philosophy in song

“Mad World” from Donnie Darko

[b]All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere

Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I wanna drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles its a very, very
Mad world, mad world

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy birthday, happy birthday
And I feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen

Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me, what’s my lesson?
Look right through me, look right through me

And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles its a very, very
Mad world, mad world, enlarging your world
Mad world[/b]

youtube.com/watch?v=T1_4e7gFBDw&t=5s

And the next step is to…

Dump the philosophy, poetry and lyrics, and enjoy the music.

What can Mick Jagger sing that can compete with a Keith Richards guitar lick?

Well, let’s just say the music you hear and the music I hear is the music embedded in dasein.

I can imagine listening to, say, “Wild Horses” with or without Mick’s lyrics:

[b]Childhood living is easy to do
The things you wanted, I bought them for you
Graceless lady, you know who I am
You know I can’t let you slide through my hands

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldn’t drag me away

I watched you suffer a dull aching pain
Now you decided to show me the same
No sweeping exits or offstage lines
Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldn’t drag me away

I know I’ve dreamed you, a sin and a lie
I have my freedom but I don’t have much time
Faith has been broken, tears must be cried
Let’s do some living, after we die

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away
Wild, wild horses, we’ll ride them some day
Wild horses couldn’t drag me away
Wild, wild horses, we’ll ride them some day[/b]

youtube.com/watch?v=QhwwCWkmYoc

But it’s not the same “message” being conveyed. When the words and the music “fit” the experience [for me] is considerably more satisfying.

Joan Baez “Diamonds and Rust”
[to bob dylan]

[b]Well I’ll be damned
Here comes your ghost again
But that’s not unusual
It’s just that the moon is full
And you happened to call
And here I sit
Hand on the telephone
Hearing a voice I’d known
A couple of light years ago
Heading straight for a fall

As I remember your eyes
Were bluer than robin’s eggs
My poetry was lousy you said
Where are you calling from?
A booth in the midwest
Ten years ago
I bought you some cufflinks
You brought me something
We both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust

Well you burst on the scene
Already a legend
The unwashed phenomenon
The original vagabond
You strayed into my arms
And there you stayed
Temporarily lost at sea
The Madonna was yours for free
Yes the girl on the half-shell
Would keep you unharmed

Now I see you standing
With brown leaves falling around
And snow in your hair
Now you’re smiling out the window
Of that crummy hotel
Over Washington Square
Our breath comes out white clouds
Mingles and hangs in the air
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and there

Now you’re telling me
You’re not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You who are so good with words
And at keeping things vague
Because I need some of that vagueness now
It’s all come back too clearly
Yes I loved you dearly
And if you’re offering me diamonds and rust
I’ve already paid[/b]

youtube.com/watch?v=bpD5_c2j1OM

My college girlfriend recently stumbled upon my utterly pathetic Facebook page and contacted me via email. We’ve been reviewing our year together from a distance of 40 years since passed. A strangely wonderful experience, which I can only compare to reviewing one’s life from beyond the grave.

Joan Baez speaks of “a couple of light years ago” by which she probably was referring to only a decade or so. I remember that song coming out very well, and she just wasn’t that old. Hopefully by now the rust has finally faded, and it’s all just diamonds between her and Bob.

A great song, and a great example of tentative’s stated love of the dance between music and lyrics.

Ok, just watched the video. Damn, that really is a good song. I’d forgotten how good. And yes, I have to agree, the lyrics are indispensable. Thanks Tent! Perfect timing for me as well…

PS: The YouTube button in the post control panel will put the vids right in the post, if that’s desired.

I suspect both of them spend a lot of time thinking about what they’d be willing to trade to go back a few decades now.

Dylan from “Highlands”:

I see people in the park forgettin’ their troubles and woes
They’re drinkin’ and dancin’, wearin’ bright colored clothes
All the young men, with the young women lookin’ so good
Well, I’d trade places with any of 'em in a minute, if I could.

After the rust comes the dust, right?

Well, if you’ll review the Dylan quote…

You’ll see he’s not actually offering to trade anything to go back. That seems honest and accurate.

The way it works is, you want to take everything you’ve learned, and go back and do it over again, but different this time, better. That is, you want to leave out the ignorance, the very thing that made it fun in the first place. It’s an utterly incoherent emotion, but it makes for good art, or a rainy day reminiscence.

Your first lover. What made it so special? Ignorance.

And what makes the rainy day reminiscence so fun? Ignorance, a willful forgetting of what a pain in the ass ignorance really was.

He is not offering anything because he knows he can’t: “if I could”.

If he could, what would he give up? What would I give up? What would you?

They say youth is wasted on the young. But occasionally you come upon someone and that is not true at all. What would you give up then?

I think: fuck everything I’ve learned. I’ll give that up too. And so, I suspect, would Bob.

Ok, good point.

