Lyrics

May 23rd, 2014 at 3:35:10 PM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
While I have a major problem with poetry (don't ask) and seldom enjoy reading or hearing it (don't ask), I have a love affair with song lyrics. I've noticed much of the music I like has lyrics I like as well, sometimes very different lyrics from the average fare.

I've been thinking about this since I saw Olivia Newton-John live at the Flamingo (see WoV for the thread on that). While she doesn't compose either music or lyrics, I assume she picks what she sings. and she goes for rather unusual songs. For example:

From "A Little More Love"

Where, where did my innocence go?
How, how was a young girl to know?
I'm trapped,
Trapped in the spell of your eyes
In the warmth of your arms
In the web of your lies!

See? the first two lines are pure convention conveying anguish. The next three are very evocative. And the last line explains the anguish expressed in the first two while smashing the image evoked.

Then there's "I Honestly Love You." Take the first lines:

Maybe I hang around here
A little more than I should
We both know I have somewhere else to go

But I have something to tell you
That I never thought I would
And I believe you really ought to know:

I love you. I honestly love you.

So she's being apologetic about seeing this man so much, and about telling him she loves him. Why? The whole song goes on like that, and is explained only at the end:

If we both were born in another place and time
This moment might be ending in a kiss.
But there you are with yours and here I am with mine
So I guess we'll just be leaving it at this.

That's when everything makes sense and one begins to wonder: did they have an affair? Does she want to have an affair? Not a theme you will often find in pop music often. Notice, too, their respective spouses rate only an off-hand mention and merely as "yours" and "mine."


Now take my favorite "Tied Up"

You keep me waiting.
I don't mind waiting.
I don't wait for everyone.
This is a one-time situation

You say you need me.
I believe youneed me.
But you're fooling no one.
This is a one-time situation

Take my affection.
Give me love or rejection.
Honey, do what must be done.
This is a one-time situation.

Here's the opportunity!
Come and take it to the Nth degree!
Don't be nervous I don't have to be
Tied up in promises
Oh, tied up in words that cut too deep
Tied up in promises we could never keep.

Par tof the appeal of this song is the music, and Olivia's performance of the lyrics. If any singer can emote music, she can. Anyway, the lyrics are rahter unusual. You wonder just how nasty their fight was ("words that cut too deep"). There's conflict, too. Another item rare in today's music. She wants him back (Here's the opportunity! Come and take it to the Nth degree!), so she makes exceptions for him (I don't mind waiting. I don't wait for everyone), but she's angry at him still (I believe you need me. But you're fooling no one; and also how curt her lines towards him are), and above all she wants a resolution (Give me love or rejection. Honey do what must be done).

And this is what "depth" means when saying these lyrics are deep.

I was really disappointed she didn't sing Tied Up in her show. she sang the other two, though


Her other specialty consists in highly optimistic songs. Like "Magic" from the soundtrack of Xanadu:

You have to believe we are magic
Nothing can stand in our way
You have to believe we are magic
Don't let your aim ever stray.

Though I like the beginning much more:

Come take my hand.
You should know me,
I've always been in your mind.
You know I will be kind.
I'll be guiding you.

Xanadu was, let us be frank, a flop. But the soundtrack sold well and had some hits. No msytrery to me. The tittle song has some good aprts:

A million lights are dancing
and there you are:
A shooting star.

And:

The dream
That came through a million years
And live on through all the tears
They called it Xanadu.

Those two are very evocative and greatly excite the imagination. In fact the tragedy of the movie is that the story faield to match the soundtrack.

I'll have more to say about other songs later.



Just a small teaser:

Lost direction in the darkness
Couldn't stop myself from running, running.
Now I can't run anymore
Now I see this gift you bring me.
Can you hear, winds of change?
Is this something to believe in?
Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER
May 24th, 2014 at 10:22:36 AM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
The teaser in my last post is from The Bangles, from a song caleld "Something to believe in"

Now, a common misconception about them is that the singer is Susana Hoffs. She is only the lead singer. The other three women also sang, though Susana took the bulk of that task, and she sings their better known songs like "Eternal Flame," or "Manic Monday."

Eternal Flame, depsite being largely a conventional love song, has some good lines. My favorites are:

Close your eyes
Give me your hand, darling
Do you feel my ehart beating?
Do you understand?
Do you feel the same?

THere's a lot of room for interpretation there, of course.

A less-well-known song is "IF She Knew What She Wants." Here the singer yearns for a man who's smitten with anotehr woman, and she criticizes her for not knowing what she wants, ergo the title. but there's this line where you can see the singer has some admiration for the other woman:

Some have a style
That they work hard to refine
So they walk a crooked line.
But she won't understand
Why anyone would have to try
To walk a line when they could fly

My favortie Bangles song is "Lost at Sea." While the theme is of a couple trying to make up, the imagery is astounding:

It begins thus:

Can we try to salvage what we can
From the weight of water and sand
And lift us up again?

And later there's this:

Well this world is spinning out of control
I'm bracing just to keep hold
As the clouds move in
With a driving wind so strong.
Could it be that we're lost at sea
And we're drowning under the stars?
Up to me I would ride this wave
Before we drift too far


Incidentally, Susana Hoffs sings only backup in this one.

More to come.
Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER