This kind of makes me think of the music that my uncle makes. He’s in his mid-50’s and rather shy, but records this beautiful music with pianos and synths in his spare time. Generally, he just records the stuff for himself and gives us in the family copies.
Some of my favorite stuff of his does this very thing - in fact, there is kind of a running theme in a lot of his lyrics. They’re very narrative, telling detailed stories and more than one song is about a character who dreams his entire life of becoming someone else, but lives his life never achieving his dreams. One example (from “The Sailor”):
All of his songs seem to express this regret about having lived life without ever really reaching for those lofty goals and wondering what could have been. It really puts things into perspective for me because I feel that he’s so similar to me and I could easily see myself in these songs. It makes me understand that I’m still young and have to go for what makes me happy because we’ve only got one chance. Other quotes (from “Up Ahead”):
And finally, one line that really haunts me for many personal reasons (From the song “Halfway to Dawn”):
I guess it’s just having someone so close to me and so similar to me saying these things that really makes them hit home.