Bittersweet Symphony

Love at first Sound~

I had never truly felt what I considered to be an out of body experience until the moment Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve first graced my ears. From the moment the violin intro began playing, no longer was I sitting in the floor of my dads living room in my pajamas but instead my soul had been sucked into the ending scene of cruel intentions and I was now Annette Hargrove. I could feel the wind whipping my hair as I sped down the highway in that flashy Jaguar convertible, shades on, breathing in sunlight and freedom. I sat with the tone of this moment wondering at its duality, it was both tragic and beautiful.

Lyrics with Lessons & Melodies with Magic~

Generally I have two main criteria a song must meet in order to really grab me. The first being the lyrics have to share some kind of relatable message or transcendental knowledge. The second being the composition of the melody has to be completely unique... something no other song sounds like. In short, if it feeds my mind and moves my soul the song is a keeper. I have always had a pretty diverse range of music I listen to, so when I began to ask myself if there was just one song I could share that stood out to me more than others immediately Bittersweet symphony flowed into my mind. The lyrics, when you break them down contain intelligent relatable lessons and name one other song with a similar melody... I’ll wait.

Soul Resonance~

This song hits me even more in my thirties than it did the day I first heard it. Life has a way of hitting you with experiences that make certain lyrics truly resonate. Now, as a person who has spent the last seven years caring for others, I have joyfully witnessed life enter the world and held hands with it’s last labored breaths. As you can imagine working long hours in the medical field gives you nothing but time to contemplate all of life’s bittersweet moments. In this headspace I noted the profound irony that is without bitter pain, sadness and loss the simple everyday victories would not taste as sweet, the happiness not feel as blissful. Like Annette driving away in her lost love’s car, she must’ve felt a deep mix of polarized emotions. The negative cannot be without the positive, no light without darkness and the magical symphonic balance of life exists between it all. I think one of the most beautiful concepts about this song is that while it suggests life is complicated and at times there may be a struggle to find silver linings, there is hidden an underlying note of resistance to monotony mixed with money can’t buy happiness. While researching further into one of my many quests to understand the artists unique inspiration behind the song, I discovered the lead singer, Richard Ashcroft once said his father slaved away at a 9-5 job for years with not much to show for it. It ended up being this same internal resistance to blind acceptance that life was just meant to happen this way, that was one of Richard’s career defining moments in writing lyrics for this song. He didn’t want his life to disappear in the typical rat race, he wanted it to be meaningful. Which is something I know we all can relate to, being generational mold breakers and changemakers. Being the first in a family to listen to the freedom call of your soul to follow it and realize your dreams. It’s scary, to leap out hoping the universe will support your creation but a breathtaking phenomena to witness. The appreciation I have for all the meaning contained within the musical masterpiece is still unrivaled by even the most melodically haunting of today’s indie songs. So when the sunlit sky is cloudless and crystalline, I jump in my car, roll the windows down, throw my shades on and sing with the violins... “I let the melody shine, let it cleanse my mind, I feel free now.”