Back when I found Cat Power, it was her album full of sweet covers. Now I get to see her original songwriting. This has soul and honest whimsy, with a muscular handle on the applicable sadness that is inevitable when being a happy young girl.
Listen to the lyrics, and her gift to everyone - hey - we’re risky, we engage in fun behaviour and walk the line between excitement and fear. And we have a family that raises and praises to do so.
“We've lived in bars
And danced on the tables
Hotels, trains and ships that sail
We swim with sharks
And fly with aeroplanes in the air”
Perfection. Just the right ode to care free fun, an appreciation of adventure which leads to self discovery - what it means to fill time just building character by pushing the envelope for the sake of experiencing new things, sans strategy or over contemplation.
I used to exaggerate a lot. I wouldn’t call it lying… but hey I was a “Creative child.”
When i think of Cat Power, i never forget the time that I wanted to be an actress, so I went for these expensive head shots in a studio. The photographer wanted me to be comfortable so he let me choose the music. I chose Cat Power. Then i proceeded to tell him I’d be going on a backpacking trip through some of Europe at the end of the summer. That part was true, I saved up money working through the summer and went to London, Barcelona, Nice, Venice, Florence, Rome, etc... But in the open air of this neat old studio with all the glamour of camera equipment, sensing the potential of artistic success, I decided it would RAMP up my riskiness and “cool factor" ifI told him we’d be hitchhiking. lol. I think he asked if my parents knew about the plan, and I can’t remember what I said but it must have deflated me to be phony, because those head shots sucked. I imagined it was karma.
“There's nothing like living in a bottle
And nothing like ending it all for the world
We're so glad you have come back
Every living lion will lay in your lap”
Finding this song reminded me what the adventure of being that young was like. Like a pinball bouncing from thing to thing trying to get points, but ending up drifting down the middle back into the release chamber. This song captures her loving knowledge and acceptance that it’s ok to just try things on. Some stick, some don’t, but that’s all the same in the game of life, aint it. It just makes you stronger.
