A lyricists Gordian knot

Writing has pretty much been my strong suit as a musician. It's not writing notation, or clever chordal turnarounds, it's been words. I like words. Now I don't use "I like words" as the "I like chocolate milk" meme, I truly do like words. I collect them believe it or not. I have a list of my favorites from whillikers to blatherskite, bullhonkey to whoswhatsit. I rarely get to use them in songs, but it's nice to have one of these in your back pocket. Ever since I wrote a song "Bare Trees" when I was 16, I think it impressed my friends so much that I've been the go to lyric guy ever since. My other friends have written lyrics just as invocative and clever as I have over the years, but the lyricists stuck and so I've embraced it. I've never written something so awesome as:

She was working in a topless place

And I stopped in for a beer

I just kept looking at the side of her face

In the spotlight so clear

And later on, when the crowd thinned out

I was just about to do the same

She was standing there, in the back of my chair

Said to me, "Tell me, don't I know your name?"

I muttered something underneath my breath

She studied the lines on my face

I must admit, I felt a little uneasy

When she bend down to tied the laces of my shoes

But then story telling is an art in and of itself and who better to write something so poetic and poignant as a Dylan or a Springsteen? My writing tends to be more enigmatic and surreal. Such as:

Watch where you go

Cellophane is the color

We walk on the trail tomorrow

The dogs are digging

In holes that lead to China

Far from the eyes of the unseen

We can run but not walk

Away from the light of reality

To make our way home

So far home, so far home, so far home

Cellophane generally has no color although Glad I recall came out with different colored cellophane in the 90's. Compared to Dylan, my lyrics suck. His has a pure plot with a step by step story and an point to it - Tangled up in blue, meaning blue as a feeling, an emotion. My lyrics have a roundabout meandering way of telling a tale of one getting lost, that panicky feeling of blundering around in a dream and seeing things that just don't make sense yet wanting to get home, to something familiar. And that's what it's trying to convey, a fever dream where you're sweating under the covers yet chilled to the bone and lost in a dream trying to get home.

It's always been more interesting to me to hear what others take away from songs, what they think the meaning is and many people have different ideas and feelings about songs than what and how I wanted to convey them. That's the beauty of music though - it can mean so many different things to different people yet still be part of the soundtrack of their life at a point in time.