Monday, February 16, 2009

I dream in stereo

Still sick today, amusing myself by listening to music I haven't listened to in a long time, while I clean and try to amuse very bored toddlers. (Holy run-on)

I love lyrics. I am surprised at how many people who love music think lyrics are unimportant. When I was doing what Elisa is doing (taking lit courses) I was suprised that there was no focus at all on lyrics, even as poetry or prose. Maybe that has changed? E - Do you study lyrics at all?

I love certain songs, in genres I don't usually care for, just because of the word sequencing in them. And words really are the key aren't they? A beautifully strung sentence is like "buddah." Sometimes even when the writer can barely speak English.
Take this:

He's sickly cryptic, spitting that code
And most proud to present that Cruffiton mode
And it shows that they bros done seen a few sleights
Life throws scenarios, reality bites
We in collision with the beast
Lost we religion and we can't get no peace
Idiot weakhearts want to take I for chief
Stoop to their level and we plotting cold grief
(by roots manuva)

Post some of your favorite lyrics; especially from genres that aren't usually your "bag."

13 comments:

  1. Nope, no lyrics, and poetry is still limited mostly to the usual suspects (Shakespeare, Donne, Raleigh, etc). When I took American Lit, Civil War to Present we studied some T.S. Eliot and Allen Ginsberg, which was a nice change, but still no lyrics.

    I've always thought it's a little weird, too...I mean, musicians are probably more well-known than most poets (everyone's heard of Eminem, but how many people have heard of Charles Bukowski?) so why is their work as lyricists put out of the scope of literature? Makes no sense to me.

    This guy, for example, writes lyrics which are very definitely lit-worthy:

    Please, remember me
    Fondly
    I heard from someone you're still pretty
    And then
    They went on to say
    That the pearly gates
    Had some eloquent graffiti
    Like 'We'll meet again'
    And 'Fuck the man'
    And 'Tell my mother not to worry'
    And angels with their gray
    Handshakes
    Were always done in such a hurry
    (Iron and Wine, 'Trapeze Swinger')

    I could post lyrics all day long, but I'll spare y'all.

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  2. I can never understand lyrics:

    HAMPSTER!
    DENTIST!
    HARD PORN!
    STEVEN SEAGULL!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZthcZTx-oA&feature=PlayList&p=5C417902DEC2C5A0&playnext=1&index=12

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  3. I am with Daniel on this one...unless advertisements count as lyrics.

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  4. I'll see your Fishmaster

    and raise you a

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfXke_z6t3I

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  5. What about this line...

    "...little fascist panties
    tucked inside the
    heart of every nice girl..."

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  6. A favorite song of mine to sing along to:

    Remember when you were young,
    You shone like the sun.
    Shine on you crazy diamond.
    Now there's a look in your eyes,
    Like black holes in the sky.
    Shine on you crazy diamond.
    You were caught on the crossfire
    Of childhood and stardom,
    Blown on the steel breeze.
    Come on you target for faraway laughter,
    Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!

    You reached for the secret too soon,
    You cried for the moon.
    Shine on you crazy diamond.
    Threatened by shadows at night,
    And exposed in the light.
    Shine on you crazy diamond.
    Well you wore out your welcome
    With random precision,
    Rode on the steel breeze.
    Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
    Come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

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  7. Where do we post answers to the riddle?

    Sponge

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  8. These are all so good! It is so interesting to read them from a poetry perspective since I haven't heard it has a whole (with the music.)Although, I am sure they are even better that way. Check this one out.

    My heart stopped pumpin', but my blood is still alive.
    The rain hits the ground, and the trees, they dry it up.
    My eyes wake up, but my brain is sleepin' fine.
    One more thing for you, and I to do before we shut our eyes.
    You blame me, and i'll blame you, and we're both right.
    Cuttin' cat faces in the pines.

    They say his teeth are wood, and they want my pictures of him.
    The rain hits the ground, and the trees, they dry it up.
    We're wood screws, all of our lives. (x3)
    The rain hits the ground, and the trees, they dry it up.
    My chain hits the wood and the wood it turns to dust.
    I picture you as if you were a pine.

    My heart's stopped pumpin', but my blood is still alive.
    We're wood screws, all of our lives. (x2)
    Well, my heart's stopped pumpin', but my blood is still alive.

    I lay down with the southern range.
    I lay down with the southern range.
    I lay down with the southern range.
    I lay down with the southern range.
    (With a southern range.)

