“I’m just a guy, man, who writes songs,” John Lennon once exclaimed, to a neurotic American man who flew to England to visit with Lennon about his songwriting. It turns out that this crazy man believed that Lennon’s songs were written exclusively about him.

Any sensible person knows that this is vanity. But great songwriting grabs us by the ears and carries us to sublime places. It makes us all crazy and sane together. Lennon was coaxed from his home to speak with the man. He listened to his plea and replied, “How could I be thinking of you, man?” Indeed, how could any songwriter be thinking of me? And yet, some songs feel that way. They move us and shake us and hit us squarely in the solar plexus. 

Song lyrics are words that invoke thought and emotion. “Word” is the shortened form of the phrase: my word is my bond, which originated with prison inmates and also by my grandma, who avoided blasphemy by saying, oh my word. Ultimately, the marriage of words to harmony and melody makes us feel uniquely us. 

So, in honor of the man who took a pilgrimage to John Lennon’s doorstep to offer Mr. Lennon advice on songwriting, here are some songs that make me want to go to the songwriter’s home with wide-eyed solipsistic wonder. 

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Simon and Garfunkel-The Boxer 

“All lies and jest, still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”

My daughter and I share a love for their lyrical ballads.   

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Woodie Guthrie – This Land Is Your Land

“As I went walking, I saw a sign there, and on the sign it said, “No Trespassing.” But on the other side it didn’t say nothing, that side was made for you and me.”

This verse is lesser known, but pretty good!   

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James Taylor- Country Road 

“Sail on home to Jesus won’t you good girls and boys I’m all in pieces, you can have your own choice, But I can hear a heavenly band full of angels, And they’re coming to set me free, I don’t know nothing ’bout the why or when, But I can tell that it’s bound to be, Because I could feel it, child, yeah, on a country road.” 

Yes, James, I love the highway also.   

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Bob Dylan – My Back Pages

“I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now”.

I have no idea what this means, but I love it.   

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U2 – Where the Streets Have No Name  

“I want to run, I want to hide, I want to break down the walls, that hold me inside, I want to reach out, and touch the flame, Where the streets have no name.”

Echoes of the Bible passage in Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”    

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Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here

“We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl”.

Not many artists can sing about mental health and still attract large crowds.    

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Jimmy Buffett – Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes 

“If we weren’t all crazy, we would go insane.” 

I know…right?   

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Bruce Springsteen – Jungleland 

“There’s an opera out on the turnpike, there’s a ballet being fought out in the alley.” 

Strange juxtaposition makes things memorably odd.   

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Robert Robinson – Come Thou Fount 

“Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace.”

The entire song is beauty and loveliness.

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Neil Young – Comes a Time

“Comes a time when you’re driftin’, comes a time when you settle down, comes a light, feelin’s liftin’, Lift that baby right up off the ground, Oh, this old world keeps spinning round, it’s a wonder tall trees ain’t layin’ down, there comes a time.”

Neil tells an entire life story in a few words.

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James Taylor – Carolina in My Mind  

“With a holy host of others standing ’round me, Still I’m on the dark side of the moon, and it seems like it goes on like this forever, you must forgive me, If I’m up and gone to Carolina in my mind.” 

Paul, John, George and Ringo surround JT in the studio (a holy host of others standing ‘round me) in England where Apple Records first signed him.

Carolina in My Mind was the song I sang most often to my children before bedtime, so it means more to me as a lullaby about the peace of rest and saying good night to my children.