Like a Big Umbrella

"Now everyday that we spend together
Like a ruby from a sunken treasure
I wander aimless, when she's not around me
I thank the heavens, that my baby found me"

                   -- Jonah Smith, Big Umbrella

Still Winter

"This is my winter song to you. 
The storm is coming soon, 
it rolls in from the sea . . . 
Is love alive? Is love alive? 
Is love?" -
                                        - Sarah Bareilles, Winter Song

Better Man?

She lies and says she's in love with him, 
can't find a better man.

She dreams in colour, she dreams in red, 
can't find a better man.

                                         - Pearl Jam, Better Man

Anthony and The Flea Say 'Look Inside'

"When will I know that I really can't go
To the well once more - time to decide on.
Well it's killing me, when will I really see, all that I need to look inside.
Come to believe that I better not leave before I get my chance to ride,
Well it's killing me, what do I really need - all that I need to look inside."
                                       
                                                               - RHCP, Hey Oh! (Snow)

Of Souls and Moonbeams and Dreams

"Your lipstick stains on the front lobe of my left side brains
I knew I wouldn't forget you
And so I went and let you blow my mind
Your sweet moonbeam
The smell of you in every single dream I dream
I knew when we collided you're the one I have decided
Who's one of my kind"


                                         - Train, Hey, Soul Sister

Music - Covering The Script's Breakeven

(Even pop) music can capture the deepest of our innermost feelings, the ones where when we're having them it feels like we're the only ones having them, but actually are universal, shared across people, no matter their place or time.

The best songs are about those universal feelings and situations.

These past few days, I've been listening a lot to the song Breakeven, by The Script.  It falls in that category.

It's about a break-up, where the guy is "falling to pieces," because he's still in love with her, and she has moved on.  Sounds trite. The lyrics alone aren't breathtaking, and the music is by no means complex or deeply original (a repeating pattern of four simple chords). But the combination of the lead singer's voice with the simple guitar strum and . . . the universality of that feeling. . . it just works:

I'm still alive but I'm barely breathing
Just prayed to a God that I don't believe in
'Cause I got time while she got freedom
'Cause when a heart breaks, no, it don't break even

Her best days were some of my worst
She finally met a man that's gonna put her first
While I'm wide awake she's no trouble sleeping
'Cause when a heart breaks no it don't break even... even... no

What am I supposed to do when the best part of me was always you?
And what am I supposed to say when I'm all choked up and you're OK?
I'm falling to pieces, yeah,
I'm falling to pieces



Late last night, I was listening to music while doing some reading and searching online, and I came across a treasure-trove of covers of Breakeven.  (Though admittedly I hadn't thought about it too much, these days I'm sure there are people covering every popular song.).

Men, women, girls, and boys.
All ages.
From all around the world.

Musically, some are great and others are terrible.  But I enjoyed almost all of them.

Playing guitar, alone in their bedrooms. They are simple musical renderings of a shared emotion, a feeling we have in common, video recorded and then placed out there for all to see:

The Hero's Journey

"While holding down
A job to keep my girl around
And maybe buy me some new strings
And her and I out on the weekends

And we can whisper things
Secrets from our American dreams
Baby needs some protection
But I'm a kid like everyone else"
                                                         -- Hero, Family of the Year

#Remashed Songs

More playing around with song lyrics; slightly tweaking, revising and rearranging them into little essences of songs.  Here are a handful of them:

Ana Ng (They Might Be Giants) #ReMashed

Listen Ana, hear my words.
"I don't want the world, I just want your half."
Is there a me for you?


Lola (The Kinks) #ReMashed

Champagne flows like cherry cola.
Under the electric candlelight,
she gives me a thigh-breaking squeeze.


Give Me Love (Ed Sheeran) #ReMashed

The taste that your lips allow, lately I've been craving more
Give a little time to me, or burn this out
I just wanna hold ya, and turn this around

Oh, give me love.

Your Body Is a Wonderland (John Mayer) #ReMashed

Discovering you; your bubblegum tongue, your candy lips.
Want love?
We'll make it.

Infected - A Cento

Infected, A Cento*

So many people, can't express what's on their minds,
Nobody knows them & nobody ever will,

My heart is heavy--my head is confused,
And my aching little soul--has started burning blue.

[No.]. I'm a man without a soul, honey,
Who lost it while parading it, in a town full of thieves

A shadow hunting shadows
[S]miling through my teeth

I don't know what's wrong or right,
I'm just a regular guy with bottled up insides

Down by the river, I've been washing out my mouth,
Deep in the heart of me, there's a frightened man breaking out

[J]ust another guy, with desires that I can't satisfy
Sometimes I get so lonesome, I could die.

