Joshua Radin

amy's song

you asked me to write a song all about
things that go wrong and then
you asked me to come home soon
to the place where i belong

but you stand on the other side of the line
in this place and
you can't see me you are blind
and this you can't fake
no this you can't fake

and sometimes, sometimes i wanna be
i scream that i wanna be anyone but me

and i don't know if i can write about
chosen wars or the things you feel
and i don't know if i can sing aloud
closing doors show me what's real

but i know when i close my eyes
late at night there's only one thing
a night showing that she can't lie
it's your fight show me something
can you show me something

and sometimes, sometimes i wanna be
i scream that i wanna be anyone but me

what do you want me to say
all i know is love,
it's okay
i'll write what i know
you do the same
tell me i'm sane

and sometimes, sometimes i wanna be
i scream that i wanna be anyone but me

Last night I went downtown to see Joshua Radin and Schuyler Fisk perform. It was a really good show and the artists seemed very real and approachable which was nice. I was tired so I didn’t stay around afterwards to meet them. The music was very mellow, mainly acoustic, and on the sadder side of emotions. During one song that seemed darker/sadder than the rest (I posted above) really spoke to me. Josh is singing and the words just seem so sad and searching, then he finishes and everyone bursts into applause, as if to say, “josh, that’s how I feel, that’s my life, you expressed me.” I looked around and my heart felt sad for everyone including Josh. I wanted to give them hope, tell them its going to be ok. Well, maybe it will be ok. But then I was thinking about art and how good it was that Josh was expressing real things, real feelings, just realness. There was an article recently on relevant about something similar to this called “Relevance, Faith, and Art” (http://www.relevantmagazine.com/pc_article.php?id=7378). It talks about how as Christian artists we have become irrelevant to the world. You’ll have to read it to get the whole picture but basically its saying that as Christians we do one of three things, 1. all of our art has to say Jesus or depict the resurrection to be “christian”, 2. tired of seeing the Church so out of touch with society we try to bring society into the Church with playing secular music in church, copying secular art in the form of logos and t-shirts, or 3. we disassociate with being Christians at all in our art. The article goes on to say that, “What we need is art made with excellence—art that reflects the joy, suffering, pain, brokenness, hope in the world around us, even art grounded in a Christian worldview—and a Church that supports it. This art may come from Christians, but we should recognize that it may also come from people who do not know Christ. In its essence, art is the expression of human emotion; true art reminds us that this temporal existence is not the end, that there is something greater, something this world cannot satisfy. It cannot help but call us to God if we only follow its calling. In this way, art is a connection, a connection deeper than mere brushstrokes on a canvas or images on film.” So even though Josh might not be a Christ-follower, his art is real. His art has meaning. His art is relevant. His art was heart-felt.

Here are a couple other sections of lyrics that I liked,

“i should know who i am by now
i walk the record stands somehow
thinking of winter
your name is the splinter inside me while i wait”

“old doubt and a girl by your side she's feeding your pride
as you go for a ride
down the star mile
world's rise as she lets you come in
a duo begins to the hollywood din
of the lonely and all the gold dust in her eyes
won't reform into a ring
you had and lost the one thing
you kept in a safe place
remember the face
the girl who had made you her own
and how you left her alone”

“Digging a hole and the walls are caving in Behind me air's getting thin but I'm trying I'm breathing in Come find me It hasn't felt like this before It hasn't felt like home before you And I know it's easy to say but it's harder to feel This way And I miss you more than I should Than I thought I could Can't get my mind off of you I know you're scared that I'll soon be over it That's part of it all Part of the beauty of falling in love with you is the fear you won't fall It hasn't felt like this before It hasn't felt like home before you And I know it's easy to say but it's harder to feel This way And I miss you more than I should than I thought I could Can't get my mind off of you And I hate the phone But I wish you'd call Thought being alone Was better than was better than And I know it's easy to say but it's harder to feel this way And I miss you more than I should Than I thought I could Can't get my mind off of you Can't get my mind off of you And I know it's easy to say but it's harder to feel This way And I miss you more than I should Than I thought I could Can't get my mind off of you”

The concert made me pretty mellow and introspective. I went alone which was hard (with the circumstances as they were), but I am glad I went anyway. It was worth the uncomfortablity and hurt.