I’ve been thinking lately about the songs that I’m drawn to, and the ones that I connect with emotionally.  There was a day when I was digesting a steady diet of CCM Radio Music – which has a tendency to be overtly encouraging and happy.

But in the last year, I have fallen more in love with sad songs.  The artists that inspire me tend to look through melancholy glasses.  But why is this happening?  Why am I growing less interested in the standard contemporary praise songs of the day, and finding solace in the arms of minor chords?  I don’t feel any more sour or depressed.  So why?

I’m wondering if the answer is found in the crafting of art itself.  When a worship leader writes the new song “You’re an Awesome, Huge God” (make believe title, albeit believable), they are doing so with the masses in mind.  They are envisioning their song being sung by thousands and on heavy rotation on K-Love.  This vision isn’t far off for those who write the next “positive and encouraging” hit for believers to sing along to in their cars.  It’s art for the masses.  Nothing wrong with it… that’s just what it is.

Yet some artists dig into their souls and reveal the brokenness, pain, struggle, and hurt that they are working out in their everyday lives.  Their faith is an important part of the journey, but it doesn’t serve as a spiritual Band-Aid on their sadness.  We are let into an area of vulnerability and weakness.  It’s art for one; maybe to connect with one listener, or maybe just a song to work out something in that artist’s own life.  It’s small.  It’s personal.  It’s sad.  And I find myself diving into the deep end of this kind of art.

Jon Foreman (Switchfoot lead singer/songwriter) wrote an interesting article for the Huffington Post and said:
“I don't write songs when I'm happy. When I'm content, I take my wife out to dinner, I go surfing. I hang out with my friends and play ridiculous cover tunes when I'm happy. But when I'm depressed, I turn to look for something beyond this life. When I'm lonely and nothing makes sense and the world has lost its flavor I search for notes and words that usher in a transcendence that soars high above the tragedy. I look for song to understand the present tragedy in the context of a hope for a better world. I look for words that remind me of a bigger story, for songs that acknowledge the tragedy and move beyond it.”

Well said, Jon Foreman.  I don’t need hope or inspiration when I’m happy and all is right with the world.  Music helps me deal with my own weaknesses and the broken world around me.

To celebrate, I have one of the most beautifully penned “sad songs” I’ve heard in some time on Episode #67 “Under The Radar”.  And since I searched the Interweb and could not find these lyrics published anywhere, I transcribed the song for your reading encouragement.

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LYRICS:  "WRITE ONE" by Tommy Sims from CD Peace and Love

Let me write one today that speaks for all the losers
Let me write one today that speaks to all the confusion
And may the lyric be not clever neither smart
And should they ask where I was coming from, let it be from the heart
May the melody one day find its mark

Let me somehow say that you are not the problem
But now how to best convey, you alone could not solve them
Could be the difference ‘tween what is and is to come
And facing down these monkey demons I’ve been so long running from
Now ordinarily I would be glad to play that song
But you’d always call the one with something beautiful to say

This is not the day, I can’t go on right now in that vein, ‘cause I cannot see the light
Sitting here in the dark, trying to mend two pieces of a broken heart
So please let me off today, I just needed to write one this way

Let me write today for those of us short on the answers
If I could just play one today for all you solo dancers
And if of this step with which you’re leading, you’re not sure
Then may the tears in these proceedings bring your healing heart a cure
Maybe just until your song is played, that one from back in the day
You know the one with something wonderful to say

But this is not the day, I can’t go on right now in that vein, cause I cannot feel the sun
A little bit in the dark, trying to bridge two pieces torn all apart
I am not myself today, I just needed to write one this way

‘Cause I can’t get back the feeling I once had
And I can’t go back to living in the past

At least not today, Baby I can’t go out any more on that sage
Because I’m just not having fun
I can’t find my part, all that’s left of these pieces of bleeding heart
So darling if I may be excused from the words on this page
I am simply not myself today
I just had to write this one this way