smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Jaimie Vernon <bullseyecanada@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: audities-digest V5 #1124 (11 msgs) |
| Date | Tue, 7 Oct 2008 09:09:18 -0400 |
[Part 1 text/plain iso-8859-1 (2.7 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
At Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 19:31:00 Drew wrote:
> From: "Drew MacDonald" <drewmacdonald1@gmail.com>
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Subject: Cinema Songs
> Message-ID: <5603c5fd0810061931w2c81fbb1t9bd0254356daa865@mail.gmail.com>
>
> Jaime Vernon:
> "Worst song ever? It's a tie -- 'Born To Run' or 'Paradise By The Dashboard
> Light"....
>
> Spoken like a true (former) punk, Jaimie! And I get what you're saying,
> though I disagree. (I was at just the right place in my life when "BTR" hit,
> and it can still kick up the old goosebumps. And "Paradise" always struck me
> as a PARODY of that "widescreen" style, not an example of it.)
I like cinematic styled songs -- "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" by Ultravox was always way more heart-wrenching than the video they created for it and Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' was always better in my head than Sir Geldof could have ever portrayed. Even "Dream Police" would have made a great concept film.
No, what I dislike about "Born To Run" (and a LOT of Springsteen for that matter) and "Paradise" is the arrangements/production values of these songs -- the fact that I can't stand Springsteen and Meatloaf as singers is secondary to my beef with the music. There is a certain element of contrivance mixed with the story-telling that smacks of Grade 9 English Lit as taught from some bizarro world school in Hoboken (do people really TALK like this in New Jersey?).
They both try too hard to hit you over the head with their
'cleverness'. And maybe it's no coincidence that both songs use cars as
metaphors for sex...one of the most juvenile and untitilating of
lyrical devices (are you listening David Lee Roth?).
But the biggest turn-off is the 1950's American Diner/Broadway style of these songs...a rock and roll tinpan alley without the kitsche factor of, say, "Grease". This style is attractive to a lot of music lovers -- hell, Segarini's "Gotta Have Pop" uses it to great effect -- but once again it's a taste thing for me. Not a big '50's styled 'Rock And Roll' fan with the xylophones, saxes and boogie woogie pianos.
Want to put seventeen different musical juxtapositions together in a song? Analyse "Band On The Run". But in these two songs it doesn't work when heaped with pretentious bombast. I've heard Born To Run acoustically and it's a much better song because you only have the cloying lyrics....but "Paradise" is beyond contempt. There's just no excuse for it to exist. And I don't buy the parody angle. Check out Blotto's "My Girlfriend Was The Star Of A Driver's Ed Movie"....now that's a 1950's song parody.
Jaimie Vernon,
Bullseye
_________________________________________________________________
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.