The Turtle by Kingsley Tang (Grade 2)

I am a stuffed turtle at Toys R Us toy store.  It's December.  It's very crowded.  People looked at me and think about getting me.

When the sun went down and the store closed up, I played with my friend, stuffed tortoise.  We play hide and seek.  Tortoise usually won because he is smaller than me.  We had parties with other stuffed animals.  

One day, it was the day before Christmas, a lady bought me for he child, John.  I got wrapped up in a box.  Finally it was Christmas.  John opened me.  John put me on his bed and we slept together, we played together a lot.

When John got older, John had his own children.  He gave me to his children and we played together.  I was passed on for many generations and I still played with all the children in John's family.

I Wanna Marry You by Bruce Springsteen

In the nationwide debate on marriage equality the conversation swirls around the idea of what defines a marriage. The focus of this debate centers on homosexuality as the one variation in marriage that would demolish the definition of marriage to the point that it would loose its meaning.

Plurality in marriage exists in ways that far exceeds a straight relationship versus homosexuality. There are marriages that include monogamous relationships and open non-monogamous relationships. There are people who are married who live together and those who live apart. There are marriages in which both people are about the same age and other marriages where the two people are a generation apart in age. Some marriages are very focused on religion and some unions do not see religion as part of their relationship.

In some marriages the two people are of the same race and others like my own marriage join two people of different races.

If we can define marriages as being anything we want them to be, than what is marriage?  We find one answer in Springsteen’s romantic ode to marriage, “I Wanna Marry You.”



“I Wanna Marry You,” is a strikingly beautiful in his heartfelt but realistic romanticism.  It's an optimistic and gentle song right before the deep and powerful title track on The River.  Like the line “you ain’t a beauty but hey you’re alright,” from “Thunder Road,” Springsteen doesn’t sugar-coat this story. Most romantic songs idealize the object of desire and what love can do for this person. Springsteen takes a different approach and opens the song by describing how this girl that he loves is a single mom with two kids.

This isn’t exactly the girl that most teenage boys fantasize about, but this is what makes this song so endearing. Springsteen doesn’t care that she has kids. You almost get the sense that he loves her because of this fact.

The next verse shows sensitivity, as he tells her that he doesn’t believe that marriage should “clip your wings.” He tries to tell her that there are responsibilities to think about and that true love is no fairytale. He knows that he can’t make everything change for this girl but he’s going to do what he can. There is something so gentle and reassuring when he sings “to say I’ll make your dream come true would be wrong, but maybe, darling, I could help them along.” Some girls may want to hear a romantic fantasy but sometimes its simply more powerful to hear that someone express honest devotion.

The song ends with Springsteen's gentle voice rising on the word “wear your name,” as he proclaims how proud he would be to be her husband. It’s an expression of joy of hope and desire that feel so much more honest and pure than simply singing out “I love you.”

Springsteen’s idea of marriage here is romantic but it’s also realistic. It’s a mix of devotion and hope, a union that provides stability but also is one of pride. These are the tenants of marriage, not the race or sex of the individuals involved.

Last weekend, Diana and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary.  Thinking about our time together, I got to disagree with one of Springsteen's points.  There's nothing sad about wanting someone as bad as I want my wife, as I wear my love with pride.  Every day we share together makes me look forward to the rest of our lives together even more.

Yes I do want to marry you, now more than ever. 

The Ties That Bind by Bruce Springsteen

It starts with an alarm. Four forceful guitar chords push you out of the door to confront what you've been trying to ignore.
 
The River’s opening song “The Ties That Bind,” is not a gentle invitation like “Thunder Road,” which opened Born To Run. It’s an urgent, questioning and immediate song that lays out the central theme of Springsteen’s epic The River.


Springsteen’s opening songs for his albums often lay out central themes that frame the entire work. For Wrecking Ball, “We Take Care Of Own,” asks the two defining questions of the album as well as the questions of the presidential election: Who are our own and what does it mean to take care of these people?

“The Ties That Bind,” and The River struggles with different questions. What are the connections between us and how do we they limit and free us to help us through the struggles in our lives? If you think about the songs I’ve already written about from The River they all wrestle with this idea. “Drive All Night,” is about a man struggling with the ties that he feels with a love that has left him.  “Wreck On The Highway,” is about the feeling of love that connects a man to his love in the face of tragedy.  “Fade Away,” deals with the feeling that a bond is being a lost. “The River” describes a feeling of responsibility and commitment in the face of struggle  and “Sherry Darling,” is about a guy who is annoyed at the relationship his girlfriend has with his mother.  (Now I'm not sure how all those songs about cars fits in with this theme, I'll look into that later).

To introduce this theme, “The Ties That Bind” portrays a conversation in which Bruce tries to convince a girl to stop ignoring the reality of her life. In the first verse, he acknowledges that she has been hurt and that she wants to get away. She is angry and resentful and is “walking blind,” to the ties that bind.

In the second verse, he continues, telling her that her “cheap romance,” is meaningless. She thinks that “walkin’ tough,” is a sign of strength, but the true challenge is facing up to her responsibilities.

In the bridge, Bruce argues that he would rather “feel the hurt inside” than feel “the emptiness your heart must hide.” The last verse continues this idea as Bruce says that he would be with her and “stand in time.”

"The Ties That Bind," faces this tough conversation with a joyful and energetic rock groove.  It's more garage band than "epic wall of sound."  It's harkens back to a simpler type of rock song but with themes far more complex and challenging than most songs that share its structure and style.

"The River" is the title track of the album and is a powerful examination of the ties of love and responsibility between two people.  "The Ties That Bind," brings us into this idea and asks us to question how we face our own reality and begin thinking about what are the ties that bind that we ignore but can never truly escape.

Bruce is right.  It is better to feel the pain in life with someone else than to run away from one's responsibilities alone.  It's a harder path but it draws us together to the people that we love.  This is worth the hardship.

The ties that bind sometimes get in our way, sometimes they feel like a burden.  Sometimes in life we pull away from these ties and at other times we let them draw us closer to others.  It's a constant struggle but like these bonds, this struggle defines who we are and the choices we make every day.  

