I’m all over the place this morning. So many things to do. I sit still and take a breath. I didn’t realize I was clenching my teeth. Now I can hear the birds outside my window and the clothes tumbling in the dryer.
Truth: this is my third try at a post. Nothing seems to satisfy me. It’s the very opposite of writing something quickly and letting it fly.
I go back to that song from yesterday… Then I lift up the post and look underneath.
We are such a mix of outside and inside–listening to music is the outside and how it takes me out of my head and connects me to something bigger than myself is the inside. The stars up above.
So often music comes to me as mainly sound, beat, rhythm. I don’t even know what they’re saying. But when I have the words too, well, connecting the words to the music is quite something.
~
I met Jesus through music. He introduced Himself to me that way. (http://dancingonthedash.com/something-bigger-than-me/). After that moment of salvation, I continued to “commune” with God and learn of Him through an old 78 containing “Today’s Top Gospel Favorites”, played over and over and yes, over again. I wasn’t allowed to go to church “proper”… so The Spirit was the Teacher and the Song was the Preacher and I was a Choir of One. In my bones, I still know every song. Deeper still, I know the Author. 😉
Music is powerful. That’s for sure, Loretta. So nice to hear from you.
And I’m betting that you, too, once you got older, understood lyrics from songs we listened to as teenagers that, at that time, were clueless. I still can’t believe some of the lyrics! Still—love the music itself and try to ignore some of the lyrics. But, oh, when they match perfectly—how glorious. I think of songs like “The Prayer” and can’t help but have the whole outside/inside thing going on 🙂
Donna, I haven’t experienced this yet–interesting. The lyrics seem to be the last thing I notice for some reason.
I’ve been listening to old music the last few days–Cat Stevens, Jackson Browne, Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell–and what do you know, I seem to know all the words… But that wasn’t my perception.
See, that’s just the thing…I knew the words, but there were some things I was ignorant/naive about and didn’t actually understand. Now that I do, I’m amazed they weren’t more censored!
Cynthia… I wish to dedicate the song…
“Dust in the Wind”…
to ‘1 true thing’ …
“…connecting the words to the music is quite something.”
from saudi with love… ~:)
Thanks for the dedication and connection, Helena : )
Among people who know me best, I’m notorious for never knowing the words to songs. It’s very rare that I can pick them out even when doing my best to listen, even replaying and replaying–I’m so bad at it I have wondered if I have some kind of odd hearing problem or learning disability that shows itself in this one way (but I successfully sang in two choirs for several years, so who knows). Maybe that’s why I instantly loved Tracy Chapman and John Prine (besides their huge hearts, unique voices, and smart (and for Prine, often very funny) songwriting). It’s very easy to hear every word they sing, somehow, and I agree, when you imbibe the meaning of the words at the same time that you’re loving the melody and sound, it’s almost a magical experience. The Web has saved me from myself, so I know the lyrics of any song I’ve discovered in, what, the last 20 years or so. But I know every beat of literally scores of songs that were played in my house growing up, yet I sing them with my own made-up (and usually nonsensical) lyrics b/c I never had any idea what the singers were saying. Pat is always laughing or aghast when I’m in a sing-ey mood and all these bizarre, totally wrong phrases come bouncing out of my mouth to extremely well-known music while I’m baking or washing dishes (Michael Jackson, Talking Heads, Sting, you name it). He quietly corrects me after each rendition, but I just keep singing every song the way I know it….
Ha, this is hilarious, a lovely visual : )