Here's to Listening and Looking

One of the things I remember about my younger days… (and now we're talking half a century ago or more!) is how I loved music.

I still do, of course.

But back then as much as I loved the tunes, it was the lyrics that caught my attention. I mean when I talked to others about the lyrics, so many of them were lost in the music, the beat, the band, the sound! It was as if they were a few steps above oblivious, that the words were even a part of the song. I exaggerate of course, although, maybe not that much.

Words in music meant so much to me. Especially those wordsmiths with a guitar, pen and paper. People like, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger, Simon and Garfunkel… there were so many back then.

I remember listening to the lyrics in my head, trying to understand what in the world these people were singing about? It was so intriguing. Surely they must have a message? Something that would clear up all the confusion of why I was here, in this crazy world, and most confusing of all… who was I?

They all seemed to know who they were and why they were here. They must have a message, they must have the answers. But could I decipher the code? Could I translate what they knew, into something practical for me?

I remember the lyrics from Paul Simon, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence." and another line from a movie I saw later in life, words spoken by a character in the movie 'Contact', named Ellie Arroway. She said, "I was looking for patterns in the chaos." I think these quotes sum up my search at that time for something substantial to hold on to.

I never did find the key to the puzzle in all those folk singer lyrics. Turns out that the musicians singing all those mystical words in all those songs were probably no closer to answering those questions than I was when i first started asking them.

For some reason, I've always been interested in words, more so as I get older. Words, their meanings, where the word originated and why it became a part of language. It hardly makes sense, since I was such a lousy English student in school. Yet there is this fascination with words and their purpose.