Down the Lyrical Highway

(Reprise)

When Your Internal Musical Age is Nineteen...

 

In 1972, I turned nineteen. It was also the year that I probably reached a high point in my musical acquisitions, buying record albums every time the department store in my small college town had a sale. I would take them back to my dorm room, put a record on the turntable, pull out the liner notes and lay on the bed, reading the lyrics as I listened. I had done this with all of my music listening since junior high – remember, music is all about the lyrics with me – but during this time of my life there was so much great music out there, I wanted to absorb as much of it as possible. That year, I cut hair on campus, for free, for friends, and did mending of favorite pairs of ragged jeans, also for free, being paid back in drinks in the downtown bars on weekends. One of my friends, a disc jockey at the college radio station, paid for my sewing skills in loans of his extensive record collection. I was free to borrow whatever I liked from his vast array of albums, but often he recommended music to me. “What? You like the Byrds but haven't listened to Sweetheart of the Rodeo yet? You gotta take this...” “You haven't really heard “Nights in White Satin” unless you listen to all of Days of Future Passed. Take this. You won't regret it.” I took it. I didn't regret it, except for the fact that both those albums, and others my friend recommended, had come out several years previously. I felt like I had almost missed out on some great music. In that moment, I promised myself I would keep up with the current music of the time, no matter what that time might be. Over the years I've managed to keep that promise, except for a brief period of time when my children were infants. (Fortunately it was the 1980s. I don't think I missed anything...)

As our kids grew up, my husband and I shared our music tastes with them, having 90s kids well-versed in the music of the 60s and 70s. In turn, we listened to their music, the Cranberries, Dave Matthews and David Gray interspersed on the car tape deck with Eric Clapton, Neil Young and the Grateful Dead. Now, at my present age (which you all figured out from the first line of this post), I still have my ear to the current music of the day, and of course, the music of the day that grips me is the music with the most skillful lyrics, those songs that turn a phrase and tell the best stories. Oh, I'm not immune to the occasional pop song with a catchy tune (That must be why Daft Punk's “Get Lucky” ended up on my iPod...), but most of my music tastes fit into genres that have words like “alternative”, “indie”, “folk rock”, and “Americana” in them. Here are some of my favorite musical artists of the moment, and the very recent past, those that turn me back into my nineteen-year-old self, grabbing the liner notes or going to Azlyrics.com, reading along as I'm listening:

1.  The Decemberists. Any band smart and quirky enough to name themselves after the rebels of an 1825 Russian revolt hold great promise in their song writing and lyrics. How many contemporary songs contain words such as “plinth” and “panoply”? The Decemberists' Colin Meloy tells stories, some dark, some personal, some historical, in rich poetic lyrics. I think the music is good, but the lyrics are so rich, I revert to my inner nineteen-year-old, liner notes in hand, with every song. The Crane Wife and The King is Dead are my two favorite collections.

Hetty Green
Queen of supply-side bonhomie bone-drab
You know what I mean?
On the road
It's well advised that you follow your own bag
In the year of the chewable Ambien tab

- From “Calamity Song”

A barony of ivy in the trees

Expanding out its empire by degrees

And all the branches burst to bloom

In the boom

Heaven sent this cardinal maroon

To decorate our living room...

...And years from now when this old light

Isn't ambling anymore

Will I bring myself to write

"I give my best to Springville Hill"

- From “June Hymn”

2.  Mumford and Sons. Another group of lyrically rich song writers, Marcus Mumford and his three musician friends have managed three albums of songs with solid lyrics and great musical arrangements. Their debut album, Sigh No More, loosely borrows from John Steinbeck's novel, East of Eden, taking on a literary feel in many of the songs. Marcus Mumford's parents are the leaders of the Vineyard Church in the United Kingdom, and Marcus grew up in the worship tradition of the Vineyard. Though a secular band, Mumford and Sons songs have the energy and drawing-in ability of a good worship band, and the lyrics often deal with spiritual themes. Sigh No More and Babel, their first two albums, have a folkier, acoustic sound, with their third collection, Wilder Mind, expanding to a more energetic, electric sound.

It seems that all my bridges have been burnt

But you say that's exactly how this grace thing works.

