Flashes of Brilliance

[Marshall]

I didn't write this one. I posted it over in the Cafe, just because.
But it probably belongs over here. It's the tune that Dean says got him back into songwriting a few years ago.

Flashes of Brilliance
Words and music by Dean Milano
2006 BMI Music

Flashes of Brilliance, a painting, a rhyme
It might only happen once in a Lifetime
But if that flash is the best thing that they'll ever do
It sets them apart from me and you

We all know the song
About the day the music died
We knew that song was special
But no one knew quite why
Singin’ Bye, Bye Miss American Pie
Everybody sang along
And they’re still singin' it today.

1961, a new book lands on the charts
his words might set the world on fire
but he disappears before it starts
So when things don't go the way you want 'em to
You shake your head and call it a Catch-22
And if you wonder why you just said that
Look to the sky and tip your hat
To those Flashes of Brilliance
Flashes of Brilliance

The critics snarl and the critics sneer
"Looks like another One-Hit-Wonder here!"
And while that critic moves on to the Next Big Thing
Without even thinking about it, he begins to sing
A long forgotten song from many years ago
When he was a kid, he used to hear it on the radio
But he could never write that song, no matter how he tried,
Cuz to write the song, ya gotta feel somethin’ inside
Like those Flashes of Brilliance
Flashes of Brilliance

Flashes of Brilliance, a painting, a rhyme
It might only happen once in a Lifetime
But if that flash is the only thing that they'll ever do
It still sets them apart from me and you

[Cornflake]

Marshall, as you know I'd already heard the song, and I like it. It reminds me a little of a poem by Stephen Spender, "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great," but Dean's song is its own thing. It's not the sort of song many people would write these days. That's a compliment.