Wednesday 20 April 2011

Please excuse me while I kiss this guy

"I want your ugly
I want your disease
I want your everything
As long as it’s free
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love"
-- Lady Gaga


She's a freak but all the best ones are. Like all music, it's how you interpret it that makes it mean more to you than just beats and sounds.

I remember reading an interview with Seal, in the 90s. He said that he never included the lyrics of his songs in the CD because he thinks you should hear whatever you hear. The song should mean something to you and that doesn't have to be what the song writer or singer said it would be. That has always stuck in my head, especially at times when people correct me for singing the wrong words.

There was a great moment once when my sister and I were playing competition Sing Star. That's Sony's version of karaoke. We were singing Culture Club. It was Karma Chameleon. I can't remember the right line now because I've learnt the correct words. Anyway, we were both singing and our scores were so close. Then we both hit a line and we both sang the exact the same words. They were the exact wrong words too.

We laughed hysterically and then she beat my score. She always does. Don't ever take her on when she is singing Torn by Natalie Imbruglia. She will kick your arse.

I guess the point is that the lyrics are whatever they mean to you. For all baggage and lessons learned. For all experiences that made you smile and weep. For all the losses and battles won.

The world is whatever you make it. It is whatever you see it as.

So what if someone else writes the lyrics? So what if someone with a nice voice sings the song? The meaning you give it is yours. All yours.

Just make sure you laugh if you get the words wrong at the same time as someone else :)

1 comment:

RadhikaR said...

Oh I laughed at this! Getting lyrics wrong is half the fun. I remember a longstanding debate over lyrics with the man I eventually married about the words to an Elvis track that he had so seriously wrong. He wouldn't budge - my flatmate had to break it to him because he wouldn't believe me. We still laugh about it 12 years later.