I love music, I’m just in love with lyrics and I love the stories behind the words.
I grew up on Kris Kristoferson, who is probably one of my favorite songwriters/storytellers. There are of course others like James Taylor and lord help me my childhood punishment has become an adult appreciation so I’ll throw in Johnny Cash too!
Because my initial thoughts about Lyrically Speaking have changed this segment almost went on the cutting room floor a half dozen times. Think I finally know what I want to do with it. Let’s start with this… if you love song lyrics, you’re already kin!
So, here’s how I see this playing out. I’m going to highlight some lyrics I love, and throw in some facts- I don’t really have a way for comments under each song I break down- but please hop on Facebook and let me know your favorite lyrics, or shoot me an E mail include who sings it, and what lines in particular you love. I’ll get them worked in from time to time. Ahead of all this I’d like to say “Thank you” to my family- My folks who always made music part of our home. Special thanks to my Dad who always played the guitar for us. My four older siblings who are music lovers as well and who used to help me appreciate what the songs meant. My husband who took my musical taste a completely different direction, and my kids who God love ya, found a way to make it through childhood with so much bad singing by me, but what I lacked in talent I made up for in enthusiasm. We always had a spirited house filled with just about every genre imaginable.
Here’s to music! Here’s to songwriters!
I hope you dance
I’ve loved this song since the minute I heard it, as did most back in 2000 (I can’t believe it’s been 20 years) Tia Sillers is the song writer and I’ve seen her be interviewed about this song and the way the lyrics came to be. It had been sheet after sheet of different “I hope you…” after a bad break up and time alone to reflect. She gathered all these sheets of “I hope you notes” and met up with another song writer Mark Sanders, he helped in fitting all the pieces together and thankfully we have “I hope you dance.” I can recall that when the song came out I was trying to explain it to my daughter who was eight at the time. I think I was going along the lines of not being afraid to try new things, that if you sit out of life all the time one day you’ll be as old as Mommy and you will not be able to say that you ever tried anything fun or exciting.
That afternoon we went to the park, she was the more reserved of my two children so I was a bit surprised as she pumped her little legs harder and harder to go higher and higher on the swing, I mean this kid was really going high…and then…she let go. I nearly had a heart attack. She flew through the air landing nearly split legged about ten feet away, I was running to her when she looked up, smiled and said “I danced.” I told my brother that story and he cried, he wanted me to get T-shirts made about it. That never happened, but that day, I feel safe in saying that a great lesson was learned by all.
“I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance- never settle for the path of least resistance Livin’ might mean takin’ chances, but they’re worth takin’“
The House that built me
Well, let me start by saying, I am very sentimental about the house that built me. The first house I ever lived in was in Oak Forest Illinois, it was the house I would live in until after Kindergarten, and where I made some lifelong friends.
For a long time it was tradition that us five kids would go back to that old house and take a photo on the lawn, it was fairly frequent, and the new owners adjusted to the fact that “the Elliott kid’s are here, they’re taking their photo in front of the house again” When I was a Freshman in high school we moved back Oak Forest after many years in Arizona, and I was helping my sister in law coach a cheer leading squad of little girls. I found out that one of our girls lived in the old house so I walked her home and asked if I could look around- I did exactly that. I explained to them how we had things back then, how my forty fives had melted on the heat register, how my mom would build forts in the kitchen when she cleaned and that us kids all played in the side yard which today is filled with two more homes. How the large pantry had once housed a very tiny bedroom for my Grandma and so on…. I miss those day’s. I have written about them a few times in my blog. (Check them out under “Little Run Away” and “Cornflower Blue.”)
“I thought if I could touch this place or feel it, this brokenness inside me might start healing. Out here it’s like I’m someone else, thought that maybe I could find myself. If I could just come in I swear I’ll leave, won’t take nothing but a memory from the house that built me.“
So that’s the line that gets me, in the gut each and every time. I think so much about my childhood when I hear it, and in my childhood my Mom was still here. Bittersweet to look back now.
This song was written by Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin. Tom who first caught steam with a Collin Raye song back in ’94 with a story about a man trying to rebuild his life working at a Walmart.. the story goes he was actually the one working at a Walmart and the story he told later became a hit for Collin Raye was titled…
Little Rock
Little Rock was a hit for Collin Raye in ’94, a song about an recovering alcoholic who finds himself rebuilding his life in Arkansas while working at a Walmart. Seriously, who would think that the premise for this song would become a hit- but it did and it holds one of the best lyrics- “You know your Daddy told me when I left, Jesus will forgive, but a Daddy don’t forget.”
Now I don’t know about all of you, but that line rings true to me. I know the men in my life would have been giving that reminder to someone who put their daughter through the ringer. It’s a pretty powerful statement. I’ve always loved the song and that makes two in a row that we can give Tom Douglas big credit for.
Why Me Lord
As mentioned in my opening, Kristofferson has always held a special place in my heart. I believe that a lot of the reason I enjoy writing and storytelling is because I grew up listening to his music.
