The I's Have It
I start today’s entry with an inaugural “What NOT to listen to during the holidays…” My first contender for this illustrious title is John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band. I have not heard an album this dour in a long time. Apparently conceived as a gift for Yoko Ono, I imagine that upon hearing this for the first time, she might have said, “Thanks, you shouldn’t have…” With songs like “Working Class Hero” and “Mother” and “God,” (a concept by which we measure our pain), Lennon has left far behind the ear candy of the music of The Beatles for spare, jaggedly naked songs in the “simple is better” rock vein. But the coup d’etat is the fact that this stripped-down primalism is matched with all sorts of pessimism and darkness, (the one glaring anomaly being “Power to the People.” This is the actual sound of a man losing his faith in everything. It would be kinda like inviting Debbie Downer and her rocking band of depressives to come play at your metaphysics discussion group.I.
Regardless of how the music affects a listener, it certainly raised an interesting question as I slowly drove through an ice storm with this music as the soundtrack. This album is in that group of 100 or so widely regarded as “The Best of All Time,” usually with reference to how “personal” the lyrical content is. (Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks often gets similar praise.) There is a questionable assumption beneath this common praise, namely that “personal = great!” Does “confessional”, or “self-reflective” music have a leg up on the competition? In other words, does art have to be this personal and full of pain to be good?
After all, what we regard as “art music” or “classical music”—your Mozart, your early Beethoven, your Bach, etc. was largely the dance music of its time. On the other hand you have your Hector Berlioz or Van Gogh—deeply troubled and tortured individuals. Is one tradition more legit than the other? Hardly.
Maybe what’s going on with the reverence toward this Lennon album is a matter of context- i.e. it’s great in comparison to everything else going on at the time. I’m not knowledgeable enough to make that pronouncement. However, let us not forget Lennon’s history with this kind of confessional aesthetic, even while still in The Beatles: “Help!” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” “I’m So Tired,” “Yer Blues…” There are a ton more, I’m sure. So, it’s not like he all of a sudden found a way to elucidate his inner turmoil.
II.
So to counter all of this I submit George Harrison’s song off Let It Be called “I Me Mine,” a bit of a rebuke for the human tendency to personalize the world into a tightly-wrapped bubble the size of yourself and your concerns only. Example? Our culture is fraught with them. Besides even this here blog, just about every website that I do business with: banks, merchants, services--all have a tab called “My _______,” for instance “My Amazon,” “My VISA,” “My ebay.” I’m positive it’s the goal of commercemongers to try to get the users of the site to feel like this giant conglomerate like Target has something to do with them other than as a mere provider of goods in exchange for money. The closer a user can get to confusing their identity with the things they buy and where they buy them, the better. Also interesting is how ubiquitous the letter “I” is in our culture now as well: ipod, iphone, itunes, irobot, iii. Me often wonder why Apple didn’t have the guts to capitalize that i? are they all e.e. cummings fans?
III.
So today I introduce a new feature to the Sic Semper Tyrannis blog. It’s called ISicSemperTyrannis. You might have previously known it as “comments.” Here’s the big question for you all:
Is music more powerful the more “personal” it seems to be to its creator? Do you like music that sounds like a diary set over chord changes?
Or do you like music when it’s more “universal”- expressing the hopes, fears, and observations we all have, i.e. a lot of McCartney’s stuff or maybe U2 or some other populists?
Or are you of the third stream—Radiohead or indie-rock fan—preferring non sequitur musical puzzles? Let’s hear it.
posted by Mike @ 8:37 PM
6 Comments:
Well, I'm gonna wimp out and say that I like them all a bit. I'm a huge fan of metaphor though. If someone can use a personal story (whether real or fictitious) and give us a sense of the universal then we're in business. I think good art provides a new framework for the same old, eternal emotions. If it's cheesy, uncomfortable diary reading set to music, then it usually means they haven't tied it in to REAL emotions. Then there's Joni Mitchell, who sings straight out of her life with such phenomenal musical technique that it works perfectly. Then there's Randy Newman who is always playing a different character in his tunes.
The same old eternal emotions created by a new slightly distorted twist of the vernacular. A new framework.
I'm with you on that, Steven. I was hoping you would say that, because I'm kind of in the middle on all this too.
The idea is that when the "personal" somehow can express the universal, then you know you have an "Artist."
I was just setting it up as a choice as a trick question.
One thing is for sure for me, though. I don't get much out of lyrics as puzzles. I don't want to work that hard. (And as I've said elsewhere, I START with a prejudice that favors the instrumental component anyway...)
You need to start your blog, tut suite, my friend. I'm anxious to find out how IMAGERY fits into your aesthetic, because that's not something we've touched on here, but I know from your music that you are a guy who loves a good image...
I'm thinking "This bubbles bursts," "Ice on trees," "Beargrass and Windflowers" in particular right now.
You know, "imagery" is something that can go different ways. "Coherency" is what I look for these days, and TRY to pull off in most of my new stuff. A lot of non sequitur lyrics can also come about in the name of imagery. Sometimes these can be great, but sometimes this can mean you only went halfway through the journey of writing your song. I think you have to discover what you're writing about, really explore it, but then once you do, crafting into a coherent idea is an important step.
The songs that you mentioned are ones that worked pretty well. A lot of the other ones on that album, I do not really care for too much anymore. The song writing was sacrificed a bit trying to explore new ways to play the guitar and sing, etc. I'm glad I did it though, cause hey, now I know!
BTW, do you have a copy of "The Twin or the Seed", my latest one? I'll send you a copy if you like, just get me your address.
I listened to some of the tunes off your "Soundtrack from the movie in your head" the other day. Cool stuff! Any lyrics/imagery/metaphor coming our way soon?
I read a story of a Buddhist teacher the other day. A man asked him about a certain problem he was having. In response, the teacher smiled and said 3 times the words, "No self, no problem." I've been trying to wrap my brain around that one over the last .....few years I guess.
Anyway, I am posting again because I previously forgot to invite you, Stutzy, and your readers to check out a Christmas song I put together this year. It's called "Christmas Came Out Of A War" and it's streaming on my myspace site.
www.myspace.com/stevenstark
Happy New Year!
Just bought The Twin or the Seed off iTunes.
Can you believe I've had your original email about it since MAY?!?!?!?
You know how you never get around to doing stuff?
:-)
Can't wait to listen to it! And just got done listening to your Christmas song, albeit an unorthodox, yet relevant Christmas song. Very nice!
OK! Be nice! I was gonna send you a freebie, you know!
Thanks, mike.
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