LIFE IS A CELEBRATION
(words and music by Rick Springfield)
I was lost on a winding road
I thought that life had nothing left to give
Then you came and showed me that just to live
Was the greatest gift of all
And you showed me
Life is a celebration
And Lord, I'm gonna celebrate
Don't you know that life is a celebration
So come on now and celebrate, celebrate
Life is a celebration
Look it's a revelation
So celebrate now, celebrate life, yeah
Celebrate now, celebrate life, yeah
How could I have been so blind?
Just to think that we were living to die
You came along and I was no longer alone
And you lead me to the light
And you showed me
Life is a celebration
And Lord, I'm gonna celebrate
Don't you know that life is a celebration
So come on now and celebrate, celebrate
Life is a celebration
Look it's a revelation
So celebrate now, celebrate life, yeah
Celebrate now, celebrate life, yeah
Celebrate now, celebrate life, yeah
And you showed me life is a celebration
And Lord, I'm gonna celebrate
Don't you know that life is a celebration
So come on now and celebrate, celebrate
Life is a celebration
Look it's a revelation
So celebrate now, celebrate life, yeah
Celebrate now, celebrate life, yeah
Celebrate now, celebrate life, yeah
Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate, celebrate
Celebrate, celebrate life
(total playing time: 3:06 )
Song Facts: This can be found on
Wait for Night.
More Reviews:
Okay, so this one is a little tricky for me because I know what I am thinking about the song, but it is hard to explain. I think this is an anti-sin anthem of sorts, the sin being suicide. I think we have a very depressed Rick trying to pick himself up and convince himself that life is worth living.
However, I think it is a bit of smoke and mirrors as well. You know the phrase “I think he doth protest too much”, on this song, I always find myself thinking, I think he doth celebrate too much. I think he is absolutely well intended, and I think he wants to convince himself that life is good and rosy, but the underlying theme that it took someone else to make him see this makes me think his joy was temporary.
I believe strongly that no one can save a troubled soul except the soul in trouble, and no one can bring you happiness until you bring it to yourself. I think others can make us temporarily happy and content, but for the feeling to really last, it has to come from within. So, the idea that someone came along and led him to the light is lovely and wonderful on the surface, but since this is such a positive departure from the pessimistic Rick we all know and love, I tend to think that he was really trying desperately (too desperately?) to force himself to believe in this salvation rather than really feeling it.
Again, I do see the religious overtones here, and if he is singing about religion rather than a woman, my opinion would change completely, but I tend to see this as more of a secular song overall.
Having said all that, since I am basing my entire theory here on the fact that I used to write poems about a boy I knew in school and how I credited him with my happiness and with releasing me from my depression only to discover a few short months later that the boy was gone but not the depression, I could be completely full of crap.
I do like the song very much, I think it is filled with beautifully optimistic sentiments, but I don’t think the attitude he expresses in it stayed with him very long. Of course, if I am even close to the mark on this, that is very sad, indeed.
I first came across this song when I was in high school. I did not realize at the time of first hearing it that it was written by Rick. I had heard it on the television show "Fame". (I have it on an album
from the Kids from Fame as well.)
In a nut shell, this song literally saved my life. Very few people
know this about me and I don't really like to talk about it, but this song means the world to me and I wanted to share that here. I was
hitting rock bottom and feeling very responsible for something I shouldn't have. Anyway, I was literally sitting in my room with a
pair of scissors to my wrists trying to get up the nerve to hurt myself and that song started to play on my stereo (I had several
albums stacked up on the record player). It was a real wake up call for me and I realized there was more to life than what I was feeling
sorry for myself about.
The line "you came and showed me that just to live, was the greatest gift of all" spoke to me the loudest. This song basically said to me
that there was more to life and I needed to realize that and be grateful for what I did have.
I'm not sure exactly when I realized that Rick had wrote the song. I remember looking at the album and seeing R. Springfield. And then
getting "Wait for the Night" after that. I was already a huge Rick fan and that moment and that song just cemented it all for me.
