Year 6: Week 18 - A Lesson On David Bowie

This week I taught my kids about David Bowie.  Here's the lecture I have my 8th graders.  If you are interested on my thoughts on "Space Oddity" check out this post.

I want you to think about these facts:

In America:
24% of teachers are men
8.4% of marriages interracial
5.6% of people are Asian-American
2% of teachers are Asian-American

And 1.6% of men on earth are 5”4’

In almost every aspect of who I am, I am not in the majority. The things that make me an individual, the things about myself that I’m most proud of, set me apart from most other people in our country. It has taken me most of my life to embrace the things that make me an individual.

What make you special, what makes you an individual will often set you apart from other people.  In this way, being yourself can be a very lonely but it's one of the most important things you do in your life.

When people think of David Bowie, they think of his music, his acting and his art but most of all people think of a person who was brave enough to be different, to be the person he wanted to be regardless of what other people said.

Even though interracial marriage was legal for decades, when David Bowie married Iman, it was still a big deal to have a public figure be involved in an interracial marriage. As a young boy seeing pictures of them together, it opened up my mind to the possibility that marriage could be between people of difference races. No one told me that I couldn’t marry someone outside of my race but this didn’t really seem like a possibility until I saw the beautiful images of David Bowie and Iman as a couple.



Bowie’s music was imaginative, ground-breaking and beautiful. He use of harmony and his chord progressions were fascinating and challenging. Bowie’s lyrics were haunting, profound, and insightful. He never settled as an artist, and worlds he created with his music are unique and unforgettable.

I look around this room and I see guys wearing clothing with bright colors, shoes with neon accents. There are girls with interesting trim on their glasses and some really cool designs on some shirts. Once upon a time, men didn’t have as many options with the color clothing they wore. Girls were limited as well in their fashion choices. When people like David Bowie were brave enough to push those barriers, dress in crazy ways that sometimes made people question whether he was a man or a woman, it set our culture down a path that allowed the rest of us to be a little weird and embrace the expression of individuality as beauty.

Being an individual can be lonely and when someone has the bravery to an individual in front of the entire world, it makes the loneliness not feel so bad. David Bowie did that for millions of people and he did that for me.

This is “Space Oddity,” his most famous song. He’s tells a great story and it’s a got a beautiful chord progression and melody.  The instruments and Bowie's voice create an amazing journey that and matter how many times I experience this song, it always makes me feel less alone in the world.

Walls (Circus) - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

We walk through guarded. We learn as we grow up that we need to be cautious, that sometimes we can’t fully be ourselves with the people in our world. We put walls to protect ourselves.

Every time we have an emotional connection with someone, a brick of that wall evaporates. Sometimes it’s because we take a chance to share something about ourselves and other times it’s because we take the effort to look further beyond the wall.



I’ve been listening to Tom Petty’s “Walls (Circus)" non-stop since my wife and I had to say goodbye to a dear friend who was moving way. “Walls (Circus)” has always been my favorite Tom Petty song. It’s from 1996, the age when movie soundtracks ruled the charts and while I didn’t even see the Jennifer Anniston film She’s the One that this song is from, I’ve never forgotten this song.

There are times when a song so perfectly matches how you feel that even though you don’t fully understand what you are feeling.  And by listening to the song that somehow fits, everything just makes more sense.

The lyrics don't perfectly describe this person and our relationship. However, there are lines that resonate.  Our friend does has have a huge heart, and the lines about things being over and things moving on really do seem to speak to this difficult transitions in all our lives.

This song is about the dichotomies in life and how difficult it is to make it through. It’s about how we have these barricades and walls not only between people we meet but also with difficulties we face in life. It’s an important reminded that as distant as we may feel from the people around us and as difficult as life can be, walls do fall down.

This song is about more than hope. It’s about believing that with the love we share, joy in life is inevitable.

