LYRICAL LOITERINGS OF A LISTENER Series
Thoughts, ideas and reactions provoked by song lyrics. The series is also featured on Clink Music Magazine.
Tuomas Holopainen, the driving force behind power metal phenomenon Nightwish, is as elusive about his lyrics as he is about his genius as a modern composer/songwriter. Holopainen characteristically reveals his soul through his art, evoking a sense of beauty and intimacy that delves deep into the core of his being. It is a risk to make oneself vulnerable in this way, and I respect and admire the risk-taker. The lyrical poet prefers not dictate thought by divulging the meaning of his lyrics, which leaves the songs he writes open to personal interpretation and yet the music that carries Holopainen’s words guides the emotion of his poetry and gives the listener insight into the writer’s mind and heart.
Wish I had an Angel
I wish I had an angel
For one moment of love
I wish I had your angel
Your Virgin Mary undone
I’m in love with my lust
Burning angel wings to dust
I wish I had your angel tonight
Deep into a dying day
I took a step outside an innocent heart
Prepare to hate me fall when I may
This night will hurt you like never before
Old loves they die hard
Old lies they die harder
I wish…
I’m going down so frail ‘n cruel
Drunken disguise changes all the rules
Old loves…
I Wish…
Greatest thrill
Not to kill
But to have the prize of the night
Hypocrite
Wannabe friend
13th disciple who betrayed me for nothing!
Last dance, first kiss
Your touch my bliss
Beauty always comes with dark thoughts
I wish…
Wish I had an Angel testifies to the struggle of the individual who, in his desperation to do right, is always disappointed by the condition of being human. The song speaks of love and how it is so easily corrupted, and the pain resulting from that demoralisation. The angel referred to in the song is a reference to innocence, an innocence that has been destroyed by lust and dark thoughts. The innate self-centeredness that envelops human nature burns innocence (angel wings) to dust. It corrupts goodness. It destroys beauty. Holopainen has written a poem of self-loathing and torment – of the inability to escape the human condition. Wish I had an Angel reflects the complex emotions that plague humanity. It is painful to be human. It is a struggle. And yet, there is a poignant irony created by the words of the writer who uses the beauty and passion of poetry to emphasise the beauty of life, which is often present within the misery and melancholy of our circumstance or condition. The song renders beautiful the inescapable tragedy of the human condition – a beauty expressed through art… through words.
