song - street life - by randy crawford (if you seen jackie brown, you mighta heard it-its on the soundtrack.)
LISTEN (do yourself a favor and listen--this track is just fuckin supreme, divine, and all that.)
"I play the street life, becuz theres no place I can go.
Street life, its the only life I know....
You let the people see, just who you wanna be
And every night you shine, just like a super star
That`s how the life is played a ten cent masquerade
You dress, you walk, you talk
You`re who you think you are
There`s always love for sale a grown-up fairytale
Prince charming always smiles behind a silver spoon....
Street life
You can run away from time
Street life
for a nickel or a dime....
Street life
Theres thousand parts to play
street life
Until you play your life away--OOOOHH!
This is one of the realest songs there is when it comes to really makin me FEEL. Back when I was deep into my dope life, pretty much lost to the world just locked inside a heroin hood life fantasy, out on the streets, out in the cold, nothin left but me and my addiction, i felt on some real emotional, 'me against the world', "this is all I got left, the streets is where i belong and ima never leave", that kinda tragic shit. Dope gets you feelin like your struggle is more than just that, like its this some kind of epic tragic story or some shit.
the lyrics pretty self explanatory, and i didnt post em all, but ill add a lil bit of my thoughts on em. My favorite favorite part is the part where it goes "you can get away from time for a nickel or a dime"...especially cuz the dope is 5 bucks a bag out here, so its cheap for the gettin, a cheap high for a cheap excuse for a life...
"prince charming always smiles behind the silver spoon" obviously a reference to coke and the whole party scene in the late 70s when the song came out, but for me that part and the "10 cent masquerade, youre who you think you are" part, it was just about the whole 'everthings all good' atmosphere when you partying, livin it up, gettin high just for fun, how its all good all fine no worries until the partys over, you tell yourself you fine, its all just right and you aint doin nothing unusual, you aint addicted, you aint slippin, and suddenly then you the one left in the cold shootin dope by yourself and everybody else moved on, the partys gone the fun is over and its just you--"street life-theres a thousand parts to play/street life--until you play your life away."
During those times, man this song it just went down deep inside to my core. Shit was so intense everytime i heard it. Every word felt like a pure truth that somehow got pulled out from inside of me where i couldnt express it and made this song. Not just the lyrics, but the music too--the melody and chord changes especially--and most of all , her voice. She got an incredible, amazing voice, and it seemed to be made of all the things I felt. the tone, the timber, the way she uses it, the emotion and soul in her voice, every little breath and phrasing and way she hit each note, just everything about it spoke to me, seemed to be tellin my story.
this is a fuckin amazing song, and it aint too many songs that gets me like that, hooks in deep into me. Its still truly wonderful now, but back when I was on the streets, nothin but a hood rat hidin in the shadows of the ghetto livin this life that i knew was killin me one day at a time, knowin it was just a passing, fleeting feeling that i was throwin away my whole life for, but still feelin like i was part of this grand drama, somethin bigger than it was somehow--this song just did something to me. It just seemed to tell so well the shit I was feeling and living. it made me want to sing along wailin my heart out and cry at the same time, it had so much emotion in it that applied to me and my situation at the time. and even these days, it still gives me goosbumps when i hear it. back then, when i was livin the "street life", the effect it had on me was somethin like a transformation.
Definately a song that deserves to be on the list of songs that make you really FEEL somethin.