It's not the long walk home that will change this heart

But the welcome I receive with the restart

 - From “Roll Away Your Stone”

Whispered notes from the piano in the corner of the room

Hold your throat is that healing that you're hearing in her tune

Wanting change but loving her just as she lies

Is the burden of a man who's built his life on love

You told me life was long but now that it's gone

You find yourself on top as the leader of the flock

Called to be a rock for those below

 - From “Those Below”

3.  Lin-Manuel Miranda. Huh? Not exactly an indie/folk/rocker, but the musical genius behind the Broadway musical Hamilton makes this list, having driven my nineteen-year-old self to the liner notes again, though in this case they're more of a libretto. I had read Ron Chernow's biography Alexander Hamilton recently, and then listened to the soundtrack of Hamilton, hearing that Lin-Manuel Miranda's reading of that 800 page tome had inspired the musical. IT...IS...AMAZING! Seriously, AMAZING!!! Chernow's book, though telling the story of Alexander Hamilton, is really a thorough history of the early days of our country, from pre-revolution until the early 1800s. Lin-Manuel Miranda read, understood, and successfully retells the ENTIRE story, with all (yes, pretty much, ALL) its nuances in a rap-hip-hop-showtune musical. If you are familiar with the musical, but haven't read Chernow's book, know that Lin-Manuel Miranda is even more of a genius than you thought, that the story he tells is historically accurate as well as entertaining and amazingly lyrically clever. If you have read the book, but are unfamiliar with the music and lyrics of the musical, get a copy of the original Broadway cast soundtrack and prepare yourself to be blown away. Lin-Manuel Miranda takes the Chernow book and creates a concise (well, as concise as a two and a half hour, 46 song musical can be) clever, nuanced, accurate, poignant, entertaining retelling of Alexander Hamilton's life and his considerable contributions to the early days of the United States. And the lyrics, the lyrics, THE LYRICS...are... AMAZING!!! (I really can't say that too many times. I heard a theater critic call Lin-Manuel Miranda the greatest playwright since Shakespeare. He may not be exaggerating.) Below are some of those lyrics. I'm trying not to get carried away here...really...

[WASHINGTON]

Pick up a pen, start writing

I wanna talk about what I have learned

The hard-won wisdom I have earned

[HAMILTON]

As far as the people are concerned

You have to serve, you could continue to serve—

[WASHINGTON]

No! One last time

The people will hear from me

One last time

And if we get this right

We’re gonna teach ‘em how to say

Goodbye

You and I—

[HAMILTON]

Mr. President, they will say you’re weak

[WASHINGTON]

No, they will see we’re strong

[HAMILTON]

Your position is so unique

[WASHINGTON]

So I’ll use it to move them along

[HAMILTON]

Why do you have to say goodbye?

[WASHINGTON]

If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on

It outlives me when I’m gone

Like the scripture says:

“Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree

And no one shall make them afraid.”

They’ll be safe in the nation we’ve made

I wanna sit under my own vine and fig tree

A moment alone in the shade

At home in this nation we’ve made

One last time

 - From “One Last Time”, George Washington explaining why he wants Hamilton to write his farewell speech, why he has to not run again for president

HAMILTON:

I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory

Is this where it gets me, on my feet, sev’ral feet ahead of me?

I see it coming, do I run or fire my gun or let it be?

There is no beat, no melody

Burr, my first friend, my enemy

Maybe the last face I ever see

If I throw away my shot, is this how you’ll remember me?

What if this bullet is my legacy?

Legacy. What is a legacy?

It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see

I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me

America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me

You let me make a difference

A place where even orphan immigrants

Can leave their fingerprints and rise up

I’m running out of time. I’m running, and my time’s up

Wise up. Eyes up

I catch a glimpse of the other side

Laurens leads a soldiers’ chorus on the other side

My son is on the other side

He’s with my mother on the other side

Washington is watching from the other side

Teach me how to say goodbye

- From “The World is Wide Enough”

4. Dawes. I've heard it said that this folk rock band has a sound reminiscent of Crosby, Stills and Nash, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. As a fan of all three of those classic rock staples, I can't say I really hear the resemblance, but I do like the music of Dawes and love their lyrics, so maybe I do pick up some unconscious connection. Taylor Goldsmith, songwriter and lead vocal, writes songs such as “A Little Bit of Everything” and “Most People” unveiling Everyman personalities, people we don't know, yet seem familiar. The music is easy to listen to, the lyrics irresistible for me to ponder.

