February 24, 2026 • 23 mins
Murphy learned a lyric lesson from country singer, Ashley McBryde, in person and it was like a hammer to his head. #country #music
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Murphy Sam and Jody After the Show podcast.
And I want to share a life changing experience that
happened to me in this of all things, this has
to do with country singer Ashley Ashley McBride. I'll explain why,
you know in a minute. But you know, earlier this week,
(00:21):
somewhere at one point in the show, Sam, you had
brought up you know, not hearing lyrics and songs, right,
and uh.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
That's my superpower.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well, but it's but it's a it is a very
it's a very human thing. In fact, if you study it,
it's because you know, rhythm predates language and people's ability
to communicate, and people speak different languages, and so the
brain is really wired to you know, it gets its
dopamine hits from rhythm. So that's a very natural and
natural thing. And lyrical content is something that requires attention. Honestly,
(00:52):
you have to be engaged enough. And so that's what
I'm saying is you don't need to feel crazy for that.
And certainly I was the same way for a long
time until Jody changed that for me.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Life changing event.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
No, that wasn't the Ashley McBride thing that happened literally
just a week ago, is yeah, and I'm not normal?
Well no, I think because you get the poetry part
of it, I can see how a lot of people
who are left brain like me, you know, will wind up.
You know, you just you get the hook and look
(01:24):
the record labels and the you know, the music industry
understands the value of what they call a hook, you know,
the hook of a song, the bridge of a song
or whatever. The thing that you sing along with, you know,
that is repeated appeals to everything that the brain likes.
That's the reason you can sing along with parts of
a song and still have no clue what it means
if you don't actually, you know, pay attention to it.
(01:45):
And I didn't. But so this is where you know,
enter Jody, you know, and for teasing me for you
know years, not in a bad way about that, but
then explained, you're you're really missing this, and you're not
just missing the story, which is which is equally as
important as what the rest of the song is about.
(02:06):
It really is. If you don't listen to the lyrics,
and I've learned that, then you don't you're not enjoying
it the way that you think that you should.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
And uh wait that the artist intended.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, And and the biggest example, I'm not gonna play
the pace of it because everybody knows the song every
breath you take by the police, for example, the Sting
song is a very personal song from him. It came
from a real place, which is where we're going with this.
By the way, it's another reason to pay attention to
lyrics because these stories aren't just made up stories. These
artists are actually pouring these things in from their lives,
(02:38):
you know, which is what makes it so real and compelling.
And so when Sting wrote that everybody's heard that story,
that's it seems like it's a great love song and
you know it was played at wedding receptions, but it's
a stalker song and he talked about it. It's about obsession.
And then when you listen to the lyrics in that context,
you get that, yeah, it's got this happy beat to it,
but you know, lyrically, it's kind of got this creepiness
(03:00):
to it. And I knew that, I know, but but
I didn't. I was like, when I was a kid
and that song was being played on the radio, I
didn't know. And that's another thing too, because you know,
as a kid you miss the meaning of content. Sometimes
that's a good thing because of what these songs actually
sing about, you know, and you sing along with them.
But so it's it's a totally normal thing. But if
(03:21):
you take the moment to get into it, as I
learned from Jody, and it was taken again to another
notch because of Ashley McBride of all people last week,
you know, with me, then you really start to understand.
It's about the story and how engaging the story is too.
And you know, the the biggest one right now, that
(03:43):
is just you know, it researched on the charts because
of Luke Combe's fast Car. So, Sam, do you know
what fast Car is about?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Oh? Wow, we don't really know so much other than
saying fast car.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's it, right, So you know it's it's Tracy Chapman.
It's a song again from her personal life, and Jody
actually helped me connect the dots on this because the artistry,
it's so poetic, it's easy to miss part of you
know what this song is about.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Escape, escape from her childhood, from all the responsibilities that
were put on her. She just wanted a fast car
to get away from that and start a new life
with somebody. And that person that she went away with
also became something she needed to escape from.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, which is the full circle, odd ironic moment. She
grew up in poverty and she's you know, her dad
drank and if you listen to the lyrics of the song,
and so she wants to fast hard to get away
from all of it. But the irony is you can't
run away from all of it, is what she's saying.
In the end. The person that she was with, like Joe.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
She ran away with, she eventually told him to get
your own fast car and keep on driving because I'm
not doing this anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Right.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
It's a fantastic and sad song. Maybe together we can
get somewhere.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Can it places better?
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Stunning from Zoo, got nothing to If.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
You don't realize that's sadness, you're not hearing it well.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And it's it's interesting because that's the that's the bam
part of the story. The song starts out that she's
running away from everything, and then the person that she's
running away with, she's got to get away from him
to to.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Send him away.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Yeah, so well, I understand though your it sounds to me.
Like your brains latch onto the melody or to the
to the music, my brain latches onto words.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Yeah, that's how we're different.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I latch onto the beat and the rhythm. I'm a
real beaten rhythm person. And just like you said, Murphy,
the hook dude, it like fast car. I don't hear
any words in a fast call. I mean I hear
the words, but I don't connect the words until I
get to if I then I pick it up and
then I.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Lose it again.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah, that's all I hear.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, and the it's it's taken me so long in
my life to get to the place to realize that.
