Not that I really pay that much attention to what songs are charting these days, but my impression is that (with the possible exception of some mewling coming from Hot Topic-vended black hairdye abusers) the lyrics' general ethos is overwhelmingly affirmative...by which I mean, my sex is good, my beats are good, my shit is good, my dancing is good, etc.
Regardless, I don't think there's all that much that's just plain a big ol' depressing downer (except if quality is considered - but that's a separate argument). Contrast this with the late sixties and early seventies - oh yes, you could chart with a miserably depressing set of lyrics then.
Here are a few examples, because, you know, it's pouring rain outside and the temperature's dropped like thirty degrees in the last day or so.
Perhaps the all-time champion in boohooism is Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)" - made even worse by its unnaturally chipper melody. But just how sunny is a song about attempted suicide, being abandoned at the altar, feeling abandoned by a god you no longer believe in, a dead father, and a grieving wife who dies of a broken heart?
Okay, so maybe something a bit more humorous? Like, say, the Bee Gees - with "I Started a Joke." That should be good for a, uh, laugh. No? (Not unless you look closely at some of the more belabored lyrics.) Really, say what you will, this one's got a wonderfully mournful melody, delivered with appropriate achingness.
Jonathan King (who, according to him, wrote nearly every British hit for a decade, when he wasn't busy seducing teenage boys) scored a major hit with the (intentionally) Dylanesque lyric to "Everyone's Gone to the Moon." The images may be absurd in places, but the music and tune convey a real melancholy.
King also wrote the rather more obscure (to us Yanks, anyway) track "It's Good News Week!" recorded by four British Royal Air Force lads (!) under the name Hedgehoppers Anonymous (I gather "hedgehopper" is some sort of pilot slang). At last, a title that promises cheer and happy, smiling faces!
Or not (naturally).
Gilbert O'Sullivan "Alone Again (Naturally)"
The Bee Gees "I Started a Joke"
Jonathan King "Everyone's Gone to the Moon"
Hedgehoppers Anonymous "It's Good News Week!"
11.30.2006
11.29.2006
fun with typography
My students are doing research projects on various educational issues. They choose a general area of focus and find sources themselves. A popular (and influential) source also presents some unusual typographic difficulties - to such an extent that I almost imagine the authors (in some sort of peculiar joke) intended them. The article, by Signithia Fordham and John U. Ogbu, bears the following title (as it would be printed in its title line):
In most style formats (certainly including MLA, which is used in English departments), titles of articles are set inside quotation marks. You can see where this is going: the article presents a positive collision of nested quotation marks at its tail. In the context of a student paper, then, the article might be referred to this way:
And, of course, American convention is to include the period inside closing quotation marks if a phrase in quotation marks ends a sentence. But...which one? All the way inside the third nested closing quotation mark immediately following the word white? Honestly, I have no clue - and I doubt MLA actually covers this one. I imagine copy-editors tearing their hair out, cursing the authors for their damnable quotation-mark-using superpowers.
I suspect Fordham and Ogbu had a good giggle, perhaps winning a bottle of wine or something in a departmental contest over who could legitimately crunch the most quotation marks together.
Black Students' School Success: Coping with the "Burden of 'Acting White'"
In most style formats (certainly including MLA, which is used in English departments), titles of articles are set inside quotation marks. You can see where this is going: the article presents a positive collision of nested quotation marks at its tail. In the context of a student paper, then, the article might be referred to this way:
Signithia Fordham and John U. Ogbu's article "Black Students' School Success: Coping with the 'Burden of "Acting White"'"...
And, of course, American convention is to include the period inside closing quotation marks if a phrase in quotation marks ends a sentence. But...which one? All the way inside the third nested closing quotation mark immediately following the word white? Honestly, I have no clue - and I doubt MLA actually covers this one. I imagine copy-editors tearing their hair out, cursing the authors for their damnable quotation-mark-using superpowers.
