soul-searching

So I'm putting a cd together for one of my best friends who is moving out of state and will be travelling every three months for the next few years and in the midst of all that I've rediscovered a gem of a song: Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road". I can't get over how Bruce magically takes you to the place he's singing about and how he can tell such wonderful stories in his songs. His songwriting doesn't have to follow the normal Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge format ... he just sings and sings until his story is done. And with this song, in particular, I get chills every time I hear it. So, of course, I keep listening to it over and over. It's not particularly sad, it's just moving.

Another song - on a completely different level - that I've been addicted to listening to is Darius Rucker's (yes, him of all people ... but he's got a brilliant, soulful voice!) cover of Bill Withers' "Use Me Up". I love the sassy, sexiness of that song. When I hear the line: I wanna spread the news that if it feels this good getting used, oh you just keep on using me until you use me up..., I just wanna put on some sexy lingerie and dance around a candlelit living room for Mark. ooh. Have I said too much? Well, I can't help it.... the music gets in my soul...

The screen door slams
Mary' dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again
Don't run back inside
Darling you know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinkingThat maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty but hey you're alright
Oh and that's alright with me

You can hide 'neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a saviour to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero
That's understood
All the redemption I can offer girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow
Back your hair
Well the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in backHeaven's waiting on down the tracks
Oh-oh come take my hand
We're riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh-oh Thunder Road oh Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey I know it's late we can make it if we run
Oh Thunder Road sit tight take hold
Thunder Road

Well I got this guitar
And I learned how to make it talk
And my car's out back
If you're ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The door's open but the ride it ain't free
And I know you're lonely
For words that I ain't spoken
But tonight we'll be free
All the promises'll be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes
Of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach roadIn the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they're gone
On the wind so Mary climb in
It's town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win