Why me lord has always been a favorite of mine. Listening to the lyrics my grateful heart is struck by the words. “Why me Lord, what have I ever done, to deserve even one of the pleasures I’ve known.“
If you’ve never followed Kris, I’d say spend a few minutes watching some YouTube- learning about his life which is one for the ages. Awarded the Rhodes scholarship, attending Oxford, becoming a military helicopter pilot and turning down a teaching job at West Point to concentrate on music.
I was five years old in 1972 when this song was released, far too young to realize how handsome he was, but the album Jesus was a Capricorn was a staple in our house. I grew up knowing the lyrics to every song and writing started to become my passion.
Kris credits a church performance by Larry Gatlin as his inspiration for the song. Thanks Larry.
🎶Erin
Watermelon Wine
If you didn’t grow up listening to Tom T Hall, my sympathies. I am sure that I will cover many Tom T Hall songs while doing Lyrically Speaking. His music was a constant in our house. Sneaky Snake, The Barn dance and so on…. such fun memories wrapped up in his songs.
This song was from a record was appropriately titled “The Storyteller” and boy was he. I remember each and every song. I remember playing it over and over again. Tom T Hall had a way of literally singing you a story- painting a picture and pulling you in.
Listening to this song as an adult I’m struck by these lyrics in the song, “Ain’t but three things in this world worth a solitary dime, but old dogs, children and watermelon wine.” It is said that this song was written word for word from a conversation Tom had with an older man at a bar in Florida. It became a number one for Tom T Hall. Proving once again, if you listen close to strangers, they’ll always tell you the best stories.
Here’s to the wisdom and the honesty of strangers, and again glasses raised to the songwriters of the world.
🎶Erin
Something in Red
Ohhhh boy. This song will get ya in the gut. It follows a young couple from their days as a new couple madly in love, to newly married to young parents to friends. Searching for the passion they had before the changes of parenthood took hold, the gal goes looking for “Something in red” to wear, to spark the once held passion. They lyrics go “We once were hot lovers, now were more like friends. Don’t tell me that’s just what old married folk do...”
This song was written by Angela Kaset, she is a singer/songwriter who honestly I had not heard of before. I think that she has captured what happens to couples as their rolls change. It isn’t an easy transition for most and she was able to capture that in her lyrics.
Lorrie Morgan was the singer of this song, and it got her the one and only Grammy nod for Female country vocal performance. Lorrie was once married to Keith Whitley and later after his death another country artist I listened to Sammy Kershaw.
🎶Erin
The Dance
I can hardly explain my love for this song, and frankly Garth Brooks. I’ve lost track of the times I’ve seen him in concert. Each time just as fun and soul filling as the one before.
The Dance makes it almost impossible for me to pick out a favorite lyric- I tried. Because it’s just that good, I chose the closing line. “Yes my life is better left to chance. I could have missed the pain, but I’d of had to miss the dance”.
This song in all its beauty, was passed on by artist after artist. Until newcomer Garth heard writer Tony Arata singing it and asked if once he got a recording deal he could record it- the rest as they say is history. A well deserved Song of the year award followed in 1991. ( I encourage you to watch the acceptance speech Garth gave, its wonderful)
Here’s to you Tony, thanks for the Dance! 🎶Erin
Everything I own
Driving home from work the other day I had seventies music playing, no surprise… On comes Bread, now it’s not like this is a song you would jam to, but I have to immediately turn this up and sing. I sing loud enough that my Mom in heaven can hear me because that’s who I think of when I hear that opening line.. “You sheltered me from harm, kept me warm, kept me warm. You gave my life to me set me free, set me free...” You know it, and if you don’t drum the steering wheel (and the air) with your fake drum sticks when Mike Botts hits the drums…I can’t be your friend. I’ve always loved this song, and when I was younger I always felt that it was a love song about a guy who lost the girl. But as I got older I realized it was about the love for a parent- although David Gates wrote the song for his Dad I relate it to my Mom since she’s been gone.
There is something so beautiful in the message of this song. So as David would say “Is there someone you know, you’re loving them so, but taking them all for granted. You may lose them someday, someone takes them away and they don’t hear the words you long to say.”
Do yourself a favor, call some people who you love today and tell them how much they mean to you.
Take a minute to count your blessings.
🎶 Erin
You can close your eye’s
“Well the sun is surely sinking down, but the moon is slowly rising and this old world must still be spinning ‘round and I still love you.”
Had to start with my favorite lines from this song. The opening! Kind of sets the stage for the whole deal. I love James Taylor, love his delivery. Love that he is a songwriter/singer and in my humble opinion one of the best.
I have actually chose this song to be played at my funeral one day..(hopefully decades from now, but no day is ever promised) I want that opening line to be played loudly so that all in attendance know I still love them even if I’m not physically there.
They say James Taylor (the original JT) wrote this song for Joni Mitchell whom he had a relationship with. She had said that he was not the best partner and I’m sure back in the day of addiction that was probably true.
🎶Erin
please check in from time to time as the music changes and the lyrics become part of my story……