Look to the Lyric
Almost 15 years ago to this day on the sitcom Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld implored his friend Elaine in ‘The Dinner Party’ episode to “look to the cookie.” I guess Jerry was suggesting getting along had something to do with getting together.
The conversation went something like this:
JERRY: Ummm, The thing about eating the Black and White cookie, Elaine, is you want to get some black and some white in each bite. Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate And yet somehow racial harmony eludes us. If people would only look to the cookie all our problems would be solved.
ELAINE: (Sarcastically) Your views on race relations are fascinating. You really should do an op-ed piece for the Times.
JERRY: Um, yum, Look to the cookie Elaine. Look to the cookie.
Today I am suggesting that we ‘look to the lyric’….just to see if getting together with these messages brings a meaningful insight or two.
And here are a few to take a look at…
I wish I was a messenger and all the news was good;
I wish I was the full moon shining off a camaro’s hood
from ‘Wishlist’ by Pearl Jam
And I wish the spokesman for the United Auto Workers wasn’t Ron Gettelfinger, the poster boy for entitlement. Jeesh, how hard is it to figure out that he is not the guy to put out in front of the cameras? And we think the Big Three will be smart enough to make changes to become competitive?
I’m ahead, I’m a man
I’m the first mammal to wear pants, yeah
I’m at peace with my lust
I can kill ’cause in God I trust, yeah
It’s evolution, baby
from ‘Do the Evolution’ by Pearl Jam
There are currently approximately two dozen recognized conflicts occurring in the world. We (USA) have two to our credit…er, uh, that we are involved in.
The boys who kiss and bite
They are the brilliant ones who speak and write
With silver luck
From ‘The Boys Are Too Refined,’ The Hush Sound
Silver Luck? Is that better than no luck at all?
You don’t see what you possess,
A beauty calm and clear-
It floods the sky,
And blurs the darkness like a chandelier.
All the light that you possess,
Is skewed by lakes and seas;
The shattered surface,
So imperfect,
Is all that you believe.
I will bring a mirror,
So silver, so exact,
So precise and so pristine,
A perfect pane of glass.
I will set the mirror up,
To face the blackened sky.
You will see your beauty every moment that you rise
From ‘You are the Moon,’ The Hush Sound
Reach out and support someone..
Yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog’s eye
Crabalocker fishwife pornographic priestess
Boy you been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo goo joob
From ‘I am the Walrus,’ The Beatles
I think there was a direct correlation between the length of the Beatles’ hair and their drug use. I present ‘I am the Walrus’ as exhibit A. Can you spell LSD?
You’re the finest thing that I’ve done, the hurricane I’ll never outrun
I could wait around for the dust to still, but I don’t believe that it ever will.
From ‘Hurricane,’ by The Hush Sound
We all make mistakes; we don’t all forgive them.
I’m a thief, I’m a liar,
There’s my church I sing in the choir
From ‘Do the Evolution,’ by Pearl Jam.
Pastor Ted Haggard is the latest in the saint-to-sinner society of preachers gone wild. From Jim Bakker to Jimmy Swaggart, these pious pretenders litter the aisles like spilled change from the collection plate. Did power corrupt or do the corrupt rise to power? With a firm grasp of ‘judge not lest ye be judged,’ I pledge to pray for…all of us
Disarm you with a smile
And cut you like you want me to
Cut that little child
Inside of me and such a part of you
Ooh, the years burn
I used to be a little boy
So old in my shoes
And what i choose is my choice
What’s a boy supposed to do?
The killer in me is the killer in you
My love
I send this smile over to you
From ‘Disarm,’ The Smashing Pumpkins
Burn is a spiritual technology to learn, painful but effective
Your picture out of time
Left aching in my mind
Shadows kept alive
If you have to go don’t say goodbye
If you have to go don’t you cry
If you have to go I will get by
I will follow you and see you on the other side
From ‘For Martha,’ The Smashing Pumpkins
For Gigi