We were at a concert with our friends last Friday. It was at a small theatre, with space to maybe a hundred listeners. The singer was a young woman, a wonderfully skilled artist, who sang many songs I had never heard before. So, I really tried to listen to what she sang. The lyrics were very touching, and poetic and beautiful.

How many times, I wonder, I have been simply singing along with music I did never really listen to? The melody, sure, but the lyrics… Maybe not so much. I suddenly realized I had happily hollered (in the proverbial shower) lyrics that were downright stupid. Not matching my world view at all.

Yet music is the language that goes past our analytical mind, and touch our emotions directly. Should we use this to our advantage and “sing our troubles away”? Choose music with lyrics that match our life situation? Sing along with the songs? Try to change our habits with songs? Sing the songs as therapy – to help us recognize our emotions through our reaction to the song, both music and lyrics.

Have you ever tried writing song lyrics? I have. Not easy. You have to say a lot in a few words, because the song is not a novel. You have to decide are the lyrics going to be a poem, or prose. You actually have to have something to say, if you want to succeed in writing the lyrics.

What a skilled writers the ones have to be, who really write the evergreen lyrics.

And what is my favorite? Louis Armstrong’s It’s a Wonderful World:

“What A Wonderful World”