Music Makes Me Hiigghhh!
Before you go thinking I'm a substance abuser, the above title is the name of a cut by the Hip Hop group, "The Lost Boyz." :-)

I am a music lover in the purist sense and am inspired by many singers and songwriters. "SO'TD" includes some songs I've found to be either moving, inspirational, provocative or just plain fun.

You'll notice that most of the songs are not current. Like a lot of 30-somethings, I have reverted to mostly "Old School" music as I feel artists, bands and rap groups from the '60s, '70s, '80s and early '90s simply cannot be touched by today's imitators.

Most artists these days don't seem to be into writing quality lyrics anymore. That would be too much like work. Why take the time to be creative and thought-provoking when you can just slap a slamming beat onto it, promote it alongside a bling-blingin', hootchie-filled video and have yourself a hit faster than you can say it's "off the hizzle for shizzle"? Of course, there are a few contemporary musicians out there actually creating their own music with lyrics that sound like they've actually read more than one book. I'll include them as their music inspires me.

All lyrics are the property and copyright of their owners.

- posted by Girl in the City @ 6:44 PM

 
I Was Brought to My Senses
Sting, to me, is one of the most intelligent and allegorical songwriters making music today. This guy writes like he spends a lot of time reading...classics. I've read Sting lyrics and found myself doing research on the origins of a term or phrase that he used. His use of metaphor is almost literary.

I feel the need to stray away from love songs in SO'TD because...there's really nothing original about the concept of love. But this song is so rich with metaphor and imagery that I wanted to include it. Probably what endears me to it most is the fact that I once was so in love with someone that we seemed to reach a point of synchronicity, as though nature was bringing everything together at just the right time to prove to us the perfection of our love. That's another story, but I think that's part of what this song is about.

I was Brought to My Senses (Sting)

Alone with my thoughts this evening
I walked on the banks of Tyne
I wondered how I could win you
Or if I could make you mine
Or if I could make you mine

The wind it was so insistent
With tales of a stormy south
But when I spied two birds in a sycamore tree
There came a dryness in my mouth
Came a dryness in my mouth

For then without rhyme or reason
The two birds did rise up to fly
And where the two birds were flying
I swear I saw you and I
I swear I saw you and I

I walked out this morning
It was like a veil had been removed from before my eyes
For the first time I saw the work of heaven
In the line where the hills had been married to the sky
And all around me
Every blade of singing grass
Was calling out your name
And that our love would always last
And inside every turning leaf
Is the pattern of an older tree
The shape of our future
The shape of all our history
And out of the confusion
Where the river meets the sea
Came things I'd never seen
Things I'd never seen

I was brought to my senses
I was blind but now that I can see
Every signpost in nature
Said you belong to me

I know it's true
It's written in a sky as blue
As blue as your eyes
As blue as your eyes
If nature's red in tooth and claw
Like winter's freeze and summer's thaw
The wounds she gave me
Were the wounds that would heal me
And we'd be like the moon and sun
And when our courtly dance had run
Its course across the sky
Then together we would lie
And out of the confusion
Where the river meets the sea
Something new would arrive
Something better would arrive

I was brought to my senses
I was blind but now that I can see
Every signpost in nature
Said you belong to me
I was brought to my senses
I was blind but now that I can see
Every signpost in nature
Said you belong to me.
- posted by Girl in the City @ 12:53 PM

 
Graceland
My four all-time favorite songwriters are Stevie Wonder, Sting, Billy Joel and Paul Simon. These men have written some of the most inspiring and philosophical lyrics in contemporary music and have made musical history at some point or another in their careers. They are legends.

Paul Simon has written some of the most beautiful ballads and folk tunes. Yet, his Grammy winning Graceland album was probably over-rated because he brought South African musicians to the forefront, a source of major controversy within the Black community at the time. My opinion on that was that if African American artists wanted to be the ones to introduce South African music to America they should have done it.

I've always had respect for Paul Simon and he didn't exploit the sound by trying to claim it as his own...as so many musicians before him have done.

Nevertheless, Paul is deserving of any awards he receives. The tone of the title cut, Graceland, is purposefully spiritual and the warm, high-pitched twang of the South African guitar captured the song's reverent nature beautifully. It almost makes you forget that Paul is singing about trekking to Elvis's shrine in Memphis. Almost.

Still, there are lines in this song that are moving to me, like when he sings "Losing love is like a window in your heart. Everybody sees you're blown apart. Everybody sees the wind blow." But there are also lines like: "I have a reason to believe that we all will be received in Graceland." I won't even go there, the Black rock group "Living Colour" already went there for me.

There's a beautiful melancholy tone to this song but there's also some wit. Not the quick-witted neurotical ramblings of "You Can Call Me Al" but wit just the same. It's that bittersweet quality of Paul's writing that I think makes it so timeless.

