One of my favorite songs is “Lush and Green” by Paul Westerberg. In this simple song with little variation, every word is bursting with meaning. However, one line seems to sear through my being upon every listen: “I fall on you when I hear thunder…I kiss the ground you lie under…” Before this point in the song, one might not realize that the artist is singing about a deceased loved one. This line makes this interpretation evident and fills the listener with emotion and a vivid visual image. The line delivers the feeling of utmost admiration that the singer felt for his loved one. So much is that person loved and missed that the singer apparently needs to be near that person’s grave in order to feel safe and secure. The singer would apparently have kissed the ground upon which his loved one walked, if only that person were still alive. As of now, he is only able to show his love from another plane of living. Paul Westerberg has a talent of transforming cliché lines and infusing them with multiple meanings. This line is a perfect example of this skill, and it is one that I feel will remain one of the most haunting and beautiful that I will ever hear.

--Lainey Johnson