Drive All Night by Bruce Springsteen

How do you read the end of The River? “Drive All Night” is an outward in its expression of emotion. Bruce is melodramatic and not subtle at all in that song. It’s incredibly repetitive with a rather simplistic and obvious expression of love. This is immediately followed by “Wreck On The Highway, which is a beautifully subtle and nuanced way to describe how much he cares about her through observing a tragedy. It’s the most jarring contrast in the album.

I’ve been struggling with this question for the past two weeks as I tried to understand what Bruce was thinking. So I went through my “how to understand a Bruce Springsteen"-process.

Step 1: Listen to the song
Step 2: Listen to the song again
Step 3: Read the lyrics, analyze them
Step 4: Listen to the song again
Step 5: Google the song and read various people’s commentary on the song
Step 6: Sing the song, either a capella or with the recording
Step 7: Watch a live performance of the song.
Step 8: Go back to Step 1and try again.

It wasn’t until I got to Step 7 when this song started to make sense to me.



Bruce standing on a stage declaring his love in a darkened stadium in front of a sea of lights is a beautiful image. There is something so honest and so real.  On the studio album, "Drive All Night," comes across as drawn out as Bruce's voice strains toward the end of the song.  On stage Bruce comes across as one of the Bobby Hatfield singing "Unchained Melody."   

“Drive All Night,” isn’t a look into the internal dialogue of a man’s deepest feelings like “Wreck On The Highway.” This is a love song, a persuasive letter, a desperate plea from a man to get back the girl he has lost. Something has happened that has torn them apart, and now she is in tears and he’s doing, and saying everything he can to get her back.

He’s a man telling his woman how much he love her.  

The chorus seems a little trite. He’ll drive all night to get her shoes? But quickly this line go into wanting to sleep tonight in her arms. Sometimes things we do for the ones we love seem ridiculous but there’s something romantic about this moment. Sometimes it’s not the big grand gestures, sometimes it’s a small thing, almost an inside joke. The whole thing about the shoes echoes a memory, a crazy act he once did for her that he’s willing to do again.  When you watch Bruce sing these lines live, you realize like the greats soul-singers of the past, he could be singing a page out of the phone book and it would still feel romantic.  

The verses don’t seem that intricate until you see them on paper. With songs like “Thunder Road,” the speed of the text brings out the symbolism but with “Drive All Night” it's different.  You still have great poetry but the slow tempo the lyrics are sung makes them seem more like something a regular man would say, not a poet.

The second verse brings in angels calling for strangers that she needs deal with. These are ghosts, regret and everything that keeps us from our dreams. It’s powerful that this man has the insight to her trauma and has the desire to help her work through this tough part of her life.

There's machines and there's fire waiting on the edge of town
They're out there for hire but baby they can't hurt us now
Cause you've got . . . my love heart and soul.

The power of love is described with so much conviction that even if we don’t believe that his love can conquer her life’s issues, these words make us want to. 

I wrote in my post about “Wreck On The Highway,” that it ended abruptly. After listening to a double album, we need an epic Springsteen ending. We get that with “Drive All Night.” Bruce’s repetition, the way he builds towards the end of the song is the perfect way to reflect on all of the drama and the characters that we experienced throughout The River. Except for “Point Blank,” and “The River” this song is almost twice as along as every other song and is the longest song on the album.

“Drive All Night,” draws The River into a stunning and powerful climax. “Wreck On The Highway,”  are the credits. It’s our time to pause and reflect. It’s our transition back into reality. It’s how we actually feel as opposed to the unattainable romanticism we long for from "Drive All Night."

Sometimes when people ask me what’s so great about Springsteen, I’m at a loss for words. There’s just so much he does so well. But the one thing more than anything else that makes him special is that when he sings, you believe him.  I still don't believe him when on the studio version of "Drive All Night," but watching this live performance I'm taken to that place where music breaks the walls of logic into the depth of the human heart and I believe. 

I believe Bruce and I believe in love.  

Wreck On The Highway by Bruce Springsteen

“Wreck On The Highway,” the closing song on Springsteen’s epic The River album describes what it means to love somebody in a unique and unexpected way.  Much like the Barenaked Ladies’ beautiful “Tonight Is The Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel” (which I discussed in this earlier post), “Wreck On The Highway,” a car crash become a catalyst for the expression of true love, without using the word “love.”

Both of these songs take the challenge of describing love, not through metaphors, or poetic devices, but rather through events that happen in life. This requires subtlety, carefully constructed lyrics and truly remarkable performances. “Wreck On The Highway,” blows this challenge out of the water.



“Wreck On The Highway,” has very simple lyrics. Springsteen who is known for amazing poetic imagery lets the music set the mood and speaks not as a poet, but rather as a simple man.

The protagonist comes across a wreck. There’s a man, lying on the side of the road who asks for help. An ambulance comes and takes the man away. As the main character drives away from the wreck, he imagines a girlfriend or a young wife receiving the news that her loved one died.

At this point in the song our protagonist imagines what this tragedy means to people who may have loved this man in the wreck. This isn’t something people thick about when they are teenagers or even when they are early adults. Immaturity narrows our focus on ourselves so we don’t think about how things effect others. One of the things that draws us out of this bubble is having someone in our lives that we truly care about.

To love someone, to truly be in a meaningful relationship is to understand that one’s actions resonate with people who love you. This man has reached this point. It is this imagination that leads us to think that there is something deeper going on in this man.

The last verse is one of the most beautiful that Springsteen has ever written.

Sometimes I sit up in the darkness
And I watch my baby as she sleeps
Then I climb in bed and I hold her tight
I just lay there awake in the middle of the night
Thinking 'bout the wreck on the highway

What is he thinking when he watches her sleep? Does he fear a loosing her? Is he grateful for the time they have together? Is he concerned that one day he will cause her pain, or has he already made a mistake that caused her to be hurt that he regrets? We don’t know, Springsteen, doesn’t lay it out for us, so it forces us to wonder and project our own feelings on these lines.

