Make Me Smile

Nice song... I like it. To be honest, I've never actaully heard the recorded version, but we're playing it in jazz band. It's definitely cool. You really gain more respect for a song after you try to play it, LOL. "Try" is the key word here... sighs

I absolutely LOVE this track! Whenever it comes over the car radio I crank it up to full volume... because IT MAKES ME SMILE!

I think it's about a man who misses the woman he loves because she has died. When he feels lonely and sad he closes his eyes to think of her intently. As the trials of life continue to plague him, this is his only remaining source of joy. Living and thinking in this world (like the children he's watching are doing) just doesn't do anything for him anymore. But when he closes his eyes and recalls how much he loved her... how much she loved him, he is lifted emotionally and spiritually to a higher plane of existence and he can "cry sweet tears of joy... touch the sky!". It's Heaven!

In this case, the lyrics are fine...very simple and straight forward. The music is just freaking amazing. From the first stacatto note, it is a masterpiece.

Once again, nobody could sing it like Terry could.

I love this song, it was the first song on "Overtime" Living life is just a game so they say all the games we used to play fade away, we may now enjoy the dreams we shared so long ago... Maybe meaning that the love is back again and implying magic, also end...

Great, happy love song...love it.

this song makes me smile. =) i so dig the horn part in the middle. i wanna play it in jazz band!

I used to think it was about a pedaphile but now i realize it's just about this stalker of a mother.

Should be enjoyed as a suite of tracks - Wake Up Shineshine, Make Me Smile, So Much To Say, So Much To Give, Anxiety's Moment, West Virginia Fantasies, Colour My World, To Be Free and Now More Than Ever. A beautiful statement of love.

The entire "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon" suite shows off James Pankow's amazing composing abilities, but more so in the "Make Me Smile" suite.

The opening lyrics aside (and perhaps the line about being "alone in the dark" was ill-advised in hindsight), the "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon" that this song opens and closes is in reference to a girl James Pankow knew in Buckhannon (record label mistake), West Virginia. I would surmise that the opening lines are meant to signify how he is separated from his love due to the extensive touring schedule of the group (this was written largely from hotel room to hotel room as the band spent 300+ days a year on the road) and all he can do is go for a walk in the park when he gets a chance to rest, and think about the girl even though they can't be together. Even though they do seemingly end up together in "Now More Than Ever," in real life the girl ended up marrying someone else and living a separate life.