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Post by Nalkarj on Oct 30, 2019 3:16:26 GMT
Not too many of them, I think… At the risk of gross oversimplification, ever since the ’60s, the emphasis has been on “genuineness” in songwriting rather than on craft—you’ll rarely get the surprising melodies of a Richard Rodgers or a Harold Arlen, and you almost never get the agonizingly crafted, delightful-to-listen-to, perfectly rhymed lyrics of a Larry Hart or a Yip Harburg.
But here’s an exception (OK, so there’s one minor imperfect rhyme, never/weather, but we’ll let that slide):
I heard it in the lobby at Château Frontenac and for a second thought it was a Great American Songbook standard I’d somehow missed all my life. I absolutely love the Mercer-esque lyrical charm and the Gershwin-esque musical complexity. Also, snatches of Arlen (“If I Only Had a Brain”) and Kern (“I’m Old Fashioned”) in the music, and clearly Berlin in the lyrics (“Isn’t This a Lovely Day?”). What a delight. And singer-songwriter Sarah McKenzie is a gem.
EDIT: Just found that McKenzie sang some genuine Songbook entries on the same album, and guess what? She’s singing Kern and Mercer’s “I’m Old Fashioned,” Rodgers and Hart’s “Little Girl Blue,” and Coleman and Leigh’s “When in Rome (I Do as the Romans Do).” Gal has great taste, yes, but how’s that for extraordinary coinkydink? And in an interview she mentions “Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer” as her lyrical inspirations. She’s after my own heart!
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Post by Nalkarj on Oct 30, 2019 13:48:42 GMT
More McKenzie highlights:
The second, “Onwards and Upwards,” is particularly good, even if the beginning is near-stenciled from Arlen’s “It’s Only a Paper Moon.”
She’s right on about Porter, Berlin, and especially Mercer as lyrical inspirations—I hear echoes of all three in her lyrics. There’s a touch of Hart about “One Jealous Moon,” too. In part that’s because Hart wrote so many “moon” songs (“Blue Moon,” “Moon of My Delight”), but the idea of constructing the lyric around numbers counting down (“three little words,” “two broken hearts,” “one jealous moon”) is a gleefully Hartian idea.
I don’t mean just to keep celebrating Sarah McKenzie, though. What songs do you know with the craftsmanship of old?
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Post by Nalkarj on Nov 13, 2019 3:22:53 GMT
No one has any ideas? I’m still searching.
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gw
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Post by gw on Nov 13, 2019 4:12:22 GMT
I'm not as big of a fan of that song style but I have one song that measures up. The song is I Try, recorded by Macy Gray. I wouldn't say it's quite as sophisticated but it has an unusual direction thanks to an unusual rhyme pattern.
I try to say goodbye but I choke. Try to walk away but I stumble. Though I try to hide it it's clear. My world crumbles when you are not near." I like how there's the first verse that sets it up but is throw away in the overall rhyme scheme and then the second line rhymes with the inner rhyme of the fourth line while the third line rhymes with the end rhyme of that same line. It's not often you see rhyming that's so sophisticated anymore. That's from 1999 though, so it's twenty years old. Still, that's the best I could come up with.
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Post by Admin on Nov 14, 2019 3:55:57 GMT
More McKenzie highlights: The second, “Onwards and Upwards,” is particularly good, even if the beginning is near-stenciled from Arlen’s “It’s Only a Paper Moon.” She’s right on about Porter, Berlin, and especially Mercer as lyrical inspirations—I hear echoes of all three in her lyrics. There’s a touch of Hart about “One Jealous Moon,” too. In part that’s because Hart wrote so many “moon” songs (“Blue Moon,” “Moon of My Delight”), but the idea of constructing the lyric around numbers counting down (“three little words,” “two broken hearts,” “one jealous moon”) is a gleefully Hartian idea. I don’t mean just to keep celebrating Sarah McKenzie, though. What songs do you know with the craftsmanship of old? This is the first I'm hearing of Sarah McKenzie. I like it and will definitely be digging into more of her material. Thanks. As for similar songs or artists, you might want to start by simply browsing the jazz categories and maybe add "contemporary" and/or "sultry" to the search. A quick YouTube search for "sultry jazz" provides a 4-hour album of the "Sexiest Ladies of Jazz": youtu.be/jRf0QlAn4uAHere's a couple off the top of my head:
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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Nov 19, 2019 13:30:53 GMT
The problem isn't that there's less emphasis on craft, the problem is that the craft has changed. Back then the craft was heavily related to the jazz idiom, its melodic/harmonic sensibilities and rhythms. These things seem rather baroque by the standards set by popular folk and rock songwriters in the 60s and after. With them, it's not that "genuineness" became more important than "craft," it's that the "craft" became about how to SOUND genuine. Bob Dylan wasn't the "voice of a generation;" he had merely absorbed the influences and lessons from folk music and spun them with a subtly sophisticated craft that made it sound like he was speaking profound truths when half the time he was just rephrasing old ballads or adopting Beat Poet methods of stream-of-conscious writing. Ever since, pop has taken from that "less is more" dictum, emphasizing hooks over melody and sound over harmony. What you hear when you're listening to standards is songwriters finding purely musical means (mostly harmony) to color lyrics, while listening to modern pop is more about emphasizing lyrics via sound and very simple music ideas (like knowing when to hit the 5th, or how to use pedals often with a single variations). It's worth noting that this idea isn't entirely "new" either; one of the great innovations of Mozart was in his unique understanding of how different musical styles lent themselves to different dramatic contexts, so style/sound could express things via their associations above and beyond what "pure" music could; so if he decided to write a baroque-styled aria, you can be sure he wasn't doing so accidentally. Much the same is true with the better modern pop artists who often choose genre because of how it fits with or colors the lyrics.
