lyrics james lives on fenton street down the block from the empty lot that once held the 7-11. a firehouse is going up slowly. he’s a teenager, but you’d only know it from the library books in his backpack: salinger, the autobiography of malcolm x, arthur c clarke. his looks would place him in elementary […]
Author Archives: charlie monday
monday song #41: gravity
lyrics darkness attracts light. the contrast can be thrilling. but it’s always and forever darkness. and over time, the light gets tired of doing all the work.
monday song #40: lost and found
lyrics a couple sits on opposite sides of a dinner table, food mostly gone. muted explosions and a pumping soundtrack pulse from the basement. no one speaks. they’ve been together for many years, each shaped by lifelong contact with the other, a complex jigsaw of additions and subtractions. the cracks are becoming evident, but neither […]
monday song #39: the i inside the hurricane
lyrics twilight, late summer. an almost sixth grader living in a small house out past dearborn.
monday song #38: pr(ol)og(ue) in heaven
lyrics a beginning. the spark before the flame. the inhale before the exhale. a moment’s peace, balanced on the edge of the unknown, and then tumbling forward, falling, plummeting down, eyes tight closed but catching glimpses all the same, flashes of recognition, but they’re gone too fast, like a torch thrown down a well, lighting […]
monday song #37: brooklyn
lyrics this is the first straight love song i’ve written in a long while. i usually steer clear, but i just finished a wonderful book called “brooklyn” by the irish novelist colm toibin, and it apparently left me with a romantic longing that i needed to work out. monday songs to the rescue.
the family closet: fill your heart
couldn’t get an original done as i was cranking out this year’s holiday song. since i have nothing original to offer, figured i’d share the results of my work – a cover of a cover, featuring my son and daughter on vocals. we’ve been doing this for the past six or seven years, and they […]
monday song #36: fillings
lyrics after last week’s breakthrough to the brighter side, i was excited to keep my eye on the positive and deliver some more upbeat music. but when i heard that vic chestnutt had committed suicide, i just couldn’t get it off my mind, and figured i should pay tribute.
monday song #35: beautiful girl
lyrics with number 35 i’m taking a break from my manic suite and breaking many of the rules of monday songs, perhaps retiring them permanently. the song has overdubbed instruments, vocal harmonies, and has nothing sad about it. it’s the most fun i’ve had doing a song in a few months.
monday song #34: castaway
lyrics with number 34 i begin the second year of monday songs. i hope to be a bit more consistent in 2010: in songwriting, in many things… another in the “mind on fire” cycle. mostly speaks for itself, in that it says very little, and suggests less. and more.