The Music Court

Alright, I admit it, I have not posted in a while. I know it is obviously a crime in the blogosphere to leave a blog vacant for several days, but, I have a reasonable excuse. This weekend was incredibly busy. Firstly, I was initiated into Delta Sigma Phi and am now officially a brother of this fantastic fraternity. YITBOS. Secondly, my Jetsies kicked some Texan butt on sunday and I was incredubly happy to see such a great performance. Both subjects quite green surprisingl.y Now, after my long weekend I am back on the blog looking to provide you with some music before I have to go to class at 1:10 and learn about the Merchant of Venice.

Before I get into the post let me outline out for you the schedule of the other posters. Since, I am so thrilled to have other people writing with me, I am forcing them to post more. Yes, they have no choice. Josh and his lyric of the day column is going to run Tuesday and Thursday and he would very much like if some people would guess his lyrics. Anthony and his photoshop creations on visual music will run Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for your enjoyment, and he too would like some responses. So, please people, guess and please them. For me, I shall remain writing my daily musical explosion for your enjoyment. For I am your musical servant, your trust court jester!

Wow already 12 down on the Top 100 Lyricists. We have covered obscure and well known lyricists, depressing and happy lyrics, and Donovan and his mellow yellow. What is there left? Well, 87 lyricists, but that is besides the point. Let’s see the big old 87. Hope we do not choose a Pretender. Well, lookie here, one misplaced transition and we have done what I just hoped we wouldn’t do. We have chosen a Pretender!

Chrissie Hynde, the only constant member of the new-wave group The Pretenders, is the subject of our prestigious lyricist search. The Pretenders have never been top on my list of bands to listen to, but, like I will always admit, Hynde is a tremendous band leader and a force in the music and lyric world. When interviewed Hynde mentions that here childhood revolved around going to go concerts and dreaming of something bigger. She never went out with any guys from her school because she aimed for guys like Iggy Pop. Setting your sights surprisingly low. Just kidding Iggy. In the late 70’s, Hynde gave a demo tape to Dave Hill, the owner of Real Records, and he advised her to compile a band and as the band came together the name of The Pretenders was chosen in honor of “The Great Pretender,” by The Platters. Bet you did not know that. See that is why you always come to read this blog. Are you not entertained? Why did I just reference Gladiator. Well, possibly because the two songs I am profiling are “Brass in Pocket,” and “Back on the Chain Gang.” How does that have to do with Gladiator? I don’t know. Let us move on.

As a female bandleader Hynde became a prominent style-setter for her young women following. It also did not hurt that she was truthful and I guess that is all people can ask for. Her music focuses on female confidence and some sad realizations. Let us go to our two songs.

We will start with the happier of the two songs. “Brass in Pocket,” which appeared on The Pretender’s debut self-titled album and just emits confidence and female pride. Here are some lyrics.

“Got brass in pocket
Got Bottle, I’m gonna use it
Intention, I feel inventive
Gonna make you, make you, make you notice

Got motion, restrained emotion
Been driving, Detroit leaning
No reason, just seems so pleasing
Gonna make you, make you, make you notice”

There is not to much to discuss with this song because these lyrics are self-explanatory. Hynde is saying that she is going to make you notice no matter what and that is pretty confident.

Next we have “Back on the Chain Gang,” which is not positive. It is rather sad. The song was originally going to be about Ray Davies of The Kinks who Hynde fell in love with and had a daughter with, yet, after Pretender’s guitarist James Honeyman-Scott passed away due to a drug overdose at the age of 25, the meaning of the song took an understandable turn. The song appeared on the 1984 album Learning to Crawl.

“The powers that be
that force us to live like we do
bring me to my knees
when I see what they’ve done to you.

But I’ll die as I stand her today
knowing that deep in my heart
they’ll fall to ruin one day
for making us apart.

I found a picture of you oh
those were the happiest days of my life
now we’re back on the train
oh back on the chain gang.”

