WHO KNEW? » lyrics

Holidays Through John Lennon’s Eyes.

veronicaromm — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:31:54 +0000

The year end holidays are supposed to be a time of joy and giving. No matter what happens through the year, no matter who you are, Christmas/New Year’s/Hanukkah etc.. always come around and we pause to acknowledge them. John Lennon’s “So This Is Christmas” is not the typical holiday song. Rather it is an observation of what millions of children around the world deal with to this day. Not much has changed since Lennon recorded this song. Yes, perhaps the children are in other third world countries today, but they are still hungry and lacking the basic necessities of life. I think John Lennon would have been dismayed to know that fact. Yet there are those who continue to work for bettering the lives of these children and to them I say thank you. Let us hope that the New Year will truly be one where change will be possible and children will have a chance to live better than they do now. For those suffering this holiday season, you are in my thoughts. For those who have something to share, there are many many ways of helping some of these children make it to another New Year, give to The Red Cross, The Children’s Charities of America, and/or any charity of your choosing.

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – John Lennon

 So this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young.

A very Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The road is so long

And so Happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight.

A very Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

So this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so Happy Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young.

A very Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

War is over!
If you want it
War is over!
War is over, Now!

Posted in blog, blogs, christmas, holiday, John Lennon, lyrics, peace, video Tagged: blog, lyrics, music, peace, people, video. John Lennon, writing

Everybody Knows

veronicaromm — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:34:19 +0000

Concrete Blonde – Everybody Knows

I named my blog Who Knew? almost exactly one year ago. I had no idea how aptly I had titled the blog and as a year passes it reinforces within me a certain innate ability to honestly say “I have no idea what the future holds.”

I am someone who lives in the day, which has it’s distinct positives i.e. I am very spontaneous and most of my travels have occurred very spur of the moment, and it’s devastating drawbacks. It is who I am however and I make no apologies or excuses, it is how I live.

Things tend to come full circle in life so this post features a song called Everybody Knows by a legendary performer Leonard Cohen.

Cohen rose to the opportunity this audience represented by releasing two consecutive albums, I’m Your Man (1988) and The Future (1992), that not only rank among the finest of his career, but that perfectly capture the texture of particularly complicated times. Cohen had long documented the high rate of casualties in the love wars, so the profound anxieties generated by the AIDS crisis were no news to him. Songs like “Ain’t No Cure for Love,” the wryly titled “I’m Your Man” and, most explicitly, “Everybody Knows” (“Everybody knows that the Plague is coming/Everybody knows that it’s moving fast/Everybody knows that the naked man and woman – just a shining artifact of the past”) depict Cohen surveying the contemporary erotic battleground and reporting on it with characteristic perspective, insight and wisdom.

I first heard the song in a movie called “Pump Up The Volume“ in 1990 and it was performed by the band Concrete Blonde. Later I learned it’s origins and became a Leonard Cohen fan. It came at a time when everything was changing, I was going off to college and my senior year in high school was marked by a clinical depression which almost prevented me from going off to University. Thankfully I was able to get through it and I remember listening to this song on repeat in my car almost compulsively. I think it quite fits the brooding and scared teen I had become for the song is not very hopeful, and in many ways very true.

So here I am 17 years and half a lifetime later posting my first post-hiatus entry into this blog. Who Knew? the poem I wrote asks many questions. Everybody Knows offers many answers, some all too true and others can be debated. I know though that it evokes for me a great deal of truth, some fear and it does so in a very poetic fashion. Leonard Cohen wrote what he knew. I say who knows?

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded

Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed

Everybody knows that the war is over

Everybody knows the good guys lost

Everybody knows the fight was fixed

The poor stay poor, the rich get rich

That’s how it goes

Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking

Everybody knows that the captain lied

Everybody got this broken feeling

Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets

Everybody wants a box of chocolates

And a long stem rose

Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby

Everybody knows that you really do

Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful

Ah give or take a night or two

Everybody knows you’ve been discreet

But there were so many people you just had to meet

Without your clothes

And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows

That’s how it goes

Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows

That’s how it goes

Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it’s now or never

Everybody knows that it’s me or you

And everybody knows that you live forever

Ah when you’ve done a line or two

Everybody knows the deal is rotten

Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton

For your ribbons and bows

And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming

Everybody knows that it’s moving fast

Everybody knows that the naked man and woman

Are just a shining artifact of the past

Everybody knows the scene is dead

But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed

That will disclose

What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you’re in trouble

Everybody knows what you’ve been through

From the bloody cross on top of Calvary

To the beach of Malibu

Everybody knows it’s coming apart

Take one last look at this Sacred Heart

Before it blows

And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows

That’s how it goes

Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows

That’s how it goes

Everybody knows

Leonard Cohen

Posted in artists, authors, blog, blogs, life, lyrics, music, personal, philosophy, questions, society, songs, thoughts, video, web blog, writing Tagged: Leonard Cohen, life, lyrics, music, thoughts, web blog. personal, writing

From the archives: If I knew the way I would take you home.

veronicaromm — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:28:39 +0000

I was twelve years old when I saw the movie Mask and heard the lyrics to “Ripple.” The song is played in the background as Sonny (Cher) finds her son Rocky (Eric Stoltz) dead in his bedroom after suffering from a disease that disfigured him and caused him much physical and emotional pain. I was in hysterics as I watched the scene unfold, yet as Ripple softly played, the lyrics stayed with me, like a lullaby comforting and peaceful. This was my first time hearing the Grateful Dead and it was the beginning of a musically and lyrical love affair with Hunter and Garcia. The song is simple, poetic and has a message that even as a young child I related to. As an adult I would go on to see twenty two Grateful Dead shows around the country before Jerry Garcia died Aug. 9 1995. This song is still able to evoke those emotions and it is rare that I do not cry or tear up a bit when I hear it. The last line of the song has always been my favorite, a reminder that we all get lost sometimes.

