[lit-ideas] It's Country!
- From: Andy <mimi.erva@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2011 05:46:54 -0800 (PST)
"The trick there is that Dylan doesn't come off as too knowing, though we know
he is knowing, and this somehow adds to rather than subtracts from the effect."
Correction: " ...though we know he is all knowing..."
I was in a small clothing chain store recently and surprisingly, instead of the
usual loud rock, they were playing country. Not exactly Midnight Cowboy
either. The lyrics were to the effect of I know how to be a country boy
because I know how to make whiskey and I know how to shoot a gun and I know to
drive a truck. Needless to say I did not like the song. However, I suspect
that that song is an outlier and that the rest of country is probably
lyrics-wise not a whole lot different from other music. Most music is about
luv and loss of luv. An exception may have been rock songs of the 60's and
70's that may have been occasionally brainier. Artists drew on philosophical
allusions (Steppenwolf, the Doors); the Beatles did amazing psychedelic stuff;
Dylan borrowed from the bible; and so on. Today rock seems to be so, what's
the word, boring, so country-with-a-rock-beat. The question is, was there ever
a time that country existed on a
higher plane, or different plane? It seems like all lyrics today are of a
mongrel-like uniformity set to different beats. Even the Beatles burned out
and went to the old vanilla flavored All You Need is Luv standby after a
while. Paul McCartney became a total waste with his studio bands designed to
crank out money. Here's something that replays the 60's or 70's, also pure
vanilla lyrics, but it hits the spot somehow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef-f-l2Pbn8
Andy
________________________________
From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2011 6:08 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: It's Friday!
________________________________
From: Mike Geary <jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>
>I thought that would get a rise out of Mr. McEvoy. Glad he didn't disappoint
>me. But. of course, he's wrong. He experiences country music from a
>different country. He thinks it's poignant and honestly sensitive and truth
>telling by simple people who've never heard of Popper. >
There was no need to bring Popper into it.
> Most country and blues songs are sad, sappy songs about walking the floors
>and standing by your man and the dog dying and grandma getting run over by an
>18 wheeler -- they just don't cut it with me. Same goes from most blues
>songs.>
But there are plenty of C&W songs that aren't sappy. ('I'm Bastin' Our Turkey
With My Tears' and 'My Son Calls His Daddy 'Granddad''). Hank Williams' songs
can be treated sappily but also taken in a much deeper spirit: but then a
certain commercially dominant strain of C&W can treat almost anything sappily -
imagine Shania Twain singing 'A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall', you'd think the sun
had just come out smiling. To say "most blues" is sad and sappy means you're
listening to the wrong stuff. Robert Johnson was many things but never sappy.
I don't think C&W, especially its commercially dominant strain, is "poignant
and honestly sensitive and truth telling by simple people"; though I think it
often strains for this effect and often so unsuccessfully so it is schmaltz,
riddled with fake and calculating 'sincerity'. Dylan's 'Nashville Skyline',
though a lightweight album by his standards, shows how it can be done without
degenerating into schmaltz but then that album is performed with a broad wink
and a smile as well as sincerity. The trick there is that Dylan doesn't come
off as too knowing, though we know he is knowing, and this somehow adds to
rather than subtracts from the effect.
What do you make of that Bob Dylan Encyclopedia anyways?
Donal
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