Until you start paying attention to lyrics, that's that's where
the emotional gut punch or the you know, the uplifting
or the oh wow or whatever. That's the reason that
these That's the reason Taylor Swift is at the level
that she is, because she is a songwriter at heart,
(06:05):
and so Swifties are about the lyrics story, not just
it's not just the sound.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
She just happens to have. She happens to have.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Hooks in her DNA everything Like you'll sing you're singing
along to stuff from her and you can't stop doing
it because she can write an incredible hook. But the
reason for the song in the first place is she
has something to say.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
And songs are complicated and tricky because sometimes they happen
at a time in our life where just the beat
that we absorb, if something bad is going on in
our life, then we wind up having a dislike for
the song, even though lyrically we may have a problem
with it because we're not actually stopping to you know,
to listen. So I've made an effort, you know, in
the last five ten years to really start paying attention
(06:49):
to the lyrics of songs. And so two things have
really helped me with that. Phoebe, our youngest daughter, who
plays guitar, is really into the artist of the seventies,
you know, late sixties, seventies and even early eighties, because
that really was a different to another evolution of the
singer songwriter era. And every single song is coming from
(07:09):
a place we just you know, are still watching the
Billy Joel documentary right now. And what blew me away
about that is every single song that he's written, literally,
every single song that he has written comes from his
real life and he's pouring that out. That's where the
(07:30):
genius of these songs come from. It's not just the arrangement,
which he's great, it's also.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Got the arrangement thing that in a way that no
one else ran.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Right. So one of his most popular songs, you can
take She's Always a Woman. Do you know what this
song is about? A woman? Yeah? Right, but it's actually
about Elizabeth, his first wife, who became his manager. And
I didn't realize how deeply she was intertwined with his
career until we start of watching this biopic. But he
(07:57):
is Billy. Joel's ability to express in a relationship came
out easier, more easily for him through song than it did.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
You know, say these things to her. He wrote songs, right,
And that's not just a positive song. That's about their
difficulty working together, right. Yeah, that song is about Oh,
she's the manager now, and even people in her band,
in his band, were like, oh, here she comes, you know,
because she had to she had to be tough on
them at times. And they explained that in the documentary.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, and so he's really singing about all of those,
all those angles. It's not just a love song. I mean,
it's ultimately a love song, but you know, but it's
it's but it's right, but it's more about you know,
all angles that he experiences, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Conflicting relationship at that time.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
And and you know, and so in some songs, you know,
wind up being more about you know, whatever is happening
in the world at that time, and you know, and
they resonate, and so I think that those are equally
you know, as important. I'm not discounting those, but songs
like this Marvin Gay, what's going on? So this song
(09:02):
is about really the social issues you know of the time,
Vietnam War, you know, civil rights, so many different things
that were going on in that time period. And it's
it's interesting to me that song, you know, written you know,
from the from the place is as time goes by,
it's almost a history lesson as much as it is
(09:22):
it resonates in the moment when everybody can you know,
relate to it. But because it's based on you know,
a snapshot in time, it's different. But again I missed
that too. I mean I was I was barely born
in the Vietnam era, and so that I had to
learn about that later. And it's a great song. Nobody
sings the song. Well, Marvin Gaye's got one of those
(09:43):
voices just special, and so I never really understood what
that song was about too. I could sing the hook,
but I didn't understand, Oh wow, this is a this
is a serious song. Again, it's in this great melody
that's catchy with a great hook, but it's a story.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
With that song the same thing. I can do the
hook it was. And this happens to me for some
some songs. When I see something online or read the
story about behind the song, you know, oh, this is
Morning Gay's song. Then I go, oh, really right, and
then I'll start listening to It has to.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Be pointed out to you. Yeah, yeah, well I know
that you love stories. That's why you watch bench TV shows.
That's why you watched Night of the Seven Kingdoms. And
then we talk about specifics. What do you think where
do you think this Targaran is. We had that conversation
this morning. You know, it's like it's kind of the
same thing. Not every single song. There are a lot
of pop songs that are just about hey, she's hot.
(10:39):
It's not much to it, you know, it's not much depth.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
It's almost like if somebody hits me over the head
and said, this song is about that.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Well, we had that happened.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Man.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
The other day we talked about saleon is a divorce song,
Lionel Richie, Yeah, of course it's a it's a divorce song.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Of course it is.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, you know, but again, it takes it's because I'm
right there with you on that sham. It takes thought.
You actually have to be you know, if if you're
not naturally going to be a poetry lyric, you know
type which Jody does, you're drawn to that. I mean,
you really, it happens automatically.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
If I'm listening to a song, that's what I'm waiting for.
I want what's what does this mean?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Right?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And I enjoyed the music even better.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yep. And so I promise I'm going to get to
the Ashley McBride park because the hammer over the head
moment for me was literally one week ago, sitting six
feet from Ashley McBride. And I'll explain why in a second.