This song just seeps symbolism. The last verse is just so revealing and truthful which is Hynde’s strong point. The song makes mention to Sam Cooke’s “Chain Gang” but focuses more on the depressing what if’s and unfortunate nostaligia. Great lyric from a succesful and truthful Chrissie Hynde, #87 on our dear list.

We’re going to play a game. Guess the lyricist whose hit song is about a yellow female pleasure instrument. Appalled? Yes, and it is even funnier that he is the #88th greatest lyricist of all time. Guess the lyrics actually sounds like an intriguing idea. How about we do a section here where we post lyrics and you guess what song they came from. Oh wait! My roommate had that same idea and is going to be running that exact section a couple of days a week, one of them that is already posted. Don’t you feel fooled. Okay, that was simply stupid. Let us get to the lyricist.

Did you guess who it was? Do they call him mellow yellow? Yes, they do, and his name is Donovan Leitch, a.k.a Donovan or British Bob Dylan. That title of British Bob Dylan has tracked Donovan’s music for the majority of his career which began as a young busker (street performer) in 1964. Late in that same year he recorded ten tracks for Pye Records in London, one of which included my favorite Donovan song entitled “Catch the Wind.”

Can you imagine that conversation?

The album also revealed Donovan’s tribute to both Woody Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, two men who particularly influenced both Dylan and Donovan. Dylan, Donovan, same interests in music, similar folk music style. Get the comparisons.

Yet, in 1966, Donovan became simply Donovan. Dylan’s folk comparisons dropped and Donovan became a British “flower power” machine. His music also switched to a fusion of eastern music, jazz, blues, and mainly pop. The psychedelic “Sunshine Superman” was released, conga, harpsichord and sitar was introduced, and some very odd lyrics started to pop up in his music. Lyrics that we will profile right now. How does that sound?

Like the majority of these lyricist profiles I would like to focus on two different songs. With Donovan this is not tough to accomplish. Let us focus first on an abstract song entitled “Atlantis,” which may actually be about love but more about love’s concept. Here are some lyrics

“The continent of Atlantis was an island
which lay before the great flood
in the area we now call the Atlantic Ocean.
So great an area of land, that from her western shores
those beautiful sailors journeyed
to the South and the North Americas with ease,
in their ships with painted sails.

To the East Africa was a neighbour, across a short strait of sea miles.
The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of The Atlantian culture.
The antediluvian kings colonised the world
All the Gods who play in the mythological dramas
In all legends from all lands were from fair Atlantis.
Knowing her fate, Atlantis sent out ships to all corners of the Earth.
On board were the Twelve:
The poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist,
The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends.
Though Gods they were –
And as the elders of our time choose to remain blind
Let us rejoice and let us sing and dance and ring in the new
Hail Atlantis!”

If you listen to the song you will realize that the lyrics are spoken. Yes, it still counts as a song. Yet, look deeply into the lyrics. The words represent a tender, beautiful ode to a land long lost. The people who left the land of Atlantis knowing their fate are attempting to spread their knowledge and civilization to the far reaches of an unknown world. If you listen to some more lyrics in the song you will notice that Donovan starts singing about his “antediluvian baby.” Antediluvian means old by the way. This can establish that Donovan is searching for some sort of true love that may still be in this mysterious island of Atlantis. The love goes directly into the next song, “Catch the Wind.”

“Catch the Wind” first appeared on the horribly misspelled “What’s Bin Did and What’s Bin Hid,” where it hit success as a single. Here are some lyrics:

“In the chilly hours and minutes
Of uncertainty
I wanna be
In the warm hold of your Loving mind.

To feel you all around me
And to take your hand
Along the sand,
Ah but I may as well try and catch the wind.

When sundown pales the sky
I wanna hide a while
Behind your smile,
And everywhere I’d look, your eyes I’d find.

