lyrically challenged

Here's the thing about Stevie Nicks, and I apologize if I have posted anything resembling this statement before, but narratively, her songs make no sense. She changes tenses in the middle of a verse, switches from third to first person, mixes her pronouns, and uses incomplete phrases. Which is why it makes absolutely no sense that I love her music so much. I am such a stickler for grammar and continuity within a story, and tense and person changes are major no-nos. On the other hand, one thing that is so cool about Stevie's stuff is how so many of her songs are connected lyrically, which does create continuity within her entire body of work, and I love that fact. She uses the same characters sometimes in multiple songs, and she will repeat a phrase in one song that she used years before in another, or change it ever so slightly to where you still recognize it as a lyric from a previous song. Here's an example:

from "Illume", on Fleetwood Mac's Say You Will

I like the coastal cities
I like the lights...
I like the way the ocean blends
Into the city at night
Like living on a working river
This coastline is glittering
Like a diamond snake
In a black sky

from "Destiny Rules", on Fleetwood Mac's Say You Will

I like the coastal cities, I like the lights

I like the way the city blends into the ocean at night
It's like living on a working river; the coastline is glittering
Like a diamond snake in a black sky

The first song is about 9/11, and I think that serves as a fantastic description of New York City.

Another lyric cross-reference example:

from "Blue Lamp", from the soundtrack to the movie Heavy Metal

Downstairs the big old house is mine

Upstairs where the stars still laugh and they shine
Downstairs where the big old house is mine
Outside where the stars still laugh and
Stars still laugh and shine
And the stars still laugh and cry and shine
And the stars still laugh and cry and shine
And the stars still laugh and shine and shine

from "Welcome to the Room...Sara", from Fleetwood Mac's Tango in the Night

Ooh, downstairs where the

Big old house is mine
Ooh, upstairs where the
Stars laugh and shine
Oh, Oh well I thought that
You were mine
Well I thought that
You were mine

The first two songs are from the same album, but the other two came years apart. Kinda cool. I think, anyway. I got all of the lyrics from The Nicks Fix, btw.

The reason I mentioned Stevie Nicks is that I was listening to some music last night before bed and was wishing I could write songs. Actually I was listening to The Judds. Other songwriters wrote most of their stuff as far as I know, but they did some great songs with really fantastic lyrics. In my life, I have been touched so much by song lyrics, and can really express my emotion much better through the lyrics of others than I can with my own words. I suppose I should try songwriting again. When I did it before, I was in high school, so the lyrics were sort of lame. But I'm a little older and wiser now, so maybe, just maybe I have a shot at not sucking at it this time around.