Like the memory from your mother's house

From before you got too old

Like the feeling from a photograph

Before it's meanings all got told

The words I say can be silver

But what's left unsaid can be gold

So get to know me once I go away

- From “If I Wanted Someone”

All these psychics and these doctors

They're all right and they're all wrong,

It's like trying to make out every word

When they should simply hum along

It's not some message written in the dark

Or some truth that no one's seen

It's a little bit of everything

- From “A Little Bit of Everything

5. There are many excellent up-and-coming singer-songwriters flying under the radar out there in the music world. All of the really good ones are passionate about their craft, working hard to write, perform and get their music seen and heard. Many have their original music online, on CDs available at their performances. I can't promise you liner notes, but you will almost always find some great music. Some of these singer-songwriters are hard to find unless you are looking for them – on music sites online, in small venues, clubs and pubs, coffee houses and cafes. And we should all be looking for them. Their lyrics are cleverly written, the stories they tell, real. They are so worth finding...

Down the Lyrical Highway

(Reprise)

Words of Worship, Words of Truth

 

My grandmother, who lived with us when we were growing up, owned one record album. As it sometimes is today, she relied on the technological savvy of the younger generation, my brother and me, to listen to it. We would put the vinyl LP on the turntable, position the needle and turn up the sound on the old hi-fi phonograph so Grandma could hear it in the kitchen. The record was titled The Lennon Sisters Singing the Best-Loved Catholic Hymns. For those of you who did not grow up forced to watch The Lawrence Welk Show on Saturday nights, the Lennon Sisters were four girls from a devout Roman Catholic family of eleven children who sang, quite nicely, songs on the wholesome, family-oriented variety show that seemed to be broadcast everywhere in the middle of the last century. My grandmother loved playing that record, and as one of her enablers, I heard it a lot growing up. It was the first time I remember music usually reserved for church being played at home. In my late teens, after I entered into a serious relationship with God, I, myself, often gravitated toward music with a spiritual bent.

The Christian music industry rapidly expanded in the the 1970s and 80s, providing Christian parallels to almost every secular musical genre. When our kids came along, my husband and I purged some of our more raucous rock albums and acquired some Christian music replacements. When our kids started listening to music on their own, it was often a reflection of our parental tastes, a mixture of classic rock (Eric Clapton, the Beatles), what I would call “kid Christian” (Veggie Tales, The Donut Man), and contemporary Christian artists (Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith...) Eventually, I came to a place that I am somewhat hesitant to confess, but I will anyway: I really don't like contemporary Christian music...

There, I said it.

Remember, music for me is all about the lyrics, and frankly, much (not all) of the contemporary Christian music of the past quarter century sounded a bit bland and lot alike to me. Rather than pick on the genre, however, I want to instead list those songs and musicians that really draw me into a spiritual place where God's presence is more than just a nice thing to aspire to.

1) Hymns. Those Lennon Sisters did have an impact on me. There was something about songs like “Faith Of Our Fathers”, “Jesus! My Lord, My God, My All!”, “Come Holy Ghost, Creator Blest”, and “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” that made me want to connect with God. In later years, when I jumped ship for a more evangelical church experience, I listened to the Protestant hymns I had missed out on in my youth. Amusingly, my first exposure to some of those songs was a cassette tape by the Christian a capella group Glad. I still hear the lyrics of such classic hymns as “Blessed Assurance” and “Rock of Ages” with the “ba, ba, ba” beatboxing in my head. But beatboxing aside, the lyrics of so many of the hymns, Catholic or Protestant, are rich with both spiritual truth and the ability to draw one into the presence of God. Favorite hymns of mine: “Amazing Grace”, “How Great Thou Art” and “This is My Father's World”. “How Deep the Father's Love for Us” and “In Christ Alone” are another two favorites from contemporary hymn writer Stuart Townend. These hymns always leave me with a true sense of worship.

This is my Father’s world, should my heart be ever sad?

The lord is King—let the heavens ring. God reigns—let the earth be glad.

This is my Father’s world. Now closer to Heaven bound,

For dear to God is the earth Christ trod.

No place but is holy ground.

- From “This is My Father's World”

2) The Newsboys. I shouldn't really love the Newsboys as much as I do. They have two strikes against them, fitting into the genre of contemporary Christian artists and being a music group of the 1980s. (I am of the opinion – yes, I know, some will not agree – that nothing good musically came out of the 1980s...) But love them and their music I do. Definitely a lyric thing, most likely a Spirit thing. I never tire of their clever lyrics and musical stylings. Take Me to Your Leader is a brilliantly written song on a brilliantly written CD by the same title. Going Public, Thrive and Step Up to the Microphone are also wonderful collections. The Newsboys also have two worship collections, Devotion and Adoration, both aptly named. If I want to have a good quiet time, a devotion or adoration time, I listen to one of those CDs and let the lyrics draw me into God's presence.

