06-10-2024, 06:51 AM
I define song lyrics as “words set to music that need the music”
Take Lennon’s “Mother”
The lyrics by themselves are nothing special beyond the first two lines in S1 and S2, but Lennon made them one of the greatest songs of all time by setting them to music. The same words WITH the raw intensity of the song create a classic for the ages
Mother, you had me
But I never had you
I, I wanted you
You didn't want me
So, I
I just got to tell you
Goodbye
Goodbye
….
Or take Dylan:
Everybody knows
That baby’s got new clothes
But lately i find her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls
She takes just like a woman
She makes love just like a woman
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl
Now take Shakespeare:
Tell me where is fancy bred
Or in the heart or in the head
How begat, how nourished?
Reply, reply…
Or
Come away, come away death,,
And in sad cypress let me be laid.
Fly away, fly away, breath…
Or Shelley,
The flower that smiles today
tomorrow dies
All that we wish to stay
Tempts, and then flies
What is this world’s delight?
Lightning that mocks the night
Brief, even as bright
The difference between Shelley, Shakespeare, Yeats, etc ie lyrical poetry and Dylan, Lennon, etc in the above examples is that the song lyrics of the latter are brilliant when partaken with the song.
The lyrical poetry of Shelley is poetry. It lends itself to calm contemplation. But Dylan’s is not about calm contemplation. It is about getting lost in the swirl of words and music.
Shakespeare’s lyric above was actually meant to be sung, but we know what pansies they were in the Elizabethan era, before Newton and Darwin and colour television, so their songs don’t count
Take Lennon’s “Mother”
The lyrics by themselves are nothing special beyond the first two lines in S1 and S2, but Lennon made them one of the greatest songs of all time by setting them to music. The same words WITH the raw intensity of the song create a classic for the ages
Mother, you had me
But I never had you
I, I wanted you
You didn't want me
So, I
I just got to tell you
Goodbye
Goodbye
….
Or take Dylan:
Everybody knows
That baby’s got new clothes
But lately i find her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls
She takes just like a woman
She makes love just like a woman
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl
Now take Shakespeare:
Tell me where is fancy bred
Or in the heart or in the head
How begat, how nourished?
Reply, reply…
Or
Come away, come away death,,
And in sad cypress let me be laid.
Fly away, fly away, breath…
Or Shelley,
The flower that smiles today
tomorrow dies
All that we wish to stay
Tempts, and then flies
What is this world’s delight?
Lightning that mocks the night
Brief, even as bright
The difference between Shelley, Shakespeare, Yeats, etc ie lyrical poetry and Dylan, Lennon, etc in the above examples is that the song lyrics of the latter are brilliant when partaken with the song.
The lyrical poetry of Shelley is poetry. It lends itself to calm contemplation. But Dylan’s is not about calm contemplation. It is about getting lost in the swirl of words and music.
Shakespeare’s lyric above was actually meant to be sung, but we know what pansies they were in the Elizabethan era, before Newton and Darwin and colour television, so their songs don’t count