BLOG 206: Better than Apes!

“Talk in everlasting words and dedicate them all to me... it’s only words but words are all I have” Burt Bacharach

Not much I’ll hand to Boyzone but their take on the Burt Bacharach classic ’Words’ says it all.  I think the difference between us and the apes...the reason why we have top spot in the chain of evolution... are our words. We’re not the strongest... many species can knock us out, we’re not the smartest ... many species are better organised and can better share resources. But what WE do what the others don’t do even half as well... is inspire each other.

It is inspiration (JAXWORLD DEF: a belief in better that is as yet unproven) that makes our species... that can’t be underwater, in clouds or in difficult terrain without aid.... successfully survive, explore and dominate this planet. We inspire each other to believe in better, to strive to make our dreams reality and to actually walk the talk that previous generations dreamt about.

But how do we do this?

Words. Sounds daft but that’s what we do. The most valuable contributions we make to each other are the words we inspire and motivate with . Really .. the secret to our success is that pure and simple.

SO, where are these words then?  Over to the Tom Tom Club on this one:

Words in paper, words in books/Words on TV, words for crooks
Words of comfort, words of peace/Words to make the fighting cease
Words to tell you what to do/Words are working hard for you
Eat your words but don't go hungry
Words have always nearly hung me
Words of nuance, words of skill/Words of romance are a thrill
Words are stupid, words are fun/Words can put you on the run

Concrete words, abstract words/Crazy words and lying words
Hazy words and dying words/Words of faith and tell me straight
Rare words and swear words/Good words and bad words

Words are often at their most powerful in poetry. No disrespect to the current poet laurite  (Carol Ann Duffy) but most of us Brits come across poetry more often in  modern popular music (pop) than we do with tomes or volumes of the hard stuff. However there are those who would argue that with popular music it’s all about the tune... not the words.

Today I spoke with a very impressive colleague who knows a whole heap about stuff... it would kind of fuse your plugs if you had access to what The G knows about stuff. However we fell into the familiar row...music or lyrics. And (regular readers of JaxWorld Blog sigh with the ‘we so know what is coming' regular sigh) yeah Jax had to argue the corner  for words... even though The G was all for music.

I hasten to add in REAL TIME I lost the argument.

I was trumped by recognition that the reason why I love the ‘song of my life’ (How soon is Now by the Smiths) has fook all to do with the lyrics... it’s the north of England dispossessed interpretation of a Native Indian call to arms that runs at the start of the track (5 minutes on the EP) that stirs my soul and registers the fact with me that this is the best piece of music EVER put on any recording device. It is totally evocative. I hear it and all the times I’ve ever not come in first stop being a matter of shame or annoyance... they become my badge of honour and invite to being party to a revolution that is yet to come.

BUT

(oh blogger retrospect kicking in)... while the music is stirring, the hook for me is in fact the line “Oh shut your mouth how can you say,,, I go about things the wrong way.... I am human and I need to be loved just like everybody else does”  which runs so soon after the Navaho inspired back beat that actually is responsible for sealing the deal with me .

I caved too early on this debate today. I should have stuck with what I know to be true:

Lyrics are what people identify with.

Music sets the beat... sure. Music (melody probably is a better word as it is the repeated melodic phrases that we think of when we say music)...Melody gives me the mood. But it is the LYRICS that are the call to arms. There has been some great music during the later half of the 20^th century and the beginning of the 21^st. Music is a great motivator of action. For example: I don’t haul ass from London to Bournemouth on a mid week night regularly... however Snow Patrol made it essential when those were the only south of england tickets available. So why travel 100 miles on a midweek night for a band? Easy ...because of their.. LYRICS.

Okay the melodies were great, sure... they can strum a guitar and bang on those drums... but I can assure you the M3 and M27 were not negotiated on a winters night for that. What clearly was the motive was shown when the Bournmouth International Centre's roof was nearly lifted as the thousands of attendees belted out the lyrics reflecting the poetry that can be found in the trauma of everyday lives:

“Please keep your hands down, and stop raising your voice,
Its hardly what I'd be doing, if you gave me a choice,
Its a simple suggestion, can you give me some time,
So just say yes or no, why can't you shoulder the blame?
'cause both my shoulders are heavy, from the weight of us both,
You're a big boy now, so lets not talk about growth,
You've not heard a single word I have said, Oh My God...”

