MY ALBUM PREVIEW, SONG 7: "Two Souls Meet in the City"

Welcome to my blog! This is the latest in a series of "Album Preview" posts I'm doing to raise awareness (and hopefully excitement) for my upcoming album. I need your help! Please visit www.johnschmittalbum.com to donate to help make the album happen. Thank you, and enjoy the post!

"Two Souls Meet in the City"

My time in New York has shown me that at the core of this city is a real and true heart. And to see it in action seems to be more rare as days go by. Even more rare is meeting someone who "gets it."

["Gets It" - a phrase referring to a person who is chasing a very lofty life's dream; appreciates fine art, music, and food, but also simple pleasures like a campfire; recognizes the actual important parts of life, especially laughter; remains calm under most kinds of duress; exceedingly passionate.]

When someone makes an effort to self-disclose on the same level as you, it becomes this beautiful moment where two people begin to share things deeper than language and action. When two people intentionally become vulnerable to one another, there is a special bond that forms. In the same way a dog exposes his underside to his master, so do we people show our shortcomings and scars to another person once a great deal of trust is gained. Electricity flows in those moments, and we get hazy and foggy in the head, in a very good way. It seems all time, space, physics, chemistry, and cultural laws pause, that suddenly breathing and a heartbeat are non-factors, and you exist beyond being just a body or a mind.

You see, I was a chubby, naive, wanna-be musician from upstate New York, with no real street smarts, trying to meet some girl who I could write music about, and hoping badly to fall in love. In many ways, I still am all those things. As much as I loved to think I was living the ultimate New York experience, I lived an hour from my job in the city, and traveled most weekends away from it.

She was a successful businesswoman and designer, considering her age, who moved here from Florida to live life. She always sought adventure, new places, and knew how to cook well, to cook healthy, and knew a great deal about wine. She appreciated great movies, and stupid silly ones. She adored music, and words and melody moved her in the way they moved me. She had a way of looking at you as if you were not just your outward appearance. She knew what the "form" version of me was, too.

["form" version, referring to Plato's idea of forms. Meaning, there are archetypes of everything, and everyone, from which we compare what our senses see. Example, how do you know that a chair is a chair, even if you have not seen it before? Plato argues because there is an archetype chair, a more real chair, than the one we see. We are born with the knowledge of the archetypes. There are TONS more to it, but that's the really skinny version.]

She knew that my outward appearance was a shorter version of me, a bigger version of my real self, and she came to appreciate that person I was inside this body.

And so, when we met, it was magic. It was fulfilling and satisfying and enchanting all at once. She was willing to share of herself with me, too, and I was intimidated by meeting a woman that could literally run circles around me with her mind. When we would see each other, it was a suspension of all time and space.

Have you ever seen the movie, "Big Fish"? The one directed by Tim Burton, starring Ewan Mcgregor and Billy Crudup. In particular, the circus scene, where he first sees his future wife. You can see the clip here:



That's what I mean. It was like that. This is very similar to what happens in my song "Two Souls Meet in the City."

I finally had felt I met someone on this island of Manhattan that was as real and understanding of what is important in life as me. That everyone else, it seemed, was empty, cavernous spaces inside their bodies, and when the two of us crossed paths, it was an occasion for the entire metropolis to behold. It was a two or three hour city-wide holiday, where all businesses would allow employees the time to come see a viewing of she and I, together, somewhere in the West Village, and gaze at the two real people walking around these city blocks. Even the cab drivers would stop and watch. Being with her was a spectacle. Or so it felt.

I began writing the chorus to the song based on an email I sent her when I was away, and once I wrote it I was literally singing it and dancing around my apartment. I had recently really gotten into some John Legend, especially his second disc, which is very jazzy and soulful. I also saw his live band on TV, and his backup singers absolutely slay it. So this song is meant to be big, beautiful, and so groovy, all at once.

So "Two Souls Meet in the City" is about the absolutely astounding power of meeting an intellectual and spiritual equal. It's about rejecting the frivolous nature of New York City, and about love as a spectacle.

Here are the lyrics to "Two Souls Meet in the City"

When two souls meet in the city
Half of the world forgets we're all still spinning 'round
When two souls meet in the city
All of the traffic lights turn red all over town
And when you stand right here
And you make it clear
That you don't care if all the people wanna stare
Oh, when two souls meet in the city
You better be there.

Enter the girl
She always wants to see what's good
Always wants to step out in her neighborhood
Enter the boy
He's got his life wrapped up in song
Got his life wrapped up in what's gone wrong

And so they meet
Down on 42nd street
By the center of the world, they all convene
Oh, and they stare
And stare, and stare, and stare

When two souls meet in the city
Half of the world forgets we're all still spinning 'round
When two souls meet in the city
All of the traffic lights turn red all over town
And when you stand right here
And you make it clear
That you don't care if all the people wanna stare
Oh, when two souls meet in the city
You better be there.

Girl says to boy
'I wanna go downtown,
Want to see the Village lights go round and round and round'
Boy says to girl
'I'm just a short version of my brain
But all these things I think keep coming out the same'

So why don't we meet
Down on 42nd street
By the center of the world, they all convene
Oh, and they'll stare
And stare, and stare, and stare

You've got your saga now, and I've got mine
But we could share, if we give it time
You've got your saga now, and I've got mine
But we could share, if we give it time

Oh, when two souls meet in the city
Half of the world forgets we're all still spinning 'round
When two souls meet, when they greet in the city
All of the traffic lights turn red,
All the cabbies turn their head
And you better be there
You better be there
You better be there
You better be there.

The Heart of the city meets with two people who "get it." And it's wonderful.

Thanks for reading! Please visit www.johnschmittalbum.com today and reserve your copy of the upcoming album!

-John
www.myspace.com/johnschmitt