The Luckiest

The simple things are always the best. I heard Lionel Richie and Diana Ross singing "Endless Love" on the radio a few days back, and what I found remarkable was the simplicity. That's pretty much always the way when people achieve greatness; they do it with simplicity.

As artists we're always looking for the complex route. We think we have to mix things up and make them complicated to be original.

It shouldn't be about being complicated. It should be about being authentic.

Authentic wins every time.

Don't get me wrong, authentic isn't enough. You've got to be good also.

But eventually -- when someone really nails a piece of art -- it's so often when preparation meets.... simplicity and authenticity. 

Ben Folds has always been quirky and strange and funny. "Song For The Dumped" is the song you play to friends to make them laugh, to grab them and turn them into fans.

"The Luckiest" is the song you play for the person you love, when they deserve it. It says everything ---- everything you're afraid to say. Everything you can't say in a simple way because nobody in the history of the world has ever been able to say anything in a simple way.

Except for the artists. When the artists are at their best; they reflect life back to us; in the most simple ways possible.

When it comes to death. What songs resonate? It's "I'll Be Missing You" by Puff Daddy, and "Dance With My Father" by Luther Vandross. These are the things that resonate when we get down to what it's really all about. They're simple, they make the point, and they reach into our hearts and express how we feel. 

"Next door there's an old man,    

Who lived to his nineties and one day,

Passed away, in his sleep.     

And his wife, she stayed for a couple of days,

And passed away.      

I'm sorry, I know that's a strange way to tell you,

That I know we belong."

I woke up with this song in my head. Funny how they get there, don't you think? They just sneak in. It kept popping into my head all day. I'm not sure what "The Luckiest" means to me, although it means many things -- and has been the theme tune to relationships over the years, as well as some people who passed away, as well as often being the song I've listened to when flying home from my home away from home in the middle of the night feeling all profound and caught up in everything. 

What it means on this particular day, I don't know. But I'm glad my subconscious kicked it up and stuck it in my mental playlist for the day. 

"What if I'd been born fifty years before you,  

In a house on the street where you live.     

Maybe I'd be outside as you passed on your bike,

Would I know?"