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When Are Songs Poetry?
| Posted on October 29, 2009 at 9:29 AM |
I just listened to this Seattle radio (KUOW) interview posted on POETRY DAILY http://kuow.org/program.php?id=18653about about whether song lyrics can ever hold up as stand-alone poetry without the music.
Poet, Karen Finneyfrock, discusses HELPLESS by Neil Young, JUST LIKE HEAVEN by The Cure, and SWEETEST DECLINE by Beth Horton.
What are your favorite song lyrics?
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9 Comments
WHO'll WATCH THE HOMEPLACE by Kate Long and WEST VIRGINIA CHOSE ME by Colleen Anderson are both poems to me..
Welcome, Loves Music. I like your opening stanzas and the repetition of "cold, cold" and "cool, cool." So, you're a poet and a musician!
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Loves music
03:47 PM on December 01, 2009
One of my favorite song lyrics is actually a jazz composition I wrote in October. I love how poems can be transformed with a tune or even just a simple beat. I truly believe that songs can hold there on in the world of poetry. Tell me if you think that these lyrics can be used as stand-alone poetry without music:
Summer Days in disguise
Hides itself with cold, cold eyes
Dances sweet and talks so mean
What should I think when you're so menacing
So just catch me by surprise
With those cool, cool winds
And those deceptive bends
Grow green beside me
Or take your death in brown behind
Sumer call or fade
Early or late
Rigt or wrong
Summer spring with flowers
Or fall with leaves
You decide.
No more decieving me.
Summer Days in disguise
Hides itself with cold, cold eyes
Dances sweet and talks so mean
What should I think when you're so menacing
So just catch me by surprise
With those cool, cool winds
And those deceptive bends
Grow green beside me
Or take your death in brown behind
Sumer call or fade
Early or late
Rigt or wrong
Summer spring with flowers
Or fall with leaves
You decide.
No more decieving me.
Gotta love that Leonard Cohen. I"m still moved by Jason Castro's version of "Hallelujah" that he sang on American Idol a couple of years ago.
Don't forget Simon and Garfunkel, especially Simon the poet.
Don't forget Simon and Garfunkel, especially Simon the poet.
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Stendhal
09:30 AM on October 30, 2009
I realize that song lyrics and poetry often go hand in hand, but I am of the belief that they stand alone as two separate forms. Bernie Taupin (Elton John's lyricist) once said "I write poetry and I write rock and roll lyrics and they're both different. There's a totally different feel to them." I feel the same way. Taupin was a writer of prose, poetry and rock lyrics so he knew how each one functioned as its own entity. Similarly I have written all of the above and agree that these few forms are all very unique in their own right.
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Danielle Stobie
09:34 PM on October 29, 2009
I contemplated adding Suzanne as well. Those are some excellent songs-- I love Leonard Cohen's songs (but I must admit I didn't grow up in the 60's or 70's.)
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Marc Harshman
09:20 PM on October 29, 2009
I think I could fill pages about this one. Anyone coming to age in the 60's was being fed a steady diet of rock and folk lyrics many of which still wear pretty well. The hard distinction to make is how well do the lyrics stand when stripped of their music? I'll throw out just two examples. I'm still mesmerized by Dylan's DESOLATION ROW but I don't want it without the music. Leonard Cohen's many fine lyrics can often stand alone for me, or at least they can if I don't have Judy Collins in the back reaches of my mind lilting his SUZANNE, for instance. Maybe for Cohen it's better to point to BIRD ON A WIRE or SISTERS OF MERCY, where even if you do 'hear' someone else's voice, you can also hear Cohen's which may lead many to wishing they were reading the lyrics.
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Danielle Stobie
07:13 PM on October 29, 2009
Continuing with The Cure. I've always loved the line "Catching haloes on the moon gives my hands the shapes of angels." from "The Hanging Garden." I could add a lot of Cure additions.
I've used the following song lyrics in class: The Fiery Furnaces' "In My Little Thatched Hut" and "Teach Me Sweetheart" and Laika's "Prairie Dog."
I would add Tim Buckley and Larry Beckett's "Song to the Siren," "Emily" by Joanna Newsom, "Margaret vs. Pauline" by Neko Case: Under Byen's "Det er mig der holder trĉerne sammen" or "It is me who keeps the trees together" is beautiful at least in translation.
And now I must stop myself because I like this topic a little too much!
I've used the following song lyrics in class: The Fiery Furnaces' "In My Little Thatched Hut" and "Teach Me Sweetheart" and Laika's "Prairie Dog."
I would add Tim Buckley and Larry Beckett's "Song to the Siren," "Emily" by Joanna Newsom, "Margaret vs. Pauline" by Neko Case: Under Byen's "Det er mig der holder trĉerne sammen" or "It is me who keeps the trees together" is beautiful at least in translation.
And now I must stop myself because I like this topic a little too much!
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