The beauty of words

Iconography for my imaginary band, The Dictionary Hearts

I have a massive series of questions eating away at my brain, beginning with something akin to this:
Why can’t every frontman have the same aptitude as Grant McLennan, Mark Kozelek, Edwyn Collins, Lawrence Hayward, Stephen Malkmus or Luke Haines?

And what would happen if they did? Would a person like myself find anything to whine about? Or would such a person fall down to the floor in a heap of near-apocalyptic consumption because of the myriad triggers stemming from these lyricists’ anthologies?

Let’s see what I’m on about:

This is ‘Grey Streets’ by Felt. It contains the following amazingness:
“Grey streets and streets of grey/
Patrolled by knights from the invading day/
Closing eyelids stutter and tumble and turn away/
Makeshift memories they collide for another stay”

It’s a way with words. It’s not necessarily what any of these lyricists are saying, it’s the way they elucidate on something. The passion.

It’s the joy that they bring to my ears and my mind; that they make me think. Less fortunately for the world, the majority see music as escapism – escapism in the sense that it provides a getaway. A getaway from the complexities by way of something more… more simple. Easier. More liquidified. Even more liquidified. But that’s not what the world’s about.

Who I am to preach? No-one. But if I didn’t think this true, I wouldn’t write about it. And if I didn’t write about it believing it to be right, there’d be no purpose.

The Go-Betweens’ ‘Love Is A Sign’, that is simple:
“I know I’ll see you again/
The world is too big or too small/
I won’t be the madman then/
It will be me that’s come to call”

SO simple. So lucid, so emotive too. And pictoral. And vivid.

I’m not going to be happy until everyone I don’t know comes round to my way of thinking, or listens to what I’ve got to say. And even then, I’m going to hate them for not thinking of it first.

Another bit of context:

This is ‘Shady Lane’ by Pavement. The one song I have listened to more than any other in the world world ever. It contains the following section:
“A shady lane, everybody wants one/
A shady lane, everybody needs one/
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god/
Oh my god, oh your god, oh his god, oh her god/
It’s everybody’s god, it’s everybody’s god, it’s everybody’s god, it’s
everybody’s god/
The worlds collide, but all that we want is a shady lane”

A grand total of 23 unique words there in a possible 60. But powerful words, oh such powerful words!

What’s the point in this? I don’t know. I just want you to THINK. And tack yourselves back a level or twelve. Back to the enigmas.

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