Hey there 7 followers….long time no type….again.
…yeah…
Sorry bout that….life…you know?
Anyway, I’ve been thinking about the usual: what it means to devote our life to music in an economy that has largely made music have almost NO monetary value…..but I think I’ve talked about that enough lately….so I started thinking about something Townes said. He said “There are only two kinds of music in the world: the Blues and Zip-a-dee-doo-da.”
So it occurred to me that….I don’t really LIKE happy, positive songs. I know. I sort of gravitate towards the real…things that are sad and melancholy have more resonance to me…The Truth of Suffering is more apparent to me than pretending everything is ok.
Thats probably part of the reason that I drift to poets like Bukowski…there is always unvarnished REALITY hidden in the lack of structure and simple language…and there is no bullshit.
Which basically gets to the crux of why positive songs annoy me: there is something inauthentic about singing about how great things are…something that fails to come to grips with the “full catastrophe.” Typically, when I come across these songs on the radio or something….it strikes me as pablum. I mean, the last thing I want when I feel like my life is falling apart is a song telling me how great everything is and how things have turned the corner. That just shows me how out of touch people can be.
Maybe a parallel can be drawn to comedy. Comedy works best when the comedian is outside the power structure and speaking truth to those inside that power structure….when those that are IN power try to be funny….there is a disconnect between the ability of the person in power to speak TRUTH….so I think that in the same way, when you are writing about how great your life is, when the VAST majority of other humans on the earth CANNOT relate….you are doing them a disservice…
This Week
Darrell Scott
Tom Rush
Danny Malone
Jeff Black–he has a new album “Plow Through the Mystic” –GET IT
Oh! Guess what? I finally finished the Mysterious Recording Project. You can find it on iTunes! Search for Rachel Rea!
I’m going to try to keep a regular schedule again. Fair Warning…:-)
So until next time: write somethin’, will ya? (as long as its not a disingenuous positive song….write some blues…)