Well, these are excellent questions, though I apologize I have no song lyrics to illuminate them. Hmm…

Speaking as a village elder, age 60, it seems I’m first required to admit and agree there is a psychological pull of nostalgia, a vague yearning to go back. Oh, I have a movie reference at least, Peggy Sue Got Married, perhaps the best movie ever on this subject?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Sue_Got_Married

But there’s a lot of rose colored glasses involved, at least in my case. Of the 6 decades I’ve lived, my twenties were the worse. Not that there weren’t many great things, but overall on balance, the least fun decade. Lots of confusion about career and love etc, the usual stuff. If like Bob Dylan I’d been at the peak of a glamorous career at age 22, well perhaps that’s different.

Emotionally I vote for indulging the nostalgia in casual non-serious way. It can be fun, why not?

But when the buzz from that second glass of wine passes and reality returns, I vote for embracing the rust, welcoming the coming dust, and trusting the system as it is. I’m not trading that in on another round of muddled confusion, thanks anyway.

In a pathetic pitch for my virtual reality thread, what if we could go back for just a bit, like in Peggy Sue Got Married? What if I could pop a program in to my Holodeck, and spend another day age 20 with my college girlfriend? Would I run that program at least once? Yes, I believe I would.

And that would probably kill off the sweet nostalgia. Oops…

I don’t see nostalgia figuring in here at all. Bob wants to go back because he is getting closer and closer to oblivion. Youth takes you farther and farther away from that. There are things worse than death of course but I suspect Bob is more than willing to take his chances—“if he could”. And I suspect he would trade places with those young folks even if all that he was then becomes all that they are now.

But, of course, he can’t.

youtube.com/watch?v=Y93lEsrYwro

Gregg Allman “Queen of Hearts”

[b]Once I was glad,
Always happy never sad,
And every day
Felt like Sunday
And although things were slow
Never seemed to have no dough
Somehow, I never once got lonely
Ya’ see the fact is more or less
You’re gamblin’ with your own happiness
And most all your would be friends
Turn out so phoney

Oh but times they change
And Im through the rains
And Im seein the Queen of Hearts
Dont know where to start
Or how to stop

And after things have come and gone
Left me feelin’
That I’ve done so wrong
Oh, I’ve wasted so much time
Feelin’ guilty
And as I watch you sit across the room
Beautiful as the flowers bloom
Living it just one day
Oh brother youre gonna come back
To find me gone

I love you queen of Hearts
Tell me not to stop
Just tell me where
To start
Where now baby
Tell me where to start

And after all that weve been through
I find that when I think of you
A warm soft wind runs
through and through
And in my heart
theres only you
And I will always keep on trying
To gather this strange piece of mind
Without it thered be
Lonely me and
Oh darlin lonely you

I love you Queen of Hearts
Dont tell me when to stop
Tell me when to start

I love you queen of Hearts
Tell me not to stop
Just tell me where
To start[/b]

youtube.com/watch?v=iyrFpR59_vQ

The Clash “Lose This Skin”

[b]Come with me. I won’t hide
We’re going on a ride
We meet each day, use time to see
While we’re young and almost free

I’ve got to lose this skin I’m imprisoned in
Got to lose this skin I’m imprisoned in

Do not turn or hate to see
All the things you think we’ve got
Do not turn or hate to see
What happened to the wife of Lot

We’re alone or so they say
We’re not on our own in that way
When we’re alone it’s real tough going
We TEND TO take a part in someone else’s play

Come with me, I thought he said
But that’s not him anymore, he’s dead
What’s it like to be so free
So free it looks like lost to me[/b]

youtube.com/watch?v=CtWdVX6LS8w

Bob wants to go back because he has no idea WTF he’s getting closer to? Bob doesn’t trust the system, and assumes he can do a better job of managing things? Yea, that sounds like Bob I guess.

And now you’re on to Gregg Allman. Damn, you got me nailed dude.

Not at all sure what you mean. Why? Just lucky I guess. :wink:

Buffy Sainte-Marie “God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot”
words by Leonard Cohen

[b]God is alive, magic is afoot
God is alive, magic is afoot
God is alive, magic is afoot
God is afoot, magic is alive
Alive is afoot, magic never died
God never sickened
Many poor men lied
Many sick men lied
Magic never weakened
Magic never hid
Magic always ruled
God is afoot, God never died
God was ruler
Though his funeral lengthened
Though his mourners thickened
Magic never fled
Though his shrouds were hoisted
The naked God did live
Though his words were twisted
The naked magic thrived
Though his death was published
Round and round the world
The heart did not believe

Many hurt men wondered
Many struck men bled
Magic never faltered
Magic always lead
Many stones were rolled
But God would not lie down
Many wild men lied
Many fat men listened
Though they offered stones
Magic still was fed
Though they locked their coffers
God was always served
Magic is afoot, God is alive
Alive is afoot

Alive is in command
Many weak men hungered
Many strong men thrived
Though they boast of solitude
God was at their side
Nor the captain on the hill
Magic is alive
Though his death was pardoned
Round and round the world
The heart would not believe

