Superman

I'm more than a bird
I'm more than a plane
I'm more than some pretty face, beside a train
It's not easy, to be me.

Very meaningful lyrics, of a song called Superman, by Five For Fighting. I recently heard this song, because we were planning to play this for a competition, and the lyrics just touched me. The mind of Superman is very beautifully described here. We always think of him as a guy in red and blue who would just swoop down on (not always) damsels in distress and rescue them. That he might feel lonely when he is flying alone through the clouds(without Lois Lane, of course), may have never occurred to us. The song is also very soulful, with a nice blend of the piano and the guitar. Listen to this on good speakers, and it really soothes your mind. No wonder this song became very popular in the US, as a song for healing following 9/11. It's right up there on my list of soulful songs, along with Home by Michael Buble. Home was awesome because I was feeling a little homesick towards the end of first semester, and I chanced upon this song just about that time. I could totally relate to it. Not surprisingly, that song also has a lot of piano in the background.
I feel that the piano is the best instrument for songs that calm your mind down, followed by the saxophone. Somehow, I always relate violin to the peppy Balkan kind of tunes, which remind you of the Hungarian tap-dancing that we see in cartoons, or very melancholy Ilayaraja tunes, in which it almost sounds like the violin is crying. Acoustic guitars are also there, but they don't touch me as a piano or a sax piece does. You can call me biased, maybe because I play the piano, but then, its a matter of opinion, isn't it?



P.S. A Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. Hope that people like Ram Sena and MNS don't spoil your day. My day, was rather subdued, spent with David Griffiths trying to understand the intricacies of the Dirac Delta Function (rather unsuccessfully).