It's a proud day in Erie, PA. All you haters who say Erie's a podonk
town with nothing good going for it, chew on this: Our guy is performing
at the Grammys! Yep, the band Train with Erie-based lead singer Pat
Monahan is gracing the Grammys with a performance of Drops of Jupiter,
the song that swept the nation, a song that may just earn them a few
golden statues themselves. And I say more power to 'em. Anybody from
Erie reading this? I declare this Train Day! Wear conductor hats! Wear
bandanas! Wear a choo-choo train lapel pin! Show your support for Train,
who has managed the awesome feat of getting me to care about a modern
band.
Yeah. You can tell. I'm psyched. And in case you don't
know, modern music generally excites me about as much as... well, I'm
feeling pretty uncreative this morning. But it doesn't excite me much.
And then came this song. This amazing, miraculous song. This song that
blows everything else out of the water. And it came from Erie. Pat
Monahan, you have managed to write what is quite possibly the best song
of the decade. I salute you. And to think I missed these guys the last
time they performed in Erie! If I only knew...
How can I
express my admiration of this song? Perhaps this would say it best: It
belonged in the '70s. High praise indeed. The piano-heavy
instrumentation makes it very reminiscent of Billy Joel. I saw in our
paper the other day that this song came to Monahan out of the blue, in
the middle of the night, and he rushed to the studio to play around with
it. A friend of his came, too, and his friend was the one who
discovered that piano was just the nudge this song needed to turn it
into a hit single. Well, it certainly works.
But the piano isn't all that works. The overall instrumentation is amazing. It sounds
like outer space. The sweeping strings in particular evoke an image of
swiftly swirling galaxies and rushing planets. It embodies the conflict:
the demanding earthiness of the piano, the alluring mysticism of the
strings. Wow. Again I say wow.
But in order for a song to be
truly great, it?s got to have great lyrics too. And the song succeeds on
this count as well. I have praised Don McLean?s Vincent for its ability to conjure images of Van Gogh's paintings through its poetic language. Drops of Jupiter
does the same thing with outer space. The lyrics work with the music to
create a vibrant picture. "She acts like summer and walks like rain." "She listens like summer and talks like June."
The chorus is
one big swirling mass of outer space sensuality. "Tell me did the wind
sweep you off your feet / Did you finally get the chance to dance along
the light of day / And head back toward the Milky Way / Tell me did you
sail across the sun / Did you make it to the Milky Way / to see the
lights all faded / And that heaven is overrated / Tell me, did you fall
for a shooting star / One without a permanent scar / And did you miss me
while you were looking at yourself out there."
Again, the
conflict between earth and sky is audible in the lyrics as well as the
music. The speaker voices his frustration by rattling off first a
description of himself he's afraid she may have ("plain ol' Jane / Told a
story about a man / who is too afraid to fly so he never did land")
and, later, a frantic listing all of the reasons that she should want to
get back down to earth. "Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried
chicken / Your best friend always sticking up for you even when I know
you're wrong / Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance
five-hour phone conversation / The best soy latte that you ever had . . .
and me?"
You ever hear the song Ernie sings on Sesame Street, I Don't Want to Live on the Moon? Great song. Probably my all-time favorite muppet song. Well, that's what this reminds me of. Except now it's I Don't Want You to Live on the Moon.
And it's more metaphorical, of course. It's a song about a guy afraid
he might be losing his best friend because she's so immersed in her
soul-searching endeavors that she's forgotten everything that used to be
important to her. And it's just a great song. Heard it twice yesterday
on the way back from State College, and I don't think the journey would
have been complete without it. Train, good luck tonight. I hope you win.
You deserve it.
*** Update: Glued to the television all
night after parading around all day in my blue-and-white striped
overalls and red bandanna (a subtle statement many missed). Snagged
Train on tape performing Drops of Jupiter. Awesome job. They
performed perfectly in front of millions of viewers and managed to bring
home a couple Grammys as well. Great job, and can't wait to see what
else is in store...
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