This is one of my favorite songs—it is on Jackson Browne’s “For Everyman” album which revolves around feelings of uncertainty, and the universal search for meaning in this tumultuous world. The first time I heard this song, I thought it was about the reflection of a songwriter on his world, but I soon realize the meaning is much more than just that. In the first line, Browne asks to “sing my song to me”, a cry to ask for thoughts and emotions conveyed from a different perspective. These “songs” are metaphorical dreams, hopes, promises, and aspirations—and most importantly, memories. Some memories are connected with sunlight, and positivity, while others are connected with shadows, and darkness and despair. Yet humans have a tendency to capture memories in both happiness and sorry, reflecting out dual nature. This plea for a song is a bid to soothe his lingering nostalgia—and to lift his memories out from the deep vertices of his subconsciousness and relive precious moments in a dreamlike state—growing and emerging, budding “strange new flowers”, only for his dreams to cease when morning comes.
In writing this, I am reminded of a quote by Tennesse Williams: “Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going.” How are we supposed to grasp every fleeting moment as it rushes past, and how are we expected to hold onto the essence of it all when time itself seems designed to erase it?
This is one of my favorite songs—it is on Jackson Browne’s “For Everyman” album which revolves around feelings of uncertainty, and the universal search for meaning in this tumultuous world. The first time I heard this song, I thought it was about the reflection of a songwriter on his world, but I soon realize the meaning is much more than just that. In the first line, Browne asks to “sing my song to me”, a cry to ask for thoughts and emotions conveyed from a different perspective. These “songs” are metaphorical dreams, hopes, promises, and aspirations—and most importantly, memories. Some memories are connected with sunlight, and positivity, while others are connected with shadows, and darkness and despair. Yet humans have a tendency to capture memories in both happiness and sorry, reflecting out dual nature. This plea for a song is a bid to soothe his lingering nostalgia—and to lift his memories out from the deep vertices of his subconsciousness and relive precious moments in a dreamlike state—growing and emerging, budding “strange new flowers”, only for his dreams to cease when morning comes. In writing this, I am reminded of a quote by Tennesse Williams: “Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going.” How are we supposed to grasp every fleeting moment as it rushes past, and how are we expected to hold onto the essence of it all when time itself seems designed to erase it?