Grateful Dead – Ripple

Ripple
Lyrics By: Robert Hunter
Music By: Jerry Garcia
If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung
Would you hear my voice come through the music?
Would you hold it near, as it were your own?

It’s a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken
Perhaps they’re better left unsung
I don’t know, don’t really care
Let there be songs to fill the air (note 1)

Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty
If your cup is full may it be again
Let it be known there is a fountain
That was not made by the hands of man

There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go, no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone

Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow

You who choose to lead must follow
But if you fall, you fall alone
If you should stand, then who’s to guide you?
If I knew the way, I would take you home

(1) on the version on Reckoning, Jerry Garcia says “That’s Otis” at this point, referring to Bob Weir’s dog who had wandered onstage

For another look at Ripple please go to Play on,

Coldplay: Viva la vida HQ

veronicaromm — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:37:35 +0000

I am a sucker for Coldplay. The first time I heard them I thought it was U2 I was listening to. Chris Martin makes no bones about his desire to be the U2 of this generation. I know that for me that makes perfect sense. The music, the ballads are reflective and I know the melancholy is abundant, but I love it. This band touches me. Fix You off of X&Y is another one that hits deep and floods me. Martin’s voice isn’t perfect, instead it’s vulnerable which makes him believable.

Coldplay Viva La Vida Live Video Music Awards High Quality

Sometimes a song says it all.

veronicaromm — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:00:00 +0000

Matchbox Twenty – Unwell (Video)

From the archives: I posted this a while ago, and it has taken on yet another meaning.

This song came out at a time when I felt very much like the lyrics suggest. I would hear it and at once feel like I understood the artist, and then immediately want to cry. Crying was good then, and so I turned to this tune on more than one occasion to pull me out, down, or up. It may be trite, but it worked.

UNWELL

MATCHBOX TWENTY

All day staring at the ceiling
Making friends with shadows on my wall
All night hearing voices telling me
That I should get some sleep
Because tomorrow might be good for something

Hold on
Feeling like I’m headed for a breakdown
And I don’t know why

[Chorus]

But I’m not crazy, I’m just a little unwell
I know right now you can’t tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you’ll see
A different side of me
I’m not crazy, I’m just a little impaired
I know right now you don’t care
But soon enough you’re gonna think of me
And how I used to be…me

I’m talking to myself in public
Dodging glances on the train
And I know, I know they’ve all been talking about me
I can hear them whisper
And it makes me think there must be something wrong with me
Out of all the hours thinking
Somehow I’ve lost my mind

[Chorus]

I’ve been talking in my sleep
Pretty soon they’ll come to get me
Yeah, they’re taking me away

[Chorus]

Yeah, how I used to be
How I used to be
Well, I’m just a little unwell
How I used to be
How I used to be
I’m just a little unwell

Blasting Rock and Roll

veronicaromm — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:06:31 +0000

You send me a message in the form of a song,

I listen to you singing all night long.

You know I can’t ignore it,

The ache is getting strong

It feels like any minute,

No matter right or wrong.

Fighting to contain it,

is oh so futile now.

Must be a way to get to you

You know I will somehow.

Can you remember yearning

in the far depths of your soul.

When all that could sedate it

was blasting hard core Rock and Roll.

For that very moment

A frozen wisp of time.

You’re all I need to help me breath,

Is that some kind of crime?

You sent me a message in the form of a song,

I listened to you singing all night long.

I still remember yearning

in the far depths of my soul.

When all that would sedate it

Little Wing

veronicaromm — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:06:14 +0000

Jimi Hendrix is a legend for his groundbreaking guitar

playing. In the few years he actually recorded music

he redefined rock and roll and made his contemporaries

wonder where this odd fellow had come from.

He also wrote some of the most interesting lyrics, poetic

and evocative. Studying him through various biographies

it is quite clear that most of his songs were written for his

mother, who had passed when he was a small child. This song

in particular was written for her. It is my favorite song, with my

favorite lyrics, for it is a poetic expression of a great loss. His words

however, are not so much sad as they are childlike, and wistful.

He imagines her in a magical place and keeps her memory alive

and vibrant, as she was said to be in life. Thank you Jimi for

having so much heart and love in a world that did not always

show you either.

Little Wing

WELL SHE’S WALKING, THROUGH THE CLOUDS

WITH A CIRCUS MIND THAT’S RUNNING WILD

BUTTERFLIES AND ZEBRAS AND MOONBEAMS

AND A FAIRY TALES.

THAT’S ALL SHE EVER THINKS ABOUT

RIDING WITH THE WIND.

WHEN I’M SAD, SHE COMES TO ME

WITH A THOUSAND SMILES SHE GIVES TO ME FREE

IT’S ALRIGHT SHE SAYS, IT’S ALRIGHT

TAKE ANYTHING YOU WANT FROM ME

…ANYTHING

FLY ON LITTLE WING

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH,

FLY ON LITTLE WING