I will forever be eternally grateful for Rick's words and music, the man literally saved my life with his gift. One of these days, I will
get up the nerve to tell him so. Its on my list of things to do
before I leave this earth!
I love his voice on this song. This is one that the more I listen to
it, the more I find that I like about it. There is something about
the chorus tho that I can't seem to get past---when the tempo picks up, I understand why he did that, but its just not my favorite part
of this song. Sounds like a song he wrote when he was possibly coming out of one of his bouts with depression. Someone either showed
him "the light", religion, maybe? or he found someone he is happy to be around. I guess this was before the prozac , lithium days so I
can't say he is singing about those. I do like the song the more I listen, but these mostly seem so simplistic compared to his later
work that I'm finding it hard to really say much about them.
In my initial review of just the lyrics I said I thought this was a very
spiritual song and now that I've actually listened to this song, my opinion hasn't changed. Something
spiritual spoke to Rick and told him, get out of the dark, remember who you are, why you're here. I like
this song a lot. I think it has a different feel and sound then the rest of the album. Definitely a nice ending...
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Since I *discovered* this album in my teens, this song came to me at a perfect time. It was because of this album that I delved further into finding out about Rick's career before WCD. It also made me curious to dig into the past of some of my other favorite artists, and opened up a whole new world of music to me. For that I will be forever grateful. I'm not sure if this was THE song that made me do that, but I do know that it did make me see Rick in a whole different light. It made me want to know more, and learn more about him. Maybe it made me the lifelong fan that I am now, maybe not - but it did have a big impact.
I said this song had perfect timing as I was experiencing all the difficulties of being a teen and living in a tumultuous household on top of that. Music was my escape into a world all of my own. My mother would force us (my siblings & I) to attend meetings at church, and tried to get us involved there, as an effort on her part to try to ease what was happening at home. So I would sit there and think blah, blah, blah - none of this is going to help, nothing will. Then this youth director showed up who was "cool". He really got us motivated into doing things like little plays, and listening to current music -- totally in my ballpark now. One day we were told to find a song that we felt was inspirational that we could share with our group. I had owned WFN for about 6 months now, so I knew this song would be the perfect one for me to bring.
Until then, I was very cynical about my religion. I took it basically at face value and had no interest into looking any deeper, as it wasn't "doing" anything for me. Same thing with this song. I knew it was saying all the right words that our youth group leader wanted to hear, and I would be praised for that. It didn't really *touch* me in any way though. I will also admit now that he was kind of cute, so I had other motives of wanting to be singled out, for him to notice me. I also felt this was my chance of bringing Rick into another part of my life.
Imagine my surprise when after listening to this song, the object of my affection was familiar with it! However, I was even more surprised when he took the words, and gave them a different meaning for me. Since I'm not one to preach to people about anything including religion, I'm not going to spell out here what I learned that day. I will say though, that the line
"You came along and I was no longer alone and you lead me to the
light" suddenly had a double meaning for me. I came to my own realization about my religion that day, and not to compare Rick to God - but I felt that Rick brought me there, "to the light".
I use this song to this day as sort of my own prayer. When I'm having a bad day and listening to Karma is just not cutting it in terms of making me feel better, I'll pop WFN in. By the time I get to this song, I'm reminded once again
"that just to live is the greatest gift of all".
I don't listen to this song as much as the others on WFN, and, as I listen
to it now, I'm not really sure why that's the case. It brings to mind someone that's feeling hopeless and sad... feeling like nothing matters.
Then one day someone special comes into their life and everything changes.
They see things through new eyes, and they're able to appreciate things that
were once hidden by the negative thoughts/feelings they'd been having in the
past... able to realize that life, in itself, is a precious thing.
I usually don't give a lot of thought to the title of any song, or assign
any special significance to it, but I really love the title of this song.
