Wow it feels like I have not done a segment of top 100 lyricists in a long time. I guess that would label me as a slacker. Well, I’m up and ready to go and #89 is ready to be profiled. 89 is an interesting number. I was born in the year 1989. Santana Moss (former football Jet and now Washington Redskins wide receiver) is number 89. Yeah, that is about it. But, I needed something to premise the lyricist who I will be profiling today. After discussing the hard, heavy, and realistically depressing music of James Hetfield of Metallica it is nice to focus on a lyricist today whose music is just more uplifting. Much under appreciated by the masses (and once by me, skipped over on my daily search for new music) Amos Lee’s music is feel-good rock with attached emotion on each album sleeve.
Let me tell you how I came on to Amos Lee. After skipping over him in my search, my roommate Josh found him on one of his searches. He became obsessed (now when he gets obsessed with a song the song is constantly occupying a spot in his head and is played and sung around 30-40 times a day) with “Night Train,” one of Lee’s slower songs. After weeding through his endless singing and constant suggesting that I too get into Amos Lee, I caved, and I am happy I did.
The lyrics of Lee travel from truthful odes to classic love songs with a twist. His quirky and unconventional lyric most likely was a result of the first music he started getting into. While in the University of South Carolina he received a job at a record store that specialized in Jazz music. Now many of you are probably thinking, what is this dude stupid, jazz has no lyrics. Yes, you would be correct on that most of the times, but, the music itself is interesting, eccentric, and well irregular. Jazz has a way about it and it certainly affected Lee.
The two songs that I would like to focus on are a love song and a universal truth. I believe this gives a broad range of Lee’s talents and plus they are also two great songs. Firstly, let us start with “Arms of a Woman” which appeared on his debut self-titled album in 2005.
Looking cool...
“I am at ease
In the arms of a woman
Although now most of my days are spent alone
A thousand miles from the place I was born
When she wakes me
She takes me back home
Now most days
I spend like a child
Who’s afraid of ghosts in the night
I know there ain’t nothing out there
But I’m still afraid to turn on the light
I am at ease
In the arms of a woman
Although now most of my days are spent alone
A thousand miles from the place I was born”
There are two ways of thinking when it comes to this song. Amos Lee is talking about his mother or a Love (he either has or once had). Let us take the latter way of thinking for this particular post for I believe this is most likely what he is getting out. The woman he is in love with is gone and now his days are spent alone, afraid, and lonely. I am a fan of his delicate metaphor which encompasses the second verse of the song. A child afraid to turn off the light even though he knows nothing is there. Lee is describing how his character does not want to be alone in the dark without the warmth of the love he once had (or is just far away). Classic loss of love song or long-distance relationship?
Symbolism in album covers is always well-respected
Next, we have my favorite Amos Lee song entitled “Supply and Demand,” which appeared on the same-titled 2006 studio album
“
Somethin’ gotta give with the way I’m livin’
Seems I’m gettin’ down everyday
The more I strive, the less I’m alive
And seems i’m gettin’ further away
Oh well all my superstitions
And my crazy suspicions
Of the people that I care about
I’ve been doin’ more screamin’
Than I’ve been doin’ dreamin’
And I think it’s time I figure it out
Baby i need a plan
Oh, to understand
That life ain’t only supply and demand”
Already one can see the range of his music. This is no where near love. It focuses on one of the most written about concepts in human history. Life is too short to waste on only thinking about work. Hence why Lee says, “Somethin’ gotta give with the way I’m livin, Seems I’m gettin’ down everyday, The more I strive, the less I’m alive, And seems i’m gettin’ further away.” In this opening verse he is explaining that the more he does in his work the less he is alive. He has been doing too much working and less focusing on his dreams and his family and he thinks it’s time to figure out that life is not only work (Supply and Demand). Great lyric. Kind of funny that Lee is writing it. He is a musician, and a good one at that. He most likely will never need to worry about anything of this song happening to him.
“Arms of a Woman”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymXPT62lYMI
“Supply and Demand”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbadOsEmFlM
The Music Court 
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