5.9.07

Slow Show

Rarely am I moved by the lyrics to songs-in no way can anyone effectively compress years of angst,misery,agony,whatever into a song that lasts mere minutes,and those that try to say too much end up awfully verbose and often try to include too much.But of course,there are songs that work,understandably-by not saying much,but choosing the right words and expressing eloquently a meaningful message that manages to sound sincere and moving.Songs,like books or poetry or art,are subjective and I don't have to like what someone else likes,vice versa,likewise,I don't have to interpret a song as meaning this and that-to me,a song,especially one that personally touches the heart,communicates on a more intimate level and what I might understand from it may vary from yours.Anyhu,back up a bit-one song that's always struck me as having really good lyrics is The Who's Baba O'Riley-here's a snippet:The exodus is here,The happy ones are near.Let's get together,before we get much older.It's a perfect song,and everytime I hear it I get all upbeat and excited in the first part when the piano bit first enters,then when the guitar gracefully steps in along with the vocals.Just so bloody perfect.

I have to refrain from saying too much about how much The National's Boxer is such a FUCKING amazing album-or else I might go on and on,not stopping until my fingers fall off.I'm going on endlessly about how things should be short to be meaningful,and here I am rattling incessantly about whatever.So I'll let the lyrics speak for themselves (I'll post just a part of the song)-urm,one more thing,this song sums up so much and is such a beautiful song-there are live versions you can find on U-tube,but nothing beats the album version.I feel this song,inside & out,flesh & bones,however dumb and cliche that might sound.The messages are mostly indirect,but they don't take much to figure out.

Standing at the punch table swallowing punch
can’t pay attention to the sound of anyone
a little more stupid, a little more scared
every minute more unprepared

I made a mistake in my life today
everything I love gets lost in drawers
I want to start over, I want to be winning
way out of sync from the beginning

I wanna hurry home to you
put on a slow, dumb show for you
and crack you up
so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain
god I’m very, very frightened
I’ll overdo it

The National-Slow Show,found on Boxer.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

THIS SONG IS WOW