For me to love you now
Would be the sweetest thing,
‘T would make me sing,
Ah but I may as well try and catch the wind.”

The simplicity of this song makes it good. Donovan is demonstrating his love in the song and is also realizing that while he wants her so badly he is attempting to catch the wind. Catching the wind is pretty impossible and this is an unfortunate subject in an otherwise beautiful song.

“Atlantis”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leI7sfmipuI&feature=fvst

“Catch the Wind”:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LREIPfDLYks

Wow it feels like I have not done a segment of top 100 lyricists in a long time. I guess that would label me as a slacker. Well, I’m up and ready to go and #89 is ready to be profiled. 89 is an interesting number. I was born in the year 1989. Santana Moss (former football Jet and now Washington Redskins wide receiver) is number 89. Yeah, that is about it. But, I needed something to premise the lyricist who I will be profiling today. After discussing the hard, heavy, and realistically depressing music of James Hetfield of Metallica it is nice to focus on a lyricist today whose music is just more uplifting. Much under appreciated by the masses (and once by me, skipped over on my daily search for new music) Amos Lee’s music is feel-good rock with attached emotion on each album sleeve.

Let me tell you how I came on to Amos Lee. After skipping over him in my search, my roommate Josh found him on one of his searches. He became obsessed (now when he gets obsessed with a song the song is constantly occupying a spot in his head and is played and sung around 30-40 times a day) with “Night Train,” one of Lee’s slower songs. After weeding through his endless singing and constant suggesting that I too get into Amos Lee, I caved, and I am happy I did.

The lyrics of Lee travel from truthful odes to classic love songs with a twist. His quirky and unconventional lyric most likely was a result of the first music he started getting into. While in the University of South Carolina he received a job at a record store that specialized in Jazz music. Now many of you are probably thinking, what is this dude stupid, jazz has no lyrics. Yes, you would be correct on that most of the times, but, the music itself is interesting, eccentric, and well irregular. Jazz has a way about it and it certainly affected Lee.

The two songs that I would like to focus on are a love song and a universal truth. I believe this gives a broad range of Lee’s talents and plus they are also two great songs. Firstly, let us start with “Arms of a Woman” which appeared on his debut self-titled album in 2005.

Looking cool...

“I am at ease
In the arms of a woman
Although now most of my days are spent alone
A thousand miles from the place I was born

When she wakes me
She takes me back home

Now most days
I spend like a child
Who’s afraid of ghosts in the night
I know there ain’t nothing out there
But I’m still afraid to turn on the light

I am at ease
In the arms of a woman
Although now most of my days are spent alone
A thousand miles from the place I was born”

There are two ways of thinking when it comes to this song. Amos Lee is talking about his mother or a Love (he either has or once had). Let us take the latter way of thinking for this particular post for I believe this is most likely what he is getting out. The woman he is in love with is gone and now his days are spent alone, afraid, and lonely. I am a fan of his delicate metaphor which encompasses the second verse of the song. A child afraid to turn off the light even though he knows nothing is there. Lee is describing how his character does not want to be alone in the dark without the warmth of the love he once had (or is just far away). Classic loss of love song or long-distance relationship?

Symbolism in album covers is always well-respected

Next, we have my favorite Amos Lee song entitled “Supply and Demand,” which appeared on the same-titled 2006 studio album

“
Somethin’ gotta give with the way I’m livin’
Seems I’m gettin’ down everyday
The more I strive, the less I’m alive
And seems i’m gettin’ further away

Oh well all my superstitions
And my crazy suspicions
Of the people that I care about
I’ve been doin’ more screamin’
Than I’ve been doin’ dreamin’
And I think it’s time I figure it out

Baby i need a plan
Oh, to understand
That life ain’t only supply and demand”

Already one can see the range of his music. This is no where near love. It focuses on one of the most written about concepts in human history. Life is too short to waste on only thinking about work. Hence why Lee says, “Somethin’ gotta give with the way I’m livin, Seems I’m gettin’ down everyday, The more I strive, the less I’m alive, And seems i’m gettin’ further away.” In this opening verse he is explaining that the more he does in his work the less he is alive. He has been doing too much working and less focusing on his dreams and his family and he thinks it’s time to figure out that life is not only work (Supply and Demand). Great lyric. Kind of funny that Lee is writing it. He is a musician, and a good one at that. He most likely will never need to worry about anything of this song happening to him.

