Lyrics and language

I love books, words, languages... even a little of poetry lately, (in Spanish it's at least pretty even if it doesn't make sense.) So I've been noticing lyrics to the music I listen to. This can be fun or annoying depending on the quality of music. One song I downloaded lately goes"Say it again, Say it again, Say it again..." and so on. The violin solo redeems the lyricist.

I've also been listening to the Newsboys. They have good rhythms, good guitars, good drums, but their lyrics (with Australian accents) are what keep me coming back to their music, which has been around for nearly my whole life! What's funny is at school, I'm sick of studying poetry in lit classes: hyperbole, hyperbaton, alliteration, asindeton, metaphors, rhythm patterns, rhyme patterns. But through it all, I can see these things showing up in music, and I'm all the more impressed with the good stuff.

One of my favorite songs of theirs is Adoration. It's the song of one of the shepherd's worshipping Jesus: "He raises a wrinkled hand/ Through the dust and the flies/ Wrapped in rags like we are/ And with barely open eyes/ He takes my finger/ And He won’t let go/ And He won’t let go /It’s nothing like I knew before/ And it’s all I need to know // Come, let us adore Him/ He has come down to the world we live in / And all I have to give Him/ Is adoration."

Another favorite "Let praises echo from the towers of cathedrals /To the faithful gathered underground /Of all the songs sung from the dawn of creation/ Some were meant to persist /Of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples /None rings truer than this// It’s all God’s children singing/ Glory, glory, hallelujah /He reigns, He reigns."

As tempting as it is to analyize, I love to kick back and just enjoy this. Mark Twain said, "I am thankful that the good God creates us all ignorant. I am glad that when we change His plans in this regard, we have to do it at our own risk...People who understand art find nothing in pictures but blemishes, and surgeons and anatomists see no beautiful women in all their lives, but only a ghastly stack of bones with Latin names to them... Accursed be all such knowledge." He was a cynical old goat, eh? It's true that too much attention to something and you start noticing the flaws. But that's only unless it's something great. Then you just appreciate it more.