But you know, the other song, the first I want
to share with you, the first song that I had
the lyric conversation with Jody about. Because there are a
lot of songs that I'm lyrics. Yeah, but you know
(11:40):
it's because it's a song called Operator by Jim Crochey
from the yearly seventies. Friend his girlfriend ran away with
his best friend.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, he's low.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah sometimes and so you know, again, a song based
in reality, an incredible story and it's an interesting you
know that one. Lyrically, it's one of my favorites honestly
because it is such a well toned told story. If
you don't listen to the lyrics of that song, then
you completely missed the point that he's calling and he's
(12:17):
using an operator. Don't you do that today in twenty
twenty six. But you know, he's debating himself. He wants
to call and tell them, look, I'm over this. Everything
is cool. I want to wish y'all well. I really
hope that you know this is all good. But he's
debating this the whole time that he's having the operator
help you.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
He wouldn't be calling if he actually was okay, right,
And I remember having this conversation with you because you
were like, this is a great little song.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I'm like, this is a sad song.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Now, as far as Jim Crochey goes bad Bad Lee
Roy Brown. I know all those lyrics and I know
that story.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, correct, that's hard to miss.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
So, you know, so here's the Ashley McBride part of this.
You know, when I was traveling last week, I was
attending a summit for the country music format, you know,
in radio, and this is one of these rare things.
You know. It's just so that anybody who's listening to
this podcast, No, this is not the kind of thing
we get to do every single day. We're very much
average to do it sometimes sometimes, but you know, very
(13:14):
average people just in the studio. This is what we do.
So it's not like we are rob and elbows with
celebrities or anything like that. But in this case, so
Ashley McBride has another album that she's actually got a
single out right now, but she's got an album she's
about to release, and so they were playing tracks for
us in advance to just get feedback. Honestly, they wanted
feedback on these tracks. It was a very intimate setting
(13:37):
inside the Warner Brothers record studio, and it was they'd
split us into groups, so there were about maybe fifteen
of us in the room, and I tend to want
to sit on the front row at these things, just
because I want to pay attention. I want to show
the respect. I don't want leave the front row empty.
And so in walks Ashley McBride and sits down. She's
(13:58):
literally six feet from me, and she's just she is
as warm and natural, you know, as can be. But
she starts to tell the story of her sobriety. She
has been sober now for three years and it's a
huge accomplishment for her because she she very much against
(14:20):
her will. It was an intervention that finally put her
into rehab. She might have kind of known that she
was dancing with a problem, but you know, ignored it.
And it was it was really her band, her friend
group that finally, you know, brought her to this place.
And so and it's not that every song on this
album is dark or heavy or anything like that, but
(14:41):
she's written a song called ten Minutes to Midnight that's
about that intervention. And yeah, and then you know, and
there's several other alcohol related songs that are really you know, introspective,
and they've got a good you know, one of them
is pretty upbeat. It's one of those of you don't
listen to it lyrically, you'll think it's, you know, supposed
to be just just happy. But she was extremely transparent.
(15:04):
She was very heartfelt about what she was saying to
us about her struggles with that and overcoming and has
a really, I mean a good sarcastic sense of humor
about things. I was completely drawn into the story. Then
when she was explaining these songs that she's written for
the album, that's where it clicked in the biggest way
(15:27):
ever so far from me, like a hammer over the head. Wow,
this is really insanely personal stuff that most of these
artists draw from, and it's almost universal for any singer songwriter.
What they're drawing on is their personal experience, their personal emotion,
because nothing is going to draw that out in a way.
You know then that personal experience and so it's great music.
(15:53):
And when we were done, I just walked up to
her and you know, and said, you know, these songs
are awesome, but I wanted to make sure because she
connected with me in such a big way. I said,
I said, hey, congratulations one day at a time, and
then all I said next was May nineteenth, twenty eleven,
and she, you know, we connected on that immediately because
(16:14):
she knew I was talking about a sobriety date and
working and so, but you know, I mean, I don't
know how to explain that other than that became probably
the most personal kind of you know, connection I've ever
created for somebody who's a complete stranger I don't know
and probably won't ever see her again, but through her music,
(16:35):
something that she has given of herself to write, it
just hit me. It's like, Wow, well, maybe I really
should pay attention to these lyrics because I don't know.
I mean, I don't or artist anything, but I really
I'm going to do it a disservice if I don't
pay attention and enjoy what the song's about. In addition
to how it sounds.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
You could also get something out of it. Music is
for all of us. It is art, and it's multi layered.
It is not just music. It is not just a
beat or a melody. Many times it's the lyrics live first.
Sometimes the lyrics are written on a napkin, or people
dream them and they have a lyric in their head forever,
and it's not until a piece of music comes and
(17:16):
seems to match it.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Or we all know the stories of people.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
I want to say, the Beatles have talked about having
a melody and calling it scrambled eggs.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Sometimes the music comes first, and then when artists get together.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
I know this is a weird transition, but I remember
reading I read Sammy Hagar's book one time, and he
was a lyric guy and Eddie would come over in
the middle of the night and go listen to this
rif and start playing something new, and he was like, oh,
I was just having a fight with my wife. Let's
do come on, baby, finish what you started. Like that's
how that happened. A lyric person came together with a
(17:49):
melody person. So music is for everyone, and it's multi layered.
