Saturday, June 20, 2009

Good Lyrics


When I listen to music I listen more for texture than lyrics. Sometimes I wish that I didn’t understand English and that would make some songs much more palatable. I do find a lot of humor in inappropriate songs such as a lot of stuff by Zappa, Eminem and Snoop Dogg and I’d love to share some of these tunes with people but choose not to because they will be offended for one reason or another.
With this said; sometimes a particular lyric will strike me as amazingly beautiful and I wish more songs could be as colorfully expressive. The line that got me recently was this passage from The Girl from Ipanema.

When she walks, she’s like a samba
That swings so cool and sways so gentle
That when she passes, each one she passes goes – ooh

Nuff said!

10 Comments:

Blogger Beth said...

Yes, those are nice lyrics but you’ve got me very curious as to the offensive ones you didn’t post.
I could handle them!

5:36 AM  
Anonymous Auntie said...

love that song, now it's stuck in my head and I must find my CD

6:36 AM  
Blogger JustRex said...

I like the term 'evocative'. If the song can put pictures in my mind unbidden or make my feet move of their own volition, then I like it. The very reason my favorites lyricists are Ian Anderson and Tony Carey.

9:29 AM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

Beth, you know how Eminem and Snoop go ogg the deep end. Though I don't think clean thoughts and my internal dialogue is a constant barrage of foul language, I do try to keep it all under control when I write or when I communicate with others... except for Auntie

Auntie, what collection of yours is it on?

Darev, Jethero Tull? Really?

5:44 PM  
Anonymous Auntie said...

its a stan getz collection. totally rocks.

best make-out music evah!

6:52 PM  
Blogger Siempre he sido yo said...

Hi from Spain

In my country most of the music we listen to is in English but people don't understand a word. They like the rhythmn, the singer's voice or looks, the tune... and many times, when they discover what the lyrics say, they feel disappointed because in their minds they had imagined something different. It's like reading a book and then seeing the movie.

Talking sbout texture, The girl from Ipanema has a beautiful one sung in Portuguese. It's called Garota de Ipanema.

2:07 AM  
Blogger JustRex said...

Guy-
"Muscled black with steel green eyes,
Swishing through the rye grass
With thoughts of mouse and apple pie
Tail balancing at half mast
And the Mouse police never sleeps.."

How can you not love that?

5:16 AM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

Auntie, I Getz it.

Esther, The Portuguese version is beautiful. People shouldn't look into the meaning if the sound is right, but who can blame them. They want to see the true inspiration of a work of beauty. Sometimes beauty come from very ugly things and situations. Welcome to Rust, by the way.

Darev, it's time to change the bong water.

5:37 AM  
Blogger Undercover Mother said...

"Hello Muddah,
Hello Faddah.
Here I am at
Camp Grenada.
Camp is very, entertaining,
and they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining."

Have you ever heard a more raw song about the severing of the parental-child bond via summer camp???

1:29 AM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

Mo3, you are totally a Mom. Though I agree, Alan Sherman had a hit there.

5:20 AM  

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