This is something I've been talking about for years, but I think that this is an example I can especially articulate. In the following text, I am going to compare and contrast (sort of) Fly Me to The Moon, written by Bart Howard (as sung by Sinatra, and many others) and Moonlight Drive, written by Jim Morrison. I'd like to just get it out there now, that I think that Fly Me to the Moon is not only superior musically, but is also far more poetic.
I'm going to attempt to not rely simply on Morrison's pretension to make my point, but werd, the lyrics in Moonlight Drive are certainly the faux-poetic ramblings of a pretentious film student who's films would've been even less bearable than his lyrics. Fly Me to the Moon is much shorter, and portrays the exact same sentiment is far less words without losing any of the effect of the song meaning.
Both songs are essentially just love songs, both are based on metaphors. The difference, however, is in how the idea is presented in both songs. Morrison is basically saying he digs this chick, but because of his unbearable public persona (professional jackass) it is shrouded in plausible drug-related metaphors. His audience clearly wants to believe he is a poet (which he clearly is not) and thusly, even a silly love song like this can seem poetic if you try really hard. But the whole thing is a put-on. The dude never wrote anything poetic, or in any way substantial. Everything he wrote was the same shit, it was kind of a precursor to the nineties, in that all you had to do to seem poetic was to not make any fucking sense.
Fly me to the Moon is just good. It's simple, elegant, romantic, and classic. You completely understand and identify with the song immediately, and you know what you're getting into. There's no need to waste your time trying to come up with several different equally retarded concepts for what the song is about, when you could just be enjoying the song. The lyrics succeed in every possible way. They are structured perfectly, and they just sound good, which is obviously the point, since the lyrics in the song, at least at some point in the writing process, have to be considered as an instrument.
Lyrics as an instrument is an impossible concept if you fill them out with loads of bullshit to make them seem poetic, because no matter what you do they don't really fit as well as something simpler would. Simplicity is a concept Jim Morrison and the Doors didn't seem to understand very well, which is a shame in any art form. The best examples from every field rely on simplicity a good amount of the time, because you're talking about taking expression seriously, and if your point is to portray something you think or feel to an audience, it only makes sense that you say it in a way that fucking makes sense.
Simplicity in lyricism isn't even easier. For real. That's what I think is the biggest and most irritating misconception, Fly me to the Moon is a very short song, but is 100% successful in every way, because every word of it is perfect, whereas any Doors song could really stand to be shorter. If you can write something meaningful, substantial, poetic and relatable in a few stanzas, you could argue for your own poeticism, whereas any fucking moron who's high as shit can write down a bunch of words that seem like sentences and pretend it means something.
Fuck him, dawg.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Kurdt
For anyone who hasn't heard me say it yet, I'd like to preface this by saying that Kurt Cobain and Ryan Adams talk almost exactly the same way in their interviews. It's a bizarre coincidence that occurs to me every time I watch an interview with either of them (which is very often).
Today I heard Kurt sat something that I probably heard before but didn't want to process on account of the fact that it's fucking bullshit. Luckily, in my essay about Nirvana, I chose an argument that is irrefutable (I took the cowardly/Freudian way out) so I can use it for this if I want, but I'm gonna present it fairly first. And that argument is that most of the stuff Kurt said about wanting to quit the band, etc., was a result of Courtney's bullshit and that I don't really believe that he at all wanted to quit the band, and I've presented plenty of evidence to this point in a previous post.