    I lay down with the southern range.
    (Down with a southern range)
    I lay down with the southern range.
    (Down with a southern range.)
    I lay down with the southern range.
    (Down with a southern range.)

    I lay down with a southern range.
    I lay down with a southern range.
    (Down with a southern range)
    I lay down with a southern range.

    Swallows drop in, and dash the sky.
    Tracing lines of cursive on the horizon.
    Cutting cat faces in the pines.
    Mark the path back to the point of departure.
    Two by two, and four by four.
    The pines they lay down,
    and I lay down with the southern range

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  9. Sarah, those videos were hilaaaarious. The roomie and I got a nice giggle out of them this morning before our eight a.m.s.

    As for poetry, I also really like Radiohead's stuff:

    Karma police, arrest this man
    He talks in maths
    He buzzes like a fridge
    He's like a detuned radio

    Karma police, arrest this girl
    Her Hitler hairdo is
    Making me feel ill
    And we have crashed her party

    And Regina's always a safe bet for the poetic stuff...this bit from 'Consequence of Sounds' is AHmazing:

    The weather report keeps on
    Tossing and turning,
    Predicting and warning,
    And warning and warning of,
    Possibly it could be news publications and,
    Possibly it could be news TV stations. That
    Very same morning right next to her coffee
    She noticed some bleeding and heard hollow coughing and
    National Geographic was being too graphic,
    When all she had wanted to know was the traffic
    "The worlds got a nosebleed" it said
    "And we're flooding but we keep on cutting
    The trees and the forests!"
    And we keep on paying those freaks on the TV,
    Who claim they will save us but want to enslave us.
    And sweating like demons they scream through our speakers
    But we leave the sound on 'cause silence is harder.
    And no one's the killer and no one's the martyr
    The world that has made us can no longer contain us
    And profits are silent then rotting away 'cause

    The consonants and vowels
    The consequence of sounds.


    The fact that she's a very purdy singer only helps matters.

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  10. I know what you mean about Radiohead!

    When I am king, you will be first against the wall
    With your opinion which is of no consequence at all
    What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but no android)
    What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but no android)

    Ambition makes you look pretty ugly
    Kicking and squealing gucci little piggy
    You don't remember
    You don't remember
    Why don't you remember my name?
    Off with his head, man
    Off with his head, man
    Why don't you remember my name?
    I guess he does....

    Rain down, rain down
    Come on rain down on me
    From a great height
    From a great height... height...
    Rain down, rain down
    Come on rain down on me
    From a great height
    From a great height... height...
    Rain down, rain down
    Come on rain down on me

    TThat's it, sir
    You're leaving
    The crackle of pigskin
    The dust and the screaming
    The yuppies networking
    The panic, the vomit
    The panic, the vomit
    God loves his children, God loves his children, yeah!

    And Consequence of Sound may be my favorite RS song! Try some Ugly Casanova if you haven't already. Are you a fan of Tool? I love tool.

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  11. I've heard of Ugly Casanova but haven't actually listened to them. And I'm so-so on Tool...some of their songs are awesome, some are just kinda eh. Have you heard Vampire Weekend yet? Suzanne/Haley turned me onto them- incredible.

    Also, this song has become a recent obsession:

    I have seen the others and I have discovered that this fight is not worth fighting
    And I've have seen their mothers and I will no other to follow me where I'm going

    So, take your shower, shine your shoes
    You got no time to lose
    You are young men, you must be living
    Take your shower, shine your shoes
    Well, you got no time to lose
    You are young men you must be living
    Go now, you are forgiven

    (The General by Dispatch)

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  12. I'll try Vampire weekend on youtube today.
    ...

    hey you
    gender nectar
    sifting through the grain of gold
    tripping at your door
    is that you, alpha in her blood
    and when the woman lies
    you don't believe her

    rolling and unrolling coiling emerging running free
    running through the underworld into your room

    is he real
    or a ghost-lie
    she feels she isn't heard
    and the veil tears and rages
    til her voices are remembered
    and his secrets can be told

    hey you
    gender nectar
    crystalline from the vine
    you know you'll drink her

    rolling and unrolling coiling emerging running free
    running through the afterworld into your room

    so she prays for a prankster
    and lust in the marriage bed
    and he waits til she can give
    and he waits
    and he waits

    ReplyDelete