{"id":723,"date":"2006-11-06T08:51:03","date_gmt":"2006-11-06T13:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/?p=723"},"modified":"2020-01-03T14:08:53","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T19:08:53","slug":"lyrical-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/lyrical-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyrical lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talking to a friend a couple of weeks ago about pop music. It was after I’d cited a Little Feat song in this post<\/a> and he’d looked at a YouTube clip of Fat Man in the Bathtub.<\/em><\/p>\n

He remarked on Lowell George’s genius in lengthening the musical line.<\/p>\n

And I got to thinking, lengthening the musical line had implications for the lyrical line, too.<\/p>\n

I’d picked up a couple of Dave Matthews CDs some time ago, after my ex left (he was the one with the music collection) but hadn’t listened to them much — I was aware of the songs peripherally, enough to hum along, but hadn’t paid that close attention to them. Then idly, one day, I played Under the Table and Dreaming and found myself for the first time paying real attention to it.<\/p>\n

Matthews has been criticized for writing songs that are too monotone, something I’d found a bit off-putting too. But suddenly I was what’s going on: these pieces are actually poetry — set to music — set to jam band music.<\/p>\n

If you transcribe the lyrics to a song like The Best of What’s Around, you can see it, as long as you don’t artificially try to insert line breaks:<\/p>\n

Hey my friend, it seems your eyes are troubled — care to share your time with me?
\nWould you say you’re feeling low? And so<\/p>\n

A good idea would be to get it off your mind.<\/p>\n

See you and me have a better time than most can dream — have it better than the best, so we can pull on through.
\nWhatever tears at us, whatever holds us down — and if nothing can be done we’ll make the best of what’s around.<\/p>\n

Turns out not where but who you’re with that really matters — that really matters.
\nAnd hurts — not much when you’re around.<\/p>\n

And if you hold on tight to what you think is your thing, you may find you’re missing all the rest.<\/p>\n

Well she ran up into the light surprised; her arms are open, her mind’s eye is seeing things from a better side than most can dream, on a clearer road — I feel —
\nOh — you could say “she’s safe.” Whatever tears at her. Whatever holds her down — and if nothing can be done she’ll make the best of what’s around.<\/p>\n

Turns out not where but what you think that really matters.<\/p>\n

See you and me have a better time than most can dream — have it better than the best, so we can pull on through.
\nWhatever tears at us, whatever holds us down — and if nothing can be done we’ll make the best of what’s around.<\/p>\n

Turns out not where but who you’re with that really matters — that really matters.
\nIt hurts — not much when you’re around.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What’s amazing is that lines like this can be made to come across as so pop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talking to a friend a couple of weeks ago about pop music. It was after I’d cited a Little Feat song in this post and he’d looked at a YouTube clip of Fat Man in the Bathtub. He remarked on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,3],"tags":[1562,1561,1560,1558,1559],"class_list":["post-723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-writing","tag-best-of-whats-around","tag-dave-matthews","tag-fat-man-in-the-bathtub","tag-lengthening-the-lyrical-line","tag-lowell-george"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6168,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723\/revisions\/6168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}