From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V19 #110 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Sunday, October 9 2011 Volume 19 : Number 110 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: How do you work this thing? [Rex Broome ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2011 16:31:51 -0700 From: Rex Broome Subject: Re: How do you work this thing? On Sun, Oct 9, 2011 at 1:40 PM, 2fs wrote: > On Sun, Oct 9, 2011 at 1:01 AM, Rex Broome wrote: > Well...that sort of thing has been going on in rock forever - listen to the > catalogs of Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, and that Zimmerman fellow, and > you'll find plenty of similar examples. And the repetition in your example > is, clearly, meant to be expressive (whether you think it works or not is, > obviously, another issue.) > To my ears it serves a dual purpose, and it sounds to me like it's there as much to fill out the space as for expressiveness. If that was just one example I might buy it as as artistic first and practical second, but it happens so much that I can't help but be suspicious. > I think you're on stronger ground re melody, at least in the early days: > clearly, on the first Smiths album, even if you allow for an intentionally > pared-down approach to melody, Morrissey took that so far as to be almost > ridiculous - most those songs' melodies just oscillate (wildly...) among a > few notes. Yeah. I do note that he did sort of expand his melodic range as time went on, so that there's a lot more legitimate developed melody on what I've heard of his solo stuff, but that material has even less basic musical appeal to me than the Smiths do, and I really can't imagine making it through a whole record of it (I have heard his first two or three post-Smiths records quite a few times, but even that's a long time ago now). > Then again, Richard Butler used the words "stupid" and "useless" > 7000 times each on the first Psychedelic Furs album, and no one accused him > of having a limited vocabulary... > Heh... someone probably did. Funny thing is that at the same time I tried to like the Smiths the first time I didn't rate the Furs at *all*, didn't hate them but considered them solidly "meh". But that changed somewhere along the line and now I love the Furs. I think Butler's bluntness is even part of their appeal to me. I mentioned before that Morrissey's "the world is crap" attitude was more or less baseline for post-punk lyrics and wasn't what bugged me... Butler might've been the best at getting that and *just that* across. > > I guess, also, variable meter just doesn't bother me - I get bored with > lyrics that bounce along all sing-song - and outright irritated when > singers > force accents where they don't belong ("when the rain waSHIZ you clean"? > Get > out of here, Stevie!). > True. I'm by no means a purist for precise meter or anything, but Morrissey goes so far beyond it so often and so (to my ears) awkwardly that I don't think he could could do it "normally" if he had to... and that's a thought that simply doesn't cross my mind when Robyn or Elvis Costello (etc.) lay an awkward line on us... I know where they're coming from, and I know they're having us on, it's intentionally forced. I imagine most people and certainly all Morrissey fans believe he's doing that, too. No way to know, so I just go with what it sounds like to me. > > But, y'know, pretty sure we could cite examples all day long and it > wouldn't > make a difference. And I'm sure the same is true regarding other artists > others of us don't like or don't get despite general acclaim... Totally. It's certainly one of those things that compounds itself over the years, too: the longer someone has annoyed you, the less likely you are to ever come around (varying most likely depending on the vehemence of the initial dislike and, for me, in this case, the number of attempts to start over trying to get into the artist). ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V19 #110 ********************************