It may seem strange to think of a tragedy when you hold someone you love, but think about it for a minute. Whenever something sad happens, whenever we feel pain, we long to be held by that one person in our lives that provides us with meaning and comfort, the one person who completes us.

Sadness and fear are like every other emotion. They are meant to be shared with people we love because when we go through these emotions with other people, they give these emotions meaning.

After the length of a double album, we expect a long outro to “Wreck On The Highway,” but it seems to end before before we get a chance to reflect on the lyrics. This is jarring but so is seeing a wreck on the highway. Thankfully, Springsteen adds a little bit more music after the pause to give us a little bit more time, like that the one more moment we wish we could have had with someone we've lost.

“Wreck On The Highway” challenges us to think about what it truly means to know love and share love with others. 

Fade Away by Bruce Springsteen

What are we really scared of when someone breaks-up with us? Maybe it’s the loss of companionship or loosing emotional security of having a partner. Or maybe it’s the fear that somehow we will be forgotten, somehow we will fade away.



Springsteen's songs about break-ups take a mature and interesting approach to this subject. One of my favorite Springsteen songs “Bobby Jean” (which I discussed in this earlier post) is a song about a break-up but it’s more about wanting to wish the other person well than wanting them back. It’s a mature reflection on a break-up and demonstrates how someone should feel if they truly care for the one that they have just lost.

In “Fade Away,” Springsteen pleads for a relationship not through apologies or descriptions of pain and hurt. Instead he sings about understanding and his fears.

The opening is about how the girl has found another man “who does things to you that I can’t.” This reasoning for a break-up should be enough to send any man into a rage but instead, there’s a sorrowful disbelief in his words.

The organ is almost ghostly and sets up a mellow and beautiful texture for this slowly undulating melody. The background music reminisces about the good times in the relationship, which juxtaposed against these sad lyrics expresses the emotional complexity of a break-up.

The chorus is a simple plea. He just wants to know what he can say or do, not because he “wants” her back, he just doesn’t want to “fade away.”

In the second verse, he continues to validate her feelings. He knows that he has messed up and with great humility he accepts the situation. This continues in the next verse, when he expresses that he misses the good times as well. He’s not shifting blame but saying that he understands.

When he sings about not wanting to “fade away,” he is saying that he doesn’t want to be another “useless memory.” He wants their time together to mean something. He doesn’t feel like he did enough in the relationship, to feel comfortable leaving it just yet. He hopes that she will carry part of his love with her for the rest of her life.

One of the fears we have about death is that we will be forgotten. If we aren’t remembered than that somehow means that our life didn’t have any meaning. That search for meaning comes through in relationships as well.  It’s one thing to accept that we will have relationships fail in our lives.  But the idea that we will fade away, that our time in these relationships don’t have meaning reflects the loss of meaning in our lives.

We can’t ensure that people we meet in our lives will carry us with them after our time with them is over. You can never know what brief encounters in life will hold a pernament place in our hearts forever and which long, seemingly significant relationships will fade. What Springsteen captures in “Fade Away,” is a very honest and revealing look at fears that we all share but we don’t want to acknowledge.

Fears should lead us not to speculate or worry about things that we cannot know instead they should motivate us to do the best we can in our lives, in the moment. That’s all we can do. Fading away is a scary thought, but it’s doesn't reflect a loss of meaning. Just because we don’t remember someone doesn’t mean that they didn’t have an impact on our lives. If we truly care about someone, it’s not important that they remember us but that the love that we gave them helped make them a better person.  In that way, we will never fade away.

The River by Bruce Springsteen

If “Thunder Road” is the dream, then “The River” is the reality.



All of the hope, the trust and the optimism of “Thunder Road,” is tested in “The River.” It asks the question, what keeps us going when our dreams seems more like distant memories than our destiny?

“The River,” is a stunningly beautiful and almost uncomfortably emotionally raw masterpiece. It starts with a harmonica just like “Thunder Road,” but instead of being a comforting invitation, it’s a mournful cry. Springsteen’s voice comes forth in a clear and pure way. The lack of melodrama and the straightforward way that he sings expresses a feeling of being distant that mirror the struggles of our protagonist.

The story is simple. He is raised in a town where there is not a lot of hope and not a lot of expectation that you will do anything beyond what “your daddy done.” Even with this environment, he would take Mary out of the valley into green field down to the river. You can almost imagine that drive as the ending of “Thunder Road,” feeling the glory of the open road.

Mary got pregnant, he got a union card, and they got married. There’s no romance in this wedding. There’s “no flowers, no wedding dress.” Even with all of the pressure of the baby, and the less than idea wedding they can still escape to the river.

Things get worse. He can’t find work. The “things that seemed so important,” just vanish. There’s depression in these words as what he used to love no longer holds our interests because reality is just too much. He copes by saying he doesn’t remember what used to mean so much to him, like his music, his friends, while Mary acts like she doesn’t care. They have surrendered to life. He has given up on his memories and Mary, acting like she doesn’t care, devalues everything they used to hold dear.

At this low point in the song, the music picks up momentum and he dives deep into a memory at the river. In these couple lines Springsteen’s romanticism is beautifully displayed “and pull her close just to feel each breath she’d take.” It’s at this point that we begin to understand what’s so special about the river.

This memory doesn’t bring comfort, it torments. Springsteen's voice rises in anguish and he sings "haunts me" expressing how painful it is to be reminded of how good things used to be.  His voice almost cracks as his voice descends  from that melodic peak.   It makes you understand why he would rather forget than live a life that’s only a shadow of what came before. A dream that is a lie is not as bad as a memory that you simply can’t forget.

The memory that haunts him draws him back to the river, but the river is dry. Everything is different. Like his life, the river has changed and will never be exactly the same again.

There’s something about this song in the music that expresses perseverance. Yes, he is haunted by his past but it’s still there. It exists and what once haunted him may one day bring hope.

Sometimes even when we've given up on our dream, our dreams haven't given up on us.

