As passionate as Janis and Taylor
are for their music, it’s no surprise that their lyrics often express their
heartbreak for relationships lost. I
mean they are both free spirits. It’s hard to imagine either of them slowing
down. How hard that must be to maintain a normal relationship? Their lovers
must always feel secondary to their music.
Janis most famous song – “Me and
Bobby McGee” - was actually written by her lover at the time, Kris
Kristofferson. It’s a song about discovering the world on your own terms. There is a line the song about independence
that goes like this: “Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose. Nothin',
don't mean nothin' hon' if it ain't free.”
What brought Janis and Kris together was what drove them apart. They both wanted to be free, but they would
never feel that way in a long-term relationship.
In the same way,
Taylor’s best songs are the most painful. As much as she dreams of enchanted love, she
sings of crushing despair. In “White
Horse,” her lyrics probably approach Janis’s “Me and Bobby McGee” in the way
they express the hope to be with a person, and then there is that moment when
you know it’s never going to happen. She
sings, “Holding
on The days drag on..Stupid girl…I should have known.. I should have known.” Man, all she
wanted was the truth.
When
I listen to these songs, I think of one sad disappointment after another. One’s driving off into the distance. One dreams of riding off on a white horse. Whatever are looking for, they’re never going
to find it. The only place to feel free
and honest is in their music.
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