Song Lyrics

   Last night I went out dancing with my friend Mandy and her husband. She asked me what I planned to write about this weekend. I told her I had no idea.
   Many times when I think about this column an idea pops into my head nearly fully formed. I can't get my fingers to type fast enough. Those tend to be some of my better columns. Then there are the days when I sit in front of the keyboard with a nice white screen and no idea what I'm going to do.
  I know what I don't want to do. I don't want to write about anything serious. I don't feel like writing about what's going on in the world right now. I'm getting to the point where I've lost count of how many unarmed people have been shot by police, how many people think that our country is going to H-E double hockey sticks because of choices some of our elected officials are making. There's a drought in the west and terrorism in the east.
  I asked Scamp if he would be interested in taking a break and writing for me today. He said that he had already made plans to bask in the sun. He's feeling deficient in vitamin D so he really needs all the basking time he can get. After all the sun doesn't come out every day. I approached Colby to see if I could get some help from him. He rolled over and insisted on a vigorous belly rub. Then he turned around three times and promptly fell asleep.
   When I drove home from a lunch date yesterday, I had my IPod turned on. I have an album called 'Here and Now' by the group America loaded onto it. The song 'Muskrat Love' started to play. I listened to the lyrics for a couple of minutes. I couldn't help but wonder what kind of inspiration a person needs to write a song about two medium sized rodents "doin' the town and doin' it right in the evening" and falling in love. I looked at pictures of muskrats. They are sort of cute and they look like they would be good swimmers. I'm not sure how good they would be at jitterbugging though. I would think that the tails would get in the way.
  After 'Muskrat Love' was over then 'Ventura Highway' began to play. This is another song that has lyrics I don't understand. What are "alligator lizards" and what are they going in the air? (Isn't this redundant? I thought alligators were in the lizard family.) Why does Joe have to go and what is purple rain? This song was written about 20 years before Prince became popular.
   This is a discussion that C and I have had before. We were discussing a song by country musician Tracy Byrd. The song is 'Drinking Bone'. I kind of like the song. It's got a catchy tune and it does make some sense. It's about a guy who is explaining why his drinking and partying days are over. C disagrees. I told him if he wants  a country song with senseless lyrics, he needs to listen to 'Red Solo Cup'. You really have to be desperate to write a song about how much you love a disposable plastic cup.
  One song that I like is 'Year of the Cat'. (I know, you're surprised.) Besides the fact that I like cat related things this has a bunch of cool instrumental solos in it. The lyrics are incredibly descriptive. There's "blue tiled walls near the market stalls" and "On a morning from a Bogart movie, In a country where they turn back time" The word patchouli is in the lyrics. As someone who does some creative writing I have to admire that.
   It looks like I've found something to write about which is good. I was worried I've have to resort to writing about my yarn stash. While I do enjoy writing about knitting, I would rather do knitting than write about it.