Booking Through Thursday - Sing, Sing a Song!

Deb at Booking Through Thursday asks:

Sing, Sing a Song:

What songs … either specific songs, or songs in general by a specific group or writer … have words that you love? Why? And … do the tunes that go with the fantastic lyrics live up to them?

Now, of course, I have that stupid Carpenter's song running through my head, thanks a lot Deb!

One of my most favorite songwriters of the last 15 years or so is Cheryl Wheeler. She writes funny songs, poignant ones, love songs, breakup songs, songs about her cats - attending one of her concerts is like an emotional Space Mountain ride!

Cheryl wrote one of the best love songs ever - "Gandhi/Buddha." My partner and I sang it to each other at our commitment ceremony. Here's the chorus:

I must have been Gandhi or Buddha
or someone like that.
I must've saved lives by the hundreds everywhere I went.
I must've brought rest to the restless
and fed the hungry too.
I must've done something great…
to get to have you.

At her concerts she sings the alter ego version in addition:

I must have been Hitler or Satan
or someone like that
I must have brought death and destruction
everywhere I went
I must have brought torts to the tortured
Drowned some puppies too
I must have done something BAD to have to have you

See what I mean about Space Mountain?

Another favorite CW song is called "Unworthy." It moves along at a pretty good clip and, as you can see, has lots of words. I love singing this song, though I usually have to untie my tongue when I'm done.

I'm unworthy, no matter what I'm doing,
I should certainly be doing something else.
And it's selfish to be thinking I'm unworthy,
all this me, me, me, me, self, self, self, self, self.
If I'm talking on the phone I should be working on the lawn
which looks disgraceful from the things I haven't done.
If I'm working on the lawn I should be concentrating on
those magazines inside, since I have not read one.

I should learn how to meditate and sew and bake
and dance and paint and sail and make gazpacho.
I should turn my attention to repairing all those
forty year old socks there in that bureau.
I should let someone teach me to run Windows,
and learn French that I can read and write and speak.
I should get life in prison for how I treated my parents
from third grade until last week.

I should spend more time playing with my dog
and much less money on this needless junk I buy.
I should send correspondence back to everyone
who's written, phoned or faxed since junior high.
I should sit with a therapist until I understand
the way I felt back in my mom.
I should quit smoking, drinking, eating, thinking sleeping,
watching TV, writing stupid songs.

I should be less impatient when the line just takes forever
'cause the two cashiers are talking.
I should see what it's like to get up really early rain or shine
and spend three hours walking.
I should know CPR and deep massage
and Braille and sign language
and how to change my oil.
I should go where the situation's desperate and
build and paint and trudge and tote and toil.

I should chant in impossible positions
till my legs appear to not have any bones.
I should rant at the cops and politicians
and the corporations-in indignant tones.
I should save lots of money to leave Audubon,
plus all the rocks and animals and plants.
I should brave possibilities for plotting plums of problems
prob'ly blossomed, plausibly from
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah I'm unworthy.

I also think "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is the most perfect song ever written.
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Turning of the Tide

I've been trying to embed this song on here but having some challenges with it. So I'll just post the lyrics. (If you really want to hear a snippet, go here and click on Turning of the Tide on the left.)

I wrote this 13 years ago and it is so appropriate right now!

Turning of the Tide © 1995 Terri Grayum

I have walked this road alone, I have walked this road with you
When we walk in harmony, there's nothing we can't do!
I have heard the baby cry, I have felt the love inside,
I have seen the magic rise with the turning of the tide

(chorus):
Working to plant the seeds of change,
Singing for all the hope inside,
Loving each other on the way to the turning of the tide

We have asked the hardest questions,
There's so much we want to know
We have learned the finest lesson in the act of letting go
We have played and laughed together,
We have worked hard side by side
We are blessed with simple pleasures
And the turning of the tide (chorus)

We have seen our parents aging,
We have watched our children grow
The cycles are in constant changing, we reap and then we sow
We have planted many gardens,
Scattered seeds both far and wide
Trusting in the soil and sun and the turning of the tide (chorus)

We have sung our songs together,
We have sung our songs alone
It is when we join in chorus we find our way back home
We have sailed the widest ocean, journeyed to the other side
Now it's time to trim our sails for the turning of the tide

Working to plant the seeds of change,
Singing for all the hope inside,
Loving each other on the way to the turning of the tide

Artwork: Rob Gonsalves

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