Miscellaneous - March 2010

  by Lisa Torem

published: 13 / 2 / 2010

intro

In 'Rock Salt Row', Lisa Torem debates each month with another writer about a different issue in rock. In this instalment, she and Jamie Rowland talk about the different seasons and which one makes for the best rock lyrics

Two Writers Season One Historic Moment LISA Hi Jamie. Which season is best suited for rock lyrics? I was born in the winter, but, however, I find nothing lovely about it other than that very first snowfall. I despise the slush and icy streets. I’d rather bounce out of the house in tee-shirt, cut-offs and sandals. John Sebastian’s ‘Summer In The City’ has a great hypnotic riff and that funky urban phrase, “Hot Time Summer in the City/Back of my neck’s getting dirty and gritty.” I also love Beach Boy T-birds with wide- open windows, radio’s blasting so loud they inspire cardiac arrest, and strawberry- blonde hair blowing in the breeze. I’m sure you’d love to drive across Highway 1 coastlines humming ‘Barbara Ann’ or body surfing in the Pacific Ocean? Being quite the clutz, however, I’d rather build the perfect sand castle or flirt with life guards. But, hands down, winter is my drug of choice for lyricism that crystallizes genuine emotions. Somehow, the most precise imagery seems to stem from this stark, chilling, though frequently unsettling season. Lisa Germano, a sensitive Midwestern vocalist, pianist and songwriter, has a field day with, ‘In the Maybe World.’ “After winter comes another storm. It’s a shiver. It’s a freaking out. Could be real time. Could be wonderful. It’s the future in the maybe world.” And, in ‘Snow” she sings: “Mind blowing, wind it sings, I love, I love, I love, I love how you see things. Snow, snow white time, Breath you in. I love, I love, I love, I love how you swim.” Serving as, quite literally, emotional “ice-breakers,” snow, the storm, the shiver; these images swirl around erratically. Energy and warm tones juxtapose references to nature’s harshest season. Two Tori Amos songs also encapsulate deep emotion; “Icicles, icicles, where are you going? I have a hiding place when spring marches in.” The opening piano bits are lilting and tenuous. The timid notes gradually build into a hymn and then grow louder and increasingly dissonant. Does spring then become the dissolution of this innocence? Is the icicle a phallic symbol as has been suggested? Or, is it a weapon for protection or a prominent part of a still to be built sanctuary? Summer songs? The sun blazing over the saguaros, and paper moons drift into cliché. The far-reaching palette of winter offers far more cathartic possibilities. Amos knocks me out with ‘Winter.’ “Snow can wait, I forgot my mittens. Wipe my nose, get my new boots on. I get a little warm in my heart when I think of winter. I put my hand in my father’s glove.” I run off where the drifts get deeper. Sleeping beauty trips me with a frown. Winter melts as boys get discovered, Flowers competing for the sun Years go by and I’m here still waiting Withering where some snowman was. Mirror, mirror, where’s the crystal palace? But, I only can see myself. Skating around the truth who I am. But, I know dad, the ice is getting thin.” Isn’t this the most compelling “coming of age” song? A little girl’s hand lost in father’s massive glove completely kills me. Is it the winter of her discontent? Hardly. Broken chords of a Brahms’-type lullaby begin, snow-drifts mount, piano is in full throttle before thick, block chords and chilling bass surround her lovely whisper. Shades or shovels, Jamie? JAMIE Well Lisa, my immediate reaction to this seasonal conundrum was to veer away from summer songs altogether. After a bit more thought, I realized that this was a little unfair, given that my sole reason for avoiding that season would be based purely on my powerful hatred of Katrina and the Waves’ ‘I’m Walking on Sunshine.’ It seems odd that such an upbeat song – which is actually about being deliriously happy – should induce an Incredible Hulk-like reaction of unremitting rage in me (sadly without the increase in muscle-tone and stature). In fact, I think it’s the overly happy nature of ‘Walking on Sunshine’ that riles me so much. It’s so insistent in its attempts to cheer you up. It’s like someone screaming “BE HAPPY!!!” right in your ear, the musical equivalent of that friend who tries to cheer you up when you’re feeling down by saying things like “C’mon, give me a smile! Where are those pearly whites?” Impossibly irritating. I somehow seem to have driven my self a little off-course here and hijacked your debate with my Katrina bashing. Let’s take a U-turn back to the point. Once I had gotten over my vitriol towards that particular song. I took a breath and tried to remember the songs that make summer songs worth paying attention to. Everyone knows that the best summers are those of your youth – school’s out, as Alice Cooper told us, and the days spent out in the sun seem to go on forever. If there’s one song that I think really sums up that teenage summer excitement, it’s the Undertones’ ‘Here Comes the Summer.’ The chorus almost makes itself into a mantra and you can’t help but chant along to. And having once been one, I can tell you that a teenage boy’s expectations of summer go no further than what’s been described in these lyrics: “Keep looking for the girls with their faces all tanned Lying on the beaches all covered in sand Stretching out their long legs lying in the sun. They know they’re beautiful they’re having fun.” Of course, you’re more likely to spend the summer sat on your friend’s couch playing video games and complaining that it’s too hot, but you’ve got to have a dream. Having said that, I take your point that summer songs have pretty limited potential – it’s pretty much ‘sun’, ‘heat’, ‘sand’, ‘girls’ and ‘fun’ (inevitable mainly due to easy rhyming with the afore-mentioned ‘sun’) and that’s about it. Certainly, as you so expertly showed with your own examples, the winter carries with it much more lyrical potential. But when I think about the songs I associate with winter, or summer in fact, it’s usually much less for their lyrics than for their sound – the feeling the music instills in you. Can’t a song be seasonal without actually technically being about a particular season? When I’m picking music to listen to, on some level I’m looking at it as if I’m putting together the soundtrack to a movie – I don’t want to describe what’s happening around me. I want to capture the feeling of it and express it through music. I distinctly remember one particular crisp winter’s day; bitterly cold despite the sun beaming down. I was listening to my MP3 player with the random function switched on, and ‘Ceremony’ by New Order came on. There was something about the way that song sounds, the chill in the air and the frost that was on the ground that seemed to compliment each other. Despite the cold, I took a seat on a bench just to enjoy that perfect moment of synchronization. So what do you think Lisa? Couldn’t subjective interpretation be as important as lyrical content in picking out songs that fit the seasons? I haven’t managed to decide which season suits me best yet, but I’ll give it some more thought as I gear myself up for round 2. Oh, and just as a final point – I’ve noticed that neither of us has even mentioned spring or autumn. Are there any songs out there that attempt to tackle these tricky between seasons (or “betweasons”)? LISA Alice Cooper’s abandonment of all things scholarly is seductive, although it’s aimed at the idle teenager, whilst working blokes trudge onward despite inclement weather. ‘I’m Walking on Sunshine’ should instigate rage. The constantly happy are generally stoned. Give me melancholia in my pop! No row there, Jamie. Tackle the “betweasons?” Thought you’d never ask! I, therefore, poked open Pandora’s bait and tackle box; here’s what transpired. Noah and the Whale’s ‘The First Days of Spring’ begins with singularly plucked guitar notes and strains of dreamy violin. “It’s the first day of spring and my life is starting over again/I’m still here hoping one day you may come back/There is hope every flower that grows on the earth.” These rejuvenating lyrics literally ‘spring’ to life, eh? ‘Blue Skies?’ I’ll cheat here. It straddles spring and summer. Then, zipline into more comfortable terrain – more morose lovelies. Yep, I visit those frequently and stay for dessert. ‘ “This is the song for anyone with a broken heart This is the song for anyone who can’t get out of bed Blue skies are coming But I know it’s hard.’ Grab the revolver from under your pillow, before the next verse rears its assassinating head. “This is the last song that I write, while still in love with you.” BANG! Okay, Jamie, spring pickings were sparse, but survey this slew of autumnal delights! First of all, the Mamas and the Papas’ ‘California Dreaming’: “All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray” Now, let’s get meatier. Consider: Green Day’s ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends,’ from ‘American Idiot,’ about a father’s death. Autumn inspires grief, right? The 60s Moody Blues, sang of “fallen leaves, darker days and lost love” in ‘Forever Autumn.’ Too bad, the classic ‘Autumn Leaves,’ from a French film in 1946, hasn’t been covered by Ozzy Osbourne or Anvil. Johnny Mercer, however, wrote English lyrics to this gorgeous melody, devoured by jazz artists, and ‘September Song’, by Kurt Weill, in 1938, was masticated by Sinatra ad nauseum. The White Stripes recorded ‘Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.’ in 2001, from their third album ‘White Blood Cells.’ The YouTube video features frenetic finger-picking, a jangly melody, searing violin and engaging harmonies. A rain-soaked urban street; a woman won’t wait for her man to come home; “Dead leaves and the dirty ground When I know you’re not around Shiny tops and soda pop When I hear your lips make a sound.” James Taylor, penned ‘October Road,’ a tale about leaving the big city for the country. Not morose enough, Jamie? But, the absolute killer is the Kinks lovely ‘Autumn Almanac’ from ‘Village Green.’ “From the dew soaked hedge creeps a crawly caterpillar When the dawn begins to crack It’s all part of my autumn almanac. “Breeze blows leaves of a mustard coloured yellow So I sweep them in my sack Friday evenings people get together Hiding from the weather Tea and toasted buttered currant buns Can’t communicate for lack of sun Because the summer’s all gone.” Apparently, Ray Davies was inspired by the local hunch-backed gardener in Muswell Hill, North London, to write this poppy gem characterized as the “mellow melodic sound” which catapulted the Kinks into its next creative phase. Compared to Wordsworth’s poetry, it inspired this observation, “a finely observed slice of English custom.” Swooning harmonies, white ruffled shirts and gargantuan smiles appear on the video. ‘Yes, yes, yes, it’s my autumn almanac,’ repeats with genuine hippie-like glee. So, can a song be seasonal without technically being about a particular season? You equated ‘Ceremony’ with the chill in the air and the frost on the ground. Sorry, Jamie, my seasons must be outlined in indelible ink; mittens drenched in snowballs, leaves swept through forests. JAMIE Wow Lisa, you’ve mounted a very successful raid on the autumnal vaults! ‘California Dreaming’ was one of the two tracks I managed to think of, and it’s not a particular favourite of mine –it’s played about 30 times over in the film ‘Chungking Express’, after which you never want to hear it again. ‘Autumn Almanac’ – what a song! It’s blissful; it’s kicking up leaves in the faded autumn sun and examining dew-covered, sparkling spider-webs in the bushes. I was sporting a gargantuan smile myself after hearing the lyrics “I like my football on a Saturday/Roast beef on Sundays” That sums up autumn for me – spending your days having fun, distracting yourself from the cold until the early darkness draws in, and you head on home for a lovely roast dinner. The only other autumn song I came up with is by the Flaming Lips, from their 2006 album ‘At War with the Mystics’. It’s called ‘My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion’, and I think the lyrics might be to your taste, Lisa: “They tell us ‘Autumn's a comin' and soon everything around us will die Only a fool believes that he is different from the birds in the sky All those birds go chasin' some better sunny days You can't hear them singing 'cause they've all gone away." Not the jolliest of songs so far, but it makes its point: “Yes it's true someday everything dies We won't let that defeat us We can't hear them sing But we can hear it as it flies” It’s a song on one hand about death and the unavoidably limited nature of all things, but it is also about coming to terms with that through the beautiful people and things we can see on our journey through life. Now that’s pretty nice really, isn’t it? In terms of Summer and Winter, I actually did find two different examples from the same band, Animal Collective. On their 2004 album, ‘Sung Tongs’, they have