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...