"BABY, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the gray"
So what do these wonderfully compelling lyrics of the hit Seal song have to do with my blog?!
Here is my Confession: I have a new appreciation for the use of "baby" in song lyrics. That's right... I think I like it when artists sing Baby!
But hear me out!
I admit, yes, it may often be used as a flippant pet name for whatever nameless attraction a singer has recently feasted their eyes upon... Let's not avoid the obvious!
But my most recent composition left me embarrassingly dependent on its use!
There is a longing in a lyricist to write in a manner that both expresses the emotions and unique quality of the story's situation, while yet maintaining imagery broad enough that its listener may fully relate to it. Such specificities as names, or gender even, are hindrances to a piece's universality. They limit the degree to which listeners may lose themselves in the thoughts and emotions of the work. Specifics, by nature, exclude.
And even though I have never addressed the person represented in my latest song as "baby," I found this to be the only acceptable manner of addressing them. So, while their name is all but rolling off my tongue, I leash it in for the sake of the audience, and for the sake of that person.
For songs are often a writer's diary. And although it is nearly impossible to write a touching piece without addressing the intimate interactions between humanity, my own vulnerability should not be an invitation to read a page of someone else's diary. Even if I may be longing to cry out their name, I cannot permit myself to unlock their personal life like some tabloid nightmare.
Thus even the most intimate relation may be belittled to "baby" in song.
And as we sit sneering in mockery, the singer may in fact be weeping to say a name at that very moment.
So sing on, backstreet boys. Sing on, Olivia Newton John!
And thank you for your baby songs!
Title: "Kiss from a Rose", Seal
