Musical Musings: "Ordinary People", John Legend

Girl I'm in love with you
This ain't the honeymoon
Past the infatuation phase
Right in the thick of love
At times we get sick of love
It seems like we argue everyday

I know i misbehaved
And you made your mistakes
And we both still got room left to grow
And though love sometimes hurts
I still put you first
And we'll make this thing work
But I think we should take it slow

We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
Cuz we're ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow

This ain't a movie no
No fairy tale conclusion ya'll
It gets more confusing everyday
Sometimes it's heaven sent
Then we head back to hell again
We kiss and we make up on the way

I hang up you call
We rise and we fall
And we feel like just walking away
As our love advances
We take second chances
Though it's not a fantasy
I Still want you to stay

We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
Cuz we're ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow

Take it slow
Maybe we'll live and learn
Maybe we'll crash and burn
Maybe you'll stay, maybe you'll leave,
maybe you'll return
Maybe another fight
Maybe we won't survive
But maybe we'll grow
We never know baby youuuu and I

We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
Cuz we're ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow (Heyyy)
We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
Cuz we're ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow


I watch Daria on the-N, which follws each show with a music video, and therefore serves as an introduction to new music for me. (Please hold all cracks about my watching tweeny-bopper TV until the end.) Anyway, I saw this video at the end of an episode, and that episode is saved on my TiVo so I can listen to this song (until I make a point of going out to buy the album, anyway). It's rather minimalistic; the whole thing is shot in black and white. A man in a stark white room walks up to a gorgeous black grand piano (a Baldwin for those of you who care) drinking a glass of clear liquid. Setting the glass down and sitting down at the keyboard, he begins to play a simple melody complemented by a catchy rythym. As he sings, we rotate around him to see things going on around him. The first is a couple in the middle of a screaming argument. At the worst of it, she shoves him, and we see him slap her (though the actual impact of his hand on her face isn't seen, the lead up and reaction tell you what happened). The next couple is fighting with a little boy nearby, covering his ears so he doesn't have to hear them. She runs for the boy, grabs him up as though to leave. But he blocks her way, they fight while she holds the child, and at the worst of it, he tears the child from her arms, leaving her screaming. Next we see two women arguing, one younger than the other (I assume the younger is a teenager) walk up to an older man, and he joins the argument. You see the regret and hurt on all of their faces as they try to sort out what nexts, all of this while Legend plays the piano. The music swells and he is joined by a string section (20 more musicians) playing with him. You see the families making up, at peace, and most of them, wearing smiles.

I like the message I see here. It's positive, it's family building, and it's about the work it takes to make relationships work. Do I like the physical confrontations? Not at all...but in many families, this is the truth of fights. The first couple shouldn't be getting physically violent with each other, but neither of them is more guilty than the other (from the images we're shown). The second couple should consider their son before they fight, and he should never be dragged into a fight the way he is. But again, in many families, it happens this way. but the message in the song and in the images is the same either way: Love isn't always about feeling good or mushy-gushy. Eventually, love grows beyond "the infatuation phase"...and when it gets there, everyone involved has to work at it. We have a tendency to run headlong into things, and this song proposes slowing life down enough to work out the problems instead of just running from them. The writer doesn't deny that we feel like giving up, or even that some relationships can't survive the differences between people. But it reminds us from the title and through the song "We're just ordinary people". None of us has all the answers, and we all have different ways of seeing the same situations. He simply advises that we take time, make time, to fight for love, each remembering that the other knows no more about how to make things work than they, themselves, do.

We're just ordinary people; we don't know which way to go. Maybe we should take it slow. Are you?