I have been accused of being too serious with this blog. One friend noted "even when you're funny, you're seriously funny"...something I took as a compliment but it evidently wasn't.
As evidence for my "overwhelming, overweaning seriousness", this selfsame friend noted that I almost never use memes--those cutesy post templates that flit around the blogosphere like teenage girls before the prom. What's your favourite colour? If you were a tree, what tree would you be?
No offense meant, but memes just aren't me. And honestly, does anyone want to know that my favourite colour is gray and that I think of myself as a jack pine? Or that I just made that jack pine reference up, because I'm not a tree and never will be? Didn't think so.
I get people telling me to indulge my inner child every other day or so. Trouble is, I don't have one. I was the man of the house at six and pretty much renounced childhood for good at eleven. Most of the time I recognize this as the deprivation it is; occasionally I can even bring myself to care.
I have allowed a few memes to creep into the Breadbin, but not many. That said, I'm open to the concept of a meme--it's nothing more, after all, than a topic for a post--it's just that most of them strike me as silly.
Yesterday, on my trip through the National Post, I noted with interest a report on a British poll concerning favourite single lines from songs.
I've just discovered a fatal flaw in this poll: people weren't invited to submit their favourite lines, but instead asked to choose from a predetermined list...of only 100 possible lyrics...many of which are sentence fragments that express no coherent thought. The list is, predictably, slanted towards t'other side of the pond. Poppycock and bollocks, I say.
For the record, a line from U2's "One" was number, um, one. Not a single one of those 100 possible lyrics would register on my own personal list, but, hey, chances are my personal list wouldn't register on anybody else's, either.
I did learn something, studying this poll. I hesitate to write it...you're all gonna laugh at me...oh hell, here goes: One of the nominated lines was from "Another Brick in the Wall", by Pink Floyd.
I've been hearing this song regularly since it debuted, and I sorta kinda liked it, even though, as a child, I didn't understand most of it.
With good reason: the British accent totally defeated my attempts at comprehension. In fact, it took many years before I realized this song was called "Another Brick in the Wall"...because I'd been hearing the last line of the chorus as "all in all, it's just a..mother breaking the law". Huh?
Wait, it gets worse. Until yesterday, I'd never been able to suss out the first part of the chorus, which goes
We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teacher leave those kids alone
I have always heard "dark sarcasm" as "Dukes of Hazzard", and always thought now I know that ain't right...
Anyway, on to my personal list of favourite lyrics--lyrics I lived by, or still try to; lyrics that speak to me and enscapsulate something of who I am. Also, I'm going to cheat just a little: no sentence fragments. In no particular order:
But now it's just another show, you leave them laughing when you go, and if you care, don't let them know, don't give yourself away....Joni Mitchell, "Both Sides, Now"
This entire song is an absolute gem. I could probably excerpt any four lines. Thanks to my good friend Jay for introducing Joni's music to me.
And I missed you since the place got wrecked by the winds of change and the weeds of sex and I just don't care what happens next, it looks like freedom but it feels like death, it's Closing Time...Leonard Cohen, "Closing Time"
This is another song that repays repeat listens. I've always felt this was the ultimate breakup tune, helped along by Cohen's dark, raspy delivery.
I go to school, I write exams, if I pass if I fail if I drop out does anyone give a damn? And if they do, they'll soon forget, 'cause it won't take much to show my life ain't over yet...Barenaked Ladies, "What a Good Boy"
My anthem, something I seized on when I, ahem, dropped out shortly after this song debuted.
'Cause there'll always be dishes in the sink/ and too much to do and too much to think about/ There needs to be more time for you and me/ C'mon and waste some time with me...Paperboys, "Waste Some Time"
Amen to that. The Paperboys are a defunct Canadian Celtic bluegrass group that had a hell of a lot of talent. My attitude towards time is that there's always more of it--an attitude I don't seem to share with many other cohabitants of this planet. Boy, there's a lot of Canadian content here, isn't there? Better fix that:
But music was his life, it was not his livelihood, and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good. And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul. He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole...Harry Chapin, "Mr. Tanner"
Ah, Chapin, how I miss you. I feel about Harry Chapin the way my friend Jen feels about Jim Croce: reverent. This song is about a run-of-the-mill guy who was told all his life that he should try singing professionally. He did, and bombed. But he didn't care. And neither do I.
Never make a promise or plan/Take a little love where you can/Nobody's on nobody's side/Never stay too long in your bed/Never lose your heart, use your head/Nobody's on nobody's side..."Nobody's on Nobody's Side", from Chess, lyrics by Tim Rice
From my cynical period in the early 90s. Chess is one of those musicals that feels dated and fresh in equal measure. It spawned a megahit called One Night In Bangkok and a few strong-charting songs in Europe. This lyric's from one of the latter.
Who knows how long this will last/Now we’ve come so far, so fast/But somewhere back there in the dust/That same small town in each of us/I need to remember this/So baby give me just one kiss/And let me take a long last look/Before we say good bye...Don Henley, "The End of the Innocence"
For my first love, one of seemingly millions of songs that called her to mind for a period of years.
If you really want to, you can hear me say/Only if you want to will you find a way/If you really want to you can seize the day/Only if you want to will you fly away...Enya, "Only If"
I TRY to think positively. Really, I do. For instance, instead of saying "I won't succeed! I won't succeed!" I say "I WILL fail! I WILL fail!"
If you lose faith in who you are, I'd bring you back, I'd go that far. With the strength that only love commmands, I give my heart ...John Berry, "I Give My Heart"
This is a song I strongly considered playing at my wedding reception. The only reason I didn't was because we already had two first dance tunes (John McDermott singing Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms (a song which, by the way, I would have to quote in its entirety: I can't bear to break it up) and Amanda Marshall's If I Didn't Have You, a lovely song my wife contributed. Also, John Berry's country. New country, granted, but still country. If you can get past that, however, wow, what a beautiful song.
They say when you gain a lover/You begin to lose a friend/That the end of the beginning’s/The beginning of the end/They say the moment that you’re born/Is when you start to die/And the first time that we said hello/Began our last goodbye...Roger Whittaker, "The First Hello, The Last Goodbye"
Roger Whittaker was one of my first musical loves, thanks to my dad. I didn't know it at the age of five or six, but this song has wormed its way into my philosophy of life. Many people would find the idea of the transience of life and love depressing. I don't. The way I see it, we should savour every moment of life because life is change.
Holy crap, not only I have used a meme, I'm about to perpetuate it: so what are your favourite verses, and why?
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