He raises a wrinkled hand

Through the dust and the flies

Wrapped in rags like we are

And with barely open eyes

He takes my finger

And He won't let go

And He won't let go

It's nothing like I knew before

And it's all I need to know

Come, let us adore Him

He has come down to the world we live in

And all I have to give Him

Is adoration

- From “Adoration”

Justin is adustin' to

The odor from Theodore's Evergreen Incense

But aroma therapy don't make him any younger

Than Oliver's All Liver Supplements

His late mate Marrilee merrily said immortality

Can't be bought in a jar

This just in: Justin's had enough of cure-alls,

Gonna quiz the neighbor kid with the

Fish on his car

He says,

I don't know why you care

I don't know what's up there

I don't know how it's done

Just take me to your leader, son

- From “Take Me to Your Leader”

3) Sara Groves. Another thoughtful Christian lyricist, Sara Groves writes songs of truth, about being made for a world beyond this one, hearing God, the spiritual heredity one leaves behind, and even the frustrations dealing with toy packaging. My favorite collection, Conversations, contains song after song with lyrics that at some point grip my heart. (Well, maybe not “Tent in the Center of Town”...) Like the Newsboys, she's part of the genre I'm not wild about, but her lyrics transcend that genre and always send me in a good direction, spiritually.

I've been painting pictures of Egypt

Leaving out what it lacks

The future feels so hard

And I want to go back

But the places that used to fit me

Cannot hold the things I've learned

Those roads were closed off to me

While my back was turned

- From “Painting Picture of Egypt”

And we've had every conversation in the world

About what is right and what has all gone bad

But have I mentioned to you that this is all I am

This is all that I have

And I would like to share with you

What makes me complete

I don't claim to have found the truth

But I know it has found me

- From “Conversations”

Nothing makes me lose my cool like

Toy packaging

Kids, you really need to leave the room

Mom's opening toy packaging

I'm sorry you have to see this sight

You must be brave, no, please don't cry

I promise it will be alright

I hope to have it by tonight

Never mind this dynamite

Toy packaging

- From “Toy Packaging”

4) Seekers and Truth Tellers. No, not a duel-named group or a true genre, but all those songwriters out there who search for spiritual truth, some secular musicians who profess to be Christians, those who came from a religious background and now question it, those who intelligently comment on or question spiritual themes and those who just paint with words mankind's longing for something else. They've been around a long time (The 1960s and 70s were rich with seeker songs.) and their numbers would include a wide range of artists - Sam Beam of Iron and Wine, David Bazan, Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, Richie Furay of Buffalo Springfield and Poco, Bob Dylan, U2, Billy Joel, Jason Isbell, Johnny Cash – the list could go on and on. Secular group Vampire Weekend in their song “Unbelievers” raises the question is there grace for those who reject grace :

If I’m born again I know that the world will disagree

Want a little grace but who’s gonna say a little grace for me?

We know the fire awaits unbelievers

All of the sinners the same

Girl, you and I will die unbelievers

Bound to the tracks of the train

I’m not excited, but should I be?

Is this the fate that half of the world has planned for me?

Jason Isbell in “24 Frames” writes:

You thought God was an architect, now you know,

He’s something like a pipe bomb ready to blow

And everything you built that’s all for show goes up in flames

In twenty- four frames

His lyrics remind me both of C. S. Lewis's comment that Aslan, his Narnian Christ figure, is not a “tame lion” and of the verse from 1 Corinthians that says:

...each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done... (1:13)

These Seeker/Truthteller lyrics won't always lead me into a place of worship, but they always lead me in some way toward God, sometimes to ponder a re-expression of truth, sometimes to re-examine a long held belief at God's feet, sometimes to pray for the artist himself. (Listen to Hozier's “Take Me to Church” and hear someone who scaringly understands all too well what modern day idolatry looks like...) Some of this “genre” is hard to hear, but some is pure joy, like listening to Bono praise God in Latin - Gloria, In te domine, Gloria, Exultate, Gloria, Oh, Lord, loosen my lips – and being reminded by the Doobie Brothers that Jesus is just alright with me...

Next:

When Your Internal Musical Age is Nineteen...

Down the Lyrical Highway

(Reprise)

Blasts from the Past

It's been a while...

