Lyrics Or A Beat?

I love music. So much so that when I was a kid, my mum said, “If you knew your school work half as well as you know your music, you’d be a straight-A student!” As long as I can remember I have always had music on – I used to fall asleep to it even! Driving, running, sitting at the computer, I can’t do any of these things in silence (although recently I have been turning it off in the car but I put that down to aging, not losing a love of music).

When I met my husband and we talked about music, it became clear we looked for different things in a song – I listened to the lyrics, he listened to the beat. When he played a song he liked, I said, “But what is it about?” He said, “What do you mean?” In saying that, we did share a taste for “older” music – if you think Frank Sinatra is older (I say classic!).

I think over time we both came to appreciate both aspects of a song – the lyrics and the beat. The thing that amazes me about music is that no matter what is going on in your life, there almost always seems to be a song that expresses your feelings so much better than you ever could. It’s like it’s been written based on your inner most thoughts. It also makes me wonder what it is about music that you can not hear a song for 10 years, but then hear it and remember every word. And I love how you can hear a song and it makes you think of a place or time or person, for better or worse. Obviously something in music resonates deep within us – or perhaps it’s just a musical hypnosis/brainwashing technique?

Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of both Pink and Guy Sebastian’s new albums. They both have songs that make me tear up every time I hear them, because I feel like the speak straight into my heart.

Pink’s album, The Truth About Love is amazing. I could (should) write a post just reviewing that alone. It covers every aspect of love you can imagine – the bliss, the confusion, the heart ache, the bond between a parent and child, the love/hate of a relationship so intense you can’t live with it, can’t live without it. There are three songs on this album that I particularly love – Run, Beam Me Up, Just Give Me A Reason. I love them because I can relate them so much to my son, my dad, my marriage.

Run is a beautiful song about letting your child know you’ll always be there for them.

“So take the best of what I got,
and you know no matter what,
before you walk away,
you know you can run, run, run, back to my arms, back to my arms.”

Beam Me Up, I read, is a mother singing to a child she’s lost, which makes it even more of a tear-jerker than me relating it to my dad.

“Could you beam me up,
Give me a minute, I don’t know what I’d say in it,
Probably just stare, happy just to be there
holding your face.
Beam me up, let me be lighter
I’m tired of being a fighter I think
A minute’s enough, beam me up.”

Just Give Me A Reason is a duet with Nate Reuss from “Fun”. It’s touching, sad and hopefully all at the same time.

“Just give me a reason
Just a little bit’s enough
Just a second we’re not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again
It’s in the stars
It’s been written in the scars on our hearts
We’re not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again.”

The song from Guy Sebastian’s Armageddon album that gets me teary is “Big Bad World”, written for his son Hudson, but related to by every parent everywhere. It is a little bit on the cheesier side with some of the lyrics, but the intent, that parental instinct to protect our kids from everything and everyone, is clearly there.

“There’ll be battles
And they may be too big to handle
But while there’s still strength in these bones
You’ll never fight them alone”

And I particularly like the line “All of the milestones and things that I’ve done, they can’t compare to you my son.” Will anything we ever do compare to having and raising our children? I’m not sure, but don’t think so.

Music just soothes the soul, I think. At least, it does for me. And since I’ve started running/training, I’ve come to appreciate music for the beat, too. It certainly helps to speed me along when a great running track comes on. So tell me, do you like music? And if so, do you like it for the lyrics or the beat?