Humans are flawed. It’s in our nature.
Yet striving for perfection also seems to be human nature.
“We laughed at how our perfection would always be denied,” sings Joni Mitchell in her song “Refuge Of The Roads” (from her absolutely PERFECT album Hejira).
Perfection constantly eludes us, we almost always fall short. Yet we keep polishing and refining and obsessing, somehow believing that a state of perfection can actually be achieved.
In this song I try to examine and redefine “perfection”. Shift the goal posts, if you will. We will always shoot for perfect, and sometimes we will feel a fleeting sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. But perhaps the simple act of being satisfied with our efforts could serve as the true manifestation of perfection. Maybe perfection is just doing the best that you can.
I could have put scores of additional hours into refining and recording this song. I could have rewritten lyrics, added new instruments, hired a professional studio engineer to improve the sound quality… I could even have reworked the vocal melody to do away with the high notes that my voice can barely even reach :-). But somehow keeping those pesky high notes in there seemed fitting for this song: Just do the best that I can and leave it at that.
Well there’s some food for thought. Hope you all are having a perfect day!
Thanks to Andrew Hanmer for rocking the drums :-).
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PERFECT
I want to be perfect
Confident, happy and strong
I want to be perfect
I want to write a #1 song
Be master of my destiny
Shake my mediocrity
Always know the right way from the wrong
But I'll never be perfect
It's in my DNA
Like my daddy, too proud
And my mama, too loud
I will always get in the way
Hand in glove I fight the fight
To overcome my darker side
So many wasted notions every day
I wanna be...
But what is perfect?
The world is a beautiful mess
Nobody's perfect
There's failure in every success
Anger manage me obscene
Self help in a magazine
Life is but a symphony
Conductor-less, just you and me
Hopeful are the blessed meek
Hanging in there every week
Every turn of every leaf reminding us
That we can be
Can be...
My baby loves me the way that I am,
I must be perfect
And I'm only doing the best that I can
Well I guess that's perfect
And all these troubled thoughts I think
I can't pretend my shit don't stink
But I can try to be a better man
And I'm...
I think I'm...
I might be perfect
Exactly how I am