Girlyman will release a new album in early March. They will play a cd release show at Jammin' Java later in the month, and I'll be there with my friends. This time I've invited several people to come - not necessarily with me if they don't want to, but just to hear this band, because I think everyone should who loves good music.
This morning I was driving to work, and a song from their first album made me cry again. It's called "The Shape I Found You In", and I think it's brought tears to my eyes every time I've ever heard it. This happens mostly in a good way, because if there's anything some music is good for, it's emotional connection and release. Some of their music is quite bouncy and happy, so it's not all tear-in-my-beer kind of stuff at all. It's just that their words are so genuine and often I find myself thinking when I hear them that at some point in my life I've felt just LIKE that, even if it's a very different sort of situation on the surface. And who really knows what anyone is representing in art - songs, stories, some pictures - anyway? It's all conjecture to a point. But then again, I've always been able to find something personal is some very universal things. Like, the line about Christmas Eve in this song is so perfect and brutal that I can't even stand to listen to it almost. That's the part where I always lose it, no matter what, mostly because I so pray not to have the need for rope ladders or bomb shelters or safety nets next time I venture down a similar road, although I know that's asking a lot from this human condition. And especially because now this human is conditioned to know better.
I spent twenty lifetimes at your door
But your heart was busy within
Building bomb shelters under your skin
That's the shape I found you in
That's the shape I found you in
I was calling to you
It was one thing I knew how to do
But my heart tried to cheat
Building safety nets under my feet
So if I fell I would fall right in
That's the shape you found me in
You were delivered to me
We were closed as the stores on Christmas Eve
So I felt around in the dark
Building rope ladders into your heart
Climbing hand over hand to get in
That's the shape I found you in
That's the shape I found you in
- Ty Greenstein, 2002
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