My favorite Rockband song is Oasis, “Don’t Look back in Anger.” Since hearing it, I probably haven’t gone a day without singing that tune in my head. I think I know some of the lyrics, but they don’t make much sense. I suppose lyrics do not have to make sense, and I also suppose that lyrics often do not make sense. Youtube has a fair share of videos that poke fun at the inability to understand singers’ words as well as videos that poke fun at the interpretation of the actual lyrics. Some bands do not even try to do either (and they can still be awesome).
Now and then, I come across songs that are both aurally pleasing and lyrically meaningful. Generally, I think these end up being songs about characters probably because it’s easiest to find words that rhyme when you can make up just about any old situation. I end up becoming oddly attracted to some of these characters. Even the bad ones. For example, Death Cab for Cutie’s “Styrofoam Plates” is about an abusive father who dies. There’s something about how the story is told in song form that makes it all the more vivid. Another favorite from Death Cab is “Song for Kelly Huckaby.” Unfortunately, google did not find any cool hits for her name.
The Decemberists are probably the band with the best examples. Their songs are filled with so many cool characters: the mariner, the bandit queen, the legionnaire, Billy Liar, and Valerie Plame (but I guess she’s real). I wonder how these characters would survive in other artistic mediums. Could they have written a good short story with the same characters? Or would details complicate matters? If these were sold as children’s books or coloring books, I would totally buy them. That’s about as far as my imagine would take me for most of them.
This is my last post of the year and the words “So, Sally can wait..” are running through my head. What is she waiting for anyways?
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