Look, I will be the first to admit that modern music today has become, for lack of a better word, uninteresting. I find the music on the “popular” mainstream radio stations to sound all alike and almost daily I hear a new song sampling a good classic rock song or even a good underground modern song.
When I searched Modern Music this is what I found. I am not complaining it is pretty cool.
It is close to sad. Is there not any talent left? Maybe it transformed from the focus on electronic “synth” music or the teen’s need to just hear one good single and ignore entire album creations (tracks, liner notes, album covers). If someone decided to cryogenically freeze themselves in the 60’s and came back today, out of the closet next to me, and after releasing his 40 year old bladder asked what became of all the great music (like anyone but me would pose that question first), I would probably respond, “Freeze yourself another forty years and we’ll talk then.” But, if he insisted on an answer I would definitely not show him the Billboard Hot 100 charts, focusing more on some really great music by some talented singer-songwriters who somehow still exist in this day that covets a song about getting freaky (and I don’t mean the paranormal) in a hotel room as #10 on the charts.
One of those singer-songwriters who most definitely reaches back to the good ol’ days of forty years ago when lyrics mattered is a 32 year old from Moscow, Idaho named Josh Ritter. With him, and many other young lyricists like him, it is only body of work that has them low on the list of top 100 lyricists. Ten years from now he might be much higher.
Josh Ritter is smart. Like Neuroscience smart. Like much smarter then I’ll ever be. I mean look at the last two sentences, I said like twice, I could have found another synonym don’t you think. And, that sentence I wrote is definitely not a sentence. I comma spliced like a freak. Okay, I am confusing myself, on to Josh Ritter and his incredible history.
Josh Ritter, besides being smart, is also awesome and, most likely (I never met the guy), incredibly cool. Born to two neuroscientists in Idaho he first got the urge to play music at fourteen after listening to “Girl From the North Country,” by Bob Dylan. How many musicians have been inspired to first pick up a guitar by listening to Bob Dylan? The number must be in the thousands. He first attempted writing songs on a homemade lute, but, most likely, after every song came out sounding like a jester was singing in a medieval court, he bought his first guitar at K-Mart and has never looked back. After going to Oberlin college for neuroscience he figured that, that major could not withhold his interest. So, instead of switching to English or Music, he decided to create his own major entitled “American History Through Narrative Folk Music.” Yeah, he is a bit eccentric. I wish I went to that school. After college he moved to Scotland and studied folk at the School of Scottish Folk Studies, before eventually moving back to the states (Massachusetts, this time) to play open mic’s until finding success in his music (from Ireland first). The Irish have good taste in music. Quite an interesting history. It makes the two lyric samples I am going to show you (one an apocalyptic love song and one about a girl in the war) make some more sense.
Ritter’s lyrics are a delicate mix of intelligence, symbolism, and emotion. He knows how to control himself and carefully paint a picture, even with a scattered palette of mixed colors and shades. His lyric is both haunting and quite scenic and beautiful. His metaphor is abstract but certainly not cryptic. A brief analysis of some of Ritter’s lyrics will reveal his skill and beauty. Here is a segment of Ritter’s “Girl in the War,” off of his 2006 album The Animals Years
“Because the keys to the kingdom got locked inside the kingdom
And the angels fly around in there, but we can’t see them
And I gotta girl in the war, Paul I know that they can hear me yell
If they can’t find a way to help, they can go to Hell”
In a clear anti-war statement, Ritter likens the war to the struggle in his head with the concept of heaven. The keys to the kingdom (referring to the key to the pearly gates, the entrance to heaven) are locked inside heaven, with “angels” who are invisible to our human eyes. In this he is suggesting that Heaven is an unreasonable clutch. One cannot be so sure that their loved one dying in war is going to go to this magical place. Paul, who represents one of the holy saints, St. Paul, has a conversation with Peter (representing St. Peter who holds the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. 
Peter does not have the keys any longer and Paul is exclaiming that they (God) cannot hear him yell. He has a girl in the war and if God cannot help her then he can go to hell. Of course, a blasphemous and angry statement like that is simply one interpretation of a beautiful song that can, in all respects, simply be about love. Yet, this song emits a desperate anger. “The Temptation of Adam,” which appears on Ritter’s 2007 release The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter focuses on being a quirky love song. Perfect, for an odd guy like Ritter. Here are some lyrics.
“We could hold each other close
We’d stay up every night
Look up into the dark and pretend it’s the night sky
Pretend this giant missle is a old oak tree instead
And I’d carve your name in hearts into the warhead
Oh Marie something tells me things just won’t
Work out above
That our love would live a half-life on the surface
So at night while you are sleeping
I hold you closer just because
As our time grows short I grow a little nervous
So I think about the big one
WWIII
Would we ever really care the world had ended?
You could hold me here forever
Like you’re holding me tonight
I think about that big red button and I’m tempted”
The song is literally about two people stuck “In a top secret location 300 feet under the ground,” with the ability to destroy the entire world with nuclear warheads that are patiently waiting to be fired at the press of a red button. These two people fall in love and the words above is the conclusion to the song. In what are quite possibly the most incredibly ironic and magnificent words ever to be constructed in a song, Ritter plays with the human tendency towards the two most natural feelings man has. Love and Violence. I mean, he does it in two lines.
“Pretend this giant missle is a old oak tree instead
And I’d carve your name in hearts into the warhead”
Wow is all I can say. He is talking about two love birds innocently carving their initials into an oak tree to exclaim to the world (or those who look at the tree and see the heart surrounding the initials and are angry that people have defiled the tree) that they love eachother. Except, the tree is a WARHEAD. It is love and war right there for you folks. Make peace, Drop bombs, Josh Ritter has combined them both. Plus, we get the symbolism at the end of the song with the red button. The temptation of Adam. The original love story between Adam and Eve. Adam is tempted by the red button so he, and his love Marie, could spend their lives in love down underground. In his own garden of Eden. Marie, another form for the name Mary; Mary, The Virgin Mary, the most immaculate woman in Christianity. I told you Josh Ritter was smart!
“Girl in the War”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqLssKusGzM
“The Temptation of Adam”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76MXROcqqxo&feature=PlayList&p=7AF39F0EF4F0E947&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=10
The song reached #4 on the Billboard top 100 charts in 1978 and #8 on the UK singles chart. But, what many miss is how successful the album was. The album reached #2 on Billboard’s top pop album chart and #5 on UK’s Albums chart. Why did it reach so high? Was it because of the amazing guitar-playing and musical confidence? Yes, this definitely was a large reason why it was so successful. But, the lyrics of Mark Knopfler sure did not hurt.
The Music Court 