Sherry Darling by Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen has tackled some of the most profound issues and events in the American experience. He has written and performed songs about 9/11, the Vietnam War, unemployment, unions, teenage pregnancy, the failure of the American dream, racism, sexism, fatherhood, patriotism and religion.

“Sherry Darling,” from 1980's The River addresses another important part of what it means to be American: the mother-in-law.



The River is where Springsteen really hit his stride. While it’s not as epic as Born To Run, it takes the depth of Darkness On The Edge of Town an injects it with an unashamed optimism. While there are very deep and somber songs on this album like the unforgettable title track, in many ways, no Springsteen album rocks quite as joyfully as The River.

Springsteen wanted to capture the 1960s sub-genre “fraternity rock.” We’re talking about a song like “Wooly Bully,” and “Louie Louie.” These garage band songs were recorded in what sounded like a party. This type of song you can immediately sing along to partially because the lyrics are ambiguous but mostly because of the spirit and the energy of the song.



The ridiculous thing about Springsteen is that he couldn’t simply do a fraternity rock song without putting his own spin on it.  The way he did this was by making it into a hysterical rant of a song, complaining about his girl’s mom.

“Sherry Darling,” isn’t a direct complaint to the mother. The words are directed towards the girl. However it comes across more like the protagonist is with a bunch of his friends bragging to them what he’s going to tell his girl. There’s a sense of bravado, which gives you the idea that this may be more talk than anything else.

The first verse and chorus are hilarious. He complains about the mom’s feet, the fact that this mom won’t shut up and if she doesn’t he will kick her out of the car. The last part of chorus turns it around to being romantic, “I got you and baby you’ve got me.” It speaks to a dream of a relationship that is untouched by outside forces. There’s this idea that if the world would leave two people alone they could be happy, but relationships are never just about two people.

In the second verse, other girls distract him but then he swings his attention back to Sherry. The song continues to be romantic “let the brokenhearted love again,” while reminding us each chorus about his issues with the mother-in-law.

“Sherry Darling,” is a fantasy. It’s like thinking about how great it would be to tell off your boss. You’re never going to do it, but sometimes it’s fun to think about it and laugh about it with friends. Springsteen pairs this feeling with the jubilation of an idealized teenage love. He’s got beer, an open road and his girl, what more do you need in life?

It’s put across in an immature and brash way, but it’s a beautiful thought. We don’t need our moms, our jobs, all these other people, we got all we need in each other. This feeling of optimism, the confidence in the power of love is expressed emphatically in this song. We get beaten down, because forces all around us just seem to get in the way, it’s nice to be reminded sometimes you don’t really need much to be happy.  Even though you may have a mother-in-law with big feet, if you’ve got the one you love, you can laugh and sing about it.

Out In The Street by Bruce Springsteen

The interesting thing about Springsteen’s works is that they don’t all necessarily immediately capture your attention. “Thunder Road” immediately enraptured me from the very first time I heard it and so did “Promised Land.” Other songs didn’t really speak to me until I heard them live like “Born To Run” and “Waitin’ On A Sunny Day.”

Then there’s the songs I’ve listened to that don’t really capture my imagination until one day when I become obsessed and listen to northing but that one song over and over for a week. “Out In The Streets,” was that song for me last week.

Springsteen has started selling his live shows on his website and I got his Cape Town, South Africa performance. It’s an amazing show and its great t hear Springsteen work a crowd that doesn’t necessarily react the way that he expects.

There’s so many great moments on this show but his performance of “Out In The Streets” really stood out to me.


This song has it all. It’s got that blue-collar perspective, the amazing sax solo, and the vocalized crowd response in the chorus right after “out in the street.” The lyrics don’t have any metaphors. It’s very straight forward, but there’s something so beautiful in its simplicity. Someone works all day and when they hit the streets they feel freedom. That’s it.

Like in so many other Springsteen songs, the music of “Out In The Streets,” captures the feelings of this song as much as the words. Some of the lines hold so much meaning in live performances like “in the crowd I feel at home.”

Like “Thunder Road,” this song starts with an invitation, and it’s less poetic but it’s somehow more immediate. This song puts you so quickly in a place to hope and freedom that’s very different than “Thunder Road,” or some of Springsteen’s deeper songs.

The great appeal of Springsteen is that he allows himself and his music to be different things to different people. Not every song will have the same level of appeal and accessibility. While I love analyzing his most complex lyrics, I also am in awe of a song like “Out In The Streets,” and his ability to capture a different type of feeling so effectively.

There’s this family feeling when Springsteen performs this song. When he brings everyone up to the microphone at the end it feels like a musical group hug. When Clarence comes up, it’s just beautiful. It’s hard to explain what seeing him up on the stage means, but it’s really special. There’s something profound in their friendship and the sound of his saxophone as a musical counterpoint to Springsteen’s voice.

Everything in life is worth taking a second look at. You never know when something comes alive to you in a way that you never expect.

I'm Goin' Down by Bruce Springsteen

There’s a lot of reasons that I want to be like Bruce Springsteen when I grow up. One of the main reasons is because he has so much fun doing what he loves.


Seriously, look how much fun he’s having during the last chorus. You can’t fake that kind of joy.

Watching this recent performance of “I’m Goin’ Down” it’s clear that he is having the time of his life. Springsteen has many different songs that cover so many different styles and watching Springsteen perform this album cut from Born In The U.S.A. reminded me of another layer of this amazing artistry.

“I’m Goin’ Down,” is a simpler song than “Thunder Road,” or “The Rising.” It has a simply four chord pattern that is repeated through out the song and the melody, while catchy doesn’t have a lot to going on. Sometimes Springsteen channels Bob Dylan, sometimes he channels Motown artists like Smokey Robinson. With “I’m Goin’ Down,” Springsteen is challenging The Beatles when they first came to America in 1964.

You can hear it in the structure of the melody and even see it in in the way Springsteen bobs his head side to side just like Paul did back in the day.  There’s an innocent joy in this song that is reminiscent the youthful joy that The Beatles came across the ocean with and inspired many American including Springsteen himself to be a musician.

