Beautiful View

Photo of me by Emily Copeman



I mentioned something before about having lots of jobs. So what is it that I do, exactly?

Well mostly, I write songs.

I've been playing piano since I was four years old. And for the vast majority of my childhood, I hated everything about it. Hated practicing for an hour every day, hated playing classical music, hated the fact that I was not allowed to quit. Well, shock of shocks, like a lot of other people whose parents refused to let them stop playing an instrument, one day I woke up and just started loving it. I was living in Manhattan at the time, fresh out of college and auditioning for any acting job I could get seen for. Because I had graduated early from school and most of my friends were still back in the freezing tundra known as upstate New York, I didn't have much of a whopping social life. I was also going through that lovely post-academia spiral of terror and "What am I going to do with my life?" panic (I may still be going through that.) I had set up my keyboard in my apartment, more out of habit than anything else.

But suddenly, I had a reason to play. And suddenly, I had something to say.

It probably took me a few weeks to write the first song. When I played it for my parents, they were quiet for a minute. And then my dad very seriously said, "This is what you should be doing."

Now, granted, they were probably a bit biased. So it took me a few months to really believe I had something going. During those months I wrote and wrote, and eventually I moved back to Massachusetts to give this thing a shot. It's been almost five years since I started to chase this thing down, and while it's been possibly the most difficult undertaking of my life, I don't regret it for a second. I have two main areas of focus: solo work, and my band, City of Squares, but I write in a variety of genres and have a blast doing it.

I thought I'd share some of my tunes with y'all as we go along, starting with something upbeat and positive. It's raining in Boston, so it's a good day for something sunny.

I wrote Beautiful View a few years ago, inspired by guys like Jamie Cullum and Eric Hutchinson. It's a story about jumping into things head-on, but with an understanding of what you're up against(hmmm, weird that I would write about that.) To me, that's what makes all the difference between an impulsive decision and a calculated risk- keeping your eyes open and your head up, no matter what happens.

This particular version was recorded by City of Squares in Winter 2010.

Beautiful View by jennapaone

Beautiful View Lyrics

Well I've been told that
Love is a lonely road
And no golden bricks
It's
Made of myth and
Pretty wishes

And you'll grow old
And sick of the twists and the tricks
The shoot-and-miss
The midnight slips
And
All those bitter kisses

And now a mess of thorns is all that's left of another coulda-been
Me and you
And I must admit
Everything they told me was true
But turning back I see the traveled road
My lovers littered there like precious stones

And it’s a beautiful view
It’s a beautiful view- oo-oo-oo-oo

And I’ve been told the world is a danger zone
An all-for-me-nothing-for-free bunch of
Battle trench debris
And you’ll grow old and weep at the state of the streets
The make ends meet
The calm deceit, and
All those good guy defeats

Now one war’s ended but another one’s set to
Sweeping through
And I must admit that
Everything they told me was true
But sergeants surrender everywhere I go
And we take to dancing in the rocket glow

And it’s a beautiful view
It’s a beautiful view- oo-oo-oo-oo

And I’ve been told that
Risk
Is a knockout round
And you’ll waste your life just swinging blind
Shadow-boxing butterflies
But you’ll grow old and happy if you stick to the other side of the
Safety line
No blackened eyes,
No chasing titles, losing fights

Now the jabs keep stunning and my blood keeps running and I’m seeing
Double, too
And I must admit that
Everything they told me was true
But I’ll keep swingin’ till the final count
And if a K-O’s coming I’m smiling all the way down
'Cause I’ve traveled a lonely road and
I've danced in a danger zone and
I’ve had my jaw broken but kept my eyes open
All the way through

And I got a beautiful view
It’s a beautiful- whoa-oh oh oh
It’s a beautiful
It’s a beautiful
It’s a beautiful
Everything they told me was true
But I got a beautiful view.