As far as the OP's songs, I don't listen to enough modern vocal jazz to offer any recommendations, but I second Admin's advice of just searching around for modern vocal jazz. Actually, there's a really good YouTube channel (Postmodern Jukebox) that takes modern pop songs and (typically) turns them into jazz-style standards:
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Post by Nalkarj on Nov 19, 2019 14:08:05 GMT
Well, I don’t think I quite agree, Eva Yojimbo, or at least I think we’re talking about two different things. There’s no reason for most of Dylan’s songs, for example, to repeat the same musical phrase over and over again, or for the lyrics to be so poor. (As critic Jaime Weinman wrote, “Why are the times a-changin’? Can you give me some specific examples, please?”) To wit, I think you can write a song that has no connection to a “jazz idiom” that is well-crafted. Most of Don McLean’s songs are, and so are early Beatles’ (e.g.). Also, as Weinman pointed out, early rock. Of course one factor is that I don’t care whether or not songs “SOUND genuine”; I don’t think genuineness is all that big of a deal in songwriting. But that may just be idiosyncratic personal taste. Postmodern Jukebox is fun, and I like their work. I should note, though, that it’s not that I want songs to sound like jazz-style standards (I can just listen to those real jazz-style standards!), it’s that I want songs to be infused with the same level of craftsmanship that went into those standards.
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Post by Nalkarj on Nov 19, 2019 14:11:39 GMT
This is the first I'm hearing of Sarah McKenzie. I like it and will definitely be digging into more of her material. Thanks. As for similar songs or artists, you might want to start by simply browsing the jazz categories and maybe add "contemporary" and/or "sultry" to the search. A quick YouTube search for "sultry jazz" provides a 4-hour album of the "Sexiest Ladies of Jazz": youtu.be/jRf0QlAn4uAHere's a couple off the top of my head: Very welcome! I wouldn’t have known of her myself if “Paris in the Rain” didn’t happen to catch my ear while in that lobby. Will give those songs a listen, thanks.