And you her intention in writing that could have been
cathartic for her, but you can get something out of
it because it's out there now.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
It is art, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Hopefully you will maybe take something away from those songs.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Absolutely, And you know, and this was I was exposed,
you know, mainly to country singer songwriters, but I think
about the genius of people like Stevie Wonder when you
think of some of his most legendary songs from the
nineteen seventies that are just catchy and fun lyrically, it's
coming from a place of you know, I don't the
(18:32):
state of the world is not something I like right now,
this is not right. You know, you haven't done nothing
those kind of songs are.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
That is a jam, but that is a serious.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Song, exactly, And so you know, and it's not that
it can be any aspect of anything. It can be
a personal experience, it can be social issues, it can
be whatever. But that inspiration from the artist to create
those lyrics, especially when they're the singer songwriter, and it's
truly coming from their most vulnerable or the most transparent places,
(19:01):
I guess you know. I mean, that's exactly where hip
hop and R and B, you know, and and everything
associated with any sort of lyric. Kanye West, as controversial
as he was, again, same thing. It's it's you're creating
these connections and if you're if you're not paying attention
to the lyrics of hip hop and R and B,
it's the same thing. You're missing something, you're missing the
(19:23):
right exactly. And it doesn't mean you're a bad person
if you don't. You know, it's you're drawn to that.
Enjoy the melodies, enjoy all of that, but it just
I don't know, just there's a personal kind of weird,
little you know, epiphany. Maybe it's just because I'm getting
a little bit older, and you know, I really appreciate
that once. It's it's like, actually, when I was having
(19:44):
this conversation with somebody, Jody, I should have told you this,
you know. First thing. It's like the first time you
discover subtitles, because when you're watching a show that you
don't understand, but then you see the subtitles, you get
the context because you're not missing any sort of you know,
you know, connection with the dialogue that's going on. That's
really what this is when you start to pay attention
(20:05):
to the lyrics. So I'm just if you can't tell personally,
for me, I'm excited about it. It's like discovering this
whole new world, you know, for songs that I never
that I underappreciated.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
You know, in our years of being married, I cannot
tell you how many times, especially on the weekends, we
play music in the house constantly. Murphy is normally the
one who like sets. You know, this is what we're
gonna play for a while, this is what we're gonna
listen to today, unless it's just I need something else.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
We just I let him.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
He runs the music and I cannot tell you how
many times, I mean, I've lost count how many times
I'm like, oh, I've heard this, you know what this
is about? And you're like, what this is awesome? I'm like,
do you know what this is about? Do you understand
this song? And then we end up having conversations. There's
probably a long list of songs that we've talked about
that you never we never would have talked about.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
And Phoebe is the same.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Our daughter.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Phoebe is the same. She understands what songs mean and
she has both going on. Though she picks up on
instruments too, and arrangements.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
The other thing that does help me. There are a
handful of songs that I know the lyrics, I know
the meaning to is like if I'm listening to a
song and I hear like a line and go, oh,
that's creative. There's a line in a John Mayer song
where he talks about his brother, you know, just like
his brother John, but on a eighteen month delay. Yes,
And to me that's like, oh, so he's got a
(21:27):
younger brother who's eighteen months younger than him. Correct, and
it makes me go, oh, well, let me pull up
the lyrics and see what this is about.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
A lot of times for me, it's one line or
a phrase and it's like, oh, coarsely what the song's about?
And I bring up the lyrics.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Of course, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
You know. That's the trick with the more poetic or
the more metaphoric it becomes, it's the more difficult it
is for me to follow. And that's why bands like
you know, Steely Dan, you know, for you know, a
very polarizing band. But Donald Fagan in the way that
he writes lyrics odd, very odd, and they're very different.
They're very poetic. You almost have to look it up,
(22:04):
and even when you look it up, you still don't know.
And he even will you know. It's sort of a
you know, a laugh right that he and Walter Becker
are always, you know, would joke about. Okay, we'll let
the fans think that they know what this is about,
but they may not really, you know, know whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
And that's right as an artist.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
And I've always i mean, look, it's the reason that
I did better in grammar class in English than I
did in literature. I struggle on the right brain side
with I don't know why, like poetry and metaphor. Eventually
it's like I need somebody to help help me get it.
And I guess maybe that's kind of what Ashley Bride
and McBride did, just by explaining and then playing the song.
It's like, Okay, here's how we can talk. But it
(22:43):
really was awesome. It's just I walked out of there.
I can't tell you what an experience that you know
that was.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
And this is not something you have to master. No,
you should just enjoy it for the rest of your life.
Enjoy discovering there's more meaning here.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah, because there is.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
Their usual is there are a few little poppy songs
in the world that don't mean a thing and fine to.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Exactly that's something Sam listens to missed any part of
the show. Get It All on the Murphy Salmon Jody Podcast.
