[Mums Take Note] The Clock Strikes Eight... It's Time For 'Green Eyes'

She's five and sometimes I call her "Brown Eyes." So when it turned out that we both like to sing along to Coldplay's "Green Eyes," it was a given that I'd learn the chords, change green to brown and start playing it at bedtime.

You see, after 20-plus years of fruitless guitar abuse, I've found my audience. It turns out that when the goal is to put the listener to sleep, all my shortcomings as an entertainer actually become assets.

Somewhere down the line, as a teenager or maybe even sooner, she'll realize that such numbers as Blue Oyster Cult's "Astronomy" are not typically considered lullabies, and she'll begin to question my judgment. But for now, all is bliss.It's an arrangement that works well for both of us. She gets serenaded to sleep by a command performance. I get a few minutes of practice most nights, and sometimes I get to think deep thoughts.

For example: Coldplay, Johnny Cash, the secrets wrapped up in songs and the unexpected lives they find when turned loose in the world.

One recent Saturday night, after the bedtime concert, I turned on the television to find Coldplay on "Austin City Limits." Now, whenever I try to analyze the band's music, I keep coming to the conclusion that I should detest them. Their sonic palette dates almost exclusively to the '80s and their use of atmospheric keyboards, in particular, strikes me as very stock.

But they use all these elements with brutal effectiveness, and Chris Martin is quite possibly the most gifted male vocalist in rock today. So I keep eating it up. I didn't get to see them play "Green Eyes," but I did get to see an interview segment in which Martin praised Cash (and Hank Williams Sr., too), in the highest possible terms. Frankly, it struck me as a bit bizarre.

Afterward, mulling it over, I played a few tracks from the band's 2002 album "A Rush of Blood to the Head." And suddenly it struck me that one of the least Cash-like songs on it might well have been written under the influence of the Man in Black.

"God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" is orchestrated as driving progressive rock, without a hint of country. But it's there in the brooding tone, the references to drawing the line and falling from grace. They practically threw in everything but the ring of fire.

"Where do we go, nobody knows/ Don't even say you're on your way down/ God gave you style and gave you grace/ And put a smile upon your face"

Can't you just hear Cash growling out that call to suck it up and meet the Almighty's expectations? I can. I'm out there on my own with this theory. Maybe I'll ask Martin and Co. about it, the next time I bump into them.

In the meantime, the song has taken on a life of its own, at least for me. The version on the album may be far beyond my meager skills, but the song itself is not monolithic. It can be broken down to chords and words, recast in a more elemental form. With a little work, it might even become -- dare I suggest it -- something you could use to render a small child unconscious.

A lullaby.

Source: http://www.al.com