"Ordinary" by Alex Warren is anything but, it's a little EXTRA.

As I sat there with my Pandora station picking songs from my eclectic list, Creedence, Haim, Oh the Larceny, Zach Bryan, and then I hear Alex Warren’s “Ordinary.”

This song is wonderful, but I think it’s got an inspirational beginning an homage perhaps, that many may be missing. This little fact gives this song a much deeper and more special meaning. That inspiration comes from Edgar Allen Poe’s “Annabel Lee.” I tried to underline the most pertinent lines from each.

Let’s take a look at the songs lyrics:

Ordinary

VERSE 1 They say the holy waters watered down and this town's lost it faith Our colors will fade Eventually So if our time is running out day after day we’ll make the mundane our masterpiece

PRE Oh my my Oh my my Love

I take one look at you

CHORUS Taking me out of Of the ordinary I want you laying me down Til we’re dead and buried On the edge of your knife Staying drunk on your vine the Angels up in the clouds are jealous knowing we found something so out of the ordinary you got me kissing the ground of your sanctuary shatter me with your touch Oh lord return me to dust the Angels up in the clouds are jealous knowing we found

VERSE 2 Hopeless hallelujah Oh this side of heaven’s gates On my life How do ya Breathe and Take my breath away At your alter I will pray You’re the sculptor I’m the clay Oh my my

You’re taking me out

CHORUS

BRIDGE

Something so heavenly Higher than ecstasy whenever your next to me Oh my my world was in black and white until I saw your light) I thought you had to die to find something so out

Of the ordinary I want you laying me down

CHORUS

Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8dH4cKGa6s

Now let’s take a look at Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, “Annabel Lee”:

Annabel Lee

By Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,    

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know    

By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought    

Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,   

 In this kingdom by the sea,

But we loved with a love that was more than love—    

I and my Annabel Lee—

With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven    

Coveted her and me. 

And this was the reason that, long ago,    

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling    

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsmen came    

And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre    

In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,    

Went envying her and me— 

Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,    

In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,    

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love    

Of those who were older than we—    

Of many far wiser than we—

And neither the angels in Heaven above    

Nor the demons down under the sea

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul    

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams,

without bringing me dreams    

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes    

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side    

Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,    

In her sepulchre there by the sea—    

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44885/annabel-lee

Really good stuff here. Thanks to Alex Warren for this song.