The lyrics of “I’m Goin’ Down,” are kind of . . . down. He’s singing about a passion that has fizzled. There’s no turn around in this song or resolution. It just goes on and on about how things aren’t going very well. So what is Springsteen so happy about?

This song isn’t one of those “let’s sing a happy song with sad lyrics to deal with the pain” –songs. It’s more like “hey, there are these issues, but I’m naive enough and young enough to think that my pleas will turn you around, because chances are you are actually still into me, but you’re just playing a game, right?" It’s capturing a level of innocence and hopefulness, which from an older perspective seems ludicrous, but hey, that’s what it means to be young.

Another way you can look at this song is a man getting payback and stating “look, at what I used to do for you, if you’re not careful, you will loose this amazing man you see before you.” “My kisses used to turn you inside out,” has a sly wink, which makes this song feel more like a flirtatious game then a reflection of a relationship falling apart.

It’s so remarkable how a song can feel so good and be about something that doesn’t seem that happy. In some ways, this dichotomy makes the song even more joyful. There’s dirtiness and there's tension.  It’s not an ideal love, it’s something you can relate to. All relationships ebb and flow and we fight to stay in the game because of how good we know it can be.

That’s really what this song is about. It’s about that feeling that is lost but brings us so much joy in our memory that we can’t help but smile when we think about it even when we are faced with sadness.

Come On Eileen by Dexy’s Midnight Runners

The year I was born was a crazy year in music. There was Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Working for the Weekend” by Loverboy, and Willie Nelson’s “Always On My Mind” (I’ve written about all of these songs, just click on the song title.” These three songs have maintained status in pop culture in film and television commercials (Soprano’s, Zoolander, jeans commercials).



One song that really deserves a resurgence in pop culture is one of my favorite songs from my birth year “Come On Eileen.”



There’s so much that is weird about this song in such an awesome way. First off, Dexy’s Midnight Runners is named after the drug Dexedrine, and midnight running was the idea about dancing all night when using that drug. With this kind of band name you expect some kind of club, synthesized dance music. Instead you get a unique folk-inspired song, full of heart.

This song doesn’t really sound anything like the other songs that came out that I mentioned earlier in this post. Well none of those songs sound at all like each other which is one year 1982 was such an incredible year in music. “Come On Elieen,” has musical allusions throughout its structure from the opening violin playing the irish folk song “Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms,” to mentioning of Johnnie Ray a 1950s singer-songwriter.



“Come On Eileen” kicks in with a myriad of instrument including a piano, accordion, trombone and saxophones and violins. Nothing about the groove feels like something that would chart on a the U.S. Billboard charts but it became a number 1 hit, sandwiched between “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” by Michael Jackson.

The lyrics are often misunderstood.  Even when I follow along with them its still hard to understand what is being sung. Basically it’s a reflection on the previous generation and being amazed at how much this girl Eileen has grown up. The chorus, which I grew up thinking, was:

At this moment,
take off everything,
You in that fress
Oh, it falls on your breast,
Oh you’re dirty,
Oh, come on Eileen

Is actually a much sweater sentiment:

At this moment you mean everything,
You in that dress,
My thoughts I confess,
Verge on dirty ,
Oh, come on Eileen

There’s an amazing and sudden change in the groove into the chorus that happens with a shift in the meter dropping two beats that you expect to hear. Then there’s one of the most unusual musical devices in pop music an accelerando. Pop songs rarely speed up and slow down. There’s only a handful of examples when this happens. The moment when “Come On Eileen,” slows down and slowly grinds ups up makes you feel like you are hearing a live recording of the band.

I remember dancing to this song in college, twenty years after it came out and feeling the dance floor slow down and pick up towards the end of this song. It’s really a beautiful musical moment that is rarely experienced in pop music.

“Come On Eileen,” is a beautiful song with so much spirit and heart. There’s a reverence to the past in its words and music and also an innocence that makes this song shine like the  smile of a close friend.

Let’s bring this song back to the center of pop culture. It’s well-deserving of the attention and primed for a new generation to misinterpret the lyrics as they dance along to the sweet sounds of Too-ra-loo-rye-aye.

She Drive Me Crazy by The Fine Young Cannibals

Before I knew the difference between falsetto and chest voice, I knew there was something weird and kind of awesome about “She Drive Me Crazy.” Rarely does a singer make as a dramatic shift between singing styles as Roland Gift does in this 1988 hit.



While this switch from head voice to chest voice is notable, there are many other things about this song that are memorable. There’s the sparse but fitting instrumental background, the incredible hook and the overall “you can’t help but smile,” feeling you get when you hear this song. If you looked at the lyrics by themselves, they would seem a little dark. The first verse is about a feeling that he can’t control and feeling tortured by the fact that he is waiting for her. The lyrics of obsession continue in the second verse and by the third verse he states, “I can’t make it, on my own.”

The weird thing about love is that these feelings that seems like torture make you feel like you are alive in ways that you could never imagine which you feel when the words are placed to the music.

Part of the way that you know you are in love with someone is the fact that you don’t feel like you are in complete control of your thoughts or your feelings. This kind of drives you (and often your friends) crazy because you really can’t help but talk about this person. Yes, this can get a little annoying sometimes but more that this feeling of craziness is accompanied with a kind of joy that only comes from that first burst of love.

Than there’s Kermit’s version. . .



This verson plays the verses against the chorus, which flips this song into a conversation. Wait a second, is that what the original song was going for? Are the Fine Young Cannibals portraying a person with multiple personalities who is literally driving himself crazy?

Mind = blown.

Man, who isn’t in this video? Was that Dick Clark and Little Richard? Ok, anyways. Fine Young Cannibals created one of the greatest feel good rock songs of all time. While some may think of them as a one hit wonder, they had some other great songs like “The Flame” which my brother and I spent a couple months in high school believing was the greatest song of all time.

