Post by Robert CrimOn Tue, 13 Jul 2004 21:00:59 GMT, "Edward Bridge"
Post by Edward BridgeLet's start a "Most Powerful Song thread" as JW suggested .
JW starts with : Lush Life, Dylan's 'Like A Rolling Stone', 'Amazing
Grace', Hank Williams' 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, and Puccini''s 'Un Bel
Di Vedremo'?........
I'll choose: Sweeter than Roses (Purcell) and Wind is the Wind (Ned
Washington)
Your turn : )
Reach back farther to Dowland. Think of "Lachrimae" in all it's
manifestations, or "Come Heavy Sleep." Follow those two up with "In
Darkness Let Me Dwell" and you have a trio of powerful songs worthy of
the category.
Hank Williams? Dylan? Surely you jest......badly.
Robert
No, no, no jesting....not badly or goodly. I suppose a "powerful song" is
something best defined by each individual listener. In that sense, it's a
lot like beauty, that is, it's where you find it, and one would be both
hard-pressed and frankly, foolhardy, to suggest that anyone's sense of a
powerful song is an incorrect sense of a powerful song.
But going beyond that, I'm guessing by your comment that you are unaware of
Dylan studies in general and specifically a new book titled "Dylan's Vision
Of Sin" by Christopher Ricks. Ricks, a well-known British literary critic
and newly elected Oxford Professor of Poetry, gives here a close reading of
Dylan's lyrics. Without getting into the details, one could say that he
regards Dylan's visionary fecundity with a kind of awe that one might
usually find reserved for discussions of Blake or Whitman. Now, I'm not
sure I'm actually willing to go that far with Ricks at this point in time,
but then, I guess, as in all critical opinions, time will tell as to the
worth of his ideas.
Also I'd add, initially, since this thread came as an offshoot of a Beatles
thread, I had in my mind more the Popular song than the Art song. Dowland
is surely the province of the Art Song. Now, I realize some may quibble
with my inclusion of a popular Puccini aria. I'd say I feel that the more
popular of the well-known Puccini arias tend, in my mind, to qualify as
popular song. Else, we could just go to certain poets and their poetry set
to music by certain composers. This would usually admit into this
discussion some surely powerful lyrics, but again, I've stayed away for
reasons that I'd thought to stick to the more-or less Popular song. As for
the jazz tune "Lush Life", it's likely very little-known these days and
qualifies as popular only insofar as it falls under the category of Jazz,
and Jazz is (at least in the US) usually lunped into the category of Popular
music. God only knows why, since Jazz music has ceased to be Popular music
in the United States for a good long long time. [As for some of the other
picks, I suppose for purposes of at least limiting people's lists, if
nothing else, "song" should probably be defined as having words and music
together rather than something with a strictly instrumental nature.]
As for Hank Williams, hell, he's the Hillbilly Shakespeare, didn't ya' know?
;-)
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"Did you ever see a robin weep?
When leaves begin to die
Like me he's lost the will to live
I'm so lonesome I could cry
The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are
I'm so lonesome I could cry"
(from "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" --Hank Williams)
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jw