These four simple words have a tremendous amount of truth in them. It's so
easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day BS... juggling time between work
and family, bills and appointments, trying to reconcile your fun with your
responsibilities, and so on and so forth. It gets so overwhelming at times
that it's easy to forget/ignore the little things that seem so unimportant
in the face of everything you have to do... like pausing for a moment to
gaze out a westward window to admire the rainbow of colors created by the
setting sun. Noticing the dew-drops that rest on a flower's petals in the
morning. The chirping of birds on a perfect spring day. The way your child
looks when he/she smiles a sleepy smile and says "g'night mom" when you tuck
them into bed at night. The joy in a dear friends face/voice when you surprise them with an unexpected gift. The smile of gratitude a stranger
gives you when you unselfishly offer a helping hand with something. The
pride in your mother's/father's eyes when they sees you accomplish something
you've worked so hard to attain. The way your dog wags his tail and bounces
around in excitement because he's so happy that you've come back home from
wherever you've been. All these things (and SO many others) can be so easily missed or not paid attention to... but these are the things that make
life worth living. These are the things that make you happy just to be
alive... the things that are worth celebrating.
I like the verses in the song ok, but I really don't like the chorus. It kind of reminds me more of a Broadway type song, or a song that Up With People would perform at a halftime show, especially at the very end.
What I do find interesting is that he managed to get this song out of him. Seemingly, this wouldn't have been the most positive of times in his life. He had two previously records that didn't do very well, he had been over in the US for over 5 years and still hadn't come close to the kind of success he had been reaching for. But then maybe things were starting to happen and he could see some kind of light. On the other side, 30 years later, he's had a fairly successful career, things seem to be going fairly well, he's doing EFX and making more money than he's probably ever made in his life, and we
get "Every Night I wake Up Screaming"........ There's just no accounting for inspiration, I guess.
This is one of my two favorite songs on this CD. This song gives me
such an uplifting feeling, and makes we want to hit repeat. I can
see the spiritual side of this song, but I equate this song to more
of a strong love in his life that made him realize the importance of
the life he's living. Which makes me happy because he is usually
writes about the darker side of love.
In reviewing the lyrics on this one, the first thing that captures me
is the title: Life Is A Celebration. That's like WOW~ I think so many times we get caught up in our daily dramas of life, that we do forget we're here for a relatively short period of time and should celebrate
each day.
I found these lyrics to be very spiritual. These could easily be words to a song that we sing during worship every Saturday night.
I thought that life had nothing left to give
Then you came and showed me that just to live
I don't feel like this is a love song to a person who "saved" him from his personal sorrows, but more a religious experience. I think this is
how a lot of people feel when they've discovered/rediscovered religion, like someone spoke to them, usually it's a feeling of God speaking
directly to you. Letting you know you're loved, you're worthy.
I'm anxious to put this one on the turntable and hear how Rick comes across through the music…relationship with another person or
relationship with God.
I'm reminded of the Dog House interview from s/d/d/a LE, when Rick
is talking about "the low-fi to high-fi" kinda thing that has always been his favorite way to "make a song work". He certainly has been using that method for quite a while, since it's totally evident in
this song. I like the way it starts out with just a quiet piano...then BURSTS into the big chorus...drums pounding into your head, as if Rogee is playing.....*kudos to Nigel Olsen*. This tune is also one of my hubby's favorite RS songs of all time. I've always been a "Life Is A Celebration" kinda gal....but my hubby is a little more staid and introverted....*a bit quiet and shy, like a certain Rock
God we all know and love.....maybe that's why the two of 'em get
along so well....LOL*....therefore I think he likes this song because it reminds him, as I always do...to get out there and ENJOY life!!
You only go around once......*or so some of us believe*, so you'd better take advantage of as much as you can. This seems to be Rick's philosophy as well. I guess that's another reason why we all relate to him and his music...we're all on similar paths and appreciate the
same things in life. And as the song intimates, sometimes you need a little "push" from a loved one to get
goin' in the right direction.
Just as Rick's music "pushes" us to new heights,
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