She's Having A Baby - Film Review

When people think about films about having a baby, titles like Father Of The Bride Part II and Nine Months come up. These film take a humorous look at pregnancy and having a baby. Unfortunately these films, like many others, steer away from representing the difficult realities of these experiences and fail to deal with the more challenging and complex emotional issues relating to having a baby.

One film that is not as well known but always shows up in lists of films that have to do with childbirth is John Hughes’ She’s Having A Baby. Like Hughes’ other works, this film is based in Chicago, touches on the challenges of growing up and has some powerful honest insights into life and relationships.



This films stars Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern as a couple that falls in love, gets married, buys a house and has a baby. There’s nothing really extraordinary about the plot but the way that its told is unique.

All of this film is through the perspective of Kevin Bacon’s character Jake. There are cut-scenes and altered reality as Jake deals with adulthood. He doubts whether he should get married, he’s unsure about settling in the suburbs, the job he takes seems like its crushing his spirits and his relationship with his wife doesn’t seem very loving.

Jake wanders through life, not fitting in; trying hard to reconcile his doubts with the responsibilities he’s taken on as an “adult.” Then his wife Kristy gets pregnant in the last third of the film. The relationships between Kristy and Jake seem to get better leading up to the childbirth scene.

Hughes can’t resist making one more childbirth cliché as Jake drives off to the hospital leaving Kristy behind but once they get to the hospital, the film takes on a very different tone.

Things don’t go as planned as is often the case with labor, and Jake is stuck out in the waiting room as Kristy has an emergency caesarean section. As Jake sits in the waiting room, his life with Kristy flashes in his memory. We see scenes from earlier in the film but instead of them fighting, we seen them laughing and enjoying each other’s company.



Kate Bush wrote and performed “This Woman’s Work,” for this scene. This song is full of hope and belief. It’s a song that honors the strength of women and captures the complexity of the emotions in this scene.

She’s Having A Baby is a flawed film and what it’s trying to say is more powerful than how it says it.  Regardless, John Hughes is right.  Sometimes we don't see the happiness that's right in front of us and sometimes our dreams are out of perspective from the realities that fulfill our lives in ways that our dreams never could.

A lot of people have told me that having a baby will change the way I view my life.  Is having a baby really going to change my entire perspective?  I don't know.  But after watching She's Having A Baby, I'm looking forward to that change. 

Always On My Mind by Willie Nelson

You know one of your friends is really into someone they like when they bring that person up in conversation all of the time. If you’ve been on the other side of this you know what it’s like to have someone always on your mind.

Like the first burst of emotions when you fall in love, the intensity of your thoughts about this other person wanes over time but it never really disappears. What happens after years in being in a relationship with someone isn’t that they leave your thoughts, it's just that you get so used to them being in you thoughts it becomes normal to think of the them all of the time.

“Always on My Mind,” is one of the most famous and beautiful love songs in popular music. It’s as much an apology song as a statement of commitment. Brenda Lee first recorded it in 1972:



This song was a moderate success but it was Elvis Presley’s cover the brought this song into prominence:



My introduction to this song was through Willie Nelson:



Brenda Lee is a fantastic singer but what works with Nelson’s and Presley’s version is the fact that they both exude this feeling of regret and heartache. This song isn’t an open apology. It’s not saying: “I did all of these things wrong,” instead it goes with “maybe. . . I did something bad.” That’s a big deal for this character in this song.  You hear that in the desperate voice of Elvis in his later years and the beat-up and battered voice of Willie Nelson.

Willie Nelson really owns this song. It feels like songs that he wrote for himself. There’s a conversational feeling to the verses that opens up into a beautiful chorus. There’s desperation, a feeling that this is the last attempt to bring this person back into his life, yet he can’t just come out and say that he was wrong. It’s tragic on some level how much he just can’t bring himself to open himself up. But you feel like he’s trying and maybe that’s enough.

What consolation is it really that someone who has done you wrong was thinking about you the entire time?

It depends on the situation, but for me it means a lot. It’s a statement that other things in life aren’t as important and through all of stuff they did wrong, they couldn’t help but think of you. The knowledge that someone is thinking about you is comforting. It lets you know that you matter, that you mean something and that you are always with the people who love you.

Express Yourself by N.W.A.

Before creating Beats ear phones, before discovering Eminem, before revolutionizing Gangsta Rap at Death Row records, Dr. Dre was one of the boldest and most controversial rappers in America. 

Along with the late Eazy-E, Arabian Prince, DJ Yella, MC Ren and Ice Cube (yes, the same Ice Cube who is in the family comedy Are We There Yet?), Dr. Dre created the rap group N.W.A.  This group created a firestorm of controversy with the explicit language and content in their lyrics.

They rapped about their own lives and the problems they faced everyday. Mainstream American culture was simply not ready for the realism within their music. N.W.A. sparked a musical revolution still felt today not only in rap music but in all of pop music.

Most of my middle school students know Dr. Dre for his headphones. When I was growing up I knew him as producer mainly creating the background beats for Snoop Doggy Dog and Eminem. It was only recently that I discovered N.W.A.’s music and was floored by Dr. Dre’s skills on the microphone.

“Express Yourself,” the last single off of N.W.A.’s 1989 album Straight Outta Compton featured Dr. Dre rapping about the power of self-expression.



N.W.A. sampled Charles Wright & the Watts 100 Street Rhythm Band’s 1971 hit of the same name.



On top of this infectious sample Dr. Dre explodes in the beginning of the first verse:

I’m expressing with my full capabilities
And now I’m living in correctional facilities.
Cause some don’t agree with how I do this,
I get straight, meditate like Buddhist.

He goes on to call out hypocrisy with the way other people talk about drugs, and the way rappers change what they do to get on the radio. Throughout the song he has entertaining and clever similes and rhymes like “moving like a tortoise, full of rigor mortis." Like Smokey Robinson’s classic Motown lyrics, there’s a sense of fun in the rapping and the wide vocabulary on words the Dr. Dre utilizes.

