Eddie Bryant
10-23-05, 04:28 AM
I think that this is one of the best trends in indie rock music right now. You look at bands like The Decemberists, The Shins, and Sufjan Stevens and one thing they all have in common is that their lead singer were at one point studying fiction or poetry at a college and grew up dreaming wanting to write the next great American novel instead of recording music. So I think they look at writing lyrics from a different standpoint, and you can tell the storytelling nature of their songs.
As a result, I think that alot of their songs are much more ambitious than normal pop songs. Take a look at Sufjan Stevens; on every song, it's like he wants to cram everything he's ever thought about a topic into words, tell every feeling and emotion attached to whatever story he is telling in a given song. My favorite album of his is "Greetings from Michigan," and for those that never heard of him, he's basically has this plan where he's going to go through all 50 states and write an album devoted to the history of each state through the eyes of famous people, different events, and little quirks like that. But on this album, he has this song "The Upper Peninsula," where the lyrics go:
I live in America
With a pair of Payless shoes
The upper penisula
And the television news
And I've seen my wife
At the K-Mart
In strange ideas
We live apart
I live in a trailer home
With a snow mobile, my car
The window is broken out
And the interstate is far
I drove all night
To find my child
In strange ideas
He's been revived
In strange ideas
In stranger times
I've no idea
What's right sometimes
I lost my mind
I lost my life
I lost my job
I lost my wife
This song is completely devastating. But basically, I'm just rambling and I don't really have an amazing innovative point or anything like that, I just want to point out that there are musicians out there that want the world in every song. And I love the storytelling nature of it all, it's beautiful, life is made up in stories.
If you feel these musicians, what do you think bout em? I mean, this is a completely separate thread, but when I write poetry or music lyrics, I look up to these people, cause I wanted to be a novelist when I was younger so alot of my poetry I write is all storytelling.
As a result, I think that alot of their songs are much more ambitious than normal pop songs. Take a look at Sufjan Stevens; on every song, it's like he wants to cram everything he's ever thought about a topic into words, tell every feeling and emotion attached to whatever story he is telling in a given song. My favorite album of his is "Greetings from Michigan," and for those that never heard of him, he's basically has this plan where he's going to go through all 50 states and write an album devoted to the history of each state through the eyes of famous people, different events, and little quirks like that. But on this album, he has this song "The Upper Peninsula," where the lyrics go:
I live in America
With a pair of Payless shoes
The upper penisula
And the television news
And I've seen my wife
At the K-Mart
In strange ideas
We live apart
I live in a trailer home
With a snow mobile, my car
The window is broken out
And the interstate is far
I drove all night
To find my child
In strange ideas
He's been revived
In strange ideas
In stranger times
I've no idea
What's right sometimes
I lost my mind
I lost my life
I lost my job
I lost my wife
This song is completely devastating. But basically, I'm just rambling and I don't really have an amazing innovative point or anything like that, I just want to point out that there are musicians out there that want the world in every song. And I love the storytelling nature of it all, it's beautiful, life is made up in stories.
If you feel these musicians, what do you think bout em? I mean, this is a completely separate thread, but when I write poetry or music lyrics, I look up to these people, cause I wanted to be a novelist when I was younger so alot of my poetry I write is all storytelling.