mystical melancholy

Creative words possess evocative power that challenge conventions of meaning. Illustrative and ambiguous all at once - it is the sonic equivalent of a vividly visual Dali surrealist landscape. 

A Whiter Shade of Pale is an ideal example - haunting and filled with the sorrow of loss or regret. It is a hugely enigmatic song - with its mysterious lyrics and Bach akin opening. 

We skipped the light fandango,
turned cartwheels 'cross the floor.

AI generated image

Expressive images in a potent mix of lyrics and a tune that became the mind blowing anthem of a trippy Summer of Love era that birthed movements of monumental change. 

The room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away.

A Whiter Shade of Pale attempts to articulate the retreat of reason - crashing through doors of perception - in the mind-expanding experience of a barely lucid acid trip.

She said, 'There is no reason
and the truth is plain to see.'

A Whiter Shade of Pale was declared the ‘most played song in public places’ over the past 75 years. It sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and was covered over 1000 times by other artists since its release.

Beating Queen’s 'Bohemian Rhapsody' into second place. Where not a single Beatles song appears in the top 10. Its words are a psychedelic kaleidoscope of fragments - allusions to and images from a treasury of sources, some real, more imagined. 

This was the age of my awakening - to myself, to the world, to me in relation to all of it. 

that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale

Stumbling and crashing through doors of my own perception - in a self realization journey all my own. 

I wandered through my playing cards
and would not let her be.

I left home and the island of my birth - not realizing it would be for a good while. 

one of sixteen vestal virgins

who were leaving for the coast

Not knowing what I did not know - I easily frittered away my 16 year old life as I gave my heart away, all over the place. 

although my eyes were open,

they might have just as well been closed

Easily distracted by all things shiny and new - too young and trusting, with no game on or armor owned. 

I took her by the looking glass

and forced her to agree

As hormones rage and curves form on our pubescent bodies - women shapeshift and our super powers emerge. 

she smiled at me so sadly

that my anger straightway died

Pray we are discerning through this all too fleeting stage - that we grow in our self belief, rather than diminish ourselves into roles dictated upon us. 

If music be the food of love 

then laughter is its queen.

Glory be to me! to me! to me!