In an interview with Kurt Cobain from late '93, or possibly early '94, Kurt says a bunch of stuff that I enjoyed listening to. Mostly because it's funny to listen to him bullshitting everyone and successfully building his rock star persona, whether purposefully or not. He talks about how In Utero was based on books and other stories, in an attempt to avoid all the topics everyone assumed he would write about for that record. And, to be fair, there is a song based on the book 'Perfume,' and there is a song about Frances Farmer, etc., but it's still stupidly obvious that most of the songs are about exactly what everyone expected him to write about, from the get-go with
'Teenage angst has paid off well, now I'm bored and old...' But that's because there's a reason everyone assumed he would write about fame, press, drugs, etc., and that's because what else would he write about? He always wrote about his personal problems in a way that he probably thought was poetic but wasn't really. Although if I was stoned I could see myself trying to make the argument that the lack of poeticism in the lyrics makes them poetic, but it's quarter to eleven Saturday morning and I'm completely sober and enjoying a whore's breakfast, so fuck it, he was literal for the most part, with some forced absurdism and obscurism. I'm not even sure if that's a word. But anyway, the lyrics on the album are all about Kurt, even when they're not. It's hard to pretend that 'I miss the comfort in being sad,' isn't about his personal feelings and rather about a person he's never met and doesn't really know anything about personally.
Plus, fucking Rape Me doesn't even pretend to not be about exactly the things he claims he purposefully didn't write about. It's kind of hilarious that he would so brazenly claim to have done the opposite of what he actually did.
My favourite part of the interview is when he talks about wanting to switch to acoustic guitars someday and be able to be taken seriously as a singer/songwriter 'like Johnny Cash or something,' and have it so 'it's not like a joke.' Which is a fair sentiment, I think. And makes Unplugged all the more awesome, because that's pretty much what he did, even if his death shortly afterwards was the majority of the reason everyone decided it was a work of genius instead of just a different side of a band they liked. But word, though, it is a fucking work of genius. Nirvana: Unplugged is the greatest live album of all time, and if you don't agree, fuck you. I'm pretty sure I've already blogged about this, funnily enough.
This is where the interview becomes fucking bullshit. In the last few minutes of it, Kurt actually claims that he would like to 'quit my band and join Hole.' Which is singularly the dumbest thing I've ever heard, and ruined the whole interview for me. And granted, for me the mere thought of Courtney Love is upsetting, cause I fucking hate that slut (I was perusing photos of Ryan Adams in his Fbook fanclub the other day, lol, and came across a picture of him apparently playing a song for Courtney Love, and was fucking furious, and my mood was immediately altered) but that's still fucking stupid even if you're not as easily angered by the thought of her as I am. Mostly because Hole fucking sucked. I don't even care, everyone knows why Live Through This is at all listenable, and it has nothing to do with any members of that band, and I don't care about anything anyone in the band has ever done, and it wouldn't matter how catchy that shit was, I will never own anything that was created as a result of Courtney Love's creativity. (The bitch did not add anything relevant to any Nirvana songs, I don't give a shit what Kurt claimed, he was a fucking liar most of the time.)
I probably should chill out about this matter, but it's still fucking stupid. It doesn't even make sense really, and it's pretty hurtful also, as the dudes in Nirvana were all great. Even Pat Smear was an excellent second guitarist. He was great for Kurt, as apparent in the B-Side I keep raving about, Do Re Mi, in which Pat plays second guitar. I just can't believe he would say a thing like this, I have to be believe that Krist, Dave and Pat were like, Man, what a fucking asshole. And that's a fair sentiment. But I doubt any of them ever brought it up, because in this interview and in at least one other I've seen, Kurt has talked about how passive-aggressive everyone in the band is and how they don't really bring it up when someone pisses them off, which I take as an I am the leader, and no one really says shit to me, and I don't really have to say shit to anyone else, kind of thing. Which is also fair enough cause he clearly was the leader of the band.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NNHLxk0bmC8 to see the whole interview. It's pretty good up until the last part.
Fuck Courtney Love.
Today I heard Kurt sat something that I probably heard before but didn't want to process on account of the fact that it's fucking bullshit. Luckily, in my essay about Nirvana, I chose an argument that is irrefutable (I took the cowardly/Freudian way out) so I can use it for this if I want, but I'm gonna present it fairly first. And that argument is that most of the stuff Kurt said about wanting to quit the band, etc., was a result of Courtney's bullshit and that I don't really believe that he at all wanted to quit the band, and I've presented plenty of evidence to this point in a previous post.
