Musings on Music, #2

[pat]

Kevin lately has been asking me "what does that song mean?" And that's a hard question.

Songs are so complicated. Good songs, anyway. Lyrics alone do not convey the full feeling, but neither does music alone. And when an eight-year-old asks you "what does that mean?" it can be hard to answer.

There are the ways in which lyrics themselves are complex. We've been listening to Flogging Molly's "Tobacco Island" a lot lately. The song is about being uprooted from your homes and being forced to sail away, but it's also about rage and despair. How do you explain that a line like "where the sugar cane grows taller than the God we once believed in?" says much more about the men than the height of the sugar cane?

Or another recent favorite, Eddie from Ohio's "Number 6 Driver." It's about driving across country. But it's also about searching, and being maybe not lost, but a long way from where you want to be. And you get some of that if you read the lyrics, but nowhere near as much as you understand if you hear the lyrics sung.

When music and lyrics clash, the results can sometimes be kitschy (prime example: Faith Hill's cover of "Piece of My Heart") or simply disturbing. I find Garth Brooks "Papa Loved Mama," seriously unsettling, because of its clash of upbeat fast-moving music at odds with its story of domestic violence and murder. Sometimes I find the contrasts interesting: I love Eric Clapton's Unplugged version of "Layla" precisely because the laid back bluesy guitar is at odds with the passionate desperation of the lyrics. It's almost as if Clapton is saying, "Hey, we've both been around the block a few times, we both know that nobody's going to die if you turn me down."

I'm not a musicologist, and there are people who written scholarly articles about all of this, I'm just noodling on this, and trying to figure out -- how do you teach love of music to children? And how do you answer "What does it mean?" The answer I find myself falling back upon more and more frequently, "What do you think it means?" seems somehow inadequate. Maybe they just need to grow up enough that they can figure the songs out for themselves.

Comments

[dangerpudding.livejournal.com]

how do you teach love of music to children? And how do you answer "What does it mean?" The answer I find myself falling back upon more and more frequently, "What do you think it means?" seems somehow inadequate. Maybe they just need to grow up enough that they can figure the songs out for themselves.

I think you already have, from what I've seen. You play music for them, and show your own love of it. Sometimes, maybe you can explain what it means- take a song like "Fire and Rain" with a known history to it that can be explained- but more often, I think your answer is better. Especially if you're willing to discuss that opinion with them, and share your own.

*grin* growing up helps too. Took me till a few years ago to understand that Paul Simons Kodakrome isn't about Chloroform... ;)

I hugely appreciate that Dad and Paul (bio-dad) shared their love of music and encouraged mine by buying me music, playing me music.. all of this.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

There are a whole host of songs which made logical but little emotional sense to me when I was younger. I see that now with J. -- he can't understand why I find some songs moving, and I didn't find those songs moving when I was his age. (Good example: "My Back Pages," which he says makes no sense. It doesn't, if you're a teenager. It does if you're forty.) Some songs you just need to have enough life experience to be able to relate to.