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Post by Nalkarj on Nov 19, 2019 14:13:00 GMT
I'm not as big of a fan of that song style but I have one song that measures up. The song is I Try, recorded by Macy Gray. I wouldn't say it's quite as sophisticated but it has an unusual direction thanks to an unusual rhyme pattern. I try to say goodbye but I choke. Try to walk away but I stumble. Though I try to hide it it's clear. My world crumbles when you are not near." I like how there's the first verse that sets it up but is throw away in the overall rhyme scheme and then the second line rhymes with the inner rhyme of the fourth line while the third line rhymes with the end rhyme of that same line. It's not often you see rhyming that's so sophisticated anymore. That's from 1999 though, so it's twenty years old. Still, that's the best I could come up with. No worries, and thanks for searching. I’ll give that a listen.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Nov 20, 2019 14:57:40 GMT
Well, I don’t think I quite agree, Eva Yojimbo , or at least I think we’re talking about two different things. There’s no reason for most of Dylan’s songs, for example, to repeat the same musical phrase over and over again, or for the lyrics to be so poor. (As critic Jaime Weinman wrote, “Why are the times a-changin’? Can you give me some specific examples, please?”) To wit, I think you can write a song that has no connection to a “jazz idiom” that is well-crafted. Most of Don McLean’s songs are, and so are early Beatles’ (e.g.). Also, as Weinman pointed out, early rock. Of course one factor is that I don’t care whether or not songs “SOUND genuine”; I don’t think genuineness is all that big of a deal in songwriting. But that may just be idiosyncratic personal taste. Postmodern Jukebox is fun, and I like their work. I should note, though, that it’s not that I want songs to sound like jazz-style standards (I can just listen to those real jazz-style standards!), it’s that I want songs to be infused with the same level of craftsmanship that went into those standards. The repetition of musical phrases is a common trope of folk music. As for the lyrics being poor, what the hell? Dylan won a Nobel Prize for literature and was the subject of a study by one of the best literary critics of the last 70 years; if that's indicative of "poor lyrics" then what's indicative of "good?" That Weinman piece was clearly written by somebody who has very little experience and knowledge of Dylan's career, craft, and art. The point I was making about craftsmanship is that the standards for craft in jazz standards are very different from those in other genres. So you might say that McLean's or Beatles' or early rock songs were "well-crafted," but what that means in relation to those songs are quite different than what it would mean for jazz standards, and the same is true no matter what genre you're talking about. Even most mainstream pop has standards for craft, and if you (or anyone) thinks it's easy to write them, I challenge you to go do it to the extent that someone like Max Martin (or even Taylor Swift) has. You don't achieve that kind of consistent success without a highly honed craft, or else everyone could/would do it. Likewise, the point I was making about "genuineness" (whether or not you care for it) is simply that there's a craft to doing that as well. If you've ever heard a teenager play their own songs, there's no doubt that what they write/play is genuine, but typically it will utterly fail to move a listener so nobody will feel that genuineness. Being able to communicate that feeling IS what the craft of "genuineness" is about. It's like acting; whether or not the actor actually feels whatever it is they're portraying is irrelevant to their ability to communicate that to an audience and make them feel it, and that ability comes with craft, not just being genuine themselves. So I think when you say you're looking for songs with similar levels of craftsmanship you'd have to be more specific about WHAT standards for craft. Because there are as many such standards as there are genres and styles.
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Post by Fox in the Snow on Nov 22, 2019 4:42:45 GMT
Would The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" or anything from Pet Sounds qualify. I'm not particularly well versed in music theory so I'm not sure, but I've heard them described as very complex and inventive for pop/rock music. I know they're not exactly contemporary, but they are definitely more part of the pop/rock pantheon than "traditional" pre-Elvis or Jazz era songwriting. Knowing if this is the sort of thing you mean will at least give me a starting point as there are plenty of more contemporary bands/artists heavily influenced by this era of The Beach Boys. Many of which I feel have sophisticated/elaborate/interesting songcraft (some examples include: Saint Etienne, Panda Bear, High Llamas, of Montreal), but maybe it just appears this way to my "untrained" ear. If I'm way of, feel free to explain it to me as if I were a five year old.
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Post by Nalkarj on Nov 22, 2019 20:27:14 GMT
Can’t at this moment, but I’ll certainly give “Good Vibrations” a listen, Fox in the Snow ! I’m also not well-versed in music theory, so no worries there, but something I’ve noticed is what I’d consider banality in a lot of modern music. For example, Cole Porter wasn’t the most sophisticated composer (though I’m a huge fan), but he had these brilliant major/minor switches in the middle of songs that went along with his lyrics. He commented on it, in fact, in “Every Time We Say Goodbye”: In large part, that was probably because Porter was classically trained and knew how to play tricks with his compositions. That background is what I’d say is musical craftsmanship, as opposed to “I’ve got my guitar and I’m going to sing my heart out.” Now, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, per se, but it’s based purely on emotion, rather than, say, what was traditionally the hard work of songwriting. T.S. Eliot, of all people, commented on something similar in poetry, saying that poetry “is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion”; it’s marrying (or, to use Eliot’s word, catalyzing) the purely emotional, reactive, with impersonality, study, work, craft. (I.e., in this case, musical knowledge and talent, making sure the lyrics rhyme and scan, etc.) The folk music model, which has taken over most music (even the most teeny-boppy modern pop, I think), emphasizes the individual singer-songwriter’s feelings and emotions, more than clarity, good rhyming, inventive musical developments. All of that stuff is considered not honest or not genuine, because it’s based on technique, not emotion. I feel that has hurt songwriting. I do hope that explains my point. I should note, however, that it’s not connected to musical genre, or at least I don’t think it is. (I even like some songs with poor craftsmanship, even if I think that in the scheme of things it hurts songwriting.) Don McLean is folk, and for the most part “American Pie” has excellent lyrical craftsmanship. Compare this Dylan couplet from “Shelter from the Storm”— —to this McLean couplet from “American Pie”: The McLean lyric isn’t just “poetic,” as the Dylan is; it’s also well-crafted, in that the rhymes rhyme and the lines scan.(Yes, some “American Pie” rhymes don’t actually rhyme: Marx/park, again/friend. But it’s a higher level of craftsmanship than most folk pop songs. McLean even has an old-fashioned trick rhyme in the song: “more step”/doorstep, which Dorothy Fields used for “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”) Anyway, I’ve gone on long enough, but again I hope that explains what I mean by all this.
