lindsmuse wrote:
'Nobody said that there be days like these' John Lennon. So funny and so profound at the same time ...
Every couple of years I think - they didn't! That's right! Where are they? (the b@stards)!
Have you got any lyrics that keep cropping up somewhere in your life? I'm sure theres tons but some just stick ...
To me the gift that the great lyricists have is that they can take experiences or concerns that many of us have and distill them, crystalise them, put them in a nut shell.
This was the greatness of the early Dylan, he took the mood of the times and expressed it so perfectly. He took your vague concerns and clarified them for you and then expressed them.
Of course things got less clear going forwards - you might have known who Medgar Evers was, but who the hell was Napolean In Rags?
There are many lyricists and lyrics that I enjoy in various ways. Some lyrics rely heavily on metaphor and allusion and can't easily be tied down to a simple, specific meaning. Some have levels of meaning. In some cases I think the "meaning" is up to the listener to decide.
Some songs seem to be written in a kind of code, and if you know the code and substitute one word for another then the meaning of the song will be revealed. I get this sense from a lot of Nick Drake songs that, to my mind and ear, seem to be using a set of internal symbols that were important to Drake and which you could, if you knew the "code", substitute and render the song clear - and mundane. The trouble is knowing the "code", what Drake meant by "Pink Moon" or "Saturday Sun" etc etc.
Some songs, it seems to me, require interpretation, which is a different matter - you have to let the lyrics paint pictures in your mind, decide on your reaction to them.
There's lots of ways to have fun with lyrics.
A writer I find very interesting in terms of how his lyrics overlap with a more universal experience of life is Loudon Wainwright III. He writes a lot of songs about his divorces, fights with his kids, hangups about his father, his love for his mother etc etc and that kind of stuff often has me reaching for the barf bag. But he often seems to tap into something universal under the specifics and so the songs resonate more widely.
Eg from his song "Thanksgiving" which takes the form of a prayer about a soon to be gathering where the family (dysfunctional) will sit down to eat together
"
On this auspicious occasion
This special family dinner
If I argue with a loved one
Lord, please let me be the winner."
I don't need to have songs resonate with me and my miserable life in order to appreciate them, but I find some do and I think the really good ones resonate quite widely.
Richard Thompson's "Put It There Pal" talks about a kind of "friend" that I think a lot of us have
"
I know you mean well,
Call me a sentimental fool
I know sometimes
You have to be kind to be cruel.
When you patted me on the back
That was quite some slap
That kind of compliment
Could kill a chap"