I suspect Fordham and Ogbu had a good giggle, perhaps winning a bottle of wine or something in a departmental contest over who could legitimately crunch the most quotation marks together.
11.28.2006
financial imbalance...
What are the odds that my collection would feature not one but two revelatory covers of the Beatles' "Revolution 9"?
Anyway, I recently ran across a recording of a live, benefit show Robyn Hitchcock did a couple years back in which he and a band covered the Beatles' "White Album" in its entirety. (It was a benefit for Medicins Sans Frontieres a/k/a Doctors without Borders, so please donate.) The main thing that makes this version of "Revolution 9" work is Hitchcock's narration - which initially seems another daft improvisation, wherein Hitchcock simply rattles off a chronological history of recent politics.
But the effect, especially near the end, as his ranting reaches a peak simultaneously with the music's most chaotic moments, is the creation of a "duh" moment in me: which is that I'd never considered that at some level Lennon's piece was political art, a reaction to (and, perhaps, embodiment of) the Vietnam War. Because Hitchcock, of course, makes it crystal clear that this performance of "Revolution 9" (and the larger performance from which it's drawn) is about Iraq.
And musically, at least, all that gives much greater emotional weight to "Good Night" (I'm not sure who deserves credit for the original album sequencing here), whose guitar-and-mellotron arrangement here rescues it from the perhaps overly soupy string arrangement of the original. (Or at least what some people would say is an overly soupy arrangement: me, I think the 1,000 Strings approach makes sense in context.)
(I've put up both tracks as a single file to preserve the flow between them.)
Robyn Hitchcock and Heavy Friends "Revolution 9/Good Night"
Anyway, I recently ran across a recording of a live, benefit show Robyn Hitchcock did a couple years back in which he and a band covered the Beatles' "White Album" in its entirety. (It was a benefit for Medicins Sans Frontieres a/k/a Doctors without Borders, so please donate.) The main thing that makes this version of "Revolution 9" work is Hitchcock's narration - which initially seems another daft improvisation, wherein Hitchcock simply rattles off a chronological history of recent politics.
But the effect, especially near the end, as his ranting reaches a peak simultaneously with the music's most chaotic moments, is the creation of a "duh" moment in me: which is that I'd never considered that at some level Lennon's piece was political art, a reaction to (and, perhaps, embodiment of) the Vietnam War. Because Hitchcock, of course, makes it crystal clear that this performance of "Revolution 9" (and the larger performance from which it's drawn) is about Iraq.
And musically, at least, all that gives much greater emotional weight to "Good Night" (I'm not sure who deserves credit for the original album sequencing here), whose guitar-and-mellotron arrangement here rescues it from the perhaps overly soupy string arrangement of the original. (Or at least what some people would say is an overly soupy arrangement: me, I think the 1,000 Strings approach makes sense in context.)
(I've put up both tracks as a single file to preserve the flow between them.)
Robyn Hitchcock and Heavy Friends "Revolution 9/Good Night"
more wha?
A restaurant near us had a sign that, until recently, read OUR NAME MAY NOT BE FAMOUS BUT OUR RIBS ARE.
So, how exactly does one refer to these "famous" ribs then? You know, from that one place?
So, how exactly does one refer to these "famous" ribs then? You know, from that one place?
11.26.2006
discuss
An article claiming that "in general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy, and abortion in the prosperous democracies." (Via David Byrne's Journal)
One point (to start you all off): note that "correlate with" does not mean "cause." That is, without further analysis (which the author, Gregory Paul, asks for), it is impossible to establish whether religious beliefs tend to foster dysfunctional societies, or whether dysfunctional societies tend to foster religious beliefs.
One point (to start you all off): note that "correlate with" does not mean "cause." That is, without further analysis (which the author, Gregory Paul, asks for), it is impossible to establish whether religious beliefs tend to foster dysfunctional societies, or whether dysfunctional societies tend to foster religious beliefs.
