In addition to the song, I found myself pulling up this video more than once over the last few days. I was just mesmerized by Morissette’s interactions with her daughter. As someone who is a terrible multi-tasker, as someone who is not a parent… I was just in awe of her.
As I was watching this video and feeling like I was kneeling on the carpet in my parents’ living room, something struck me as kind of odd. I was looking at the background, at where the band was recording this video.
“I have never held a hand so soft and sacred
When I hear you laugh, I know heaven’s key
And when I grow to be a poppy in the graveyard
I will send you all my love upon the breeze”
D’Amato’s song is a breath of fresh air, and a lovely positive note in a time that seems dominated by dark clouds. It will be some time, I think, before I feel great again. But hearing this song makes me feel just a little bit better.
The video quality is poor, but this was the best version I could find of the song (from the filmed 2015 version). It’s my first time hearing Hamilton, and this song in particular just… really got stuck in my head.
I remember not really caring much for Chapman when I heard this song. It was ok, but I remember it having a lot of airplay (or video play perhaps). Listening to it now, as an older man, it’s a very different song to me. The lyrics are the same, but I hear them now in a way I don’t think I did or could have, when I was younger.
Stapleton’s voice is incredibly strong. But there’s a part of me that feels like the draw is in the harmonization with his wife, Morgane Stapleton. The sound of their voices together reminds me a lot of what I love about The Lone Bellow, and the way Kanene Donehey Pipkin‘s voice adds to the harmonies. I’m also reminded of how influential Katie Toupin’s voice was, to what I loved about Houndmouth.
I’ve forgotten how fantastic it is, to lend ones voice to a choir – to become a part of some larger energy greater than any single, individual part. It’s rare for me to sing much anymore, but this was a lovely reminder of what can happen when we all gather together.
“Daddy don’t pray anymore
I guess he’s finished talking to the lord
He used to fold his hands and bow his head down to the floor
But daddy don’t pray anymore”
I have had the song “Black Balloon” by the Goo Goo Dolls stuck in my head for days now. And I have absolutely no earthly idea why.
“It’s impossible to comprehend
how it’s possible
that in every ending you and I
meet again”
The horns still do get me, every time. And it’s difficult to not just have an extra spring in my step, whenever I listen to this song. It would be interesting to come up with a list, but as far as this one goes: this is a song that always seems to make me feel happier, every time I listen to it.
But here’s the weird thing for me. Normally, I’ll fixate on a song and just listen to it over and over again. But lately? For the last few weeks? I’ve fixated on guitarist Vito Bratta’s guitar solos from these songs.
It’s not that I listen to only the solos. I’ve still been looping the songs. But the solos are what echo in my ears, at random hours, even when I don’t have my headphones in. I’ll be doing the dishes, and suddenly one of his solos just starts playing in my head.
On our last day in Portland, when we were out grabbing some cocktails near the hotel… we were sitting in Pink Rabbit when I heard this song.
“If it’s small enough to carry
You and I can call it home”