July 22, 2013
Not a Dry Eye in the House
Meat Loaf is a singer (and actor) with plenty of talent but not tons of range who found his musical niche (thanks to Jim Steinman) and does very well by sticking to it like a magnet. As he explains in this mini documentary, he chooses writers who can write the "goth rock" ballads that define his oeuvre.
Here's a lesser-known Meat Loaf classic by Diane Warren (from the 1995 album Welcome To The Neighborhood), who does a good job channeling Jim Steinman.
Here's a lesser-known Meat Loaf classic by Diane Warren (from the 1995 album Welcome To The Neighborhood), who does a good job channeling Jim Steinman.
There's not a dry eye in the house
After love's curtain comes down
Listen and you'll hear the sound
Hear the sound of a heart breaking
Not a smile left on my face
The ending's just too sad to take
And there's not a dry eye
Not a dry eye in the house
Related posts
White Flag
World Order
Glass
Border Reavers
Too Late to Apologize
Labels: music, musical metaphors, personal favs
April 29, 2013
White Flag
Another in my occasional series featuring cool musical metaphors that make for compelling lyrics but aren't too clever for their own poetic good.
"White Flag" by Dido (the video features David Boreanaz in angsty Angel mode).
"White Flag" by Dido (the video features David Boreanaz in angsty Angel mode).
I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be
Related posts
World Order
Glass
Border Reavers
Too Late to Apologize
Labels: language, music, musical metaphors
September 10, 2012
World Order
What does a mixed martial artist and kickboxer do with those unique skills after he retires? Well, if he's Genki Sudo, he forms a quirky band/dance ensemble called "World Order." It feature seven men in business suits moving in precisely choreographed routines, often in public venues. In this music video, Sudo starts out in front (i.e., the one who fills out a suit quite unlike the typical "salaryman").
Labels: business, japan, music, musical metaphors, pop culture
July 16, 2012
Glass
The premise of Sano Motoharu's NHK interview series, The Songwriters, is that lyricists are the true bards of the modern age. Orson Scott Card recently echoed this sentiment:
Card is describing what's known as "physics envy," a desire among professors of the humanities to make themselves the high priests of an esoteric religion that can only be accessed by the privileged few (who, thanks to this intellectual rent-seeking, can get tenure and demand high prices for their services).
The lyricist, by contrast, can certainly be clever, he can be deep, but he has to get to the point and make sense in about three minutes. This is harder to do than it sounds, the same way that writing "simple" prose is more difficult than being long-winded, especially if you don't have to strain to hear what the singer is saying.
Country music, for example. A while back, while channel surfing over to the Country Network (on a local digital side channel), I caught Thompson Square's "Glass," written by Ross Copperman and Jon Nite (Card cites Mary Chapin Carpenter). Here's the refrain:
There's nothing complicated about this metaphor, the antecedents or the references. Nothing is draped in self-important gauze. Yes, sometimes the words really don't matter and that's fine too. Art can be abstract, realistic, profound, sublime, and just plain pretty without "meaning" anything. The cigar is a cigar.
But if the words are supposed to matter, then the meaning has to be transparent. Like glass, "shaped by the light passing through us."
[It's] a shame that we do not give our schoolchildren any understanding of the craft of poetry outside a narrow range that misses most of what makes the art so powerful. Fortunately, popular music has stepped in to fill the gap left by the literature professors and the brainwashed schoolteachers who got A's in their classes. Most songwriters, you see, still learn a bit about rhyme, and a few of them aim for and reach the sublime.
Card is describing what's known as "physics envy," a desire among professors of the humanities to make themselves the high priests of an esoteric religion that can only be accessed by the privileged few (who, thanks to this intellectual rent-seeking, can get tenure and demand high prices for their services).
The lyricist, by contrast, can certainly be clever, he can be deep, but he has to get to the point and make sense in about three minutes. This is harder to do than it sounds, the same way that writing "simple" prose is more difficult than being long-winded, especially if you don't have to strain to hear what the singer is saying.
Country music, for example. A while back, while channel surfing over to the Country Network (on a local digital side channel), I caught Thompson Square's "Glass," written by Ross Copperman and Jon Nite (Card cites Mary Chapin Carpenter). Here's the refrain:
We may shine, we may shatter
We may be picking up the pieces here on after
We are fragile, we are human
We are shaped by the light we let through us
But we break fast
Because we are glass
There's nothing complicated about this metaphor, the antecedents or the references. Nothing is draped in self-important gauze. Yes, sometimes the words really don't matter and that's fine too. Art can be abstract, realistic, profound, sublime, and just plain pretty without "meaning" anything. The cigar is a cigar.
But if the words are supposed to matter, then the meaning has to be transparent. Like glass, "shaped by the light passing through us."
Labels: japanese tv, literature, music, musical metaphors
January 03, 2011
Border Reavers
I'm good at getting stuff after it's marinated in my brain for a while. Unfortunately, this sometimes takes years. Take the Reavers on Firefly.
The other day, I was listening to the first track on Mark Knopfler's Get Lucky CD, "Border Reiver." And it clicked. I was vaguely familiar with the meaning of reave [Old English reāfian] is actually the more common English term, reive being chiefly Scottish.
But the historical usage is what brings Whedon's adoption of the term alive.
Drawing these kinds of human connections in futuristic world building is what makes good fantasy and space opera great. Joss Whedon is one smart guy. Firefly was one great television series.
The Reavers live on the edge of the human-controlled binary solar systems, rarely venturing deep into occupied space. As a result, most of inner worlds and many Alliance officials believe them to be myths made to cover for violent criminals. Reavers are known to capture ships and raid colonies on the edge of populated space.
The other day, I was listening to the first track on Mark Knopfler's Get Lucky CD, "Border Reiver." And it clicked. I was vaguely familiar with the meaning of reave [Old English reāfian] is actually the more common English term, reive being chiefly Scottish.
reave — verb (reaves, reaving, reaved, reft)
1. to carry off (property, prisoners, etc) by force
2. See also reive: to deprive; strip
But the historical usage is what brings Whedon's adoption of the term alive.
Border Reivers were raiders along the Anglo–Scottish border from the late 13th century to the end of the 16th century. Their ranks consisted of both Scottish and English families, and they raided the entire border country without regard to their victims' nationality. Their heyday was perhaps in the last hundred years of their existence.
Drawing these kinds of human connections in futuristic world building is what makes good fantasy and space opera great. Joss Whedon is one smart guy. Firefly was one great television series.
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Anzenchitai
Kazumasa Oda
Eikichi Yazawa
Labels: aging rockers, language, music, musical metaphors, television
February 11, 2010
Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration
Imagine Jim Steinman wrote the Declaration of Independence. As Moe Lane quips, if pop culture can produce this, "perhaps Western society is not totally doomed after all." The only question that remains is which aging members of which aging hair bands should play which Founding Fathers. Hey, what about Meat Loaf?
Labels: music, musical metaphors, politics, pop culture