a song called ‘Winter’s Love’. The lyrics are typically abstract: “I love this light in winter time The frost cakes in the carpet In winter time we'll have our ways Tombstones the mean belong in” As far as I can make out, it’s about the cold of the winter being melted away with love for a significant other “No falls, snowfalls could ruin my day It’s masked up from the street And Winter’s glow where could she be She’s warm beneath my pocket” On their most recent album, Animal Collective have a song called ‘Summertime Clothes’, which I think is about love over-coming the trials of the season – in this case the baking summertime heat: “Sweet summer night and I'm stripped to my sheets Forehead is leaking, my AC squeaks and A voice from the clock says, "You're not gonna get tired" My bed is a pool and the walls are on fire… You slide down your stairs to the heated street And the sun has left us with slippery feet And I want to walk around with you” And back to the subject of lyrics; you say you need your seasons spelled out within the song’s subject; I say take any song and it could be seasonal to you, if that’s the way you see it in your own mind. But that’s not to say I totally disregard the great poetry to be found within popular music. To step away from our subject briefly, I’ll show you some examples of lyrics that I particularly like. First and foremost, I like lyrics that can make me laugh, or at the very least raise a smile. Good examples can be found by Stephin Merritt, lead songwriter for Magnetic Fields, the Gothic Archies and others. The fantastic triple album ‘69 Love Songs’ is jam-packed with brilliantly witty lyrics, such as in ‘Fido, Your Leash is Too Long’: “Fido, your leash is too long You go where you don't belong You've been digging in the rubble Gettin' bitches in trouble Fido, your leash is too long” (These are particularly enjoyable lyrics for me, as they are very attributable to a rather promiscuous friend of mine who works in a rescue centre for dogs) Another lyric that always makes me chuckle is by Birmingham band Misty’s Big Adventure. In ‘I Killed the Neighbours’, vocalist Grandmaster Gareth sings “People say that I’m insane/But I say ‘hey, that’s not my name – it’s Gareth’” It’s not particularly attributable to my own life, but it is funny. Doesn’t really paint a picture like the seasonal songs you’ve been quoting, but one more lyric always touches something in me. It’s ‘Greetings in Braille’ by the Elected. “And I miss Tara and Melissa, Allen and John. And you'll never have friends like you did when you were young.” There’s something so poignant and heartbreakingly true about that line that it kills me every time I hear it. The point is, I’m a big fan of lyrics and their ability to affect your mood or take you to a certain place, so I see what you mean about liking your seasonal songs to be just that – songs about the seasons! I, however, think songs tend to transcend their lyrics and become something different for everyone. For me, it’s all about the context a song is heard in. For example, you might buy an album for your holiday to say, Spain. You listen to it over and over as you sit by the pool, supping on ice cold drinks as you soak up the blazing sunshine (or check out those long-legged, tanned girls on the beach, of course). From then on, those songs will always mean summer and sunshine to you, no matter what they happen to be about. For someone else, listening to the same album might be tied to a particular boyfriend or girlfriend. For another person it could remind them of the first few weeks at a new job. I don’t know. Maybe I’m downplaying the importance of lyrics, but, personally, it’s always the music I hear first. In some cases I may never actually take time to listen to what a song’s actually about. If it’s got a good tune I can hum along to, then I’m sold. Perhaps we’ll just have to agree to disagree. In any case, as promised, I’ve had a long, hard think about which season has the best songs, and I’ve come to a decision. Like you, Lisa, I’m a fan of the melancholy, so for me it has to be winter. There’s something far more romantic about the snow-covered scenery and snuggling up in front of a fire than getting sweaty and covered in sand on a sweltering, packed-out beach somewhere. At least on that one point, we can agree! LISA Shucks, Jamie. Grab the iPod and let’s go sledding!