When I last wrote here, this past October, Bob Dylan had just been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. This momentous occasion inspired me to share my bittersweet musical experiences and my fondness for lyrics. I had fully intended to follow up that post with a few lists, sharing some of my favorite musical artists from a lyrical perspective. I'll do it when Bob makes his Nobel acceptance speech, I thought. He didn't. He wrote a short thank-you note to the award committee which was read at the Nobel banquet in December by the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden.* I'll do it when Bob gives the obligatory Nobel Laureate lecture, I thought. According to the Nobel Foundation statutes, the Nobel Laureates are required "to give a lecture on a subject connected with the work for which the prize has been awarded". The lecture should be given before, or no later than six months after, the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony. With no sign of the lecture, and living the free spirit, non-disciplined, unscheduled life of a relatively recent retiree, I let time slip away from me. I recently read that Dylan, in his unique style, got his laureate lecture in just under the wire, recording a video lecture on June 4. Now I was the procrastinator. When I saw that June 21 would be World Music Day, I knew the time had come for my stroll down the lyrical highway...

My music awareness grew up in the 1960s. For some odd reason, my brother and I always got record albums in our Easter baskets. The Who's Tommy, Simon and Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Water, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's Deja Vu all made their appearance surrounded by chocolate rabbits and jelly beans. Though I would listen to most of the classic folk and rock music of the 60s and early 70s – the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton in his many manifestations, the Byrds, Peter, Paul and Mary, Judy Collins – the five below are the ones that have stood the test of time for me, my favorites for lyrics, storytelling and what little melody I can absorb:

1. Paul Simon. Though I got every Simon and Garfunkel record that came out, Sounds of Silence, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, Wednesday Morning 3 AM, and Bridge Over Troubled Water are my favorites. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” remains my all-time favorite song. When Paul and Art went their separate ways, I continued to acquire each of their solo albums. While Art made wonderful recordings of other people's songs, Paul continued to write and record original material. His solo albums are almost all wonderful. (I could have done without Songs from the Capeman. Creepy...) Graceland, an 80s masterpiece, shows up on lists of the best record album(s) of all time. Paul Simon continues to write clever, thoughtful lyrics, still releasing albums on a regular basis. They are not always “great” albums (CDs? MP3s?), but they always have a few great songs on them.

I am just a poor boy

Though my story's seldom told

I have squandered my resistance

For a pocketful of mumbles

Such are promises

All lies and jest

Still, a man hears what he wants to hear

And disregards the rest

- From “The Boxer”

For reasons I cannot explain

There's some part of me wants to see

Graceland

And I may be obliged to defend

Every love, every ending

Or maybe there's no obligations now

Maybe I've a reason to believe

We all will be received

In Graceland

- From “Graceland”

2. Neil Young. I was a fan of the 1960s Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, and Nash, two groups that reshuffled some of their musicians and songwriters. When former Buffalo Springfield singer/songwriter/musician Neil Young was added to Crosby, Stills, and Nash, I was hooked on his songs. This turned out to be a very good thing – though he denies it, I ended up marrying one of the foremost authorities on Neil Young and his music. I acquired Neil's solo music as it came along – After the Gold Rush and Harvest being two of my early favorites – but I married a man who made it unnecessary for me to acquire any more – he did the acquiring. I don't know how many Neil Young recordings are actually in this house. My husband has more versions of “Cortez the Killer” alone than I can count. (Seriously...) Neil is another prolific artist whose voice has aged well and still writes and records on a regular basis. And he isn't afraid to try something new. He's had his country period, even his techno period. (Vocoder fans, anyone?) He's also fond of rerecording his older songs, putting a new sound to them. Dreamin' Man is a great collection, unplugged recordings of previously electric songs that take on a different vibe with the acoustic sound. Rumor has it Neil has so much unreleased music that if he were to die today, his estate could continue putting out albums at a regular rate for decades to come. Interesting facts about Neil (I'm living with the foremost authority, remember?): Neil is part of a group that owns Lionel Trains. Obsessed with sound, he's responsible for the realistic train whistle on their model train locomotives. He and his (now ex-) wife are also responsible for thirty years of very successful (think Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, Bob Dylan as acts...) fundraising concerts for the Bridge School, a school for special needs kids that he and his wife started for their special needs son.

Love lost, such a cost,

Give me things

that don't get lost.

Like a coin that won't get tossed

Rolling home to you.

