18th Floor Balcony

Song: 18th Floor Balcony
Artist: Blue October
Album: Foiled
Released: Spring 2006

Wow, I feel like I'm doing some kind of marketing gig for this song with as much Blue October stuff that I've been looking through in preparation for this post. The way I think I'm going to start these things off, is with the lyrics. Lyrics for me can make a mediocre song, from a purely musical stand point, into a classic if they're good enough. Just like a movie that wasn't acted or directed the best can be amazing if the storyline is strong enough, like Les Miserables, or Taken. So lets take a look at the lyrics shall we?

I close my eyes and I smile
Knowing that everything is alright
To the core
So close that door
Is this happening?

My breath is on your hair
I'm unaware
That you opened the blinds and let the city in
God, you held my hand
And we stand
Just taking in everything.

And I knew it from the start
So my arms are open wide
Your head is on my stomach
And we're, we're trying so hard not to fall asleep
But Here we are
On this 18th floor balcony...
We're both flying away.

So we talked about mom's and dad's
About family pasts
Just getting to know where we came from
Our hearts were on display
For all to see
I can't believe this is happening to me and,
I raised my hands as if to show you that I was yours
That I was so yours for the taking
I'm so yours for the taking and
That's when I felt the wind pick up
I grabbed the rail while choking up
These words to say and then you kissed me... here

And I knew it from the start
So My arms are open wide
Your head is on my stomach
And we're, we're trying so hard not to fall asleep
But Here we are
On this 18th floor balcony...
We're both flying away

And I'll try to sleep
To keep you in my dreams
'Till I can bring you home with me
I'll try to sleep
And when I do I'll keep you in my... dreams

And I knew it from the start
So my arms are open wide
And your head is on my stomach
And we're, we're trying so hard not to fall asleep
So here we are
On this 18th floor balcony...

Yeah
And I knew it from the start
So my arms are open wide
Your head is on my stomach
No... We're not going to sleep, sleep
Here we are
On this 18th floor baclony...
We're both flying away.

Mushy, mushy love stuff huh? I agree, but that's the reason it makes my 100. I first discovered this song while I was first falling for my wife. Justin Furstenfeld (lead singer and chief song writer) wrote some pretty brilliant stuff all over this album, and 18th floor balcony is no exception. He's a master of his craft, you can tell the lyrics are very personal here, but they're not so personal as to exclude the listener. He's telling a story about a very intimate moment without kicking you out and making you feel like your simply observing. The lyrics are broad enough that it can be anyone's story, with the exception of it taking place on an 18th floor balcony, but so what it could be a 10th, 7th, or as it was for me, a 3rd floor balcony. Furstenfeld uses an open writing approach, and what I mean by this, is he doesn't have a set pattern for his rhyming. It's pretty tricky to write a catchy tune without some fluid rhyming, in opinion. In fact he doesn't rhyme at all in the chorus, but he sings it so well you don't really even notice its differences from so many other love songs out there.

For me though, it's that the lyrics fit an experience I had so well. When I first started dating my wife, we hit it off quickly. We went on 4 dates in the week following our very first day. What can I say, after the second date I didn't want to leave without getting her to commit to see me again. Within about two weeks I was thinking "this could go places", and it was at this time that she was visiting me at my apt. which was on the third floor where I had a small balcony. We watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and then stayed up talking about moms and dads, about family pasts, just getting to know where we came from. I think its when you get to this point in a relationship that you start getting the butterflies, and you become truly interested in the other person. You can't get enough of them and so you must know more, you must delve into their past, their childhood, their family and their pasts. You become so attached, you don't want to go home, or to be apart at all. After talking for a bit, it was getting close to midnight, which was just the respectful time to have her get back home. My wife was home from college for the summer, and while she didn't have a curfew we wanted to be respectful of her parent's schedule, ha ha that didn't actually happen often. So it didn't happen on this night, instead of saying goodbye we decided to go out on to the balcony and see if we could spot some stars. I was at the point where I wanted to make things exclusive between us and so like the experienced salesman that I am I thought I would try to heighten the level of romance before going in for the close. We talked more and I slowly worked my way to speaking in a way as if to show her that I was hers I was so hers for the taking. Unlike the song she didn't kiss me right on the spot, the equivalent of a handshake, affirming that we had a romantic accord for exclusive dating. Nope, she kept me hanging on the hook. All the same, she knew my feelings, I was out there and fortunately it only took a few more days for her to come 'round to agreeing to the idea. Fortunately, because I get quite anxious in these situations, when I really like something I can't think about much else, until I find a way to get what I want. 

The rest of the song just generally reminds me of our time dating. It seemed that every night we saw each other, which was pretty much every night since then, we stayed up to where we had fight sleep with everything we had. We even fell asleep on her parents couch on several occasions, woke up and continued to talk or do whatever else we might have been doing. The cut off time for a date went from around midnight to 2-3:30 am. The part of the song that really seals the deal for me, though, is the bridge; And I'll try to sleep, To keep you in my dreams, 'Till I can bring you home with me, I'll try to sleep, And when I do I'll keep you in my... dreams. When I'd finally get home, this is exactly what I'd think and the song really picks up musically at this part. After Furstenfeld sings these lines (he does a remarkable job of holding the last note on dreams in a soft way like a Sinatra, or Louis Armstrong) Ryan Delahoussaye opens up with a violin solo that lights up the whole room. Listen to the song on head phones or in a room alone, let it have your full attention, and this solo will fill you with a feeling like all is right with the world. The way you feel when you're with that person you adore, and you're both flying away...good stuff.

So why is a song that takes me back to the golden days of young love ranked lowest on my list? Well because there are others, but mainly because my wife doesn't really like it that much, and that affects how I feel about it a little. Well son of a b, but what are you going to do. But you know what's interesting about the speed of our dating is that we were both coming out of long, and very serious relationships, that both ended quite badly, but more on that later :)