While the song has a softer message the video links together the character slave driver, policeman and executioner.  N.W.A. also evokes imagery of Kennedy being shot.  All of this juxtaposed against this light-hearted song reminds us what N.W.A. is really all about.

There is freedom and joy in genuine self-expression, even if what you are expressing are darker parts of the human experience.  "Express Yourself," walks this line carefully encouraging others to be who they are while calling out the problems that keep people from being genuine.

It's amazing to see how far these artists have gone.  Dr. Dre is still around and when he hits the mic he still does it better than most of the younger guys out there right now.  There is something special about hearing him rap more than twenty years ago.  There's an energy and excitement that makes you not only want to rap along but create your own music to express yourself.  

Blame It On The Rain by Milli Vanilli

At first the story of Milli Vanilli was one of triumph. Then it became one of scandal and finally it ended in tragedy. When Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus signed on to be the faces of the pop group Milli Vanilli, they had no idea how it would change their lives.

Producer Frank Farian, after recording an pop album, felt that he needed a more marketable duo so he hired Fab and Rob. The album Girl You Know It’s True went on to be a Grammy winning success.

Then during a live performance, the track they were lip-syncing to started to skip and the truth about the record came out. Then the scandal erupted and they had to give their Grammy’s back. After being butt of jokes for years and finally being able to tell their side of the story on VH1’s Behind The Music, Milli Vanilli began work on an new album that would feature their own voice. Sadly on Arpil 2, 1998, Rob Pilatus was found dead in a hotel. His death was ruled and accidental drug and alcohol overdose.

When I think about Milli Vanilli, it always makes me sad. People overreacted. Look, I know they lied and they mislead the public, but we’re talking lip-syncing. It would be one thing it they performed on stage as classical musicians. These are pop musicians who are dancing around in a way that makes it nigh impossible for them to sing well without at least a backing track.

Getting offended or surprised by a pop singer lip-syncing, is like getting angry about the fact the McDonalds is selling you previously frozen food. Yes, Milli Vanilli took it one step further by not even singing on the original recording but in the world of music scandals (which includes murder, shootings and extortion), this is a pretty minor offense.

The lead single “Girl You Know It’s True,” is really silly and campy. It’s dated, the rap is contrived and is pretty forgettable, but the other single from their album “Blame It On The Rain” really has heart.



I came across this video of Fab performing this song live and it was really touching. After everything Fab has been through, he’s making it happen on stage. These guys were put through such a ridiculous media storm and all they were doing was trying to entertain people.

There’s really not a more perfect song than “Blame It On The Rain,” to reflect about the legacy of Milli Vanilli. Sometimes focusing on who’s to blame isn’t the important thing. Did Fab and Rob deserve to be punished for what they did? I’m not sure, but they did get punished. I’m not saying that we should take blame for Rob’s death, but our reaction couldn’t have helped.

The reason we look for blame is to provide us a way to move forward. Sometimes we can do this without beating ourselves up or punishing someone else. No, that’s not a cop-out, sometimes it’s the best thing to do, because mistakes lie with the people who make them whether or not we can see that clearly.

Dancing In The Dark by Bruce Springsteen

As I said goodbye to Allie, I tried to say something honest and real but instead all I could muster was awkward reassurances. Allie was moving away and like any big change in life, the feeling was bittersweet. There was the excitement of new opportunities mixed with letting go of the life that came before.

One of the things about going to a college that attracts people from all over the country is that you become friends with people who in the years after college move away.  My late twenties seemed to be marked with having to say goodbye to friends.

Saying goodbye always feels unfinished. There is never enough time to say what you want. You tell yourself that it doesn’t matter if you get it all out because you'll "be in touch," however that's not always the case.  As easy as a cell phone call or an e-mail can be, sometimes keeping in touch with those we care about fall to the corners of our lives.

While we said our goodbyes the silences between our words were filled with the joyous singing of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark.” Like a guiding spirit, his presence helped me get through that moment and listening to this song afterwards revealed to me feelings I always had but couldn't articulate.



“Dancing In The Dark,” is Springsteen’s most successful single that led to the sales of Born In The U.S.A. This song, packed with 1980s synthesizers feels completely different than the passionate and operatic rock of Born To Run. While people seemed to revel in this song, the happy melody and harmony juxtaposed against the disturbingly dark lyrics like “I want to change my clothes, my hair, my face,” never really made sense to me.

Something changed when I listened to this song and thought about Allie. The lines about the challenges of life seemed to take a back seat to the lyrics about hope:

Message keeps getting clearer . . . 
There’s something happening somewhere. . .
I’ll shake this world off my shoulders, come on baby this laughs on me.

These lines reflect why I admire Allie and why I am proud to be her friend.  While Allie has been blessed with a wonderful life, she has had challenges. When life has knocked her down, Allie gets right back up, and with a smile keeps on.  Never a victim, Allie lives life with the wind on her back and the sun upon her face.

In darkness, like in life there is much to fear.  You can’t predict the future and it’s impossible to truly see what’s around you in the darkness. So you have a choice: you can sit in the darkness petrified by uncertainty or you can stand up and dance.

Allie chooses to dance.

None of this came out as I said goodbye because I didn’t really want to think about what it meant for Allie to move away. Now that I have, I think it’s okay that things were left unfinished. This friendship isn’t ending so why should a goodbye feel complete?

Allie, best of luck in your new place with your new job, I’ll see you in September when Bruce rocks Wrigley.

Dancing On The Ceiling by Lionel Richie

"He has a special quality that makes me want to punch him."

 My wife, Diana said this after listening to “Say You, Say Me” by Lionel Richie. Much to her dismay, I recently put Lionel Richie: The Definitive Collection on my iPod and we’ve been listening to it in the car.

Now, I understand what Diana is talking about. Lionel Richie is one of those puzzling figures in pop music. He’s one of the most successful solo artists of all time. If you were alive in the 1980s, you listened to this guys music. He has yet to diminish from our popular culture and his country album, Tuskegee, is one of the best selling albums of 2012.

His incredible success is puzzling because of . . . well . . .  have you seen the video to “Hello”?



