I’m a huge fan of lyrical music. Sure a good beat and melody can get you moving on the dance floor, but for a song to truly “touch” me it’s got to have great lyrics. I’m also something of a romantic and a family man as you’ll see from my choices. There are quite certainly other songs that I love from a lyrical standpoint but these stood out as my favorites.
Colorful – The Verve Pipe
This song was featured at the end of the highly underrated Mark Wahlberg movie Rock Star. As a man who’s married to a woman WAY above my pay grade this song really speaks to me.
I know I can be colorful
I know I can be gray
But I know this loser’s living fortunate
Cause I know you will love me either way
Most were being good for goodness sake
But you wouldn’t pantomime
You are more beautiful when you awake
Than most are in a lifetime
Through the haze that is my memory well
You stayed for drama though you paid for a comedy
I know I can be colorful
I know I can be gray
But I know this loser’s living fortunate
Cause I know you will love me either way
Look ahead as far as you can see
We’ll live in drama but we’ll die in a comedy
I know I can be colorful…
There’s Something In The Way She Moves – James Taylor
If I had to pick one song that represents the way I feel about the wife, this is it. JT is an incredible singer/songwriter and this is by far my favorite of his tunes.
There’s something in the way she moves,
Or looks my way, or calls my name,
That seems to leave this troubled world behind.
If I’m feeling down and blue,
Or troubled by some foolish game,
She always seems to make me change my mind.
And I feel fine anytime she’s around me now,
She’s around me now
Almost all the time.
And if I’m well you can tell that she’s been with me now,
And she’s been with me now
Quite a long, long time
And I feel fine.
Every now and then the things I lean on lose their meaning,
And I find myself careening
Into places where I should not let me go.
She has the power to go where no one else can find me,
Yes, and to silently remind me
Of the happiness and good times that I know, you know.
Well I said I just got to know that:
It isn’t what she’s got to say
Or how she thinks or where she’s been.
To me, the words are nice, the way they sound.
I like to hear them best that way –
It doesn’t much matter what they mean,
She says them mostly just to calm me down.
And I feel fine anytime she’s around me now,
She’s around me now
Almost all the time.
If I’m well you can tell that she’s been with me now,
And she’s been with me now
Quite a long,
Long
Time –
Yes, and I feel fine.
Blind Faith – Warrant
I don’t think I can ever make any kind of “favorite song” list without including some 80’s hair metal. This unreleased classic from Warrant really speaks from the heart… or the hairspray.
Darling I know you’re sleeping
But there’s something that I’ve just got to say
Wonder if you’ll hear me while you’re dreaming
You make a lifetime out of every day
Thanks to you now I know
All my dreams can come true
Blind faith in you, oh yeah,
I got blind faith in you
Your eyes keep things well hidden
Just a hint of what you’re holding inside
And the first day that I met you
I consider the first day of my life
Thanks to you now I know
All my dreams can come true
Blind Faith in you, oh yeah.
I’ve got blind faith in you
And I’m not sure that I deserve
A woman so true,
But I love, that you think I do
With You and Faith, beside me
I’m feelin’ stronger every day
Love Walks In – Van Halen
My favorite band. My favorite of their albums. This song captured a moment and to this day every single time I listen to this song I’m back in that moment. That’s what a great song is all about.
Contact is all that it takes
To change your life, to lose your place in time
Contact. Asleep or awake
Coming around you may wake up to find
Questions deep within your eyes
Now more than ever, you realize
And then you sense a change
Nothin’ feels the same
All your dreams are strange
Love comes walkin’ in
Some kind of alien
Waits for the opening
Simply pulls a string
Another world, some other time
You lay your sanity on the line
Familiar faces, familiar sights
Reach back, remember with all your might
Ooh, and there she stands in a silken gown
Silver lights shinin’ down
And then you sense a change
Nothin’ feels the same
All your dreams are strange
Love comes walkin’ in
Some kind of alien
Waits for the opening
Simply pulls a string
Love comes walkin’ in
Oh, sleep and dream; that’s all I crave
I travel far across the milky way
To my master I become a slave
‘Til we meet again some other day
Where silence speaks as loud as war
Earth returns to what it was before
And then you sense a change
Nothin’ feels the same
All your dreams are strange
Love comes walkin’ in
Some kind of alien
Waits for the opening
Simply pulls a string
Love comes walkin’ in
Love comes walkin’ in
Baby, pull the string
Love comes walkin’ in
Love comes walkin’ in, yeah!
Jacob – Jackopierce
This entire album is full of introspective stuff like this, but Jacob stands out for me. I loved this song before I had kids and now that I have children of my own it hits me even harder.
Jacob’s a fine boy
But his parents don’t get along
They hardly talk, when they do
He thinks he’s done something wrong
He heard all the screaming
As he lay down to bed
He should have been sleeping
But he listened instead
They say he’s fine
It’s not his fault
Between the lines he somehow got caught
‘And in our game
It’s more like war
I just don’t think i love you anymore’
He picked up the phone
His tears touched the receiver
His grandmother answered down in Tempe
He told her the story
That his daddy was leaving
She tried to convince him it was nothing he’d done
She said ‘you’re fine
It’s not your fault
Between the lines
You somehow got caught
And in their game
It sounds more like war
I just don’t think she loves him anymore’
Jacob’s a father
And his kids are in teens
He’s done what he could to make meager ends meet
When it comes down to family
It’s the primary goal
To keep the thing working
No matter the toll
His sons heard them screaming
About something he said
He opened the door and invited them in
He said ‘Now sons
It’s not your fault
Between the lines you somehow got caught
So when you’re hurt
You lean on the crutch
But I still love your mother very much’