Welcome to the Murphy Sam and Jody After the Show podcast.
And I want to share a life changing experience that
happened to me in this of all things, this has
to do with country singer Ashley Ashley McBride. I'll explain why,
you know in a minute. But you know, earlier this week,
(00:21):
somewhere at one point in the show, Sam, you had
brought up you know, not hearing lyrics and songs, right,
and uh.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
That's my superpower.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well, but it's but it's a it is a very
it's a very human thing. In fact, if you study it,
it's because you know, rhythm predates language and people's ability
to communicate, and people speak different languages, and so the
brain is really wired to you know, it gets its
dopamine hits from rhythm. So that's a very natural and
natural thing. And lyrical content is something that requires attention. Honestly,
(00:52):
you have to be engaged enough. And so that's what
I'm saying is you don't need to feel crazy for that.
And certainly I was the same way for a long
time until Jody changed that for me.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Life changing event.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
No, that wasn't the Ashley McBride thing that happened literally
just a week ago, is yeah, and I'm not normal?
Well no, I think because you get the poetry part
of it, I can see how a lot of people
who are left brain like me, you know, will wind up.
You know, you just you get the hook and look
(01:24):
the record labels and the you know, the music industry
understands the value of what they call a hook, you know,
the hook of a song, the bridge of a song
or whatever. The thing that you sing along with, you know,
that is repeated appeals to everything that the brain likes.
That's the reason you can sing along with parts of
a song and still have no clue what it means
if you don't actually, you know, pay attention to it.
(01:45):
And I didn't. But so this is where you know,
enter Jody, you know, and for teasing me for you
know years, not in a bad way about that, but
then explained, you're you're really missing this, and you're not
just missing the story, which is which is equally as
important as what the rest of the song is about.
(02:06):
It really is. If you don't listen to the lyrics,
and I've learned that, then you don't you're not enjoying
it the way that you think that you should.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
And uh wait that the artist intended.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, And and the biggest example, I'm not gonna play
the pace of it because everybody knows the song every
breath you take by the police, for example, the Sting
song is a very personal song from him. It came
from a real place, which is where we're going with this.
By the way, it's another reason to pay attention to
lyrics because these stories aren't just made up stories. These
artists are actually pouring these things in from their lives,
(02:38):
you know, which is what makes it so real and compelling.
And so when Sting wrote that everybody's heard that story,
that's it seems like it's a great love song and
you know it was played at wedding receptions, but it's
a stalker song and he talked about it. It's about obsession.
And then when you listen to the lyrics in that context,
you get that, yeah, it's got this happy beat to it,
but you know, lyrically, it's kind of got this creepiness
(03:00):
to it. And I knew that, I know, but but
I didn't. I was like, when I was a kid
and that song was being played on the radio, I
didn't know. And that's another thing too, because you know,
as a kid you miss the meaning of content. Sometimes
that's a good thing because of what these songs actually
sing about, you know, and you sing along with them.
But so it's it's a totally normal thing. But if
(03:21):
you take the moment to get into it, as I
learned from Jody, and it was taken again to another
notch because of Ashley McBride of all people last week,
you know, with me, then you really start to understand.
It's about the story and how engaging the story is too.
And you know, the the biggest one right now, that
(03:43):
is just you know, it researched on the charts because
of Luke Combe's fast Car. So, Sam, do you know
what fast Car is about?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Oh? Wow, we don't really know so much other than
saying fast car.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's it, right, So you know it's it's Tracy Chapman.
It's a song again from her personal life, and Jody
actually helped me connect the dots on this because the artistry,
it's so poetic, it's easy to miss part of you
know what this song is about.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Escape, escape from her childhood, from all the responsibilities that
were put on her. She just wanted a fast car
to get away from that and start a new life
with somebody. And that person that she went away with
also became something she needed to escape from.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, which is the full circle, odd ironic moment. She
grew up in poverty and she's you know, her dad
drank and if you listen to the lyrics of the song,
and so she wants to fast hard to get away
from all of it. But the irony is you can't
run away from all of it, is what she's saying.
In the end. The person that she was with, like Joe.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
She ran away with, she eventually told him to get
your own fast car and keep on driving because I'm
not doing this anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Right.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
It's a fantastic and sad song. Maybe together we can
get somewhere.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Can it places better?
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Stunning from Zoo, got nothing to If.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
You don't realize that's sadness, you're not hearing it well.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And it's it's interesting because that's the that's the bam
part of the story. The song starts out that she's
running away from everything, and then the person that she's
running away with, she's got to get away from him
to to.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Send him away.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Yeah, so well, I understand though your it sounds to me.
Like your brains latch onto the melody or to the
to the music, my brain latches onto words.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Yeah, that's how we're different.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I latch onto the beat and the rhythm. I'm a
real beaten rhythm person. And just like you said, Murphy,
the hook dude, it like fast car. I don't hear
any words in a fast call. I mean I hear
the words, but I don't connect the words until I
get to if I then I pick it up and
then I.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Lose it again.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah, that's all I hear.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, and the it's it's taken me so long in
my life to get to the place to realize that.
