It used to be my custom in late December to visit websites that list the 100 best songs of the year. I’d work my way through the lists, giving each song a listen.
Some years, I wrote columns about my findings, bemoaning the fact that out of several lists of 100 songs — supposedly the best songs — so few were worth listening to.
The search depressed rather than cheered me, so I gave it up.
This year, I’ve decided to share, from older songs I admire, some lovely turns of phrase. Tidbits sung in passing that are so full of hope or despair, or that explain something so succinctly, they could stand on their own.
From the Beach Boys’ song, Surfer Girl, comes this: “Little surfer, little one. Made my heart come all undone.”
Made my heart come all undone? Has there ever been a more apt description of love at first sight?
In Procol Harum’s, A Whiter Shade Of Pale, there’s this gem: “Her face at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale.”
The entire song is brilliant, but that line in particular makes me sigh.
In Creep, by Radiohead, there’s: “I want you to notice when I’m not around.”
In nine words, that sums up longing — the longing for someone unattainable.
(Be aware that there are two versions of Creep. One uses the F-word and the other replaces it with the word “very.”)
Leonard Cohen’s Famous Blue Raincoat has this couplet:
“The last time we saw you, you looked so much older. Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder.”
Love, regret, and forgiveness merge in those two lines.
The Freshmen, by The Verve Pipe, describes in a single image a well-meaning relationship gone wrong: “We fell through the ice when we tried not to slip.”
How many young couples, not understanding the effort required for a lasting relationship, have felt that ice crack under their feet.
In Royals, by Lorde, the singer uses a three-word phrase to explain that where she comes from is not special or glamorous: “no postcode envy.”
A song that describes an off-again on-again relationship is Annie’s Going To Sing Her Song, by Tom Paxton. Early in the lyric, we learn that the name of the song Annie’s going to sing is Take Me Back Again. And the guy knows he will.
Though Annie sings that song often, she has another in her repertoire: “It isn’t Annie’s only tune; The other I’ll be hearing soon. Next week, tomorrow, or today; She sings it when she goes away.”
In Victoria Dines Alone, Tom Paxton paints a picture of loneliness in a mere couplet. Not only is Victoria dining by herself, she is “Reading the newspaper carefully folded beside her. Hanging her coat by her table and letting it hide her.”
Let me end on a positive note with a song about being true to a sweetheart. In a famous Fats Waller number, he sings, “Ain’t misbehavin’,
I’m savin’ my love for you.”
‘nuf said.
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