Dedicated to Stapp and all celebrities...
 

TIGHT ROPE
Leon Russell

I'm up on the tightrope , one sides hate and one is hope
It's a circus game with you and me.
I'm up on the tightwire , flanked by life and the funeral pyre
But the tophat on my head is all you see.

And the wire seems to be the only place for me
A comedy of errors and I'm falling
Like a rubber neck giraffe, you look into my past
Well, baby you're just too blind to see.

I'm up in the spotlight, oh does it feel right
The altitude seems to really get to me.
I'm up on the tightwire linked by life and the funeral pyre
Putting on a show for you to see.

So loving Leon lately. Also makes me think of The Thorn Within, how the celebrities are sort of "focal points" for ordinary human experience,

I do your time
I take your fall
I'm branded guilty
For us all


So point your fingers
Point right at me
For I am shadows and will follow you
One and the same are we

Metallica. Another line, "forgive me Father, for I have sinned"...well according to the scriptures God has forgiven men, but it's getting men to reconcile with one another that's such hell.

Thanks for that, shunammite. I think people sometimes forget that these people are human, make the same mistakes as we do and just want what everybody else wants -- a little happiness.

Well said, Dogstar.:clap: :clap:

And thank you for your post, shunammite. :)

In Thee
(Blue Oyster Cult)

Maybe I'll see you again baby
And maybe I won't
Maybe you've bought your ticket
Gone back to Detroit
Airplanes make strangers of us all
Give us distance
Much too easily.

Jim says some destinies
Should not be delivered
But you and I seen now baby
That still they are
Winning it makes losers of us all
'Cause the dice roll
So indifferently.

Well, I'll wrap myself in cities I travel
I'll wrap myself in dreams
I'll wrap myself in solitude
But I wish I could wrap myself
In thee.

Tonight it's hot, without you
Tomorrow'll be cold
Winter will come along
Driven by snow
Love it makes strangers of us all
When we part
Oh so thoughtlessly

Once we breathed the breath
Of sweet surrender
Pure, pure Arab air filled our
Atmosphere
But pride it makes stars of us all
Until we fall
For everyone to see.

Well, I'll wrap myself in cities I travel
I'll wrap myself in dreams
I'll wrap myself stranger's arms
But I wish I could wrap myself
In thee.


A Blue Oyster Cult song, I never listened to them back in the day, it was Metallica's cover of Astronomy that turned me on to them, and this song esp, and the boldface line esp, so obvious about "celebrities" but also the experience of every person, on a smaller scale.

Still feeling for Stapp, and wanting to say whatever his personal faults may be, his artistic output was very good, to me, he was/is real, in his art.

I think it must be very hard to be a celebrity, I read a line from Jimi Hendrix, that every song is a personal dairy, to lay yourself so open...ego maybe, but it takes courage too. And I think when others bare their inner struggles it helps the less courageous to face themselves, that is what "art" does for me, helps me know myself...and other people, so we aren't so far apart after all.

thats good to know
 

it good to know that people understand that their people to and not just an attraction for the entertainment world. :smileyban

I agree and I know Scott's words have helped me with some of my inner struggles and has helped me to face them as well. :rockon:

To Whom It May Concern also seems to deal with these issues although it also seems to be about a relationship falling apart as well.

Another take on what many think is just a glamor-filled existence...From Jerry Cantrell:

Dying Inside
Long fat green, love what you do, so young must be nice
Roll first class, limousine drool, packed house every night

Hey rock star, got a cold beer? Sure you don't mind do you?
Ain't life sweet. party non-stop, 24/7 - cool

So proud would be your mother
Anything you want, pick you lover
From here loos so fine
My god how your star shines...

Dying inside

Live your dream, walk in those shoes, trade with you any time
Worldwide name, freedom much fame, spinning gold song and
rhyme

So proud would be your mother
Anything you want, pick you lover
From here loos so fine
My god how your star shines...

Dying inside

My god how your star shines...

Dying inside

Play, get paid, couple sports cars, sure you done paid your dues
Big house own, no boss fun, lucky fuck I wish I was you

So proud would be your mother
Anything you want, pick you lover
From here loos so fine
My god how your star shines...

Dying inside

My god how your star shines...

Dying inside

Here's one more, pretty famous, but it still touches me every time:

TURN THE PAGE
(Bob Seger)

on a long and lonely highway east of omaha
you can listen to the engine, moanin out as one long song
you can think about the woman, or the girl you knew the night before


and your thoughts will soon be wandering the way they always do
when you're riding sixteen hours and there's nothing much to do
you don't feel much like travelin', you just wish the trip was through


CHORUS:
but here I am, on the road again
here I am, up on the stage
here I go, playing the star again
there I go, turn the page


you walk into a restaraunt, strung out from the road
and you feel the eyes upon you, as you're shaking off the cold
you pretend it doesn't bother you, but you just want to explode
sometimes you can here 'em talk, other times you can't


all the same 'ole cliches: is that a woman or a man?
and you always seem outnumbered, you dare not make a stand


CHORUS
but here I am, on the road again
here I am, up on the stage
here I go, playing the star again
there I go, turn the page

out there in the spotlight, your a million miles away
every ounce of energy, you try to give away
and the sweat pours from your body, like the music that you play
later in the evening, as you lie awake in bed
echos of the amplifiers, ringin' in your head
as you smoke the days last cigarette, remembering what she said

Metallica's cover version, of course...and I highlighted the part that made me think of Stapp...but I'm sure it all speaks to any performer...a great life but very hard too...so many crash and burn.

