Murph's Picks

Murph's Picks is a new feature I'm starting. It will be a weekly feature about something in Pop Culture that I find interesting, intriguing, entertaining, funny or what not. It won't necessarily be new and hip, but neither am I . Consider it a distraction from whatever part of your day that irks you the most. I'm starting the inaugural edition of Murph's Picks with a song. This song is beautiful in so many ways to me. When I hear it, it becomes like gum to the desk of my brain in the middle of third period. 

 The song is Elton John's "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" from his album, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. I first heard it about five or six years ago in a preview for a the TNT series Heartland starring Treat Williams. Of course it was a medical drama that looked like ER, but my interested was sparked in the chorus. Something was intoxicating about his voice. 

 Elton John is an artist my mom liked in the 1970s, but before iTunes we never had any of his albums. It wasn't just because my mom liked him was the reason I was interested. I very rarely get attached to something else because of force or insistence, but curiosity. When I found about the songs he wrote and produced I could recognize them from commercials. The most notable being Bennie and the Jets. But this song was not one my mom mentioned, I just remember hearing it.

 I love the way the song starts off. The staccato in his voice reminds me of a rapper ready to give his best verse in the middle of a song, but then the key melody chimes in and the bluesy soul of his voice takes over. The imagery is stunning, such that I like to close my eyes and let the song take my imagination. When I listened to it today, I thought of a film noir dame in a large mink stole wielding a gun at her lover who was ready to frame her for murder. 

 Even though there have been accounts that the song is about drug addiction, it does reflect darkness to a certain extent but there is a rescue that inspires hope. I think the layers that entangle the song are truly beautiful  and real. I think it offers something in the times we live in. Even though we may want to give up and curl in the corner, someone will be there to try and save us. And that to me is one of the many reasons music is so powerful, it can give us so much in such a small period of time. And if you listen for nothing but the melody, I think you'll like it.