/song-lyric-sunday-theme-for-10216/

Have to thank Helen for this week’s theme. I LOVE it but I was awash with options and it wasn’t until Daily Musings post that I realized who I had to choose, and why.

During my high school years, I was introduced to Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, and the rest. I became a dedicated fan. While all my peers were listening to the Beatles, I immersed myself in folk music. I tried out for my school’s folk singing group, The Dozen Cuzins (I know, I know) and we travelled the South singing in competitions.

I’m telling you right now, Joan Baez may well have saved my life. I could pull myself out of any level of depression (and there were some deep, dark phases) by putting on a Baez album and cranking up the volume!

I followed her for years and have used her music in my therapy practice, assigning different songs to clients, as anthems to learn for their stage of healing. Seriously, if you’ve got a nasty boss or an abusive spouse, try singing along, loudly, with Joan to the song  “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around!”   Add your own words and you will FEEL the power!

My son is exactly the same age as Joan’s, so when I first heard the song she wrote to her son Gabriel, I was deeply moved. I can’t hear it now without tears and a quick phone call to my son.

So here’s my choice.

Lyrics

Honest Lullaby
Joan Baez
Early early in the game
I taught myself to sing and play
And use a little trickery
On kids who never favored me
Those were years of crinoline slips
And cotton skirts and swinging hips
And dangerously painted lips
And stars of stage and screen
Pedal pushers, ankle socks
Padded bras and campus jocks
Who hid their vernal equinox
In pairs of faded jeans
And slept at home resentfully
Coveting their dreams
And often have I wondered
How the years and I survived
I had a mother who sang to me
An honest lullaby
Yellow, brown, and black and white
Our Father bless us all tonight
I bowed my head at the football games
And closed the prayer in Jesus’ name
Lusting after football heroes
Tough Pachuco, little Neroes
Forfeiting my A’s for zeroes
Futures unforeseen
Spending all my energy
In keeping my virginity
And living in a fantasy
In love with Jimmy Dean
If you will be my king, Jimmy, Jimmy,
I will be your queen
And often have I wondered
How the years and I survived
I had a mother who sang to me
An honest lullaby
I travelled all around the world
And knew more than the other girls
Of foreign languages and schools
Paris, Rome and Istanbul
But those things never worked for me
The town was much too small you see
And people have a way of being
Even smaller yet
But all the same though life is hard
And no one promised me a garden
Of roses, so I did okay
I took what I could get
And did the things that I might do
For those less fortunate
And often have I wondered
How the years and I survived
I had a mother who sang to me
An honest lullaby
Now look at you, you must be growing
A quarter of an inch a day
You’ve already lived near half the years
You’ll be when you go away
With your teddy bears and alligators
Enterprise communicators
All the tiny aviators head into the sky
And while the others play with you
I hope to find a way with you
And sometimes spend a day with you
I’ll catch you as you fly
Or if I’m worth a mother’s salt
I’ll wave as you go by
And if you should ever wonder
How the years and you’ll survive
Honey, you’ve got a mother who sings to you
Dances on the strings for you
Opens her heart and brings to you
An honest lullaby
Songwriters: Joan C. Baez
Honest Lullaby lyrics © Gabriel Earl Music

Lyrics from Google Music

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Song Lyric Sunday 7-3-16

I just discovered this great challenge.

https://helenespinosa.wordpress.com/2016/07/02/song-lyric-sunday-theme-for-7316/

It really caught my attention for a few reasons.

  1. I love music, especially lyrics. I actually USE them in my life, especially in my work.
  2. I love that a Mom in Utah takes her children to live music concerts!
  3. I love that the song she chose for today is by Midnight Oil, and that my husband’s band of many years plays it regularly!
  4. I am surrounded by live music in my personal life (partner, son, grandson, daughter-in-law, and many friends) and now my 2 grandsons (10 and 13) live with me so I really want to avoid that generation gap trap about music. I do not ever want to judge today’s music by my old standards.  Michael's Pictures 013

Helen’s specific challenge today was to share the lyrics from a song at one of your very first live concerts. I wrote her and said that I could not actually remember if it was James Brown (with Fontella Bass “Rescue Me”) or Peter, Paul and Mary. Talk about opposites. If I had photos from those early concerts they would be perfect for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge theme-“Opposites”.

But the more I thought about it the more I realized the concert that really got to me back then was a Simon and Garfunkel show.

Recently my son, with whom I have always been in musical sync, sat me down and made me listen to a song on his elaborate beyond my understanding, sound and visual system.

Coincidentally, it was the following song.

The Sound Of Silence (3:08)  
P. Simon, 1964

Hello darkness, my old friend 
I’ve come to talk with you again 
Because a vision softly creeping 
Left its seeds while I was sleeping 
And the vision that was planted in my brain 
Still remains 
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone 
Narrow streets of cobblestone 
‘Neath the halo of a street lamp 
I turn my collar to the cold and damp 
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light 
That split the night 
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw 
Ten thousand people maybe more 
People talking without speaking 
People hearing without listening 
People writing songs that voices never shared 
No one dared 
Disturb the sound of silence

“Fools,” said I, “you do not know 
Silence like a cancer grows 
Hear my words that I might teach you 
Take my arms that I might reach you” 
But my words like silent raindrops fell 
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed 
To the neon god they made 
And the sign flashed out its warning 
In the words that it was forming 
And the sign said “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls 
And tenement halls 
And whispered in the sound of silence

He made me listen twice, knowing that the first time through I should probably close my eyes as the video is pretty intense and might be distracting. I had no idea what was coming. (He was right. It was hard for this 68 year old not to assume things about the look of the singer or the name of the band, as well as the visual images.) We listened together and were both in tears at the end, just from the sheer power of the artistry.

SO anyway, here’s what he played for me. Crank up the volume. Close your eyes. And stay with it to the end. You might be surprised!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Dg-g7t2l4

 

Thanks. I hope it means something to you too.