Being a linguist as well as a copywriter, this morning I had a few songs from the Spanish-speaking world on my MP3. I was listening to Julieta Venegas, one of my favourite artists. Dearest Julieta was singing about how she was leaving to find a better love. And she knew the very kind she wanted too: 'the type that makes salt sweet and the sun come out'.
A lovely lyric from this Mexican heroine of the accordion, and one of the reasons I love her so much.
Having somewhat ecclectic tastes - or outright weird, some might say! - Poison's Every Rose Has Its Thorn came on a little later. Possibly one of the best rock ballads ever written, the song features heartbreaking lyrics such as:
Instead of making love, we both made our separate ways...
And now I have found somebody new...
And that I never meant that much to you...
To hear that tears me up inside...
And to see you cuts me, like a knife...
A few songs on and it was the turn of the Cure with their uncharacteristically happy Friday I'm in Love. Great song! How can you not love joy-joy lyrics including Thursday - never looking back, because Friday I'm in love... Dooey-dooey-doooo!
Which all brings me to the subject of today's entry: which type of feelings inspire the best lyrics? Do people who 've had their heart torn out and tossed into the grinder write better songs? Do the truly brilliant songs come from people who life has mercilessly chewed up, spat out and then spat on?
Or do they come from people who life smiles upon with unbridled happiness, instead? Maybe they come from happy-go-lucky types who fight for their dreams but, though they never come true, never lose hope either.
It's a tricky one. Probably best if I sit it out and let you decide! Whaddayasay?
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