From: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org (lucy-list-digest) To: lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: lucy-list-digest V4 #231 Reply-To: lucy-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk lucy-list-digest Monday, October 7 2002 Volume 04 : Number 231 In this issue: Re: [lucy-list] while awaiting more reviews ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 08:42:28 -0700 From: "Gina" Subject: Re: [lucy-list] while awaiting more reviews Lucy does have some depressing, deep and sometimes angry lyrics. But, it's the way that she presents them honestly that makes them palatable. I suppose that is the sign of a good shrink, no? We all have anger and negative emotions on some level. She helps express that. That could be why it makes you feel good. Then of course, there are the tunes. "Guilty as Sin" comes to mind. It's a really angry song, but the tune is not in sync with the anger. The tune softens it somehow. So, if you are in tune mode, you can just enjoy the music. If you are in lyrics mode, you can enjoy the safe expression of anger. Just some thoughts... - ----- Original Message ----- From: Benay Bubar To: Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2002 7:55 PM Subject: [lucy-list] while awaiting more reviews > I am getting impatient for the last of the UK reviews to roll in...but > thankful for the fact that they have been promised. In the meantime, I am > wandering the earth in leather-jacketed bliss (well, not much...it has been > way too hot for the leather jacket lately...but I WOULD be if it were > cooler). And tonight I am watching Austin City Limits on TV and it features > Bonnie Raitt singing I Can't Make You Love Me If You Don't. Which reminds me > that her Nick of Time was the first CD I ever owned, my first year of > college. I wasn't a huge Bonnie Raitt fan and didn't even own a CD player at > the time, but someone had given it to me, I think...and one of my first > experiences with parody (aside from the takeoff of Bye Bye Birdie I wrote in > high school---Bye Bye Birdseed, with chicken-related themes throughout, I'm > afraid!) was when some college acquaintances transformed the above-mentioned > Bonnie Raitt song into You Can't Make Me Love You If I Don't---their version > got pretty sadistic, but it warmed me up to the parody concept. So I've just > figured out that if I go back far enough, I can pretty much blame the laying > of the cornerstones of my current musical universe on Bonnie Raitt. > > Which has little to do with Lucy, but I haven't had any Lucy experiences > lately aside from the great BBC interview with air guitar conversation! > Still, I have been giving some thought to something a friend who has seen > Lucy only once, not entirely of her own volition, said to me recently---to > the effect that Lucy is a very good singer, but it's too bad her music is so > depressing. And I thought---Lucy? Depressing? And then I stopped to consider > the lyrics of my current favorite crop of Lucy songs---The Tide, Still Life, > Written on the Back of His Hand...hmmm... > > Perhaps I've mentioned this before, but once when I was home from college, > years ago, my mother came into my room in rare familial-bonding mode and > decided she was going to understand me by Appreciating My Music, and > proceeded to read the lyrics to the songs on some of the tapes I had (Indigo > Girls, among others I recall...these were pre-Lucy days) and thereby decided > that I was probably quite seriously disturbed and wanted to know if my > musical selections signified that there was Anything I Wanted to Discuss. > And I tried to argue that I actually ENJOYED the music, it made me > HAPPY...to no avail. I think my mother looked at me oddly for weeks > thereafter. > > Anyway, I've come to realize that if my poor mother ever got her hands on > Lucy's lyrics, she'd probably be no less concerned...probably MORE so, in > fact. It would be easy to present to my mother the lyrics of my favorite Dar > Williams songs---You're Aging Well, When I Was a Boy---as they have a > generally inspiring, uplifting tone, and conflicts pretty much get sorted > out by the end. And yes, Lucy does have some non-depressing songs, mostly > the romantic ones (Ten Year Night, Just You Tonight), and all right, This Is > Mine is pretty positive too...but there's nothing much under the category of > Catchily Inspiring and Uplifting. In pretty much all of my favorite Lucy > songs, there's either anger throughout (as in the highly cathartic Angry > Trilogy), or else things start out badly, then become vaguely worse, and > there is at best a hope for understanding and growth by the end, but not > really any foray into actual HAPPINESS. Optimist that I generally like to > think I am, it seems kind of weird that these are the songs toward which I > gravitate. But in fact I've never considered Lucy's music at all > depressing...and though perhaps it should have been obvious, it's funny to > realize that some people COULD find it so! I wonder what this says about > me... > > Enough for one evening...waiting eagerly for those last UK reports... > > Benay ------------------------------ End of lucy-list-digest V4 #231 ******************************* This has been a posting from the Lucy Kaplansky mail list digest To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe lucy-list-digest" in the body of the message