Music vs. Poetry

“To everything (turn, turn, turn), there is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep.”

To Everything There is a Season (Turn, Turn, Turn) – The Byrds
With substantial plagiarizing from The Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, King James version

I am a nerd. I am not ashamed of that but even if I were, there is no denying it. I actually wore a pocket protector in high school, which pocket contained multiple-colored pencils, a small protractor, and a small slide rule. Of course, my main slide rule (which I still have) hung from my belt like a sword. Didn’t yours?

As a certified nerd, I did many of the things that nerds were supposed to do, which I will not detail here to protect your sensibilities. But one of the things nerds were supposed to do was appreciate classical literature and poetry. Neither really stuck with me. And I tried too. The road to erudition is paved with the works of Tennyson and Whitman and Kipling. On top of that, I have two middle names – Bayard Taylor. Bayard Taylor was an ancestor of mine who was the poet laureate of the United States. Longfellow was a contemporary who wrote a poem that he read as the eulogy for Taylor’s funeral. He was a confidant of Abraham Lincoln who would read the president poetry to improve his spirit during the most difficult times of the Civil War. I have original copies of his books of poetry.

I have never read them. You see, poetry just doesn’t work for me as hard as I have tried. Oh, sure I might occasionally quote something from Gunga Din or The Road not Taken where appropriate, but that’s about it.

But…put those same words to music, and to me they come alive.

There’s an old advertising maxim that if you have nothing to say, sing it. That’s because anything, even nothing, when sung has feeling and can be more easily remembered than when it is merely spoken or read. Friends have told me over the years that I must know one verse to every song ever written. Well, not quite. But I do know a lot.

Hopefully I will not be stuck down for confessing this, but even Bible passages fall flat with me, unless they are sung. Hence the “song lyrics” at the top of this page. I could have included lyrics from Handel’s Messiah as well, which, in my opinion, is one of the most powerful pieces of music ever written.

I have sometimes said that all of life can be found in the lyrics of a Tom Petty song. OK, that’s not true. But I think it is true if you consider the whole of country music.

So, in this blog, You will see that I will include a lyric from some piece of music with many posts. I’ll miss a few and some with be only tangentially relevant. But you all can chime in with replies to me with lyrics I may have missed or better ideas than the one I presented. I also like historical quotes so you will certainly see some of those as well, even without a tune.

And for you lovers of poetry, I admire your talent as I would that of a gymnast whose feats I can never replicate or even understand. Bravo!

So, I end this missive with some lyrics from a recent song by Lady A, formerly known as Lady Antebellum. I am not fond of their name change, but I have always enjoyed their music. This is appropriately called “What a Song Can Do”.

“It can make you dance and make you cry
Make you wanna give it one more try
Start a band, and kiss that girl
And break some rules
It'll make you give your heart and get it back
Change your mind just like that
When it's like every single line was written just for you
Ain't it crazy what a song can do?”

I Remain Respectfully,
Congressman John Campbell
Drive Fast & Live Free