submissions
| John Prine – Lake Marie Lyrics
| 3 years ago
|
An amazing example of song that contrasts the civilized world against the backdrop of the natural world. Note that the first verse tells us the that natural world was named after the civilized world, the characteristics of that world next being described. The verses modulate from images of the historical to the personal to the social, all in terms of circumstances of isolation (abandon babies, divorce and murder). Much is said to describe the civilized world, much of it represented using incidental details, particular things, spoken like everyday conversation. They are hidden suggestions in all these images: the hard to catch fish (the difficulty of life), the 4 sausages (2 each? that they will divide in the divorce?), the particular lyrics of Louie Louie, “we gotta go now” (the goodbye to a marriage, the transience of mortality); the “You know what blood looks like in a black and white video?”. We don't get time to answer. Shadows is the answer, Prine tell us "exactly", point blank, his voice punches it. Like the love that reached its limits “slammed against the banks of Lake Marie” the culmination of civilized life ends like it did with the first pair who wandered out into the wild, Cain and Able, in darkness.
In contrast to this, the natural world is only described as peaceful waters and then repeats a wordless chant. It is what little we can say when standing before the incommunicable beauty and power of raw nature. The chorus, with its repetitions, both “standing by peaceful waters/ Whoa Wah Oh Wha Oh” and within the song itself (sung 3 times), haunts the procession with its melody.
Yet the song does not make judgements. It does not preach. It is matter of fact. This is how it is, it says. It even lightens with wit. (“The loan sharks were sharking the narcs were narcing”) like life itself does. It paints a picture. It strike us so well because we recognize our own experience in it, waiting again to repeat the next time we look at the news. |
submissions
| Elvis Costello – Clubland Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
The long arm of the law slides up the outskirts of town
Meanwhile in club land they are ready to pull them down
Wow- for wordplay Elvis pretty much without peer. Hard to beat. The extended metaphors in this song remind me of Shakespeare. Only Dylan or Waits in his class. |
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