“Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.”
Taylor Hicks via Twitter.
“Somehow”
by Taylor Rueben Hicks
There’s too many things
Left to be unsaid
Some live in a dark hole
Sometimes in my head
But I’m all right
I’ll get by
Somehow
You want to feel their emotion
Sometimes even hold their hand
But they’re giving nothing in return
To suit their own demands
But I’m tired
And I’ll get by
Somehow
Look at the people around you
Stabbing at your heart
But you still smile in kindness
For not knowing who they are
And their stories have ended
And they’ve lit up the town
And it’s time to go home
As they go and lay their bodies back down
There’s too many things
Left to be unsaid
So I live in a dark hole
Sometimes in my head
But I’m all right
I’ll get by
Somehow
Taylor Hicks via Twitter.
“Somehow”
by Taylor Rueben Hicks
There’s too many things
Left to be unsaid
Some live in a dark hole
Sometimes in my head
But I’m all right
I’ll get by
Somehow
You want to feel their emotion
Sometimes even hold their hand
But they’re giving nothing in return
To suit their own demands
But I’m tired
And I’ll get by
Somehow
Look at the people around you
Stabbing at your heart
But you still smile in kindness
For not knowing who they are
And their stories have ended
And they’ve lit up the town
And it’s time to go home
As they go and lay their bodies back down
There’s too many things
Left to be unsaid
So I live in a dark hole
Sometimes in my head
But I’m all right
I’ll get by
Somehow
“I’ll get by…somehow.”
Classic country lyrics—cryin’ words. The first time I heard this I thought this is the country connection in Taylor’s music. This must have been written during Taylor’s Nashville stay…a Nashville sound.
When I look at Taylor’s music and try to “get inside” it, I don’t try to “get it right”—what he meant, what he was thinking, or what the situation was as he wrote it. That would seem like an intrusion. I look for what it means to me and how it may foster a dialogue.
I don’t think “Somehow” is a country song. I can hear Ray Charles singing this song, and I know he did country crossover. Taylor’s signature delivery is more soulful than country in spite of an easy rhythm and instruments that says country.
Beyond the deceivingly, simple lyrics of “I’ll Get by… somehow,” this is about that complicated place of hurt inside us all and about the resolve to survive and “get by.” The straightforward words are deceptive of their depth.
There’s too many things
Left to be unsaid
Some live in a dark hole
Sometimes in my head
There’s no country twang or room for it in Taylor’s performance of this. Because of the chorus lyrics, we want to give it a country vibe. But I hear a lament that is pure soul—Taylor Hicks channeling Ray Charles.
You want to feel their emotion
Sometimes even hold their hand
But they’re giving nothing in return
To suit their own demands
Taylor has sung this song in the rain. He sang it in New Orleans. I haven’t seen a stage version of it that I feel captures its essence. To me, it is a listen to stick in your ears—the recorded version from In Your Time or Early Works. It is an easy rhythm that takes you along on a pensive journey inside the mind.
Until a cryin’ saxophone breaks out with a wail that suggests getting by is not acceptable forever. Maybe there’s more. And with his signature growling passion, Taylor’s voice matches the emotion of the words:
Look at the people around you
Stabbing at your heart
But you will smile in kindness
For not knowing who they are
In the end, Taylor’s voice fades to almost a whisper. It is as if that moment of “living in a dark hole sometimes in my head” is over and he returns to a peaceful resolve:
But I’m all right
I’ll get by
Somehow
I see “Somehow” on stage like “The Fall”—pure Taylor voice and minimum production with the beautiful lyrics of resolve and resiliency that come when we have no where to go but up. We know of the black hole sometimes in our head and we determine to go on in spite of all that we hold there.
This song leaves us with challenges. Our lives are full of too many things left that will remain unsaid and undone—what we should have said, what we never had a chance to say or what we couldn’t say—when there are no words.
Music not written, songs not sung, places not seen, lives not touched.
I heard a line recently that inspired me:
“I want to leave this life exhausted.”
Leave as little as possible unsaid and undone.
It also leaves us with the challenge of getting by, no matter how tired or how beaten down.
But I’m all right
I’ll get by
Somehow
We can’t help but take this chorus out of context and make it an anthem for our times. Tough times have come to everyone even those with good jobs still making their mortgage payments. These times have forestalled retirements, cancelled or cut back on college plans, forced families to fight for just the basics.
Today is all about getting by.
It isn’t about waiting for a bailout. It’s not about what others can do for you. It’s about what you must do for yourself.
Most of us have experienced the failing economy; it is so far reaching now. I recently found out most of the value in my home from the last ten years is gone. And I am so lucky. I am not underwater, and I have a job. So many people have suffered far greater losses than equity in a home.
So we carpool, collect coupons, and carefully calculate consumer spending. We refinance, rethink priorities, and restructure resumes. We do what we must.
I return so often to a staunch belief that we are stronger than we know.
“Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.”
We are tougher than we think. It starts with believing in ourselves and never giving up.
A favorite passage of mine from Taylor’s autobiography, Heart Full of Soul, is just after he leaves Nashville after no success there and returns to Birmingham, not beaten, but as reenergized as he is every time he takes the stage. He writes:
“Anyone expecting Taylor Hicks to return to Birmingham from Nashville as a broken man with a cowboy hat in hand would have been sorely disappointed. I’ve never been one to remain flat on the canvas for long, so I returned with my head still held high, a little bloodied but unbowed, ready to get right down to work.”
Tough times will not keep us on the canvas for very long.
Yes, tough times are that. But the human spirit will always prevail. It always has.
So, I will see you on the other side of these tough times.
Meanwhile,
We WILL get by…
Somehow.
~~~
"Taylor Hicks - Somehow" 2007 Montage by rugratnat14 on YouTube:
"Somehow" by Taylor Hicks was originally recorded on his first album, In Your Time, and in 2008 on Early Works:
~~~
Blogger’s Note: This piece has been in the works for some time. I have always wanted to take a look at this song and its country connection…or not.
Yesterday, @TaylorRHicks tweeted the quote at the beginning and I was writing about this tough economy and “getting by.” We find ourselves in a “dark hole” sometimes especially now, and it may become a “deep hole.” It doesn’t help to dwell in that place. It does help to work at getting out of it, especially mentally and emotionally.
When I saw Taylor’s quote and a tweet shortly after that which said, “That reminds me of your song, ‘Somehow,’” its time had come.
~~~ Photo: From @TaylorRHicks via Twitter; Taylor Hicks, Lake Mission Viejo, CA, August, 2011; edited by San.
Quote: Heart Full of Soul, by Taylor Hicks for Random House, 2007.
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