- From “Old Man”

It ain't an honor to be on TV

And it ain't a duty either

The only good thing about TV

Is shows like 'Leave it to Beaver'

Shows with love and affection

Like mama used to say

A little Mayberry livin'

Can go a long way"

- From “Grandpa's Interview” (Greendale)

3. Bob Dylan: Though his voice has not aged as well as Paul's or Neil's (Some might say it was never very good.), he continues to record and perform on what has been called “The Never Ending Tour”, playing at venues of all sizes for much of each year – since 1988(!) Like Neil, he's not afraid to try new things. Starting out as a folk singer, then going electric, going through a Christian recording phase, writing country, blues and torch songs, he is constantly reinventing himself – well, at least, his music. I liked his early folk period, but my two favorite albums are from the mid 70s – Desire and Blood on the Tracks. His songs have been widely covered since early in his career. Some (probably the same “some” as above) might say that anyone sings a Dylan song better than Dylan himself. Chimes of Freedom, a collection of 76 songs written by Bob Dylan, but recorded by a who's who of well-known singers and musicians of the past forty years as a fundraiser celebrating fifty years of Amnesty International is worth a listen. It contains a great variety of Dylan's musical periods, and the famous artists each give their own unique styles to his lyrics.

She lit a burner on the stove and offered me a pipe

"I thought you'd never say hello" she said

"You look like the silent type"

Then she opened up a book of poems

And handed it to me

Written by an Italian poet

From the fifteenth century

And every one of them words rang true

And glowed like burning coal

Pouring off of every page

Like it was written in my soul from me to you

- From “Tangled Up in Blue”

A self-ordained professor's tongue

Too serious to fool

Spouted out that liberty

Is just equality in school

"Equality," I spoke the word

As if a wedding vow

Ah, but I was so much older then

I'm younger than that now.

 

- From “My Back Pages”

4. 
   Joni Mitchell: Though I was only a moderate fan back in her heyday, I've come to appreciate Joni's vocal soprano gymnastics in the years since. Her lyrics and melodies are uniquely frenetic. Unfortunately, her voice has not aged well, and her later recordings do not sound like the early Joni. Health issues in recent years have forced her into retirement. But her collection of songs from the late 60s into the 80s are worth revisiting again and again. I don't have a favorite single album, Joni Mitchell being the only artist on this list that I search out the greatest hits collection to hear her music. She had a few great songs off of each of a dozen or so albums over a fifteen year period.

But now old friends are acting strange

They shake their heads, they say I've changed

Well something's lost, but something's gained

In living every day

I've looked at life from both sides now

From win and lose and still somehow

It's life's illusions I recall

I really don't know life at all

- From “Both Sides Now

And the seasons they go round and round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We can't return we can only look

Behind from where we came

And go round and round and round

In the circle game

- From "The Circle Game"

5. Billy Joel: Yeah, I know, he's not quite in the same category as Paul, Neil, Bob and Joni, but I fell in love with his Piano Man album as a junior in college and have been a fan ever since. When I found out he was a Long Islander, like me, I liked him even better. (Besides, the cover photo on his first album, Cold Spring Harbor, reminds me of my brother, though my brother has aged more gently...) I find his lyrics Long Island-y at times, a good thing, he holds his own with Paul, Neil and Bob when it comes to storytelling, and there is something about the piano as the primary instrument that allows me to “hear” the melody better. Piano Man, The Stranger, and Turnstiles are my favorite albums. Though his voice is strong and has aged well, and he continues to tour, he hasn't really released any new music since 1993. The reason? According to Joel, he just doesn't have anything new to say. He enjoys the performing and the touring, but he feels he has said everything lyrically he had to say. Unlike Paul, Neil and Bob, who obviously feel they have more yet to say, Billy Joel knows, rightfully or wrongfully, when to stop, and has. But I really did, and still do, enjoy what he had to say.

Well we all have a face

That we hide away forever

And we take them out and show ourselves

When everyone has gone

Some are satin some are steel

Some are silk and some are leather

They're the faces of the stranger

But we love to try them on

- From The Stranger

In the middle of the night

I go walking in my sleep

Through the valley of fear

To a river so deep

And I've been searching for something

Taken out of my soul

Something I would never lose

Something somebody stole

- From River of Dreams

These are the last words I have to say

That's why this took so long to write

There will be other words some other day

But that's the story of my life

- From Famous Last Words

 

 

 

 

Next:

Words of Worship, Words of Truth

*Hear or read his acceptance note here: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2016/dylan-speech.html

**Hear or read his laureate lecture here: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2016/dylan-lecture.html