A Thousand Butterflies

If I were writing this post on my old WP blog, I would spend time searching for the perfect butterfly pic to accompany it. Then I would check constantly to see how many views and comments it had; while at the same time I'd feel compelled to comment "great post" on other blogs whether I liked the post or not, just to be a good sport. Now, I don't have to do any of that... I just write the post. Do I miss the other stuff? To be honest, sometimes I do, but mostly not. It was stressful, time-consuming, and often terribly tedious. It felt like work rather than a hobby. There was something about feeling "seen" though that brought me pleasure, even if most readers were merely skimming my words. I guess that's why I don't keep all my poetry in a secret diary as opposed to plopping it on Amazon KDP (new book coming soon) ~ I still enjoy the fantasy of somehow ending up popular. I don't have anything new to say, but perhaps I occasionally stumble upon a unique way of expressing the same old. Or so I like to believe...

I would like to share with you a stanza from one of my favorite songs "Andante, Andante" (the Mamma Mia - Here We Go Again version) as follows: 

There's a shimmer in your eyes / Like the feeling of a thousand butterflies / Please don't talk, go on, play / Andante, andante, and watch me float away

In my opinion, this is one of the most romantic songs of all time, but not necessarily the way ABBA sings it, which is a bit too smooth and unemotional. I developed a new appreciation for their songs while watching the Mamma Mia movies and listening to the passion that Lily James, Amanda Seyfried, and the rest of the cast infused into the songs. But that's not what I came here to tell you about tonight. I wanted to mention that a book I recently finished (Middle of the Night by Riley Sager) contained the "thousand butterflies" phrase to describe a man falling in love, and I was just uh no. Nope. Sorry, that is Donna (Lily James) singing to Sam (Jeremy Irvine), and I am not having it in a book, especially from the male POV.

The butterflies were at the beginning of MOTN, and I somehow managed to continue on to the end. I awarded the book four stars, which may seem surprising because I did not like the way the story was structured, which was all in present tense, including the backstory sections, and most had first person narration by the protagonist while the rest was randomly divvied up between other characters in third. Ugh! But you know what? This was an excellent story. I ended up disregarding most of the annoys because the story itself was super interesting with an absolute surprise (to me) ending. There were loads of twists along the way as well. 

As I mentioned last time, I saw the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, and I thought it was excellent. All the friends I saw it with enjoyed it as well. I was amazed that the actors sung the songs, no dubbing. Maybe it wasn't that hard for Timothée Chalamet to sound like Bob, but Monica Barbaro was a damn good Joan Baez. Here's the thing though: while Dylan's lyrics are clearly superior to most other (all?) songwriters, they are not literature. This isn't a criticism ~ why should lyrics be compared to literature at all? We don't say, welp, this book is so musical I could sing it. That's nonsensical (though of course a line or two might inspire a songwriter or a poet or an artist). Why can't great lyrics just be great lyrics? A couple friends of mine became ex-friends over the issue of Dylan receiving the Nobel Prize in literature, and that's sad. Social media strikes again.

Bob Dylan himself wrote: "Our songs are alive in the land of the living. But songs are unlike literature. They're meant to be sung, not read. The words in Shakespeare's plays were meant to be acted on the stage. Just as lyrics in songs are meant to be sung, not read on a page." (Quote via Wikipedia.)

So, there you go. Reading the lyrics to "Andante, Andante" on the page is not going to evoke anywhere near the same heartbreaking emotional response as watching and hearing Lily James in Mamma Mia. Reading Bob Dylan's lyrics to "Like a Rolling Stone" is going to feel flat compared to listening to him belt out that song. You feel his anger and his loneliness coming at you in crashing waves through his voice. I get it though. We want the Bob Dylans of the world to be recognized for their transcendence of a genre, not lumped in with other greats. He really was/is something else. I put Leonard Cohen in that category too. They are amazing talents. Just mind-blowing.