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Post by Admin on Nov 23, 2019 1:04:30 GMT
The McLean lyric isn’t just “poetic,” as the Dylan is; it’s also well-crafted, in that the rhymes rhyme and the lines scan.(Yes, some “American Pie” rhymes don’t actually rhyme: Marx/park, again/friend. But it’s a higher level of craftsmanship than most folk pop songs. McLean even has an old-fashioned trick rhyme in the song: “more step”/doorstep, which Dorothy Fields used for “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”) As I'm sure any seasoned poet would tell you, a verse doesn't necessarily have to rhyme (let alone perfectly) for it be considered well-crafted.
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Post by Nalkarj on Nov 23, 2019 2:57:06 GMT
The McLean lyric isn’t just “poetic,” as the Dylan is; it’s also well-crafted, in that the rhymes rhyme and the lines scan.(Yes, some “American Pie” rhymes don’t actually rhyme: Marx/park, again/friend. But it’s a higher level of craftsmanship than most folk pop songs. McLean even has an old-fashioned trick rhyme in the song: “more step”/doorstep, which Dorothy Fields used for “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”) As I'm sure any seasoned poet would tell you, a verse doesn't necessarily have to rhyme (let alone perfectly) for it be considered well-crafted. Certainly, though, as I’m sure any seasoned poet would tell any of us, trying to go for a rhyme and failing ( corn/ storm is certainly an attempt at rhyme) is poorly crafted. Nevertheless, Dylan may well be a better poet than songwriter; just because I don’t connect with all that much of his poetry doesn’t mean he’s a bad poet. As Eva noted above, mine is a minority opinion, what with Dylan’s Nobel Prize and critical encomia—but, again, all of that analyzes his work as poetry, not as lyrics. As a lyricist, I think he’s remarkably poor on the basic craftsmanship level, in spite of that poetic talent for images (“hunted like a crocodile,” “the mystery tramp,” etc.).
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Post by Admin on Nov 23, 2019 3:16:06 GMT
As I'm sure any seasoned poet would tell you, a verse doesn't necessarily have to rhyme (let alone perfectly) for it be considered well-crafted. Certainly, though, as I’m sure any seasoned poet would tell any of us, trying to go for a rhyme and failing ( corn/ storm is certainly an attempt at rhyme) is poorly crafted. No it isn't. It may be a bad poem, but not necessarily because corn and storm don't rhyme. I'm not big Dylan fan, either, but I will recognize that sometimes it's not so much the song itself, but the way it sounds. Same song, different sound. Here's a couple more: So you see, in some cases, it's not so much the songwriting as it is the delivery. And rhyming need not apply in either case.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Nov 23, 2019 14:35:42 GMT
Can’t at this moment, but I’ll certainly give “Good Vibrations” a listen, Fox in the Snow ! I’m also not well-versed in music theory, so no worries there, but something I’ve noticed is what I’d consider banality in a lot of modern music. For example, Cole Porter wasn’t the most sophisticated composer (though I’m a huge fan), but he had these brilliant major/minor switches in the middle of songs that went along with his lyrics. He commented on it, in fact, in “Every Time We Say Goodbye”: In large part, that was probably because Porter was classically trained and knew how to play tricks with his compositions. That background is what I’d say is musical craftsmanship, as opposed to “I’ve got my guitar and I’m going to sing my heart out.” Now, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, per se, but it’s based purely on emotion, rather than, say, what was traditionally the hard work of songwriting. T.S. Eliot, of all people, commented on something similar in poetry, saying that poetry “is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion”; it’s marrying (or, to use Eliot’s word, catalyzing) the purely emotional, reactive, with impersonality, study, work, craft. (I.e., in this case, musical knowledge and talent, making sure the lyrics rhyme and scan, etc.) The folk music model, which has taken over most music (even the most teeny-boppy modern pop, I think), emphasizes the individual singer-songwriter’s feelings and emotions, more than clarity, good rhyming, inventive musical developments. All of that stuff is considered not honest or not genuine, because it’s based on technique, not emotion. I feel that has hurt songwriting. I do hope that explains my point. I should note, however, that it’s not connected to musical genre, or at least I don’t think it is. (I even like some songs with poor craftsmanship, even if I think that in the scheme of things it hurts songwriting.) Don McLean is folk, and for the most part “American Pie” has excellent lyrical craftsmanship. Compare this Dylan couplet from “Shelter from the Storm”— —to this McLean couplet from “American Pie”: The McLean lyric isn’t just “poetic,” as the Dylan is; it’s also well-crafted, in that the rhymes rhyme and the lines scan.