“Arms of a Woman”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymXPT62lYMI

“Supply and Demand”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbadOsEmFlM

My entire morning so far has been devoted to thinking how I was going to construct this segment. Today’s lyricist #90 is an interesting figure that alot of people respect and an almost equal amount of people do not like. Personally, I like him. His lyrics are different, depressing, and real. His lyrics were the basis of the premier 1980’s Metal Band that shot the hearts of tons of listeners and brought a new type of metal to the states. His band was aptly named Metallica, and he is James Hetfield.

Metallica, and no one can dispute this, was an amazing band in the 1980’s. Their albums were tremendous and their music was pounding rock, raw, and oddly melodic and wonderful. After their 1991 release of Metallica (The Black Album) which featured the iconic “Enter Sandman,” thoughts on the worth of Metallica started to dwindle. Yet, we are not here to discuss Metallica, the band. We are only about the lyric, man, and today’s segment will focus on James Hetfield and why he lyrics are worth #90 recognition

Pro (Good Metallica)

My suitemate came in a few minutes ago and asked, “How is James Hetfield  over a guy like Josh Ritter.” To a degree, he has a good point. Ritter’s lyrics are oddly creative and aesthetically beautiful. He is singing about love and religious wars (as much as that sounds intense he mentions such lines as her eyes are like champagne). Hetfield is not. In the two songs that we will explore today he is singing about a mental asylum and the darker side to the evils of war. This makes the song obviously more metal and that is Hetfield’s genre of music. His songs have also spanned numerous succesful albums and his lyrics have been the top source for Metal lyrics for over two decades. If it is not only because of span of work, it is also because Hetfield’s lyrics are also quite raw and true with a large amount of feeling pasted into the underlying message of both songs. Let us look at two songs. First we will start with the always depressing, “Welcome Home (Sanitarium),” which appeared on Metallica’s 1986 release Master of Puppets, and that is aptly based on the Ken Kesey novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”

“Welcome to where time stands still
no one leaves and no one will
Moon is full, never seems to change
just labeled mentally deranged
Dream the same thing every night
I see our freedom in my sight
No locked doors, No windows barred
No things to make my brain seem scarred”

So, you read them and hopefully are not thoroughly depressed. What do you think? In a complete over-analysis of the segment of lyrics above I particularly enjoy Hetfield’s word use. The moon never seems to changed and is labeled mentally deranged. This, most likely, is a comment on the patients in the mental asylum. They are labeled as an unchanging mass and, even though on the surface people try to treat them, they cannot field any treatment because they are prevented from accessing any freedom. When they do get a little of the real world they tend to get better (as Kesey points out so eloquently with strippers and fishing trips.) Freedom may be in sight in the lyric, but that is surely through death.

Next we have another song from the 1980’s, this one released two years earlier in 1984 with Metallica’s Ride the Lightning. It is entitled, “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” and is based on Ernest Hemingway’s novel of the same name.

“Take a look to the sky just before you die
It is the last time you will
Blackened roar massive roar fills the crumbling sky
Shattered goal fills his soul with a ruthless cry
Stranger now, are his eyes, to this mystery
He hears the silence so loud
Crack of dawn, all is gone except the will to be
Now the will see what will be, blinded eyes to see”

This lyric is beyond depressing, but in reason. It needs to be because it is about dying in war. Blinded eyes, shattered goal, ruthless cry, blackened roar. All descriptions of destruction and hellish states. And, they are quite vivid and miserable descriptions, which is what makes Hetfield great. He is ruthless in his lyric but is also true and feels. Definitely worth #90.