11.25.2006
reflecting all the flowers along the road
At one time, I might have described myself as a fan of power-pop generally. (I've always hated the name, though - which sounds defensive: "well, yeah, we're 'pop'...but lookit, we're also 'power'! We're not wimps - really!") But over the years, I've sort of lost interest in most of the genre's practitioners, as their musical range seems to have constricted to the most obvious songs on 1.5 Beatle albums (it's ironic that a genre often employing the adjective "Beatle-esque" has evolved stylistic dictates so narrow, given how open the Beatles were to about any sort of musical sound or format). And the lyrics...well, too many of them think acting like a bewildered, nervous, and sometimes snotty high-school boy is somehow appealing.
The best of the genre, though, remembers that few to none of those Beatle songs (even on that 1.5 albums) had anything to do with the traumatic days of high school, and that, you know, it's okay to broaden the musical range a bit, remembering that the real keys to the genre are melody, clever chord sequences, and (often) vocal harmonies. Given that, you can shift into 7/4 for a few bars and sing about poststructuralism - just make it catchy.
So a month or so ago, when a PR e-mail alerted me to a few tracks from the band Ghosty, I was pleased to find a band that definitely knows from catchy but isn't stuck in a lyrical or harmonic rut. The band has put up early versions of a handful of tracks from a forthcoming EP, provisionally entitledThe Singing Fish No Nothing. The opening track "You Are a Big Screen" is the one that impressed me most: it's one of those songs that seems to run through several different sections in only three or four minutes, with keyboards and backing vocals providing a shifting tonal backdrop, even though repeated listens reveal that its structure is less complex than it at first seems.
"Big Surrender" from Ghosty's last album Grow Up or Sleep In has a great laughing chorus, along with a melody line that leaps fitfully from note to note, all tied together with a rather Harrison-esque slide guitar solo (whose tone, though, is slightly more biting and less rounded than George usually preferred). I also like the opening guitar figure, which adds character to what would otherwise be a pedestrian chord sequence by incorporating notes that create a somewhat unexpected chordal color. "Go to Add/Drop City" from the same CD manages the neat trick of being mostly in 3/4 time but (except for the middle section) rarely sounding like it: it somehow feels like it wants to wobble over into 4/4 (which it does for a handful of bars), and somehow its ungainliness is endearing rather than awkward.
For me, power-pop works only when it foregrounds the productive tension between familiarity and comfort against surprise and suspense. Done right, the latter qualities never seem forced or inappropriate but instead seem, after the fact, like something you'd never have thought of but which still feels exactly right. That productive tension is, to me, the power that allows such songs to transcend the wrong kind of pop, the kind that merely panders to listeners by giving them exactly what they want, challenge-free.
Ghosty "You Are a Big Screen"
Ghosty "Big Surrender"
Ghosty "Go to Add/Drop City"
The best of the genre, though, remembers that few to none of those Beatle songs (even on that 1.5 albums) had anything to do with the traumatic days of high school, and that, you know, it's okay to broaden the musical range a bit, remembering that the real keys to the genre are melody, clever chord sequences, and (often) vocal harmonies. Given that, you can shift into 7/4 for a few bars and sing about poststructuralism - just make it catchy.
So a month or so ago, when a PR e-mail alerted me to a few tracks from the band Ghosty, I was pleased to find a band that definitely knows from catchy but isn't stuck in a lyrical or harmonic rut. The band has put up early versions of a handful of tracks from a forthcoming EP, provisionally entitled
"Big Surrender" from Ghosty's last album Grow Up or Sleep In has a great laughing chorus, along with a melody line that leaps fitfully from note to note, all tied together with a rather Harrison-esque slide guitar solo (whose tone, though, is slightly more biting and less rounded than George usually preferred). I also like the opening guitar figure, which adds character to what would otherwise be a pedestrian chord sequence by incorporating notes that create a somewhat unexpected chordal color. "Go to Add/Drop City" from the same CD manages the neat trick of being mostly in 3/4 time but (except for the middle section) rarely sounding like it: it somehow feels like it wants to wobble over into 4/4 (which it does for a handful of bars), and somehow its ungainliness is endearing rather than awkward.
