Straight No Chaser

Flying High

"strawberry letter 23" goes like this:

"hello, my love
i heard a kiss from you
red magic satin playing near, too

all through the morning rain
i gaze--the sun doesn't shine--
rainbows and waterfalls run through my mind

in the garden--i see west
purple shower, bells and tea
orange birds and river cousins dressed in green

pretty music i hear--so happy
and loud--blue flower echo
from a cherry cloud

feel sunshine sparkle pink and blue
playgrounds will laugh
if you try to ask
is it cool? is it cool?

if you arrive and don't see me
i'm going to be with my baby
i am free--flying in her arms, over the sea

stained window, yellow candy screen
see speakers of kite--with velvet roses diggin' freedom flight

a present from you--strawberry letter twenty-two
the music plays, i sit in for a few

ooh...ooh...ooh...ooh...ooh...

a present from you--strawberry letter twenty-two
the music plays, i sit in for a few

ooh...ooh...ooh...ooh...ooh..."

i would die if i could just get this. that is my topmost goal as a creative person--to someday be able to look at songs like this (a brothers johnson classic, 1977) and go, oh yeah, i get it. yellow candy screen, i dig that.

i was born in the wrong decade. i could have lived my whole life in the seventies, a thousand times over. i could have been marcus's mother instead of his whatever, tripped on acid and written songs like this. not for the money, but for the music. the music, mayyyyy-an.

love me, honey, love me true?
love me well ez i love you?
an' she answe'd, "'cose i do"
jump back, honey, jump back.

'cose i do. i loves him well ez i loves music, even doh he lahk to keep me en tattuhs.