(Yes, some “American Pie” rhymes don’t actually rhyme: Marx/park, again/friend. But it’s a higher level of craftsmanship than most folk pop songs. McLean even has an old-fashioned trick rhyme in the song: “more step”/doorstep, which Dorothy Fields used for “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”) Anyway, I’ve gone on long enough, but again I hope that explains what I mean by all this. There's a lot of banality in all music from all eras; recognizing banality is a matter of standards and familiarity. Being classically trained means very little artistically; there's just as much banality in classical music as any other genre. In fact, major/minor modulations could, in itself, be seen as a mark of banality given that pretty much every composer have used such modulations going back at least as far as the baroque era (the romantic era practically fetishized it, as entire compositions could hinge on the movement from the minor to the major, like Beethoven's 5th and 9th Symphonies). Again, you need to forget this idea that there's such a thing as "I've got a guitar and I'm going to sing my heart out" music as opposed to "well-crafted" music. It's a fiction. The closest any genre ever got to "screw craft, we're just going to play" is the rawest versions of punk. Outside that, there is no "pure emotion" separate from the craft used to communicate it. You may dislike music that's more about communicating emotion via craft, but where you go wrong is in thinking there's no craft involved. Eliot was correct in his quote, but he doesn't mean what you think he means; he's speaking from the perspective of the author, and how an author doesn't just "feel," but must rather use craft to communicate anything, and that requires a separation from emotion. That's true of ALL art. It's why singers are capable of singing the most personal, meaningful songs without breaking down in tears; because they're focusing on the craft while writing/performing it. The "folk music model" itself has gone through thousands of permutations over the last several decades, including hybridizing with classical and jazz (prog rock, fusion), so it's difficult to make blanket statements about it. It's certainly not true that it's all about the emotions of the singers/songwriters. That entirely depends on the artists and songs in question. If you're looking for craft in modern pop you need to pay attention to production techniques as much as traditional music standards. Hell, I'll let Rick Beato explain some of the craft that goes into modern pop: But I could also take a much more "emotional" song and show how craft plays a crucial role. Here's one of my favorite pop songs of the last 20 years: There are several things one could note about the craft here: 1. The slow, meticulous build-up is superb, utilizing pretty much every instrument (including the voice). 2. Withholding the cymbal crashes until the second chorus (increasing in intensity through to the climax) 3. Starts with acoustic/soft electric guitars, increasing to slightly overdriven chorus chords, finishing with heavy distortion and heavier/harsher chords in the climax 4. Vocally moves from a mix of whisper/talk vocals to a belt when the climax hits 5. Musically, the vocal melody makes great use of the 5th interval at key moments (the lower 5th on the first "you;" the higher 5th on the "'long' gone" and "'not' here." 6. Lyrically, the whole song is full of highlights despite the lack of perfect rhymes. "Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place" and "We dance around the kitchen in the refrigerator light" and "You call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest" are lines any poet would've been proud to have written. As for the lyrics, you have a very impoverished notion of poetry if all you're looking for is perfect rhymes and meter. Such standards haven't been so limiting since the 18th century when poets like Pope and Dryden were writing. Beyond that, poets have regularly used all kinds of half/slant rhymes and metrical variations, and unless you want to throw poets like Yeats and Dickinson under the same bus as you're throwing Dylan I'd really rethink your lyrical standards. Even taking your examples the Dylan is far better. Corn/Storm* is a more original, unique, imaginative pairing than "screamed/dreamed" (undoubtedly used thousands of times before). The Dylan line doesn't scan, but neither does the McLean, and the latter is more jarring because it almost does, but there's an extra syllable introduced by the "and the" in the second line. The thing with music lyrics is that lines don't have to scan to work in music because time is malleable, and it's often better when they don't as too strict a meter can sound stilted in music in a way they don't when read. *One really cool feature of the corn/storm pairing is just how close to a perfect rhyme it is. Typically, slant rhymes either just pair the final consonant (cat/hit) or vowel sound (road/moan), but corn/storm has both the final vowel sound, the penultimate consonant sound, and the only difference of the last consonants "n/m" is minor because both are nasal consonants having an extremely similar sound.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Nov 23, 2019 14:50:31 GMT