For me, power-pop works only when it foregrounds the productive tension between familiarity and comfort against surprise and suspense. Done right, the latter qualities never seem forced or inappropriate but instead seem, after the fact, like something you'd never have thought of but which still feels exactly right. That productive tension is, to me, the power that allows such songs to transcend the wrong kind of pop, the kind that merely panders to listeners by giving them exactly what they want, challenge-free.
Ghosty "You Are a Big Screen"
Ghosty "Big Surrender"
Ghosty "Go to Add/Drop City"
11.24.2006
wha?
Perhaps because I've never worked in retail, I have never - until this year, for some reason - heard today (the Friday after Thanksgiving, for those of you reading this in outer space via interstellar brainbeam) referred to as "Black Friday."
Now that I have, I will remember never to use the phrase ever again. No one (at least not at Wikipedia...and we all know Wikipedia collectively knows everything) has a clear idea why it's called that, and it seems to have sprung up as some sort of retailers' conspiracy, just to give the day a catchy name. More marketing, in other words.
In other news: "Sweetest Day" is not real; there is no such tradition that wedding rings are "supposed" to cost two months' salary. Hrmph.
Addendum: in researching the term, I found at least five different websites all claiming to be the "official" site for the day. Which reminds me to add "official" to my list of words that mean approximately one of George W. Bush's brain cells more than absolutely nothing.
Now that I have, I will remember never to use the phrase ever again. No one (at least not at Wikipedia...and we all know Wikipedia collectively knows everything) has a clear idea why it's called that, and it seems to have sprung up as some sort of retailers' conspiracy, just to give the day a catchy name. More marketing, in other words.
In other news: "Sweetest Day" is not real; there is no such tradition that wedding rings are "supposed" to cost two months' salary. Hrmph.
Addendum: in researching the term, I found at least five different websites all claiming to be the "official" site for the day. Which reminds me to add "official" to my list of words that mean approximately one of George W. Bush's brain cells more than absolutely nothing.
11.23.2006
11.22.2006
to swim and to swim and to swim and to swim...
Toward the end of their initial time together, Wire released a 45 which (according to Wire biographer Kevin Eden) was intended "to secure a one-off deal with [a record] company" - other than EMI, one presumes, with whom the band was on the outs. The a-side of this 45 (which appeared on Rough Trade in 1980) was called "Our Swimmer." For a while, this track and its accompanying b-side "Midnight Bahnhof Cafe" were available as bonus tracks on the Mute CD of Document & Eyewitness. It appears that subsequent issues of that CD omitted these tracks - making them somewhat rare. (Except, of course, for my tens and tens of fans.)
Personal tensions within the group were mounting (nothing new, and nothing old, either, to judge from this recent interview with Colin Newman, wherein long-standing rumors of Bruce Gilbert's exit from Wire are finally confirmed), and Wire returned to "Our Swimmer" for what proved to be its final recordings in this incarnation, a sped-up version of the track called "Second Length" and one of the band's more experimental tracks, titled "Catapult 30." (The bit about three minutes in curiously reminds me of the "me-me prayers" part in Graham Lewis's brilliant "Torch It!"...) These tracks remained unreleased until the WMO (Wire Mail Order) label released the Turns & Strokes compilation in 1996.
Wire "Our Swimmer"
Wire "Midnight Bahnhof Cafe"
Wire "Second Length"
Wire "Catapult 30"
Personal tensions within the group were mounting (nothing new, and nothing old, either, to judge from this recent interview with Colin Newman, wherein long-standing rumors of Bruce Gilbert's exit from Wire are finally confirmed), and Wire returned to "Our Swimmer" for what proved to be its final recordings in this incarnation, a sped-up version of the track called "Second Length" and one of the band's more experimental tracks, titled "Catapult 30." (The bit about three minutes in curiously reminds me of the "me-me prayers" part in Graham Lewis's brilliant "Torch It!"...) These tracks remained unreleased until the WMO (Wire Mail Order) label released the Turns & Strokes compilation in 1996.
