There is something that gets to even the best of us who are songwriters. It’s a thing I would call rose colored ears. Most english speaking people have likely heard the term rose colored glasses. Rose colored glasses is a phrase that means someone can view the most troubling of problems and not realize they are there. They happily go thru life with thinking everything they see is beautiful and wonderful. It’s a great way to stay happy, but sometimes it helps to have a foot grounded in reality.
To me rose colored ears is about songwriters who think their newest song is always the most amazing song they’ve written. Raise my hand as I used to be guilty of it myself. I’m sure it will still happen to me in the future, but I’m definitely getting better about it. I do have songwriting friends around me though that certainly do it. Of course when you’re that close to new material it’s easy to do. When you’ve had a chance to sit on a song for a while it’s easier to gain perspective.
Last night I went to see a band that I was invited to see. I didn’t recognize the name when I was invited. When they hit the stage I was standing there looking and thinking to myself, I know these guys, I’ve met them and seen them before. The show itself was better than the first time I had seen them. I recognized all the songs they played, it was pretty much the same set from about 6 months ago. They have some good songs, and some that ought to be dropped from the set list and from existence. Its easy to see it when an audience isn’t reacting to them – yet they’re holding on to them.
Of course that’s one of the best ways to find out if a song is as awesome as the songwriter thinks it is. Test it in front of an audience. Will it resonate? Will it connect? Will it relate? All good questions. Some songs are fantastic as personal pieces, but won’t relate to an audience at all. Others are fantastic as audience pieces but won’t sit on a personal level. It’s a tough thing to judge.
Many styles, many genres, it’s why there is so many kinds of music in the world. Because we all have our certain rose colored ears that like a particular song, a particular artist, a particular type of music. Obviously the music I feature here is stuff that is fit for my rose colored ears…
What better song to express a way to talk about a rose than Seal’s Kiss From A Rose? A strange love song, but then that’s the whole idea of rose colored stuff, right? There’s not much I can say about Seal that most people don’t already know, he’s a star. He’s got a smooth voice, he writes some absolutely amazing songs. He can groove and he has flair. Has he written a song that has some inkling of being pushed thru with rose colored ears? I think so, but then he more than makes up for it with the majority of other great songs he’s written.
If you haven’t got Seal, you are really missing a great asset of the music world. Go get him legally. Do it now!