I never said I was the man I appeared to be
[G]onna move up close [] and wrestle with the thoughts solitude always brings

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*This poem is composed of two lines from each of the tracks on The The's Infected Album (1986). 

The songs are: Heartland, Infected, Out of the Blue (Into the Fire), Twilight of a Champion, Sweet Bird of Truth, Angels of Deception, Slow Train to Dawn, The Mercy Beat.

The Joshua Tree - A Cento

The Joshua Tree, A Cento*

The night
It burn[s] like fire

Sky rip[s] open,
the howling wind driving nails into [my] soul[]

The moon has turned red
And the stars fall from the sky
[I] turn away to face the cold enduring chill

I want shelter
I want to feel sunlight on my face

[I] cry without weeping
[I] talk without speaking
Scream without raising [my] voice

Nothing to win, and nothing left to lose
I await without you.

Dress torn in ribbons and in bows
Like a siren she calls me

Love, slowly stripped away
[She's] all that's left to hold onto
I'm hanging on

In the hands of love
I went deeper into black - deeper into white

I was cold and you clothed me honey
But I was naked in the clothes you made

In the rain, tears
In the wind, laughter
[My] heartbeat. [I] hear my heart beat.

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*This poem is composed of two-three lines from each of the tracks on U2's Joshua Tree Album (1987).  

The songs are: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Bullet the Blue Sky, One Tree Hill, Where the Streets Have No Name, Running to Stand Still, With or Without You, In God's Country, Red Hill Mining Town, Exit, Trip Through Your Wires,  and Mothers of the Disappeared  

We're Out of Time - A Cento

We're Out of Time, A Cento*

She got up from the kitchen table.
Folded the newspaper and silenced the radio.

Something has gone wrong.
And I don't know how much longer I can take it.

This flower is scorched.
This film is on, a maddening loop.

The world is collapsing, around our ears.
But I can't hear it.

40,000 stars in the evening,
Look at them fall from the sky.

My mind is racing.
Blackbirds backwards forwards and fall and hold hold.

It seems a shame you waste your time for me.
But what about me?

It seems so silly.
I skipped the part about love.

Oh no, I've said too much.
I set it up.

There's no time to cry.
Throw your love around,
love me,
love me.


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*This poem is composed of two lines from each of the tracks on REM's Out of Time Album (1991), except for Endgame (an instrumental track).  

The songs are: Belong, Near Wild Heaven, Country Feedback, Radio Song, Texarkana, Low, Me In Honey, Half A World Away, Losing My Religion, Shiny Happy People.

Winter Songs in Summer

"This is my winter song to you.
The storm is coming soon,
it rolls in from the sea.

My voice a beacon in the night.
My words will be your light,
to carry you to me. . . .

I still believe in summer days.
The seasons always change
and life will find a way."

                               -- Winter Song, Sara Bareilles

One of Those Days

"Some days are dry, some days are leaky
Some days come clean, other days are sneaky.
Some days take less, but most days take more
Some slip through your fingers and on to the floor.
Some days you're quick, but most days you're speedy
Some days you use more force than is necessary.
Some days just drop in on us.
Some days are better than others.
Some days it all adds up
And what you've got is enough.
Some days are better than others."

                                              -- Some Days Are Better Than Others, U2

Fragile Paradise...

"Life goes on.  It gets so heavy.

The wheel breaks the butterfly."

                         - Coldplay, Paradise

Lost in the Music

"Just because I'm losing,
Doesn't mean I'm lost." 

                        - Coldplay, Lost

                           

No Throwing Pieces

"I'm gonna pick up the pieces,

and build a lego house

when things go wrong we can knock it down"

                           - Ed Sheeran, Lego House

Into My Eyes

"They say it's what you make

I say it's up to fate

It's woven in my soul

I need to let you go

Your eyes, they shine so bright

I wanna save that light

I can't escape this now

Unless you show me how

When you feel my heat

Look into my eyes

It’s where my demons hide

It’s where my demons hide

Don’t get too close

It’s dark inside

It’s where my demons hide

It’s where my demons hide"

-- Imagine Dragons, Demons

Most Beautiful

"I've found a way to make you
I've found a way
A way to make you smile."

-- REM, At My Most Beautiful

Ever So Softly...

"Every time I see your face
you know I softly die."

-- Soup Dragons, Softly

Casting About

"Well you only need the light when it's burning low

Only miss the sun when it starts to snow

Only know you love her when you let her go

. . . And you let her go."

-- Passenger, Let Her Go