Wire "Our Swimmer"
Wire "Midnight Bahnhof Cafe"
Wire "Second Length"
Wire "Catapult 30"
11.21.2006
the early versions of things in redesign
I decided to move over to the new Blogger's beta. There will be more changes as I figure out how to futz with the look of things. (If you happened to stop by here over the last several hours, you saw a lot of weird-looking shit...either Blogger doesn't have a sandbox-like facility a la Wikipedia to play around with templates in, or I couldn't find it.
Expect actual, content-laden new posts shortly...even with noise attached! Whoo to the hoo.
Expect actual, content-laden new posts shortly...even with noise attached! Whoo to the hoo.
11.15.2006
cake, the having and eating of
Billboards have sprung up recently claiming that many people "have switched back to the new AT&T."
Uh, if it's "the new AT&T," people can't have switched back. It can't be both "new" and the company people are switching "back" to: choose one.
Along similar lines, why would you name your restaurant "Nothing But Noodles" and then add a bunch of non-noodle-based items to your menu? Not quite as bad as a sign I saw for a store (the specific name of which I can't remember) that had actually changed their name to something like "Widgets Only - And More!"
Uh, if it's "the new AT&T," people can't have switched back. It can't be both "new" and the company people are switching "back" to: choose one.
Along similar lines, why would you name your restaurant "Nothing But Noodles" and then add a bunch of non-noodle-based items to your menu? Not quite as bad as a sign I saw for a store (the specific name of which I can't remember) that had actually changed their name to something like "Widgets Only - And More!"
11.11.2006
and it goes like this
We were at a Thai restaurant the other night, and near us was a table of four folks in their early twenties. One of them - a dark-haired woman - was clearly the dominant conversationalist, and as we overheard her chatter, I found myself idly noticing certain features of her speech. Telling stories to her friends at the table, she related everything in terms of conversation. Rather than saying that so-and-so did something, she'd describe what she said, or he said.
But people in her world don't "say" anything. Everything was and he goes...and she went...so I go. So I found myself wondering whether she use any word other than "go" to introduce conversations and was almost certain the answer was "no" - when at one point, I heard her say, "And I'm like..." So was there another alternative?
No - it turns out "like" is the word one uses to describe thoughts, rather than actual (or putative) conversation: And I go, Sandy, that's so gross, and I was like, what was she thinking...
I think of it in terms of cartoon balloons: "go" is the smooth-lined elliptical speech balloon, while "like" is the cloudlike, puffy balloon used to show, for example, cartoon animals' thoughts.
But people in her world don't "say" anything. Everything was and he goes...and she went...so I go. So I found myself wondering whether she use any word other than "go" to introduce conversations and was almost certain the answer was "no" - when at one point, I heard her say, "And I'm like..." So was there another alternative?
No - it turns out "like" is the word one uses to describe thoughts, rather than actual (or putative) conversation: And I go, Sandy, that's so gross, and I was like, what was she thinking...
I think of it in terms of cartoon balloons: "go" is the smooth-lined elliptical speech balloon, while "like" is the cloudlike, puffy balloon used to show, for example, cartoon animals' thoughts.
11.08.2006
[pun involving "donkey," "kick ass"]
So it would appear Republican dreams of single-party dominance have been thwarted. A bit, anyway: now Democrats just have to act like Democrats and not just like nicer, slightly-less-sleazy-and-insane Republicans. And South Dakota rejected its draconian abortion ban.
