| Simon and Garfunkel – America Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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When Paul Simon was asked to write some songs for The Graduate he wasn't enthuiastic and viewed the novel as 'bad Kerouak'. Mike Nichols used some old S&G recordings to fit into the spaces that would be filled by the new songs, while Simon dragged his feet. But as often happens, the songs become embedded into the film, and they did work superbly. One of the new compositions, At the Zoo turns up on Bookends. In the novel of The Graduate, Ben takes a trip across country after leaving college to follow in the footsteps of the Beats. But he finds no mythology, partly due to his own lack of imagination. This episode wasn't used in the film, but the song seems to fit the passage from the novel quite well. What is difficult to work out is why Paul Simon should work a personal detail about Kathy into the lyrics. Beautiful song, but it isn't really a song about national mythology. If anything, it undermines the idea of a search for the meaning of a nation. |
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| Joy Division – The Eternal Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Surely Ian Curtis was linking the child who never leaves his home with the fantasy of being in his grave and watching the world pass for eternity? And he recognises the possibility of a life lived as if already dead, while making real/actualising the certainty of his own death. As others have said, a tremendously powerful, oppressive and authentic song. With the cold darkness of the band's music, which seems to let in no light. |
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| Gilbert O'Sullivan – We Will Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I knew this song for a long while before I began to feel an encroaching sense of the absent wife. Probably died, given how young are the children. Then the emotions come in a rush: Uncle Frank and Auntie May are no longer a lonely old couple, but concerned relatives; the light is left on for the benefit of the narrator, not the children; and an awareness that the singer is part talking to himself rather than the children. Then the song becomes overwhelming, and we empathise with his grief because we sense it, rather being told. A wonderful song. Unpretentious, full of compelling detail, devastatingly emotional, and delivered in an authentic and original voice. |
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| Billie Holiday – You Go to My Head Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I like Billie Holiday best when the optimism of the lyrics contrast movingly with the heartbreak of her voice. She makes sexual love feel like a narcotic need and she brings home its vulnerability. It's the awful yearning of her voice, and the vastness of her desire, and the implied impossibility of fulfilment that hurt your heart. | |
| Blonde Redhead – Messenger Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Dreamlike, dizzy and narcotic ballad is even better with the comfort and solace of David Sylvian's vocal. Almost too much melody for a single song to bear.... I haven't much of an idea what it's about! But it alleviates my heart. | |
| Japan – Methods Of Dance Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Beautiful and sophisticated rock from the wonderful Japan is bursting with melody, and I love the ennui of David Sylvian's rather aloof vocals. The lyrics principally offer a mood of vague introspection, but that does work. A wonderful band, who still sound a little bit of the future, over thirty years on. |
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| The Style Council – Money-Go-Round, Pt. 1 & 2 Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Weller's raw and artless critique of Thatcherism goes straight for the message. This is undermined by the unintelligible vocals. But the anger is unmistakeable. True in 1983. No less true today. | |
| Townes Van Zandt – Kathleen Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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A real American classic; a death ballad with allusions to the oceans and the highway, with a chilling supernatural/psychological twist. A very desolate and atmospheric heartbreaker. There's a good cover of this by the Tindersticks. But this is pretty definitive. |
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