Distance has been a part of relationships in my life for as long as I can remember.  I had family in Taiwan, I moved away from college and after college people moved away from me.  It doesn't get easier.  You can choose to keep your distance from people for fear that they will move away or that a friendship will end.  It's so easy to game out how something will not work and it's so hard to look past these doubts.  It's a choice, and the hard choice is what life is all about.  Every time you take down a wall with someone else, it makes it that much easier to do it again and embrace the people in your life.

There is a wall between who you see yourself as and who you really are and only with the love of people who really see you, can you bring down that wall and love yourself.    

The distance between our friend will cause challenges, but it is a wall that will fall down.  Once upon a time, all I knew of this person was her name, and less than two years later, I'm having trouble imagining her not being around.  As past walls fell down, I know this new one will fall as well.

Some days are diamonds and some days are rocks.  But these days while lived apart, are more meaningful and beautiful, because we know there is someone out there thinking of us as we hold them in our hearts.

Everybody Has A Dream by Billy Joel

Writer’s block has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. From the point I started studying the act of musical composition in middle school through college as a music compositions major and now writing this blog for the past seven years, the search for inspiration has been a constant struggle.

In my time sitting in a practice room with a blank piece of manuscript paper in front of me in college and during the times when I can’t figure out anything interesting to reflect on in the past week of my life, I find my greatest inspiration in the people in my life.

“Everybody Has A Dream” by Billy Joel isn’t really about dreams like we normally think about the,. When you hear that phase “Everybody Has A Dream,” you think of career goals, an exotic vacations and some material possession someone hopes to own. That is not what Joel is singing about. He says that his dream is to spend time alone at home with someone he loves. Why? Because the most powerful inspiration he has found in his life is in this person that he loves.

It’s not a coincidence that most of the Billy Joel songs I’ve written about have come from his masterpiece, The Stranger. This album is Joel's greatest work and one of the best albums in the popular music canon.  There’s “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” a magnificent Abbey Road-like reality check for high school students (and the rest of us), “Only the Good Die Young,” a hilarious commentary on Catholicism and the trade-offs we all make and “She’s Always A Woman,” a beautiful statement on the nature of femininity (click on the links to check out these posts).

All of these songs including the other tracks on this album blend together Joel’s 1970s cynicism he views love and relationships with the romanticism he grew up with in the 1950s. Even in his darkest moments Joel is an optimist. He believes in love he just doesn’t believe in all of the crap that gets in the way of love which is why it’s not a big surprise that he ends his masterpiece with “Everybody Has A Dream,” a song of thanksgiving.

“Everybody Has A Dream” has a slow gospel feel to it.  Joel's idolization of Ray Charles comes shining through from the chord progression to the laid back feel of the groove.  Echoing blues lyrics the verses speak of searching for inspiration. The world is so bleak he “relies of my imagination,” to get him through his life. The second verse affirms his believe and optimism “and if a word from you can bring a better day,” holds him up and keeps his hopes alive.

The second verse ends with lyrics that are resigned:

So let me lie and let me go on sleeping,
And I will lose myself in palaces of sand.
And all the fantasies that I have been keeping
Will make the empty hours easier to stand.

The bleakness of these words is followed by a the chorus which states that his dream is simply to be “with you.” He doesn’t want anything else in his life, he just wants to be with the person that he loves. When you find a person that brings you inspiration, the motivation not only to create art, but to get up out of bed in the morning, to believe in yourself, to give life your all and to stand up in the face of adversity, there is nothing that you want in life more than to be with that person.

This song is about the journey, the struggle to find inspiration and the strength in we find each other.  Sharing life with others is what gives life meaning and feeling that power is the greatest dream of all.

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. 

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.

Wasted Time by The Eagles

“All relationships ends.”

We have this idea in our society that the perfect relationship starts in your twenties and lasts until you are on your deathbed. Then magically you and your partner die at the exactly same time and no one is left alone to mourn the other person.

This idealized version of a relationship places more value on the length and the way the relationship ends than on the relationship itself. Saying a relationship that lasts a month is not being significant and having a relationship end in betrayal makes us seems like it’s all just wasted time.



