Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Writing Magic


I did a post on Sunday about the rock opera Passing Strange and I’ve been listening to the soundtrack non stop for at least a week now. I commented on how intelligent many of the lyrics are in this show. Here are a few examples of the phrases that caught my attention.

In the opening of the opera there is a part about going to Baptist church where Stew sings the phrases:

And he saw the jet black deacons with the “don’t you do that” frowns,
And a collection of verbs disguised as nouns.

Later in the play he arrives in Amsterdam to the shock that hashish is on the menu. The locals describe life in Amsterdam to him with the poetic verses:

The enlightened aren’t frightened; we let our spirits roam,
And we’re the freedom experts so don’t try this at home.
You can trip all day till your mind just melts, it makes Berkley look like the bible belt.

Eventually he lands in Berlin and he describes the city as:

Berlin, a black hole with taxis and a forest of sharp corners.

Finally a nice little lyric is tucked into one of the songs:
…Then you told me my pain entertains.

Sometimes I find the imagery fascinating. Some song writers are the best writers out there. I’m finding gems in Stew’s other work with his group, The Negro Problem. I hope you can check them out.

2 Comments:

Blogger JustRex said...

A collection of verbs disguised as nouns. I like that. A cool turn of a phrase can just make me all giddy.

6:45 AM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

Darev, I can think of a few.

5:29 AM  

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