Post by Cornflake on Jan 9, 2008 21:47:15 GMT -5
Some of David Hanners' comments about one of Connington's songs got me thinking. And it hurts, as always. A guy who's 57 probably shouldn't be thinking all that seriously about songs and song lyrics but I've frittered away 30+ years on such things and I'm intrigued by it all.
Obscurity in song lyrics...A good thing or bad?
In short order I thought of three songs I like with obscure lyrics: Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere," Townes Van Zandt's "Pancho and Lefty" and Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne." I've listened to all of them a lot and I've performed the first two.
Dylan's is a good song but I think it's good in spite of the obscure lyrics. On a cognitive level, they convey very little. The song is so good musically that it's terrific notwithstanding the lyrics, but about all you can say for them is that they give the voice something to do and opaque lyrics are better than bad ones. This is not very good obscurity.
"Pancho and Lefty" is quite different. You pretty much know even on a first listening what's going on in the song. On the two-hundredth listening, though, some of the lines are quite beautiful but still opaque.
Livin' on the road my friend was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron and
Your breath's as hard as kerosene
You weren't your momma's only boy but her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams
Pancho was a bandit boy, his horse was fast as polished steel
He wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Pancho met his match you know on the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dyin' words, ah, but that's the way it goes
And all the Federales say they could've had him any day
They only let him slip away out of kindness I suppose
Skin like iron? Breath as hard as kerosene? I finally figured the latter was a booze reference but those and other lines convey something strong even if the exact sense is and remains elusive. There's a clear central story and theme with obscurity on the margins that adds a permanent mystery to the song. I'd say that's about an optimum use of obscurity.
"Suzanne" is more like Van Zandt's song than Dylan's. You get a fairly clear idea of what's going on but it's as if you're viewing it through some clouds. Cohen once said that his songs have an effect and he wasn't always sure if they had anything more than that. A fair statement. Personally, I think his songs are weakest when the "effect" is all they have going for them.
Hanners mentioned Neil Young as a good user of obscurity. I respectfully disagree (and I like David Hanners' songwriting a lot). Young has said that we wrote whatever the muse gave him and as soon as his conscious brain took over, he'd stop. In short, he wouldn't edit. He's maddening because of that. I like much of his stuff but I've always thought he'd have been 30-40 percent better if he'd worked harder at revising the raw material his subconscious excreted.
My own approach is controlled by having played for live audiences for many years, where they either get it as it flies by or they don't get it at all. Even with very sharp listeners, and we've been blessed with pretty sharp audiences, you can't be too obscure or you might as well be singing in Rumanian. That has moved me sharply towards being as clear as I can be...usually. Some obscurity at the margins works, but a little goes a long way.
Just some blathering.
Obscurity in song lyrics...A good thing or bad?
In short order I thought of three songs I like with obscure lyrics: Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere," Townes Van Zandt's "Pancho and Lefty" and Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne." I've listened to all of them a lot and I've performed the first two.
Dylan's is a good song but I think it's good in spite of the obscure lyrics. On a cognitive level, they convey very little. The song is so good musically that it's terrific notwithstanding the lyrics, but about all you can say for them is that they give the voice something to do and opaque lyrics are better than bad ones. This is not very good obscurity.
"Pancho and Lefty" is quite different. You pretty much know even on a first listening what's going on in the song. On the two-hundredth listening, though, some of the lines are quite beautiful but still opaque.
Livin' on the road my friend was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron and
Your breath's as hard as kerosene
You weren't your momma's only boy but her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams
Pancho was a bandit boy, his horse was fast as polished steel
He wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Pancho met his match you know on the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dyin' words, ah, but that's the way it goes
And all the Federales say they could've had him any day
They only let him slip away out of kindness I suppose
Skin like iron? Breath as hard as kerosene? I finally figured the latter was a booze reference but those and other lines convey something strong even if the exact sense is and remains elusive. There's a clear central story and theme with obscurity on the margins that adds a permanent mystery to the song. I'd say that's about an optimum use of obscurity.
"Suzanne" is more like Van Zandt's song than Dylan's. You get a fairly clear idea of what's going on but it's as if you're viewing it through some clouds. Cohen once said that his songs have an effect and he wasn't always sure if they had anything more than that. A fair statement. Personally, I think his songs are weakest when the "effect" is all they have going for them.
Hanners mentioned Neil Young as a good user of obscurity. I respectfully disagree (and I like David Hanners' songwriting a lot). Young has said that we wrote whatever the muse gave him and as soon as his conscious brain took over, he'd stop. In short, he wouldn't edit. He's maddening because of that. I like much of his stuff but I've always thought he'd have been 30-40 percent better if he'd worked harder at revising the raw material his subconscious excreted.
My own approach is controlled by having played for live audiences for many years, where they either get it as it flies by or they don't get it at all. Even with very sharp listeners, and we've been blessed with pretty sharp audiences, you can't be too obscure or you might as well be singing in Rumanian. That has moved me sharply towards being as clear as I can be...usually. Some obscurity at the margins works, but a little goes a long way.
Just some blathering.