I'm pretty sure Scott wrote TWIMC about his relationship with the audience. Here are some of the lyrics:

Your eyes stare at me in the dark
And I hope those eyes
Don't steal my freedom
My freedom
Oh, If I didn't give it all
When I stood you made me crawl
And oh, if you never heard the song
Then I could still hide down behind the wall


I feel the same way.


Since we're on the subject; (how about the relationship part of it)

3DD - Here Without You

A hundred days have made me older
Since the last time that I saw your pretty face
A thousand lies have made me colder
And I don't think I can look at this the same
All the miles that separate
Disappear now when I'm dreamin' of your face

I'm here without you baby
But you're still on my lonely mind
I think about you baby and I dream about you all the time
I'm here without you baby
But you're still with me in my dreams
And tonight, there's only you and me

The miles just keep rollin'
As the people leave their way to say hello
I've heard this life is overrated
But I hope that this gets better as we go

I'm here without you baby
But you're still on my lonely mind
I think about you baby and I dream about you all the time
I'm here without you baby
But you're still with me in my dreams
And tonight, there's only you and me

And when the last one falls, when it's all said and done
It gets hard but it won't take away my love

nice thread
 

interesting thread, I think Elvis said It Best when he did it his way, And, Your Were Always on my mind, And Kid Rock, Only God Knows Why,

That was pretty cool

Just a note: To Whom It May Concern is rumored to have been written about his wife (or ex now).

i think that is probably right but you could see it from the point of view of fame taking away your privacy. Perhaps Inside Us All could deal with a lack of privacy taking away one's peace?

I had heard it was written about the audience :dunno: You're probably right Steve.

I never trust what an artist says about his stuff, I don't think they always understand it themselves, Hetfield said going back to his old stuff, now he sees stuff in it he didn't when he wrote it, the gut knows better than the head, or sooner...

To me the feeling in that song is too big to be just about one person, but I guess when you are young, it is all about one person, one person is like the whole world to you.

I think it is the duty of the Artist to communicate what he sees and feels...and the duty of the audience to interpret it, and each person has permission to put his on "spin" on it, to digest it, as he needs, so there are lots of ways to think about it...most of the time an artist will not tell "what it means" except the most off-hand remark...I remember Paul McCartney said Yesterday was inspired by scrambled eggs, lolol...and I couldn't see the meaning in that song for anything when I was young...but man can I cry over it now, you can't put real life on "rewind"...

shunammite, Nice post I love Your insight Your A Smart One, Its always good to see somebody with Good insight Like that,

This is an awesome thread. shunammite, I have to agree with creedsister, you do have some great insights. I loved reading all the different lyrics you and others have posted. The words were insightful and beautiful.


As far as, ~To Whom it May Concern~, I thought it was written for the fans too. But like we have all said at one time or another, the songs may mean all different things to all of us at different times.

Great observation, and so true. Not that I'm putting myself in any league with a lyricist, but sometimes, the inspiration for something and the result are in completely different places. Just as an example, I've posted a few poems in the creative works forum and people have seen things in them that I never even thought of. That's what's so great about words and music. People coming from all perspectives. It's the mood, the feeling and the emotion that drive me when I read lyrics or listen to music.


Hahah...so true. Layne Staley said Man in the Box was inspired by a discussion over lunch about vegetarians. It can start one way but end up in a completely different plane. It's that journey that is so cool.

Sorry for the double post, but I had to include this Alice song as well. Right to the point, as usual, heheh

Nutshell

We chase misprinted lies
We face the path of time
And yet I fight
And yet I fight
This battle all alone
No one to cry to
No place to call home

Oooh...oooh...
Oooh...oooh...

My gift of self is raped
My privacy is raked
And yet I find
And yet I find
Repeating in my head
If I can’t be my own
I’d feel better dead

Oooh...oooh...
Oooh...oooh...

Here is some further AIC lyrics this one written by Jerry Cantrall, whether he was better then Layne is open to discussion. This would be my fav AIC song! :)

Bury me softly in this womb
I give this part of me for you
Sand rains down and here I sit
Holding rare flowers
In a tomb.....in bloom

Down in a hole and I don't know
If I can be saved
See my heart I decorate it
Like a grave
You don't understand who they
Thought I was supposed to be
Look at me now now a man
Who won't let himself be

Repeat Chorus

Down in a hole and they've put all
The stones in their place
I've eaten the sun so my tongue
Has been burned of the taste
I have been guilty
Of kicking myself in the teeth
I will speak no more
Of my feelings beneath

Oh I want to be inside of you

Down in a hole, losing my soul
Down in a hole, feeling so small
Down in a hole, losing my soul
Down in a hole, out of control

I'ld like to fly but my
Wings have been denied

Two great AIC songs. I'm going to have pull out the CD now and listen to them.

Its ashame the way everyone takes away there private lives. These guys its a job just like we go to work everyday so do they. I understand why they get so upset (example: I am in the middle of a divorce and everyone is trying to find out what happend and it is really annoying me and if I have a friend everyone things its a realationship and all kind of things. and I am nobody compared to these guys so when every priors into scott's life I can see how upset he would get. He is a cute guy with problems like all of us. I think Scott is one of the cuties guys I ever seen but its his life we are just fans :mad1: :mad1: