Softly Speaking

While my vocal chords continue to be shrouded in whatever spell has overcome them, I realized how remarkable it is when you have a very soft or barely audible that other people around you start to speak much more softly themselves. One particular loudmouth actually started to nearly whisper during our brief conversation and I thought to myself, maybe this isn’t such a bad thing after all. Or at least that’s how I’m trying to sell it to myself rather than being overly frustrated right now.

In honor of things lovely and quiet today's post features one of my favorite songs sung by Elton John from a favorite album called Sleeping With The Past. This tape included a couple of my family’s summer favorites- (“Club At The End Of The Street” and “Belfast”) as well as some beautiful ballads that I use to listen to before bed on a pair of headphones encased in a foamy padding hooked up to my boom box. It seems funny now that we all have our pocket sized portable listening devices that can hold hundreds, thousands of songs, while back then I would literally hit an oversized stop button with a big red circle on top and hit the rewind button and listen to my tape spool backwards until I found a song I liked or listened to the whole thing all over again. But that was 1992 and we’ve come a long way.

That said, I love this song, probably not a popular or memorable song for some, but I loved it. After starting my days struggling to have a voice and ending my days in whispering tones, I remembered these lyrics out of nowhere. I had not thought about this song in ages, do not have it on my iPod and was happy to know that something good or a memory came out of words one man wrote set to another by another man. Thanks, voice box, for letting me remember this forgotten song which rings with more honesty now than it did a over decade and a half ago.

Whispers

Music by Elton John
Lyrics by Bernie Taupin

Look at me twice with wildcat eyes
Promise me everything except a blue night
Shudder like ice in cut crystal glass
Melt in embraces of crazy eyed past
And whisper, whisper, whispering whispers

Tantamount to a lie with lingering breath
Walking fingers run, hungry scratches left
Dull chimes ringing like an empty voice
A distant smile framed, her lips are soft and moist
With whispers, whispers, whispering whispers

And whisper in a rhythm your lies
Keep comfort for others
Hurt me with the night
Whisper like cold winds close to the bone
Save heaven for lovers, leave me alone
With your whispers, whispers, whispering whispers

With whispers, whispers, whispering whispers...