love and relationships

The Eyes Have It is Song Lyric Thursday


Actual time and effort was devoted to the discovery of which body part is mentioned most often in song and the winner was (drum roll) the eyes.

There is no small irony in the fact that only song I can think of and really like about eyes is the Jeff Healey Band’s Angel Eyes which I think is from that awful Patrick Swazye movie Road House*.

Ironic, you ask?

Yes, ironic given the fact that Jeff Healey lost his eyes to cancer. 

But here is the song anyway because I really have always liked it. It was one of those songs from my youth that desperately wished I could find someone worthy enough to dance with whenever it played.**

 

 

Girl, you’re looking, fine tonight,
and every guy has got you in his sights.
What you’re doing, with a clown like me,
is surely one of life’s little, mysteries

So tonight I’ll ask the stars above,
“How did I ever win your love?”
What did I do?
What did I say,
to turn your angel eyes my way?

Well, I’m the guy who never learned to dance,
never even got one second glance
Across a crowded room was close enough,
I could look but I could never touch

So tonight I’ll ask, the stars above,
“How did I ever win your love?”
What did I do?
What did I say,
to turn your angel eyes my way?

Don’t anyone wake me,
if it’s just a dream
‘Cause she’s the best thing,
ever happened to me

All you fellows, you can look all you like,
but this girl you see, she’s leavin’ here with me tonight

There’s just one more thing that I need to know,
if this is love why does it scare me so?
It must be somethin only you can see,
’cause girl I feel it when you look at me

So tonight I’ll ask the stars above,
“How did I ever win your love?”
What did I do?
What did I say,
to turn your angel eyes my way? 
hey, hey, hey, yeah, awww

*The best scene in that movie is when Swazye’s character does his love interest against the wall and then seemingly dances her across the room without slipping out. An impressive cinematic decision on the part of the filmmaker.

**Rob thinks this is a really dumb song, but the opportunity for dancing to it hasn’t ever come up and it doesn’t suit him, or us, lyrically in my opinion anyway.

The Story of Who I am is Song Lyric Thursday


One of my favorite songs from the soundtrack of my journey is one I discovered as a free download from iTunes during the time that Rob and I were in the long distance part of our relationship.

I didn’t have any way to use my iPod in the car at that point, so I burned a disc and listened to it quite a bit. During the week that Rob was visiting towards the end of the school year and helping me get the house ready for sale and packing for the move, he was driving me back and forth to work in my car. One day he admitted that the cd I was listening to kind of choked him up and it turned out to be this song he had heard.

It’s a really good song. But I am a lyrics girl.

 

 

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don’t mean anything
When you’ve got no one to tell them to
It’s true…I was made for you
I climbed across the mountain tops
Swam all across the ocean blue
I crossed all the lines and I broke all the rules
But baby I broke them all for you
Because even when I was flat broke
You made me feel like a million bucks
You do
I was made for you
You see the smile that’s on my mouth
It’s hiding the words that don’t come out
And all of my friends who think that I’m blessed
They don’t know my head is a mess
No, they don’t know who I really am
And they don’t know what 
I’ve been through like you do
And I was made for you…
All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don’t mean anything
When you’ve got no one to tell them to
It’s true…I was made for you

Rodgers and Hammerstein Make Song Lyric Thursday


When I was very little I discovered my mother’s collection of soundtracks. They were mainly Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals: Oklahoma, Carousel, The Sound of Music but she had Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man too, which is one of my all time favorites.

I would play them on the stereo in the living room. Dance around. Sing. Act out the parts – once I was old enough to understand that they were telling stories. I can’t remember when I reached an age where I was too self-conscious to perform “publicly”, but eventually the stereo was dismissed to the basement where my “productions” continued well into my early teens.*

Since then I have had a life long love of musicals, but not so much as something to watch. My affair is music and lyric based, and of course, all about the story-telling.**

Cinderella was one of my favorites growing up. I remember watching it on television yearly for a long time. I don’t remember the girl who played Cinderella but the Prince was portrayed by a soap actor on one of my favorite soaps, General Hospital.

The following clip is from the 1997 Whitney Houston/Brandy version. I used to show it to my students when we were studying folk/fairy tales. The multi-ethnic casting never seemed to bother them, a testament to the power of the story, I think.

The song is Ten Minutes Ago and it reminds me of both my husbands.

*I always wanted to get up on stage and sing, dance and act, but I was too shy and too aware of my size. The only time I tried out for a play in high school I was rejected because of my weight.

**The only musical I have ever seen live was Les Miserables, and yes, I know it is overwrought, but the songs are wonderful and story is compelling.