Until you start paying attention to lyrics, that's that's where
the emotional gut punch or the you know, the uplifting
or the oh wow or whatever. That's the reason that
these That's the reason Taylor Swift is at the level
that she is, because she is a songwriter at heart,
(06:05):
and so Swifties are about the lyrics story, not just
it's not just the sound.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
She just happens to have. She happens to have.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Hooks in her DNA everything Like you'll sing you're singing
along to stuff from her and you can't stop doing
it because she can write an incredible hook. But the
reason for the song in the first place is she
has something to say.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
And songs are complicated and tricky because sometimes they happen
at a time in our life where just the beat
that we absorb, if something bad is going on in
our life, then we wind up having a dislike for
the song, even though lyrically we may have a problem
with it because we're not actually stopping to you know,
to listen. So I've made an effort, you know, in
the last five ten years to really start paying attention
(06:49):
to the lyrics of songs. And so two things have
really helped me with that. Phoebe, our youngest daughter, who
plays guitar, is really into the artist of the seventies,
you know, late sixties, seventies and even early eighties, because
that really was a different to another evolution of the
singer songwriter era. And every single song is coming from
(07:09):
a place we just you know, are still watching the
Billy Joel documentary right now. And what blew me away
about that is every single song that he's written, literally,
every single song that he has written comes from his
real life and he's pouring that out. That's where the
(07:30):
genius of these songs come from. It's not just the arrangement,
which he's great, it's also.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Got the arrangement thing that in a way that no
one else ran.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Right. So one of his most popular songs, you can
take She's Always a Woman. Do you know what this
song is about? A woman? Yeah? Right, but it's actually
about Elizabeth, his first wife, who became his manager. And
I didn't realize how deeply she was intertwined with his
career until we start of watching this biopic. But he
(07:57):
is Billy. Joel's ability to express in a relationship came
out easier, more easily for him through song than it did.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
You know, say these things to her. He wrote songs, right,
And that's not just a positive song. That's about their
difficulty working together, right. Yeah, that song is about Oh,
she's the manager now, and even people in her band,
in his band, were like, oh, here she comes, you know,
because she had to she had to be tough on
them at times. And they explained that in the documentary.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, and so he's really singing about all of those,
all those angles. It's not just a love song. I mean,
it's ultimately a love song, but you know, but it's
it's but it's right, but it's more about you know,
all angles that he experiences, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Conflicting relationship at that time.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
And and you know, and so in some songs, you know,
wind up being more about you know, whatever is happening
in the world at that time, and you know, and
they resonate, and so I think that those are equally
you know, as important. I'm not discounting those, but songs
like this Marvin Gay, what's going on? So this song
(09:02):
is about really the social issues you know of the time,
Vietnam War, you know, civil rights, so many different things
that were going on in that time period. And it's
it's interesting to me that song, you know, written you know,
from the from the place is as time goes by,
it's almost a history lesson as much as it is
(09:22):
it resonates in the moment when everybody can you know,
relate to it. But because it's based on you know,
a snapshot in time, it's different. But again I missed
that too. I mean I was I was barely born
in the Vietnam era, and so that I had to
learn about that later. And it's a great song. Nobody
sings the song. Well, Marvin Gaye's got one of those
(09:43):
voices just special, and so I never really understood what
that song was about too. I could sing the hook,
but I didn't understand, Oh wow, this is a this
is a serious song. Again, it's in this great melody
that's catchy with a great hook, but it's a story.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
With that song the same thing. I can do the
hook it was. And this happens to me for some
some songs. When I see something online or read the
story about behind the song, you know, oh, this is
Morning Gay's song. Then I go, oh, really right, and
then I'll start listening to It has to.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Be pointed out to you. Yeah, yeah, well I know
that you love stories. That's why you watch bench TV shows.
That's why you watched Night of the Seven Kingdoms. And
then we talk about specifics. What do you think where
do you think this Targaran is. We had that conversation
this morning. You know, it's like it's kind of the
same thing. Not every single song. There are a lot
of pop songs that are just about hey, she's hot.
(10:39):
It's not much to it, you know, it's not much depth.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
It's almost like if somebody hits me over the head
and said, this song is about that.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Well, we had that happened.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Man.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
The other day we talked about saleon is a divorce song,
Lionel Richie, Yeah, of course it's a it's a divorce song.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Of course it is.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, you know, but again, it takes it's because I'm
right there with you on that sham. It takes thought.
You actually have to be you know, if if you're
not naturally going to be a poetry lyric, you know
type which Jody does, you're drawn to that. I mean,
you really, it happens automatically.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
If I'm listening to a song, that's what I'm waiting for.
I want what's what does this mean?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Right?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And I enjoyed the music even better.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yep. And so I promise I'm going to get to
the Ashley McBride park because the hammer over the head
moment for me was literally one week ago, sitting six
feet from Ashley McBride. And I'll explain why in a second.