In an interview with Kurt Cobain from late '93, or possibly early '94, Kurt says a bunch of stuff that I enjoyed listening to. Mostly because it's funny to listen to him bullshitting everyone and successfully building his rock star persona, whether purposefully or not. He talks about how In Utero was based on books and other stories, in an attempt to avoid all the topics everyone assumed he would write about for that record. And, to be fair, there is a song based on the book 'Perfume,' and there is a song about Frances Farmer, etc., but it's still stupidly obvious that most of the songs are about exactly what everyone expected him to write about, from the get-go with
'Teenage angst has paid off well, now I'm bored and old...' But that's because there's a reason everyone assumed he would write about fame, press, drugs, etc., and that's because what else would he write about? He always wrote about his personal problems in a way that he probably thought was poetic but wasn't really. Although if I was stoned I could see myself trying to make the argument that the lack of poeticism in the lyrics makes them poetic, but it's quarter to eleven Saturday morning and I'm completely sober and enjoying a whore's breakfast, so fuck it, he was literal for the most part, with some forced absurdism and obscurism. I'm not even sure if that's a word. But anyway, the lyrics on the album are all about Kurt, even when they're not. It's hard to pretend that 'I miss the comfort in being sad,' isn't about his personal feelings and rather about a person he's never met and doesn't really know anything about personally.
Plus, fucking Rape Me doesn't even pretend to not be about exactly the things he claims he purposefully didn't write about. It's kind of hilarious that he would so brazenly claim to have done the opposite of what he actually did.
My favourite part of the interview is when he talks about wanting to switch to acoustic guitars someday and be able to be taken seriously as a singer/songwriter 'like Johnny Cash or something,' and have it so 'it's not like a joke.' Which is a fair sentiment, I think. And makes Unplugged all the more awesome, because that's pretty much what he did, even if his death shortly afterwards was the majority of the reason everyone decided it was a work of genius instead of just a different side of a band they liked. But word, though, it is a fucking work of genius. Nirvana: Unplugged is the greatest live album of all time, and if you don't agree, fuck you. I'm pretty sure I've already blogged about this, funnily enough.
This is where the interview becomes fucking bullshit. In the last few minutes of it, Kurt actually claims that he would like to 'quit my band and join Hole.' Which is singularly the dumbest thing I've ever heard, and ruined the whole interview for me. And granted, for me the mere thought of Courtney Love is upsetting, cause I fucking hate that slut (I was perusing photos of Ryan Adams in his Fbook fanclub the other day, lol, and came across a picture of him apparently playing a song for Courtney Love, and was fucking furious, and my mood was immediately altered) but that's still fucking stupid even if you're not as easily angered by the thought of her as I am. Mostly because Hole fucking sucked. I don't even care, everyone knows why Live Through This is at all listenable, and it has nothing to do with any members of that band, and I don't care about anything anyone in the band has ever done, and it wouldn't matter how catchy that shit was, I will never own anything that was created as a result of Courtney Love's creativity. (The bitch did not add anything relevant to any Nirvana songs, I don't give a shit what Kurt claimed, he was a fucking liar most of the time.)
I probably should chill out about this matter, but it's still fucking stupid. It doesn't even make sense really, and it's pretty hurtful also, as the dudes in Nirvana were all great. Even Pat Smear was an excellent second guitarist. He was great for Kurt, as apparent in the B-Side I keep raving about, Do Re Mi, in which Pat plays second guitar. I just can't believe he would say a thing like this, I have to be believe that Krist, Dave and Pat were like, Man, what a fucking asshole. And that's a fair sentiment. But I doubt any of them ever brought it up, because in this interview and in at least one other I've seen, Kurt has talked about how passive-aggressive everyone in the band is and how they don't really bring it up when someone pisses them off, which I take as an I am the leader, and no one really says shit to me, and I don't really have to say shit to anyone else, kind of thing. Which is also fair enough cause he clearly was the leader of the band.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NNHLxk0bmC8 to see the whole interview. It's pretty good up until the last part.
Fuck Courtney Love.
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