Sunday, October 19, 2008

UnClever NearRhymes and other Mysterious Things

Whilst driving today I happened to hear a couple of country songs which sent me into a little zone of unfortunate rememberance.

Songs with annoying and highly un-clever near rhymes.

I'm talking about:

Brooks & Dunn with "Jesus" and "Pieces".

Darryl Worley with "Forgotten" and "Bin Laden".

Jamie O'Neal with "Man Is" and "Atlantis".

In turn, much to my wife's dismay, this memory led me into a thought process on one man's art versus another's.

I do not like songs that spell everything out. Songs with metaphorical imagery and multiple interpretation appeal to me much more strongly than say, a Martina McBride song about pitching in at the grocery store line to help those "a little less fortunate" than she.

I love how some songs can change meaning with age. Case in point: my song, "Forget". It's my response to 9/11, cloaked in a reference to those I know who've been sexually assaulted. I didn't clearly recognize just how plural the meaning was until this morning. As Bono said once, even he doesn't know what his own songs are about until much later.

I'm not trying to put anyone else down for their listening tastes, but I am trying to clarify just what makes it "Art" to me.

Tune in next time when I'll reveal which Radiohead song is about breast augmentation.

3 comments:

Trinket said...

My dismay was not about your thought process or opinion(s). You are just a strongly opinionated musician who can't always see things from "Joe the Plumber's" POV, to use a new pop culture reference. :D I love you dearly, this is just one of those area's where we'll never totally agree. (Though even I have a hard time believing "we'll put a boot in your a**" is art.)

Trinket said...

Oh, my. Ignore the apostrophe on "area's," please, and insert "areas." I'm more tired than I thought. Oh, and I know the answer about the Radiohead song!

betsyann said...

I kind of like those kinds of rhymes. They're unexpected, and sometimes they make me laugh. I don't like that Martina McBride song though.