Amazing

"Written: Sun. 13 November 2011

Listening to Stevie Wonder’s “Golden Lady”.

Aaaah, another lazy Sunday morning. Seems like a new routine emerging, to blog in this timeslot. I seem to remember it being a routine I had sometime ago, before the laptop caught the virus. I’m starting to suspect that internet cafes are the problem. I must’ve picked up a virus on my memory stick, then transferred it to my laptop at home. The owner of the intcaf suggested I use my laptop there. I managed it once only, because I usually pop in on my way home, and the laptop’s not always with me.

Woke up, sent a few sms’s re outstanding guitar lesson fees. The craziness of my life at the moment is that I’m working in a job in the city, incurring extra expenses linked to transport, etc, but still 100% dependent on music (guitar fees and gigs) as my source of income, until the day I get paid by my new employer. A glorious day, I hasten to add, anticipated with such excitement, you’d be surprised! Try being unemployed, then self-employed in the music world for many months, and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Having said as much, if I don’t get steady employment for 2012, it’s my plan to develop the self-employment concept into a far more structured and sustainable situation. I am a mother, I have to look after my family and make sure I pay my way through life, which just seems to get more and more expensive, no matter how one attempts to master the art of belt-tightening. Sometimes I get sick and tired of having to live the way we do, doing without important things, because there’s just no money.

“All is fair in love.” A bit of a hectic concept for me, right now. I went to a family wedding yesterday. Driving to Stellenbosch, I thought about love, loyalty, commitment, marriage, and about the two young people embarking on this journey. I knew that, like all the other people my age in the gathering, cynical in spite of ourselves, I’d be sitting there wishing them all the luck in the world, wishing them a beautiful life together, but painfully aware that the odds are so stacked against that. As I sat through the speeches, I realised that the couple and their families were born-again Christians, and I concluded that, with that as a central force in their lives, they probably stood a better chance of weathering the storms. I sincerely wish them life-long happiness, because the idealist in me still believes it’s possible.

“If It’s Magic” – has to be one of the most beautiful Stevie Wonder songs. Like most songs, its beauty lies in its simplicity. As a songwriter (and word nerd), of course I’m affected by the sheer poetry of the lyrics.

If it's magic...
Then why can't it be everlasting
Like the sun that always shines
Like the poets in this rhyme
Like the galaxies in time

If it's pleasing...
Then why can't it be never leaving
Like the day that never fails
Like on seashores there are shells
Like the time that always tells

It holds the key to every heart
Throughout the universeIt fills you up without a bite
And quenches every thirst

So... If it's special
Then with it why aren't we as careful
As making sure we dress in style
Posing pictures with a smile
Keeping danger from a child

It holds the key to every heart
Throughout the universe
It fills you up without a bite
And quenches every thirst

So... If it's magic...
Why can't we make it everlasting
Like the lifetime of the sun
It will leave no heart undone
For there's enough for everyone

Later on in the album, “Ribbon in the sky” has such a beautiful piano solo, you realise that this brilliant pianist is a man known more for his voice and lyrics than for his sheer mastery of this instrument. Interesting how many other artists’ songs feature him on harmonica – and when you hear the sound, it’s immediately recognisable as Stevie’s playing.

Do you know the song “Stay Gold”? I only became aware of it when my sister lent me this album of Stevie Wonder love songs. It’s a song that I can imagine Zane Adams, Vernon Castle, Glenn Robertson or Richard Caesar doing. (All Cape Town male vocalists, in case the names are unfamiliar to you.)

My friend, Keith, gave me a lovely album once, with various female vocalists I wasn’t familiar with. Listening to a song now that was introduced to me on this album, a song I find magical – “Amazing”, by Sara Gazarek. I’ll type the lyrics, but to appreciate the power of the song, you have to listen to this woman’s voice – uncluttered, crystal clear, pure, honest. The sparse arrangement of the piece adds to the overall effect. I always favour the less-is-more approach.

Amazing (sung by Sara Gazarek)

Sunflower beauty surrounds me / Against a sky of grey
The night time falls down upon me / At the closing of this day
Words cannot explain the feeling that my heart speaks of
The choices, the boundaries
When I feel the pain of all of these thoughts of mine,
The questions, the answers

When will I realise all of life is amazing
Take it in, let it go, can’t you see it’s so amazing

I need the feeling of sunlight / To help the forget the cold
Between the spaces of daylight / There lives a frozen soul
Here we go again, this wandering mind won’t settle down
If just for a second
When I think it’s gone, it starts itself right up again
Unending and relentless

When will I realise all of life is amazing
Take it in, let it go, can’t you see it’s so amazing

Melt away, let life flow
Just give in, just let it go
Current strong, so am I
Amazing things don’t ever die

(piano solo)

When will I realise all of life is amazing
Take it in, let it go, can’t you see it’s so amazing

When will I realise all of life is amazing
Take it in, slow it down, can’t you see it’s so amazing

Melt away, let life flow
Just give in, just let it go
Current strong, so am I
Amazing things don’t ever die

Never die

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Yesterday I thought about life expectancy, and decided that, since so much of my life has been fraught with one struggle after the other, I’d really like to live to the age of 100, because the next 50 years can only be better, and maybe in that way I’d attain some sense of symmetry, fulfillment. But then, I like the energy I have now, and I suppose that just weakens over time. I mean, can you imagine me doing gigs at age 100? Wonder what we’d call our duo? Some really funny names come to mind, none of them printable – because then you’d really see how off-beat my humour was! :-)
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