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Magazine


Lyrics

"Magazine"
Music & Lyrics by Scott Cooley.

When prayers don’t get answered by heaven above

And it seems like all I’ve got is time

When there’s no one to fill my heart with love

When my mind’s eye is blind

To escape this emptiness I feel

I can fill my head with pretty pictures

It’s better that I read about things that are real

Instead of some made-up scripture


They’re merely objects of my desire, I have the will, but not the means


Magazine, things I’ll never be able to do

Magazine, every time I’ve got a case of the blues

Magazine, places I won’t ever go

Magazine, things I’ve always wanted to know

Magazine, stuff I’ll never be able to own

Magazine, dream of calling another place home

Travel without being heard or seen, magazine


Can’t really afford the monthly rate

I’ve been out of circulation

But it’s the stories that I can’t go without 

The trials and the tribulations

Can’t make it out to a bookstore

A newstand or coffee shop

But when it’s delivered to my mailbox

It’s a subscription I won’t ever stop


Architecture, travel, sports and wildlife, satire set me free


Magazine, things I’ll never be able to do

Magazine, every time I’ve got a case of the blues

Magazine, places I won’t ever go

Magazine, things I’ve always wanted to know

Magazine, stuff I’ll never be able to own

Magazine, dream of calling another place home

Travel without being heard or seen, magazine


Can’t throw away the old volumes

Stacks of fantasies against the wall

They’re the closest I’ll get to the real thing

These dreams, I paid for them all

All it is is just ink and paper

And every month it’s sent to my home

But it brings the rest of the world to me

All the places I’ll never roam


All I can do is sit alone and daydream, and live my life vicariously


Magazine, things I’ll never be able to do

Magazine, every time I’ve got a case of the blues

Magazine, places I won’t ever go

Magazine, things I’ve always wanted to know

Magazine, stuff I’ll never be able to own

Magazine, dream of calling another place home

Travel without being heard or seen, magazine


No one can ever take away my dreams, magazine

Copyright © ℗ 2014 by Scott Cooley. All rights reserved.

Magazine
Album cover photo by Richard Cooley
Song from the album Used To Be Good Looking
Position Track # 11
Duration 5:30
Released June 21st, 2014
Label Scott Cooley Records
Format CD, MP3, FLAC, OGG
Genre Americana, jazz
Studio Scott Cooley Music Productions
Producer Scott Cooley
Songwriter words and music by Scott Richard Cooley
Publisher Scott Richard Cooley Music Publishing, ASCAP
Personnel Scott Cooley - vocals, acoustic guitar & bass, drums & percussion
Track Chronology
"Happily Mad"


(#10)		 "Magazine"


(#11)		 "Goin' Up To Leadville"

(#12)
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Brief Description

A jazzy song about a melancholy man who doesn't get out much, but explores the world via reading magazines, and perhaps spends too much time yearning for a lifestyle that isn't realistic.  The kind of person who treasures magazines too much and saves them after reading them.
Audio Sample

This song was just an experimentation, a project song, wherein I was motivated to figure out what chords jazz songs had in them.  I literally googled 'jazz guitar chords' or something like that, and began learning.  Then out of the chords I already sort of knew how to play, I strung a few of them together, changed the order around until they sounded good, and oila, it sounded sort of like a jazz song.  I have no idea if this technically qualifies as being an actual jazz song or not, probably not, but it's my attempt at something in that vein.  Then I thought about what I liked about the vocal standards I've heard over the years, probably on radio, and tried to imagine something that was sort of melancholy and blue and classic-sounding as the subject matter, as some of those songs are.  There's a feel to them, which is hard to describe, but anyway, I thought of maybe like a Billy Holliday or Frank Sinatra or Willie Nelson doing old standards or Diana Krall types of songs that I'd heard before and enjoyed.  

Then I thought about someone I know, a few different people I know actually, who have this habit of collecting magazines.  I thought about how it's kind of sad that they live in a kind of fantasy world, wishing for the lifestyles of the rich and famous, yearning to travel to exotic places, or have fancy clothes or furniture or whatever, but never end up attaining it.  They always want something other than what they have, something bigger and better, their wish list stuff is in the pages of those magazines.  These people I know pile up stacks of the magazines where they live, not wanting to part with them, and when I thought about that more, I thought about how it's as if they don't want to give up on their dreams or lose hope, so they find it hard to ever throw those away because of what they represent.  The magazines become their prized possessions, as if the next best thing to having the actual items in them.  So that's what was behind me writing this one.  Maybe you, or someone you know is like this, and hence, you can relate.  Hope you like the song.  I regret not making it be in a better key for my singing range, but maybe since it's a melancholy song, the key works, I don't really know.