Blue Eyes Cryin'...

"I'll admit, my musical tastes have never been all encompassing. Which is to say I'm not one of those people who freely tells anyone..."yeah! I like all types of music!" and then proceeds to name off more than a dozen artists from blues, hip-hop, country or big band. In fact, once I find a dozen or so artists that I like it's relatively hard for me to branch out into uncharted territory and discover new artists. Perhaps I find a familiar comfort in artists I know so well, and have come to cherish their certain sound. Or perhaps...I'm just not as open minded as I first assumed I was!

Does it bother me? Yes, it does. Which is why after joining an Internet radio site called Pandora, I forced myself to create stations on artists I never heard a single song from, or were only slightly familiar with. The outcome? I now have a myriad of new favorite artists that I am quickly sequestering on my YouTube channel and hopefully soon on my iPod! Such new favorites include: Patty Loveless, John Anderson, Lorrie Morgan, Vince Gill, Bryan Adams, Suzy Bogguss and Kathy Mathea. I spelt some of their last names wrong, I apologize.

My point is, having an open mind, or in my case, prying it open with pliers and keeping it that way until new music has a fraction of a chance to seep in, will benefit anyone in the long run. After all, exposing myself to such music was how I came to understand that while I previously listened to only a horrid pop station based locally in Sheboygan called The Point and bought only pop albums, my heart truly lied in 90's country. I discovered this around high school, after a friend played the songs Holy Water by Big & Rich and Any Man Of Mine by Shania Twain. Just two songs can fuel a life long passion for a certain genre of music, as the two mentioned set fire to my obsession with country music, especially the 90's stuff. There was just a different sound to 90's music, in my opinion it was when every genre had it's been sound...country, rock and even christian music alike. I also like a scattering of 90's Christian music, which include artists like Rebecca St. James, Michael W. Smith and David Meece. All of these artists bring back memories of my past, especially the last one. While my Mom was driving me to my R.E.I.N.S sessions she would pop in a David Meece tape and we'd both sing along.

I think what I'm writing about ties into one of my old blog posts entitled That Special Song in which certain songs evoke emotions out of us that turn a gloomy day into a bearable one, or inject a sense of nostalgia in us like I experience. Anyone who tells you they just listen to the music and not the lyrics is blowing smoke. And even if a song didn't have lyrics, it would still speak words of sorts to you per se, conjuring up images in your mind, creating a story. I wrote a blog post about that too, songs creating images and entire short-short stories in the two to five minutes they play. I can't remember what it's called though! But this brings up another point that all of my blog posts are connected, no matter how scatterbrained they might seem.

After all this you're probably looking at the title of today's blog post and thinking. What do the above paragraphs have to do with blue eyes cryin'? The answer is...nothing. I was simply planning on tying the title into this post well in the first paragraph, but obviously that didn't happen. So now that all hope of a smooth transition between subjects has been recklessly abandoned, I'm simply going to insert it here!

I'm sure you've heard one, perhaps you have a favorite that mentions it, or specifically sought one out for a girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife...etc. Or maybe you've never been such a detail oriented person as myself and don't really notice such things. In any case, what am I talking about? Can you guess? I'm talking about the myriads of songs that mention two little words that seem to sum up so much, and hold so much within them it's become a world's obsession, and any artists' key to blissful song. The two words? Blue eyes.

You have to admit there isn't a time when you haven't come across a song that mentions the words blue and eyes. Right off the bat I can name at least a dozen, but for the sake of readers, I'll only list a few.
Sweet Thing by Keith Urban.
Well you're pretty blue eyes, they were drivin' me crazy.

And the title of my blog post: Blue eyes cryin' in the early morning rain.

Though it kills me to mention it, Taylor Swift also tips her hat to blue eyes in her song Tim McGraw.
You said the way my blue eyes shined, put those Georgia stars to shame that night.

There's also a SheDaisy song and albeit they don't explicitly state it, it's obvious they too tip their hats to blue eyes in their song Passenger Seat.
Then he shifts those ocean eyes back to me.

So far I've only listed five songs, but I'm sure all of you reading this are mentally checking the list in your mind, refrains to a dozen songs or more spinning against your memory like index cards falling from a tipped filing cabinet. Why is it that blue eyes are so much more mentioned and talked about than any other color? Now for any of you with blue eyes perhaps you could lend an answer. After all, with the way the world sees it, you have the most desirable color. God knows why, what's wrong with us brown-eyed, green-eyed or hazel-eyed people? Or even grey? Perhaps I should ask any songwriter why they choose to sing about blue eyes. Is it more poetic, more poignant? Does it evoke more out of the listener, reader...etc?

With all of this you may be asking, so Corrie, what color eyes do you have? I have hazel eyes. My Mom will argue that they're brown but...I see green in there too! It's funny, my Mom has green eyes, my Dad has blue and what did my brother and I get? Hazel! But that's a totally different blog post entirely. I'm also the only left-handed person in my immediately family. Did you know it's rarer for girls to be left-handed than guys? Okay, okay I'm digressing again. Back on subject!

It's no doubt that the media, and Hollywood's antics as well, significantly influence American culture as well as our ways of thinking about music, books, television, and even ourselves. Blonde hair was popularized decades ago, when Marilyn Monroe, apparently a natural brunette, died her hair a very light shade of blonde, thus becoming one in a thousand artificial blondes that trod the earth today. No, I have nothing against them, but seriously? I think they are way too many blonde heads bobbing around in Hollywood today, as well as on television.

So is it any surprise that Hollywood, and the media, would have a helping hand in popularizing blue eyes? Both in music and in television? After all, the ideal woman is blond and blue-eyed. Just another off shoot of the artificially created perfect image of who the supposedly perfect person is evidently supposed to be. Now at this point I'll admit, one of my own celebrity crushes has blue eyes, and yes, it is rather attractive I'll admit, but I also go for the whole dark and handsome thing. You know, a guy with dark hair and dark colored eyes. Although, God help me, that could be another media-generated cliche all it's own! What is happening to the world?

In closing, if I ever meet any of the artists of the songs I mentioned above, I'll ask them why they mentioned blue eyes in their song, and perhaps I wouldn't have all this speculation but straight up answers! In the mean time, as always, feel free to inject your own opinions. And if you happen to have blue eyes, even better! I could use opinions straight from the source!