Though laws were carved in marble
They could not shelter men
Though altars built in parliaments
They could not order men
Police arrested magic and
magic went with them
Mmmmm… for magic loves the hungry
But magic would not tarry
It moves from arm to arm
It would not stay with them
Magic is afoot
It cannot come to harm
It rests in an empty palm
It spawns in an empty mind
But magic is no instrument
Magic is the end
Many men drove magic
But magic stayed behind
Many strong men lied
They only passed through magic
And out the other side
Many weak men lied
They came to God in secret
And though they left Him nourished
They would not tell who healed
Though mountains danced before them
They said that God was dead
Though his shrouds were hoisted
The naked God did live
This I mean to whisper to my mind
This I mean to laugh within my mind
This I mean my mind to serve
Til’ service is but magic
Moving through the world
And mind itself is magic
Coursing through the flesh
And flesh itself is magic
Dancing on a clock
And time itself
The magic length of God[/b]

youtube.com/watch?v=FhmeroR20lc

GOLDWATCH BLUES
Donovan

[b]I went up for my interview on the fourth day of July.
First old man he questioned me until I nearly cried,
Made me fill in forms until I shook with fear
About the colour of my toilet roll and if my cousin’s queer.

CHORUS:

Here’s your goldwatch and the shackles for your chain
And your piece of paper to say you left here sane.
And if you’ve a son who wants a good career
Just get him to sign on the dotted line and work for fifty
years.

He asked me how many jobs I’d had before.
He nearly had a heart attack when I answered, four.
Four jobs in twenty years, oh, this can never be
We only take on men who work until they die.

CHORUS.

He took me outside to where the gravestones stand in line.
This is where we bury them in quick-stone and in lime
And if you come to work for us on this you must agree,
That if you’re going to die please do it during tea.

CHORUS.

This story that you heard you may think rather queer
But it is the truth you’ll be surprised to hear.
I did not want no job upon the board,
I just wanted to take a broom and sweep the bloody floor.[/b]

youtube.com/watch?v=BHg__kkXKY4

HANDSOME JOHNNY
Richie Havens

[b]Hey, look yonder, tell me what’s that you see
Marching to the fields of Concord?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with a musket in his hand
Marching to the Concord war, hey, marching to the Concord war

Hey, look yonder, tell me what’s that you see
Marching to the fields of Gettysburg?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with a flintlock in his hand
Marching to the Gettysburg war, hey, marching to the Gettysburg war

Hey, it’s a long hard road, it’s a long hard road
It’s a long hard road, hey, before we’ll be free

Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see
Marching to the fields of Dunkirk?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with a carbine in his hand
Marching to the Dunkirk war, hey, marching to the Dunkirk war
Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see
Marching to the fields of Korea?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with an M1 in his hand
Marching to the Korean war, hey, marching to the Korean war

Hey, it’s a long hard road, it’s a long hard road
It’s a long hard road, hey, before we’ll be free
Hey, before we’ll be free

Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see
Marching to the fields of Vietnam?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with an M15
Marching to the Vietnam war, hey, marching to the Vietnam war

Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see
Marching to the fields of Birmingham?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with his hand rolled in a fist
Marching to the Birmingham war, hey, marching to the Birmingham war

Hey, what’s the use of singing this song
Some of you are not even listening
Tell me what it is we’ve got to do, wait for our fields to start glistening
Hey, wait for the bullets to start whistling

Hey, here comes a hydrogen bomb and here comes a guided missile
Here comes a hydrogen bomb, I can almost hear its whistle
I can almost hear its whistle[/b]

youtube.com/watch?v=kwdyr9Ceh6Q

THE JEWELER
This Mortal Coil

[b]The jeweler has a shop on the corner of the boulevard
In the night, in small spectacles, he polishes old coins
He uses spit and cloth and ashes
He makes them shine with ashes
He knows the use of ashes
He worships God with ashes

The coins are often very old by the time they reach the jeweler
With his hands and ashes he will try the best he can
He knows that he can only shine them
Cannot repair the scratches
He knows that even new coins have scars so he just smiles
He knows the use of ashes
He worships God with ashes

In the darkest of the night both his hands will blister badly
They will often open painfully and the blood flows from his hands
He works to take from black coin faces the thumbprints from so many ages
He wishes he could cure the scars
When he forgets he sometimes cries
He knows the use of ashes
He worships God with ashes[/b]

youtube.com/watch?v=MaOJydUeDPw

PARALYSED
Gang of Four

[b]Blinkered, paralysed
Flat on my back

They say our world is built on endeavor
That every man is for himself
Wealth is for the one that wants it
Paradise, if you can earn it

History is the reason
I’m washed up

Blinkered, paralysed
Flat on my back

My ambitions come to nothing
What I wanted now just seems a waste of time
I can’t make out what has gone wrong
I was good at what I did

The crows come home to roost
And I’m the dupe[/b]

youtube.com/watch?v=KnI6icd3zD4
youtube.com/watch?v=zFKLkng0PD8