Music and Lyrics

Music is my therapy. Music moves me. I can completely lose myself listening to or playing a piece. It's very therapeutic to get caught up in the music and clear everything else from my head except for the music surrounding me. I also write poetry, although I haven't written a poem in years. For this reason, I am also moved and fascinated by lyrics.

For no particular reason other than I was listening to my Ipod yesterday and reminded of the lyrics I love most, I wanted to share with you the lyrics to two songs. If you know me well, you know I have an unhealthy obsession with Bette Midler. She's ballsy, she's unbelievably talented, she's hilarious and is also a small woman with a HUGE personality! I love that about her! One of my favorite songs of hers is the classic, "The Rose". The music and lyrics are actually by Amanda McBroom. I have always wished I had thought of these lyrics myself.. they are beautiful:

The Rose

Some say love, it is a river
That drowns the tender reed.
Some say love, it is a razor
That leaves your soul to bleed.
Some say love, it is a hunger
An endless, aching need.
I say love, it is a flower
And you, it's only seed.

It's the heart afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance.
It's the dream afraid of waking
That never takes the chance.
It's the one who won't be taken
Who cannot seem to give.
And the soul afraid of dying
That never learns to live.

When the night has been too lonely
And the road has been too long.
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong.
Just remember in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snow
Lies the seed that with the sun's love
In the spring, becomes the rose.

The other lyrics I want to share with you were written in the early 60's by Bob Dylan. I have the recording by Peter, Paul and Mary and think the message is as important today as it was in the 60's and find it a little sad that, forty-five plus years later, the lyrics are still applicable to the world in which we live.

Blowin' in the Wind

How many roads must a man walk down
Before they call him a man?
How many seas must the white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
How many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many years must a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
How many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
How many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
How many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
How many deaths will it take 'til he knows
That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.
The answer is blowin' in the wind.