| re: 'All these damn memories...........' | |
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Posted by: |
John_Galt (g_brandon_martin@ureach.com) 10:02 pm UTC 08/22/07 |
| In reply to: | re: 'All these damn memories...........' - Bright_Eyes 09:05 pm UTC 08/22/07 |
| Bright_Eyes, I understand your point, but I think there can be disadvantages to a certain kind of specificity in lyric writing. I think it prevents listeners from completely personalizing a song. Once a songwriter writes a song about a girl with brown eyes, then he introduces cognitive dissonance as my girlfriend has blue eyes. It's just hard to dream along when the soundtrack doesn't let your mind fill in the facts and experiences that are personal to you. At some point, I think, the songwriter has to choose between writing the soundtrack to his life or to the listener's life. The lyrics appear intended to stimulate an emotional response... the listener will fill in the blanks with memories, images, sounds, and sensations. :) I agree with your take on abstract discussions of emotions in general, though. One reason we use concrete symbols to discuss our emotions is because... it's more interesting and, much of the time, more precise. Some of my favorite parts of Steinman's songs are the "wordy" bridge in IKiYDCB and the poetic conclusion of IWDAFL. I also really like the final verse of Objects... Having said that, I think of Jim as a dream engine stimulating stories rather than really telling them. The more ummm... pop-country-influenced the writing style, a la TOoTAB or Objects, the more I see the kind of linear movement you are missing in this song. I can kind of understand how, as a Steinman fan, you might not react well to the new lyrics for a number of reasons, but I'm just curious, since music and lyrics don't stand alone when played together, did you really bond with the lyrics to Fur Sarah? -=John Galt=- > It's hard to describe exactly why a listener does or does > not like a song lyric but I'd honestly have to say I do > not like it at all. > > I'd cancel it completely or shut it down completely j/k > > When I hear it I'm wondering why the lyric does not even > attempt to tell the story of what this guy > regrets/remembers. The line "well there's only one girl > that I will ever love and that was so many years ago" has > more story to it than this whole song. This whole song is > like a mystery. What does he regret? Who knows? > > Instead it devotes many lines to just describing the > feeling of regret in a very abstract way. And in a way > that doesn't have a direction to it, the guy is talking > roughly the same thing in the beginning, middle and end. > In that sense it is high on the ramble-meter. > > I'm aware that there's lots of songs that are about > memories without entirely telling the story of what is > remembered. So there must be a way to write that sort of > thing, but what we've got here just does nothing for me. > > But I of course have no songwriting experience or > expertise and I don't know the lyricist's vision so what I > say does not matter. > > > > | |
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| Next: | re: 'All these damn memories...........' - Bright_Eyes 10:42 pm UTC 08/22/07 |
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