Let me say, first of all, that I have a long history with Mr. B. It's not a history like some people I have known. For fuck-sakes, I was born the year Ziggy Stardust came out. But, it's a long history nonetheless.
Today, I really, really wanted to make a Facebook post saying, "It's official, 'The Stars Are Out Tonight' is now one of my favorite songs, ever."
But, I stopped.
Why? Because last night, or the night before (I can't remember which), I read the lyrics.
I have a bad habit of not comprehending lyrics by listening alone. I am, always, most moved by music. But, I hear a certain line or word, here or there, in conjunction with the music, and I am completely struck. I heard the words that begin the song. "Stars are never sleeping. The dead ones and the living."
I, very naively, was reading this as a line about real stars; not famous "stars." I'm kind of always thinking about human life in terms of cosmology and billions of years. But, I heard, [interpretation] "The real stars are never sleeping." It made me think of how, when a star dies, it becomes something else; a white dwarf or a black hole. It's still there but in a different form. Stars, it seems from our limited perspective, never really die. They keep on in some different form. (I also misinterpreted some other lyrics to my own chagrin, I later noted.)
Getting back to the original point somewhat, my favorite songs of the past decade-ish have been "Time to Pretend" and "Common People." Two, solidly, populist songs, with pretty clear, very solid lyrics. If you read them, you understand them, pretty much instantly.
"The Stars Are Out Tonight," is strange to me. The lyrics make me think of the "everyman," or the "everyhuman." I got so moved by this song, that I looked up the lyrics; an act that is uncommon to me. I was confronted by words that were not what my lizard brain had heard. I assume it was my lizard brain. David is singing about stars like they're other people. He is watching them. He is following them. I read things I was not expecting at all. I went back to the recording. It moved me still; even more, actually.
I returned to the lyrics. What am I not seeing here? Something is moving me like the mythical block of Sisyphus being moved. What IS IT?
"But I hope they live forever." I can't get that line out of my head.
This song reminded me from the start of the two songs I mentioned earlier. Musically, I can make it fit. Lyrically, I am lost. [I just hit the back button for the third time in a row this sitting. This is still after listening to this song several times only a few hours ago. This song is literally keeping me up at night. I can't go to sleep because all I want to do is listen to it.]
{I would like to interject here. I don't think I can mentally, or physically, finish this post right now. I don't have the answer. But, I hope someone does; let me know, please. I will continue this post tomorrow, when I am a little less tired, etc. But, long ago, I wrote the following bits, so I wouldn't forget where I wanted to end this. I will still, I think, end this with these words.}
I still don't know the answer to this puzzle. But,
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