The Way We Look to a Song

In the song "Yellow," there's a lyric that goes, "I came along/ I wrote a song for you, and all the things you do." Well, I have always wanted someone to write a song for me (or, you know, the things I do). I mean, I'm an artist myself so I create stuff, but the idea of being a muse in some way to another artist is pretty cool. I've known many musicians in my life, a decent handful of them are songwriters or composers, and I thought for sure someone would have penned a tune for me by now. But no. Zip. Zero. Nada. I sing in a folk duo and the guy who writes all the songs is constantly writing songs about, like, everyone, but I haven't gotten the treatment yet. Years ago, a friend told me he wrote me a song for my birthday, but I never got to hear it so I don't think that counts.

But two weeks ago, it finally happened.

My roommate, T is a composer, and he's been writing a lot recently. He wrote this amazing rock song that I absolutely adored. There was something about it that touched me, from the first time I heard it. It just seemed to capture some of the things I had been feeling about my life, even without words. Well, one night, he was struggling to think of lyrics, and I was trying to help by giving suggestions (i.e. the futility of life; people who are jerks). Then I went to bed. A couple of hours later--I was asleep, mind you--there was a knock on my door. T wanted me to come out and hear what he had ended up writing, so I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and followed him.

The song--the one that I had loved as I heard it taking shape--now had lyrics. And those lyrics were about me and my life. T wrote it almost like I was singing it, from my point of view. It's a snarky, angry song, and all I can say is that it's freaking brilliant. (I'm not going to reveal the words are here, because I don't want to scoop T. You'll have to wait for the album.) 

After he sang it for me, I just turned to him and said, "I'm still asleep, right? Because this is a dream come true!" I didn't even mind losing sleep over it because when I woke up the next morning, I realized that I could cross something off my life list. The experiences of my life acted as inspiration for a fellow artist. My official "muse" card is coming in the mail soon! W00t!

Now, I realize it's not the same as having someone start out from scratch with the sole goal of writing a song for me, but it's close enough and I will take it. This might be the only song that's ever written for me...and, you know, the things I do, so I'm going to make the most of it.

~Hero