“Welcome Home”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WElvEZj0Ltw

“For Whom the Bell Tolls”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX-KjkdDozQ&feature=related

In 1987, the year that the Twinkies from Minnesota won the world series despite only winning 85 games in the regular season, John Hiatt hit some long-awaited success with his February released album entitled Bring The Family. Hiatt and a backing band that consisted of such musicians as Ry Cooder (ranked the 8th best guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone), Nick Lowe (of punk rock fame), and Jim Keltner (a session drummer who worked with different Beatles on their solo projects), hit the charts with numerous hits and propelled Hiatt to a following nine albums on the Billboard top 200 charts. Now, I am sure some of you may be thinking who the heck is John Hiatt and how did he compile such a band. Well, what if I was to tell you that he is a recipient of the 2008 AMA Lifetime Achievement Award in Songwriting and that his songs have been covered by too many artists to list on this post. How did he compile the band? Well, the band was surely excited to have the oppurtunity to play with a legend.

Hiatt, similar to a guy like Bob Dylan, has played numerous different styles of music. Another performer who decided not to find his own niche. He has explored New Wave, Country, and Blues. Possibly, because he could not settle into a style, he has been under appreciated by the masses. I am sure many of you have not heard a song performed by him but have heard songs written by him and performed by other artists. He is one musician who is simply respected by all musicians and therefore has been honored with several Grammy nominations and a stockpile of awards from the music industry.

http://www.webhostingpal.com/jdv/html/covers.htm  Copy that website into your browser (well open up a new Tab first) and go to it. Yes, right now. Take a look off to the right. See that tremendous list. Those are all his songs that have been covered by other artists. Understand now why so many people in the business respect. Heck, most of them have performed one of his songs.

Hiatt, after a rough childhood (his brother committed suicide at the age of 21 and his father died two years later after a long sickness) turned to Elvis and Dylan and the Blues for some relief. He picked up the guitar at 11 years old and started his music career as a teenager. At eighteen he got a job in Nashville, Tennessee as a songwriter. Yet, since he could not read scores, he was forced to record over 250 songs for the company. His body of work is huge.

I believe the best way to describe his lyrical prowess would be through taking his two most covered songs and exploring what makes the lyrics so great. “Feels Like Rain,” off of his 1988 album Slow Turning has been covered by eight musicians, including the great Buddy Guy and “Have a Little Faith in Me,” off of his 1987 album Bring in the Family has been covered by eighteen (EIGHTEEN) artists including Joe Cocker and Kenny Rogers.

In “Feels Like Rain,” I particularly like the end of the song which chronicles two lovers in a rain storm. It is kind of similar to everyone’s favorite Christmas rape song “Baby it’s Cold Outside,” but this actually is pretty loving. The lyrics are below:

We’ll never make that bridge tonight

Across lake Ponchartrain

Feel like rain

Batten down the hatches

But keep your heart out on your sleeve

A little bit of stormy weather, that’s no cause for us to leave

Just stay here baby, in my arms

Let it wash away the pain

I love the beautifuly symbolism of the rain washing away any heart ache. It also represents love which comes out of nowhere. The song mentions that love comes like a Hurricane and while these things do past what can stay the same is his love staying with him through all the rain.

“Have a Little Faith in Me,” is a similar concept on love

“Have a little faith in me

When your secret heart

Cannot speak so easily

Come here darlin’

From a whisper start

To have a little faith in me

And when your back’s against the wall

Just turn around and you will see

I will catch, I will catch your fall baby

Just have a little faith in me”

Here the simple message is have some faith in me and we can have a stable love. A stable love for a stable musician whose work just continues to get larger and better as the years go on.

“Have A Little Faith in Me”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UkKTlzyLhQ

“Feels Like Rain”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTUTKkxw94A