So you see, in some cases, it's not so much the songwriting as it is the delivery. And rhyming need not apply in either case. Indeed. Back in the day when I was actually studying poetry one of the assignments was analyzing song lyrics and comparing/contrasting it with "traditional" poetry and describing how the performance changed or colored the meaning of the lyrics. I actually chose Dylan's Most of the Time, and what I remember most about doing that assignment was realizing just how profoundly the performance and the sound changed the meaning of those lyrics. On the page, there's very little of the sadness, wistfulness, and heartbreak underlying the ironic attempt at maintaining composure and confidence in some of the lines. That was one of my "aha" moments in realizing Dylan's mastery as a songwriter; it wasn't just the lyrics or the poetry, it was his understanding of how to use lyrics as a "baseline" for the music/performance to galvanize and give meaning to. This is especially true when you dig into his bootlegs and alternative versions of songs where the emotion/meaning can be changed drastically, as is also evident in those covers that you posted.
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Post by Fox in the Snow on Nov 25, 2019 2:26:17 GMT
Can’t at this moment, but I’ll certainly give “Good Vibrations” a listen, Fox in the Snow ! I’m also not well-versed in music theory, so no worries there, but something I’ve noticed is what I’d consider banality in a lot of modern music. For example, Cole Porter wasn’t the most sophisticated composer (though I’m a huge fan), but he had these brilliant major/minor switches in the middle of songs that went along with his lyrics. He commented on it, in fact, in “Every Time We Say Goodbye”: In large part, that was probably because Porter was classically trained and knew how to play tricks with his compositions. That background is what I’d say is musical craftsmanship, as opposed to “I’ve got my guitar and I’m going to sing my heart out.” Now, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, per se, but it’s based purely on emotion, rather than, say, what was traditionally the hard work of songwriting. T.S. Eliot, of all people, commented on something similar in poetry, saying that poetry “is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion”; it’s marrying (or, to use Eliot’s word, catalyzing) the purely emotional, reactive, with impersonality, study, work, craft. (I.e., in this case, musical knowledge and talent, making sure the lyrics rhyme and scan, etc.) The folk music model, which has taken over most music (even the most teeny-boppy modern pop, I think), emphasizes the individual singer-songwriter’s feelings and emotions, more than clarity, good rhyming, inventive musical developments. All of that stuff is considered not honest or not genuine, because it’s based on technique, not emotion. I feel that has hurt songwriting. I do hope that explains my point. I should note, however, that it’s not connected to musical genre, or at least I don’t think it is. (I even like some songs with poor craftsmanship, even if I think that in the scheme of things it hurts songwriting.) Don McLean is folk, and for the most part “American Pie” has excellent lyrical craftsmanship. Compare this Dylan couplet from “Shelter from the Storm”— —to this McLean couplet from “American Pie”: The McLean lyric isn’t just “poetic,” as the Dylan is; it’s also well-crafted, in that the rhymes rhyme and the lines scan.(Yes, some “American Pie” rhymes don’t actually rhyme: Marx/park, again/friend. But it’s a higher level of craftsmanship than most folk pop songs. McLean even has an old-fashioned trick rhyme in the song: “more step”/doorstep, which Dorothy Fields used for “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”) Anyway, I’ve gone on long enough, but again I hope that explains what I mean by all this. Are you just talking about lyrics? In that case, my examples may not hold up, certainly not the instrumental High Llamas track I posted. I gave the Sarah MacKenzie tracks a listen and they do seem to be in a different style to the ones I posted. Very much a traditional jazz sounding style, which I’m not that familiar with, whereas the ones I posted are very much in the “pop” mould. If you were looking for songs in that more “traditional” style, again my examples may not qualify, even if I do think they are well crafted pop songs, The Beach Boys and Saint Etienne examples at least
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Post by Admin on Nov 25, 2019 2:41:26 GMT
Is Norah Jones still doing that wacky hillbilly crap or whatever the hell that was?
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