Eagles Wasted Time by alfa_blond

For Christmas I got a collection of the Eagles’ studio albums. I know this band from their reunion concert Hell Freezes Over, and I’ve enjoyed their music ever since. I was excited to listen to Hotel California and hear some of my favorite songs in the context of one of the greatest albums in the history of rock music.

While many people (including myself) mock the title track as being a party killer and putting crying babies to sleep (which I swear works for Ollie), “Hotel California” is a beautiful and haunting song. However, the song that really stuck out to me as being truly remarkable was “Wasted Time.”

Like Henley’s later solo song “Heart Of The Matter,” (which I wrote about in this previous post), “Wasted Time,” in an insightful and powerful song that illuminates truths about relationships and the complexities of love.

The song begins with Henley comforting a friend who has recently gone through a breakup. He sings  gently “you can’t believe it’s happening again . . . and it looks like the end.” Like a patient friend Henley works to validate his friend's feelings before helping her feel better. The way that Henley sings “you’re afraid it’s all been wasted time” hints at an understanding that he later reveals.

The way this friend’s relationship ended is one of most painful. It’s not that she was betrayed. In some ways she did everything right and it didn’t work out. She simply “loved the boy too well.” Henley shows off the subtle and effortless acrobatics of his voice with line, gently soaring up and resting on the word “well.” As he continues, he reveals that he too is trying to stop worrying if it’s all been wasted time.

Henley then flips around the advice she gave to him “sometimes to keep it together, we got to leave it alone.” By reflecting back her advice at her, he reminds her of her own inner strength. This leads to the resolution “maybe someday we will find, that it wasn’t really wasted time.” While the song starts with lonely piano octaves, it ends with a sweeping rush of strings and Henley’s voice rising like a sunset.

It can't all be wasted time.  As painful as things may feel and as bleak as the prospects are in the future you can't forget at the the beginning of the relationship there was a spark or some magical shared experience that brought you together.  You can let the way the relationship ends invalidate that moment and all the good times that happened later or you can choose not to.  Yes, there's a time for us all when it feels like wasted time, but it's up to ourselves to move past that and see the value beyond the end. 

Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway) by Billy Joel

At the crossroads of science fiction and rock music you have the good:



 . . . the bad:



Yes, I am categorizing this song as “bad.” You want to make something out it?

Then there’s the um. . .



Science fiction and rock has melded into some amazing musical creations and some  painful musical atrocities. Rock music like science fiction often works as a commentary on society reflecting the future of as a way to examine the present. So while throughout rock music there have been some misguided attempts at melding these two genres, there have been some really amazing ones like "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)."



After spending time in Los Angeles and becoming disillusioned by the music scene and the culture there, Billy Joel returned to New York. He marked this by the release of his album Turnstiles. This album featured songs reflecting this move like “Say Goodbye To Hollywood,” and odes to his hometown like “New York State Of Mind.” This album ended with “Miami 2017,” which portrayed a despotic post-apocalyptic New York, where people had fled to Miami for refuge.

Joel wasn’t that far off. The New York of 1976 was not the Disney Store-Giuliani cleaned up time square that we know now. It was the Taxi Driver, crime-ridden and about to default city that many viewed as a hopeless center of sin.

Loving a city that many disregarded as falling apart, Joel responded with “Miami 2017” singing about watching the city burning down, but continuing to play a concert regardless of the destruction. This was a song about how that even in the apocalypse of iconic buildings and the sinking of Manhattan itself, the spirit of the city lived on through a concert that would not stop.

When the attacks on the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11 occurred, people became cautious to show images of these buildings and the destruction of New York. Instead of going along with this, Billy Joel proudly performed “Miami 2017,” at The Concert For New York.



While his words seemed less prophetic and more like a reflection of actual events, when he sang “we went right on with show,” it meant something to the city and the rest of the country.
instead of mourning the fact that Joel and all of New York witnessed 9/11, the song reminded all of that we are survivors and to take pride in living through this experience.

Through the clouds of dust there’s the music and the spirit that no destruction could silence.

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.