But you know, the other song, the first I want
to share with you, the first song that I had
the lyric conversation with Jody about. Because there are a
lot of songs that I'm lyrics. Yeah, but you know
(11:40):
it's because it's a song called Operator by Jim Crochey
from the yearly seventies. Friend his girlfriend ran away with
his best friend.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, he's low.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah sometimes and so you know, again, a song based
in reality, an incredible story and it's an interesting you
know that one. Lyrically, it's one of my favorites honestly
because it is such a well toned told story. If
you don't listen to the lyrics of that song, then
you completely missed the point that he's calling and he's
(12:17):
using an operator. Don't you do that today in twenty
twenty six. But you know, he's debating himself. He wants
to call and tell them, look, I'm over this. Everything
is cool. I want to wish y'all well. I really
hope that you know this is all good. But he's
debating this the whole time that he's having the operator
help you.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
He wouldn't be calling if he actually was okay, right,
And I remember having this conversation with you because you
were like, this is a great little song.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I'm like, this is a sad song.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Now, as far as Jim Crochey goes bad Bad Lee
Roy Brown. I know all those lyrics and I know
that story.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, correct, that's hard to miss.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
So, you know, so here's the Ashley McBride part of this.
You know, when I was traveling last week, I was
attending a summit for the country music format, you know,
in radio, and this is one of these rare things.
You know. It's just so that anybody who's listening to
this podcast, No, this is not the kind of thing
we get to do every single day. We're very much
average to do it sometimes sometimes, but you know, very
(13:14):
average people just in the studio. This is what we do.
So it's not like we are rob and elbows with
celebrities or anything like that. But in this case, so
Ashley McBride has another album that she's actually got a
single out right now, but she's got an album she's
about to release, and so they were playing tracks for
us in advance to just get feedback. Honestly, they wanted
feedback on these tracks. It was a very intimate setting
(13:37):
inside the Warner Brothers record studio, and it was they'd
split us into groups, so there were about maybe fifteen
of us in the room, and I tend to want
to sit on the front row at these things, just
because I want to pay attention. I want to show
the respect. I don't want leave the front row empty.
And so in walks Ashley McBride and sits down. She's
(13:58):
literally six feet from me, and she's just she is
as warm and natural, you know, as can be. But
she starts to tell the story of her sobriety. She
has been sober now for three years and it's a
huge accomplishment for her because she she very much against
(14:20):
her will. It was an intervention that finally put her
into rehab. She might have kind of known that she
was dancing with a problem, but you know, ignored it.
And it was it was really her band, her friend
group that finally, you know, brought her to this place.
And so and it's not that every song on this
album is dark or heavy or anything like that, but
(14:41):
she's written a song called ten Minutes to Midnight that's
about that intervention. And yeah, and then you know, and
there's several other alcohol related songs that are really you know, introspective,
and they've got a good you know, one of them
is pretty upbeat. It's one of those of you don't
listen to it lyrically, you'll think it's, you know, supposed
to be just just happy. But she was extremely transparent.
(15:04):
She was very heartfelt about what she was saying to
us about her struggles with that and overcoming and has
a really, I mean a good sarcastic sense of humor
about things. I was completely drawn into the story. Then
when she was explaining these songs that she's written for
the album, that's where it clicked in the biggest way
(15:27):
ever so far from me, like a hammer over the head. Wow,
this is really insanely personal stuff that most of these
artists draw from, and it's almost universal for any singer songwriter.
What they're drawing on is their personal experience, their personal emotion,
because nothing is going to draw that out in a way.
You know then that personal experience and so it's great music.
(15:53):
And when we were done, I just walked up to
her and you know, and said, you know, these songs
are awesome, but I wanted to make sure because she
connected with me in such a big way. I said,
I said, hey, congratulations one day at a time, and
then all I said next was May nineteenth, twenty eleven,
and she, you know, we connected on that immediately because
(16:14):
she knew I was talking about a sobriety date and
working and so, but you know, I mean, I don't
know how to explain that other than that became probably
the most personal kind of you know, connection I've ever
created for somebody who's a complete stranger I don't know
and probably won't ever see her again, but through her music,
(16:35):
something that she has given of herself to write, it
just hit me. It's like, Wow, well, maybe I really
should pay attention to these lyrics because I don't know.
I mean, I don't or artist anything, but I really
I'm going to do it a disservice if I don't
pay attention and enjoy what the song's about. In addition
to how it sounds.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
You could also get something out of it. Music is
for all of us. It is art, and it's multi layered.
It is not just music. It is not just a
beat or a melody. Many times it's the lyrics live first.
Sometimes the lyrics are written on a napkin, or people
dream them and they have a lyric in their head forever,
and it's not until a piece of music comes and
(17:16):
seems to match it.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Or we all know the stories of people.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
I want to say, the Beatles have talked about having
a melody and calling it scrambled eggs.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Sometimes the music comes first, and then when artists get together.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
I know this is a weird transition, but I remember
reading I read Sammy Hagar's book one time, and he
was a lyric guy and Eddie would come over in
the middle of the night and go listen to this
rif and start playing something new, and he was like, oh,
I was just having a fight with my wife. Let's
do come on, baby, finish what you started. Like that's
how that happened. A lyric person came together with a
(17:49):
melody person. So music is for everyone, and it's multi layered.
