Baerwald vs Crow, Part 2, Seriously, not trying to stir shit.....
EEE
location: Landscape Challenged Illinois
listening to: 16 Horsepower, black music from the 70's & and still going broke from Paste Magazine
registered: 2002.08.26
posts: 3227
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The older I get, the more I realize how hard it is to really listen to the lyrics to songs and how too often the simple chorus turns out to be "the" song and completely misrepresent the totality of the song, i.e., Springsteen's Born in the USA. Lately I've been trying to really listen to these lyrics. Today while doing whatever, DB's Liberty Lies came on the player and I consciously listened to it. Two lines really struck me, "a fireman sobs
tears making tracks through the ash." These words struck me for how while they are so sparse in number, the mental imagery they evoke is phenomenal. What point is to be found in these words? Well, it's how disgusted I am when it comes to art in America. The popular things too often consumed are crap. Real art is often missed and ignored and it makes me sick while the crap is shoveled and eaten by the truckload. At one time I did not know this, but my father painted his paintings from his memory and in contrast, so many of the commercial successes that found much more success and accolades would instead place cut out imagery upon one of those overhead projectors and paint their projected arrangement right there on the canvass. In other words, they simply traced the artwork and filled it in. So, my point in all of this, to me, for what it is worth, my opinion of DB's art is like that of John Prine, while Sheryl Crow's stuff is like that of John Mayer (and in advance I apologize for any Mayer fans out there if I offended them). DB sings of real things while Mayer sings of some chick's body and Crow sings of soaking up the goddamned sun. What I'm getting at, in my opinion, and honestly, who gives a shit about my opinion because really, who am I, DB is one, goddamned, unmatched treasure that will not come around too often and I'm very, very happy to have had him not only share his art with us, but have the humility and graciousness to come here and answer our questions and offer his thoughts and share some obviously very personal information.
Okay....suck up over...take care people....
E
EEE
(view)
The older I get, the more I realize how hard it is to really listen to the lyrics to songs and how too often the simple chorus turns out to be "the" song and completely misrepresent the totality of the song, i.e., Springsteen's Born in the USA. Lately I've been trying to really listen to these lyrics. Today while doing whatever, DB's Liberty Lies came on the player and I consciously listened to it. Two lines really struck me, "a fireman sobs
tears making tracks through the ash." These words struck me for how while they are so sparse in number, the mental imagery they evoke is phenomenal. What point is to be found in these words? Well, it's how disgusted I am when it comes to art in America. The popular things too often consumed are crap. Real art is often missed and ignored and it makes me sick while the crap is shoveled and eaten by the truckload. At one time I did not know this, but my father painted his paintings from his memory and in contrast, so many of the commercial successes that found much more success and accolades would instead place cut out imagery upon one of those overhead projectors and paint their projected arrangement right there on the canvass. In other words, they simply traced the artwork and filled it in. So, my point in all of this, to me, for what it is worth, my opinion of DB's art is like that of John Prine, while Sheryl Crow's stuff is like that of John Mayer (and in advance I apologize for any Mayer fans out there if I offended them). DB sings of real things while Mayer sings of some chick's body and Crow sings of soaking up the goddamned sun. What I'm getting at, in my opinion, and honestly, who gives a shit about my opinion because really, who am I, DB is one, goddamned, unmatched treasure that will not come around too often and I'm very, very happy to have had him not only share his art with us, but have the humility and graciousness to come here and answer our questions and offer his thoughts and share some obviously very personal information.
Okay....suck up over...take care people....