I'm still pissed off that my own state is apparently full of bloodthirsty bigots: referenda to ban gay marriage and reinstate the death penalty ("advisory" only on the death penalty question - i.e., it has no real effect) both passed. On the other hand, similar advisory referenda in several localities on getting the hell out of Iraq passed handily. Except for the hoity-toity folk in Ozaukee County, who have always been at war with Eastasia: Do you support the efforts of the United States and its military in waging a war on terror throughout the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan, until such time as organized terrorism is eliminated and citizens of all countries can be assured of their safety to go about their tasks of everyday life? reads an item that was favored by two-thirds of that county's voters. Let's see...all organized terrorism "eliminated"? Citizens can be "assured of their safety"? We'll be fighting under those conditions until Jesus comes down on his pretty pretty ponies covered in daffodils and dollars. I think those voters were influenced by this magazine cover.
I'm still pissed off that my own state is apparently full of bloodthirsty bigots: referenda to ban gay marriage and reinstate the death penalty ("advisory" only on the death penalty question - i.e., it has no real effect) both passed. On the other hand, similar advisory referenda in several localities on getting the hell out of Iraq passed handily. Except for the hoity-toity folk in Ozaukee County, who have always been at war with Eastasia: Do you support the efforts of the United States and its military in waging a war on terror throughout the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan, until such time as organized terrorism is eliminated and citizens of all countries can be assured of their safety to go about their tasks of everyday life? reads an item that was favored by two-thirds of that county's voters. Let's see...all organized terrorism "eliminated"? Citizens can be "assured of their safety"? We'll be fighting under those conditions until Jesus comes down on his pretty pretty ponies covered in daffodils and dollars. I think those voters were influenced by this magazine cover.
11.02.2006
things we are not allowed to say
The patriotism of most 18-year-olds (rather like, on the one hand, the patriotism of most people and, on the other, most other enthusiasms of 18-year-olds) is seldom deep, thoughtful, or nuanced in distinguishing the abstract idea of "my country" from the concrete facts of this country, this administration, this war. (I work daily with young people of this age, by the way.) So it is that few young people who joined the military do so with a clear notion of what that decision might entail, and whether such a decision really serves their country.
And of course military recruitment ad campaigns do not emphasize patriotism, sacrifice, duty - they're all about adventure, training, and pride.
So why the fuss over John Kerry's remarks? Apparently we're not allowed to state the obvious: many soldiers are soldiers because they saw no better options. They saw an opportunity to make something of their lives - assuming they can get through Iraq with those lives. Very few active-duty soldiers are in line to inherit Fortune 500 corporations or have parents in the White House. (Jenna? Barb? Why is it you haven't enlisted?)
Certainly there are some soldiers who might otherwise have had plenty of career options. But if it's true that most do, or that most people join the military for altruistic reasons, what makes the people who market the military so afraid of using such a pitch? Could it be they recognize what Kerry was wisely foolish enough to state out loud - that such a message would be far less effective than the allure of fast machines and flashing, D&D-like swords and armor?
Addendum: Wow.
Bill Fay Group "Sam"
Creedence Clearwater Revival "Fortunate Son"
And of course military recruitment ad campaigns do not emphasize patriotism, sacrifice, duty - they're all about adventure, training, and pride.
So why the fuss over John Kerry's remarks? Apparently we're not allowed to state the obvious: many soldiers are soldiers because they saw no better options. They saw an opportunity to make something of their lives - assuming they can get through Iraq with those lives. Very few active-duty soldiers are in line to inherit Fortune 500 corporations or have parents in the White House. (Jenna? Barb? Why is it you haven't enlisted?)
Certainly there are some soldiers who might otherwise have had plenty of career options. But if it's true that most do, or that most people join the military for altruistic reasons, what makes the people who market the military so afraid of using such a pitch? Could it be they recognize what Kerry was wisely foolish enough to state out loud - that such a message would be far less effective than the allure of fast machines and flashing, D&D-like swords and armor?
Addendum: Wow.
Bill Fay Group "Sam"
Creedence Clearwater Revival "Fortunate Son"
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