A Mosaic of Sorts

Read it through, then click on the different phrases to see where they're from.

LA Lady

Cool drink of water, such a sweet
surprise. She’s always ready—
pulls those shades down tight. She’s just like a maze,
blue jean baby. She won’t cooperate
as long as she stands there waiting. She’s a runner,
rebel and a stunner, sophisticated lady
got my number; just a kiss on the lips
and I was on my knees, begging,
give me: big black boots, long brown hair, pretty face
she hid, I see her everywhere. She came to my show
just to hear about my day. She was
shakin’ her hips, holdin’ on my heart
like a hand grenade. She brings this liberation
that I just can’t define. When she wakes me,
midnight is in her eyes. A little loaded,
she steals another breath. She’s the salt of the earth
and she’s dangerous.

There's a reason we get songs stuck in our heads, and sometimes it's the music, but sometimes the narrative or emotions behind the lyrics get under our skin in a way that has us singing them over and over and over again, out loud or otherwise. Part of what led me to write compilations of preexisting lyrics was the fact that so many say the same thing in different ways--Frank Sinatra's "The Lady is a Tramp" and Green Day's "Last of the American Girls" use different chords, tempos, and diction, but aren't they both just men singing about women they love for their imperfections?

Another aspect of song lyrics that never ceases to amaze me is the way so many artists manage to slip in outrageous easter eggs while distracting listeners with a catchy tune. Some of pop culture's favorite songs are about rape, while some of the most reputedly hardcore rappers put out lyrics that, well...maybe they should have run them by a third party first. I bring this up, not because such examples appear in the piece above, but because when you sift through hundreds of song lyrics to distill them down to a dozen or so lines, you come across some major WTFs.