tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post4648035572707155730..comments2024-03-27T22:35:08.926-04:00Comments on The Heath Post: Best Songs: A Perfect Indian by Sinead O'ConnorGoHeathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11122010542579322600noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-28777888487615325412019-04-09T19:21:08.289-04:002019-04-09T19:21:08.289-04:00I don't know I think simplistic lyrics can be ...I don't know I think simplistic lyrics can be just as appreciated and just as beautiful. What I love so much about Tracey Thorn are her no nonsense lyrics. <br /><br />Now and then<br />Do you wash your hands of me again?<br />Wish me anywhere but home<br />Drunk and on the end of your phone <br /><br />That's about as simple as it can get and yet it is so rich in what it conveys. I think the lyric here from Sinead that really gets me about the picture of her daughter is also pretty simple. It's the whole Lir's children thing that is a bit iffy and for that I've always assumed in her mind it made a perfect connection. <br /><br />Perhaps when we need those more obtuse lyrics are when we are dealing with more complex ideas like suicide or giving your life over to God. Lir's children brings a lot of stuff with it that would be hard to express in a few words. <br /><br />One thing Russian poets used to do in the 20's and perhaps still do is use double meanings of words for adding complexity to a meaning in a poem. Like the opening to the Smiths song "How Soon is Now."<br /><br />I am the son<br />and the heir<br />of a shyness that is criminally vulgar<br />I am the son and heir<br />of nothing in particular<br /><br />Or is it<br /><br />I am the sun<br />and the air<br />of a shyness that is criminally vulgar<br />I am the sun and air<br />of nothing in particular<br /><br />Both fit the song and both give it different meanings and so depending on how you are hearing it the song can have a totally different feel. If he is the son and heir then these are things he has inherited and so no fault of his own. If he is the sun and air then he is the creator of these things and all the blame would rest on him. <br /><br />I miss going to college discussion classes sometimes. Thank goodness for Sunday school. <br /><br />Matthew Vaughnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10349035708120354682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-9478234810661195182019-04-09T19:06:30.027-04:002019-04-09T19:06:30.027-04:00Was listening to this song last night and thought ...Was listening to this song last night and thought about the other side of the story of Lir's children. The children do make it back as humans but are then 900 years old and die. So perhaps the only way they escape is through death is what Sinead is saying. Matthew Vaughnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10349035708120354682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-3125804823362122102017-03-25T11:24:54.711-04:002017-03-25T11:24:54.711-04:00Something puzzle-ish like that.Something puzzle-ish like that.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11218278987255792995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-24925014124306171692017-03-25T11:22:48.512-04:002017-03-25T11:22:48.512-04:00This is a fascinating post, and I'd never paid...This is a fascinating post, and I'd never paid a lick of attention to this song, though I had this album for a while so must've heard it several times.<br /><br />And I want to say something here that is honestly not a criticism but just an observation about art. I think it's interesting that we (as a species) tend to think something along the lines of the above lyric is really rich and meaningful. But if Sinead O'Connor's lyric went ...<br /><br /><i>I am a mother,<br />and I feel I am failing<br />Why can my child not love me?<br />My only salvation is turning to God</i><br /><br />... and that was the entire song, maybe repeated once or twice, we'd likely think it was pretty much nothing. A lot of the Psalms, for example, sound like that (at least in the English-translation versions I can read), and they often fall flat to me. But isn't that curious? Why am I more moved by a puzzle with a point tucked inside it than I am by a simple, logical declaration of the point itself? I am thankful that Jesus (and many of the Psalmists) seemed to anticipate this block and worked often in parables. This is why all of this is not a criticism--it just seems to be the way we are often or at least sometimes wired.<br /><br />For what it's worth, the sleepier I get, the less patience I have for art puzzles. More and more, the music I'm interested in is, on one hand, pop songs with little lyrical ambiguity (<i>Heard it from a friend, whooo/heard it from a friend, whooo/heard it from another/you've been messing arou-ound</i>) or, on the other, instrumental stuff that is totally up to me to net out meaning with only some clues of album context or title (for example, "Alabama" by John Coltrane). But while I might be trending in that direction, still today, if I'm drafting one of these "best songs" posts, I'm probably going to write about something along the lines of "Tangled Up In Blue."Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11218278987255792995noreply@blogger.com