'90s Songs

I know I've had a bit of an '80s tune fetish on this blog but it's two songs from the early '90s that keep coming back to me now. One of them is the B-52s "Roam:"

Fly the great big sky
See the great big sea
Kick through continents
Bustin' boundaries
Take it hip to hip
Rocket through the wilderness
Around the world
The trip begins with a kiss

Something about the trip beginning with a kiss speaks to me. I never even knew they were saying "bustin' boundaries" until I Googled it. Nice. When I sing the song in the car, I often get choked up at the part where we roam "without anything but the love we feel." Maybe some day Jarrah and I will sing it together in the car. It's a lively song--it doesn't have marshmallow soup, mind you, but I think it would appeal to kids. They like to roam.

The other song is a little more heartfelt for me. It's a song that suggests that things are going to be okay, even when they currently suck. That there's a future and that pain makes joy even sweeter. That whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger. Don't think I don't know that's a total cliche but there it is. I really believe it. Sometimes I like to listen to it on my headphones as I walk on the treadmill, timing the pound of my white sneakers to the beat. It's not flying, but it's going somewhere, even if just metaphorically (and hey, I'm a sucker for a metaphor.) The song is "Learning to Fly" by Tom Petty:

Well, I started out
down a dirty road
started out all alone
and the sun went down
as I crossed the hill
the town lit up
and the world got still

I’m learning to fly
but I ain’t got wings
Coming down
is the hardest thing

Well, the good old days
may not return
and the rocks might melt
and the sea may burn

I’m learning to fly
but I ain’t got wings
coming down
is the hardest thing

Well, some say life
will beat you down
break your heart
steal your crown

So I started out
for God knows where
I guess I’ll know
when I get there

I’m learning to fly
around the clouds
what goes up
must come down

I’m learning to fly
but I ain’t got wings
coming down
is the hardest thing
I’m learning to fly
around the clouds
what goes up
must come down

If you've never heard the song, there's a pragmatic, what-the-hell quality to his delivery, a tone of acceptance: something is gone, but something is coming. You can have a goal and not be sure what it is. Taking the first step is as strange and new as flying.

So, readers, if you're out there: what about you? Care to join me in my adolescent fixation on song lyrics? I'd love to hear what songs mean something to you. It's awfully easy to find those lyrics on the web these days, so you can avoid any "'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy" kind of faux pas incidents. :)

My own husband claims he rarely even hears the lyrics of songs. But for me, lyrics are a "make or break" criterion for listening enjoyment. If a song's lyrics are stupid, I tend to careen past it on the dial, shuddering, no matter how catchy the beat. But lyrics that are perfectly timed and placed in the notation not only enhance a song for me, they are elevated in artistic merit through the WAY they are sung. Am I alone? :)