Graceland (Paul Simon)
The Mississippi delta was shining
Like a national guitar
I am following the river
Down the highway
Through the cradle of the Civil War
I’m going to Graceland
Graceland
In Memphis Tennessee
I’m going to Graceland
Poorboys and pilgrims with families
And we are going to Graceland
My traveling companion is nine years old
He is the child of my first marriage
But I’ve reason to believe
We both will be received
In Graceland

She comes back to tell me she’s gone
As if I didn’t know that
As if I didn’t know my own bed
As if I’d never noticed
The way she brushed her hair from her forehead
And she said losing love
Is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you’re blown apart
Everybody sees the wind blow

I’m going to Graceland
Memphis Tennessee
I’m going to Graceland
Poorboys and pilgrims with families
And we are going to Graceland

And my traveling companions
Are ghosts and empty sockets
I’m looking at ghosts and empties
But I’ve reason to believe
We all will be received
In Graceland

There is a girl in New York City
Who calls herself the human trampoline
And sometimes when I’m falling, flying
Or tumbling in turmoil I say
Oh, so this is what she means
She means we’re bouncing into Graceland
And I see losing love
Is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you’re blown apart
Everybody sees the wind blow

In Graceland, in Graceland
I’m going to Graceland
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
- posted by Girl in the City @ 2:15 PM

 
Devil's Pie
Devil's Pie was the first single off of D'Angelo's "Voodoo" album. D'Angelo, who is a meticulous muscian and producer, is an infamous stickler for detail and it shows in this album, released nearly five years after his superb debut album "Brown Sugar."

Although this album didn't top the charts or generate sales like its predecessor, any R&B fan lover with an ear for music would have to be astounded by D's totally organic approach to musical arrangement. The arrangement on this album is flawless. Almost obsessive. Those outside of this category no doubt slept on it desiring, instead, a duplication "Brown Sugar".

Devil's Pie was featured on the soundtrack of the 1998 Hip Hop-genre film "Belly." I couldn't vibe with it at first because it was rather Hip Hoppish and I didn't think D'Angelo had to go there. Besides, I too had a hankering for his signature mellow groove. However, the beat is pretty dope and the lyrics are radical.

Devil's Pie (D'Angelo/C. Martin)
chorus:
Fuck the slice we want the pie
why ask why till we fry
watch us all stand in line
for a slice of the devils pie
drugs and thugs women and wine
three or four at a time
watch them stand all in line
for a slice of the devils pie

who am i to justify
all the evil in our eye
when i myself feel the high
from all that i despise
behind the jail or in the grave
i have to lay in this bed i made
if i die b4 i wake
hope the lord dont hesitate
2 get 2 heaven done been through hell
tell my peeps all is well
all them fools whos souls 4 sale
sitting next to the jezebel

demons screamin in my ear
all my anger all my fear
if i holla let them hear
in this spinning sphere

(chorus)

main ingredients to this dish
goes like this
heres the list
materialistic, greed and lust, jealousy, envious
bread and dough, chedda cheese, flash and stash, cash and cream
temperatures at a high degree
wheres niggaz come to feast
hells this all about
apocolypse aint no doubt

everbody's ho'ing out all the loot, all the clout
right or wrong
do or die
only the vengance will pacify
watch your back and so will i
in these days and time

(chorus)

aint no justice
just us
ashes to ashes
dust to dust
time has come for most of us
2 choose in which god we trust
i know i was born to die
searching to find
piece of mind
with eighty five dumb and blind
there can be no compromise

- posted by Girl in the City @ 11:49 AM

 
Deliciously Down
This song was written and performed by Cree Summer (of "A Different World" fame) for her 1999 debut solo project, "Street Faerie." The album was produced by Lenny Kravitz, who as you know, was married to Lisa Bonet. Bonet and Cree are very close friends and Lisa begged Lenny for years to hook her sister friend up. He finally did years later, probably in hopes of finding a way to get back on Lisa's good side. In any event, it resulted in a great album for Cree, albeit not a very popular one.

I like Cree's style and there's a lot of Lenny's sound in her music. Most of all, I like the soul that comes through her words. I think it takes a deeply feeling sister to write some lyrics like these and there are times when I've felt exactly like this:

Deliciously Down(Cree Summers)
I need some sweet to soothe my inside
I need some soft to lay down my pride
I need some tears to rain down on me
To melt my memory

I need to slide deliciously down
To where I hurt the least

I need high prayers to breathe through
I need to shine like I used to and
I know that I'm not supposed to be for nothing

I need a breeze to carry me safe
I need some peace to find my way
I need a song to hold in my palm
And feel the love that made me

I need to slide deliciously down
To where I hurt the least

I need high prayers to breathe through and I
Need to shine like I used to and I
Know that I'm not supposed to be for nothing

I need some love to open my heart
I need a space to fall apart
I need a star for every dream
Do you know what I mean

I need to slide deliciously down
To where I hurt the least


- posted by Girl in the City @ 3:33 PM

 
Friday, October 16th
Today's song lyrics are provided by Lenny the boy's just too damn sexy Kravitz. It is a song from his first album, "Let Love Rule" which was released in 1989. It's a fun melody with some very serious lyrics. Although I thoroughly enjoyed Lenny's first two albums, I don't think he really found his own unique voice until album 3.

Still, I appreciate what he was trying to bring to a Hip Hop-ladened industry during a time when we could have all used a few more songs about love, peace and harmony. The flower child in me, absolutely loves this album.

Mr. Cab Driver(Lenny Kravitz)
Mr. Cab Driver won't stop to let me in
Mr. Cab Driver don't like my kind of skin
Mr. Cab Driver you're never gonna win
Mr. Cab Driver won't stop to pick me up
Mr. Cab Driver I might need some help
Mr. Cab Driver only thinks about himself

Mr. Cab Driver
Mr. Cab Driver

Mr. Cab Driver don't like the way I look
He don't like dreads he thinks we're all crooks
Mr. Cab Driver reads too many story books
Mr. Cab Driver pass me up with eyes of fire
Mr. Cab Driver think we're all 165'ers
Mr. Cab Drive fuck you! I'm a survivor

- posted by Girl in the City @ 10:05 PM