I spent an entire blog post (click here) mocking this song. I’m not alone in making jokes at Richie’s 1980s styling and music videos.



Mainstream pop music in the 1980s, while directed at youth culture also seemed directed at forty-year olds. People like Huey Lewis and Billy Joel, seemed to dress like people’s parents and Richie with his jackets and sweaters fit right into this more “comfortable” idea of a pop music star. The artists who are around now present themselves as being younger and more hit and often time more overtly sexual.

The other thing about Richie is that he’s not that good looking and he’s not that great a singer. He has very distinctive adlibs and sings with instantly recognizable phrasing. To certain people, like my wife, it’s kind of irritating. I get that.

But I still love this guy. My favorite Lionel Richie song is “Dancing On The Ceiling.”



My parents bought this CD and I used to dance around listening to the title track. I didn’t know that Fred Astaire had previously done before the whole ceiling dancing thing.



So I was blown away by the music video. Yeah, it’s cheesy, all the cameos are really corny but there’s something about this song that’s so much fun.

Pop music audiences in the 1980s were less cynical. Something cheesy like “Dancing On The Ceiling” could be a hit, a song with a silly and fantastical subject, could never be a hit today. If you can peel back your jaded view on what’s “cool” and “in,” you’ll find that there’s a lot of fun to be had with Richie.

Look at Rascal Flatts kicking it with Lionel.



This is awesome . . . and I’m not saying that in an ironic way. “Dancing On The Ceiling” doesn’t speak any great social message, nor does it break any music boundaries, but it captures that carefree moment I had as a child dancing around my living room with abandon.

What a feeling.

I’m Gonna Be (500 miles) by The Proclaimers

Would you walk 500 miles to be with someone that you love?



Okay, let’s break this down. 500 miles is roughly the distance from Chicago, Illinois to Willmar, Minnesota. According to google maps it would take 165 hours to walk that distance. So let’s say seven miles of walking a day, and we have 23 days of walking. That’s like three weeks of doing nothing but walking!?!

I would totally walk for three weeks to fall down at my wife’s door, but I’m not sure I would walk 500 more. That’s like 6 weeks of walking. I’ve never done anything consistently in my life for six hours, so forget six weeks.

People making totally unrealistic statements of what they will do for someone they are in love with is something that makes absolutely no sense until you’ve been in love with someone.  It’s not like people who are in love have reached some higher plain of understanding, it’s quite the opposite. Somewhere between love-drunk and over-romanticized ideas of love there’s a level of passion that pushes logic aside and convince people like Romeo and Juliet that getting married in hiding and faking death will end well.

As being “in love” simmers into “loving” someone, logic enters back into the picture and people are able to make educated decisions about their future, hence why you should wait a reasonable amount of time before getting married.

Here’s the thing, as weird and crazy as that "in-love" stage is, it’s kind of fun which is why songs like “I’m Gonna Be,” stick with us. We want to go back to that crazy feeling and remember what it feels like to think that we would do anything for our love.

Something about this song has simmered in our pop culture like in this appearance from Family Guy:



To one of my favorite episodes, "Arrivederci, Fiero," from How I Met Your Mother, which prominently featured this song.

Even though the delivery of this song is a little forceful, it’s really catchy and it’s hard to believe that it was originally released so long ago in 1988.

What really works about this song is not so much the chorus that stretches logic but confidence in the verse of how he will be with her. This isn’t a question or something to ponder about. He will be next to her through the good and the bad. That’s not unrealistic and the craziness of walking for three weeks makes it even more powerful.

If you've been in love and understand this song then have fun with it.  If you haven't had that moment when all logic escapes your mind in the eyes of another, then come back to this song when that moments hits and you'll be singing along with this song.

Breakthru by Queen

When I first started to go out with Diana I made mix CDs for her. I put a lot of thought into each of these CDs (I talked about this process in this earlier post). I don’t really remember the reasons why I picked most of the songs for those CDs I made for her almost ten years ago but for some of the songs I do. And one of those songs is “Breakthru.”



This late masterpiece by Queen was released in 1989, two years before the death of lead singer Freddie Mercury. While most people think of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Will Rock You,” when the think of Queen, I think of later songs like this and “Under Pressure” (which I discussed in this earlier post). With “Breakthru,” and many of these later songs, Queen wrote music that really spoke to the spirit of liberation and freedom. Instead of being an anthem for the sake of rocking out, these songs were anthems that talked about the deeper meaning of life.

At the time that this song was recorded, Mercury was feeling the effects of AIDs and lead guitarist Brian May was suffering from depression. Instead of creating music that reflected these feelings, Queen rallied and created a song that aimed to lift others out of these dark feelings. Starting with a slower, almost improvised vocalization, Mercury creates a dark and eerie musical landscape and out of that like the train in the music video comes a driving and pulsating beat.

The lyrics are beautiful expressions of love and adoration.  Mercury delivers them with a level of intimacy and charm. At first you feel that he isn’t so much singing but talking straight to you and as the chorus hits, his voice soars. You can feel the joy that this band had in creating this music. It’s in Freddie’s voice, the amazing groove and the ease at which Brian May play  his guitar solo. While Mercury sings about trying to make “you” smile, you can’t help but smile yourself.

I put this song on that mix CD for Diana because I wanted to tell her how much I wanted to get to know her better. I wanted her to know how excited I was to make that breakthrough, make her smile and know her. I wanted to her to know that the uncontrollable smile I feel when I listened to “Breakthru” was the same one I had on my face when I thought of her.

Ten years later “Breakthru” brings me back to that early part in our relationship, and the excitement of getting to know someone. Are there still breakthroughs to make in our relationship?  Not in the same sense as in the beginning of our relationship.  Instead of the breakthroughs being in getting to know each other, it's in sharing new experiences in life.  The same excitement I felt with wanting to get to know Diana, I feel whenever Diana and I enter a new adventure in life together.

As I got to know Diana, everything I found out about her made me want to get to know her even better and with every adventure we share together it makes me look forward to each breakthrough we share.