And you her intention in writing that could have been
cathartic for her, but you can get something out of
it because it's out there now.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
It is art, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Hopefully you will maybe take something away from those songs.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Absolutely, And you know, and this was I was exposed,
you know, mainly to country singer songwriters, but I think
about the genius of people like Stevie Wonder when you
think of some of his most legendary songs from the
nineteen seventies that are just catchy and fun lyrically, it's
coming from a place of you know, I don't the
(18:32):
state of the world is not something I like right now,
this is not right. You know, you haven't done nothing
those kind of songs are.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
That is a jam, but that is a serious.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Song, exactly, And so you know, and it's not that
it can be any aspect of anything. It can be
a personal experience, it can be social issues, it can
be whatever. But that inspiration from the artist to create
those lyrics, especially when they're the singer songwriter, and it's
truly coming from their most vulnerable or the most transparent places,
(19:01):
I guess you know. I mean, that's exactly where hip
hop and R and B, you know, and and everything
associated with any sort of lyric. Kanye West, as controversial
as he was, again, same thing. It's it's you're creating
these connections and if you're if you're not paying attention
to the lyrics of hip hop and R and B,
it's the same thing. You're missing something, you're missing the
(19:23):
right exactly. And it doesn't mean you're a bad person
if you don't. You know, it's you're drawn to that.
Enjoy the melodies, enjoy all of that, but it just
I don't know, just there's a personal kind of weird,
little you know, epiphany. Maybe it's just because I'm getting
a little bit older, and you know, I really appreciate
that once. It's it's like, actually, when I was having
(19:44):
this conversation with somebody, Jody, I should have told you this,
you know. First thing. It's like the first time you
discover subtitles, because when you're watching a show that you
don't understand, but then you see the subtitles, you get
the context because you're not missing any sort of you know,
you know, connection with the dialogue that's going on. That's
really what this is when you start to pay attention
(20:05):
to the lyrics. So I'm just if you can't tell personally,
for me, I'm excited about it. It's like discovering this
whole new world, you know, for songs that I never
that I underappreciated.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
You know, in our years of being married, I cannot
tell you how many times, especially on the weekends, we
play music in the house constantly. Murphy is normally the
one who like sets. You know, this is what we're
gonna play for a while, this is what we're gonna
listen to today, unless it's just I need something else.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
We just I let him.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
He runs the music and I cannot tell you how
many times, I mean, I've lost count how many times
I'm like, oh, I've heard this, you know what this
is about? And you're like, what this is awesome? I'm like,
do you know what this is about? Do you understand
this song? And then we end up having conversations. There's
probably a long list of songs that we've talked about
that you never we never would have talked about.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
And Phoebe is the same.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Our daughter.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Phoebe is the same. She understands what songs mean and
she has both going on. Though she picks up on
instruments too, and arrangements.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
The other thing that does help me. There are a
handful of songs that I know the lyrics, I know
the meaning to is like if I'm listening to a
song and I hear like a line and go, oh,
that's creative. There's a line in a John Mayer song
where he talks about his brother, you know, just like
his brother John, but on a eighteen month delay. Yes,
And to me that's like, oh, so he's got a
(21:27):
younger brother who's eighteen months younger than him. Correct, and
it makes me go, oh, well, let me pull up
the lyrics and see what this is about.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
A lot of times for me, it's one line or
a phrase and it's like, oh, coarsely what the song's about?
And I bring up the lyrics.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Of course, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
You know. That's the trick with the more poetic or
the more metaphoric it becomes, it's the more difficult it
is for me to follow. And that's why bands like
you know, Steely Dan, you know, for you know, a
very polarizing band. But Donald Fagan in the way that
he writes lyrics odd, very odd, and they're very different.
They're very poetic. You almost have to look it up,
(22:04):
and even when you look it up, you still don't know.
And he even will you know. It's sort of a
you know, a laugh right that he and Walter Becker
are always, you know, would joke about. Okay, we'll let
the fans think that they know what this is about,
but they may not really, you know, know whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
And that's right as an artist.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
And I've always i mean, look, it's the reason that
I did better in grammar class in English than I
did in literature. I struggle on the right brain side
with I don't know why, like poetry and metaphor. Eventually
it's like I need somebody to help help me get it.
And I guess maybe that's kind of what Ashley Bride
and McBride did, just by explaining and then playing the song.
It's like, Okay, here's how we can talk. But it
(22:43):
really was awesome. It's just I walked out of there.
I can't tell you what an experience that you know
that was.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
And this is not something you have to master. No,
you should just enjoy it for the rest of your life.
Enjoy discovering there's more meaning here.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah, because there is.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
Their usual is there are a few little poppy songs
in the world that don't mean a thing and fine to.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Exactly that's something Sam listens to missed any part of
the show. Get It All on the Murphy Salmon Jody Podcast.
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