Viccy wrote
How's this for stating the obvious, "I just wanna live when I'm alive" Bryan Adams, It's my life.
I'm not convinced myself that Bryan Adams is the world's greatest lyricist, but there's another way of looking at such lines. They should prompt a question (you'll all tell me to shut up when my earnestness gets too much to bear, right?).
Earlier I mentioned Sandy Denny's signature song "Who Knows Where The Time Goes". The third verse starts with
"I am not alone
"While my love is near me".
At which point we may say "duh!". Or we may say "hmmm.... can one have one's love nearby and still be alone"?
So in the case of Mr Adams we might ask "OK... so how can one be alive but not be living?".
In both cases another question might arise....
"What does it mean to be alone?"
"What does it mean to LIVE?"
It's the old existing V living thing I think.
Not the most profound area in lyrics or poetry, but there can be more to it than we think.
PS: I think that in too many cases these days the answer to "what does it mean to LIVE?" is not particularly original. At least in popular song. It might even be rhetorical (how am I doing on the earnestness front - assuming you're still reading). Generally the answer seems to be consist of rock 'n roll, love (read sex) and shaking your booty all night long. Which might prompt questions like "what is rock 'n roll, and what is the rock 'n roll life?" or "why can't I find my booty with both hands, let alone shake it all night long?" (to which the answer might be, in my case, "you're past 50 - it gets embarrassing").