I can assure you ... no one heard the melody the band were knocking out. The capaity crowd drowned it out by singing those eighty words like THEY wrote them. Thing is ... the music was magic. We needed Snow Patrol to set the mood with their simpleback beat, almost lullaby-like in it’s compensation to give the lyrics weight. But make no mistake ... it was ALL about the words.

The simplicity of the melody with the lyrics of the humdrum of everyday couple life... “It seems I‘ve stepped over lines you’ve drawn again and again”. .. It became a closed eye anthem to those who really wish they were able to articulate their experience in a concert hall at least.

Words.

Words are the most amazing thing human beings have. Through describing our experience we found common ground. Through words we are one. La lala la la doesn’t quite cover it!

I’m not belittling melody. Rhythm is important as The G pointed out most eloquently (and persausively) today....But the fact it reaches the soul on such a basic animal level means that there must be something primeval about it.

Give them enough time and the apes may have music.

But ...words.

Now that is where we humans are AT.

Words

I went to Paris recently. Paris and I have always had a difficult relationship. I went to Paris for the first time aged 16 with my school friend. Post Paris we fell out and have never spoken since – but Paris was our great adventure.. we found places that aren’t on the map and did things that maybe a couple of suburban 16 year olds should not, but we, as fun and free as it was, ultimately, so paid for it....Paris was doom... we spiralled downhill after the experience.  I subseqently repeated the pattern often by consistantly being in Paris with EXACTLY the wrong people. So, earlier this year, I went alone to see if that improved the experience. Sitting by the Seine  thinking ‘ Really??? Paris, I  STILL don’t get it...wish I were in Milan... at least the shoes are cheaper’. Then randomly my old school friend wandered past just as a street musician started sing a Keane song ... in French.

“Assis par la rivière, et il a fait me compléter Oh, la chose simple, où êtes-vous allé ? Je vieillis, et j'ai besoin de quelque chose pour compter sur moi dit Si quand vous êtes gonna a

laissé m'est entrer je suis fatigué, et j'ai besoin de quelque part commencer je suis tombé sur un arbre tombé j'ai senti que les branches de lui me regardent ceci Est le lieu nous avons

aimé ? Est-ceci le lieu que j'ai rêvé de ? Et si vous avez une minute, pourquoi nous n'allons pas Discours de lui quelque part seulement nous savons ? Ceci pourrait être la fin de tout

Si pourquoi nous n'allons pas quelque part seulement nous savons ?”

[Oh  copy and paste into SDL free translation if you don’t parle Frenchy!!!]

Basically.... the lyrics told OUR story. It would have been juvenile to pretend we had not seen each other. I was sitting on the steps that she came down.  But it was not just geography... the song   “Somewhere Only We Know” (even being murdered by the French language) pulled the scab of a never healed wound. We really had no choice... So we went and had coffee and talked... and it was good. Not a cure. But a start. Who knows... we may be exchanging chrimbo cards this year ( a first since 17!!!) LOL. The catalist for this change... a set of someone elses words that resonated with our predictament.

This is a uniquely human experience  - surely! It’s almost the essence of we do as people.... exchange our experiences in words. We gather words.  When we have some idea what we wish to communicate We struggle to fit the precise words that mood, story, or theme.  When writing lyrics to a score (music/score usually comes first in this process and is usually the shortest process) we look for words that not only fit the mood story or theme behind the score, they also fit at key places in the melody. Every hit recording will have these important words appearing where the melody will bring them out - the end of a phrase, or the high point in a line. A good lyricist will ensure that they fit naturally with the melody so that when you sing the words, the emphasis comes on the right syllables. Of course take the words away ad you still have music.

However when lyrics fit naturally to a score... you no longer have mere music...  you have an anthem.

But that's the ideal. And we all know ideals aren't the siuaions we get most of he time. The truth of the power of words shows most in that crappy lyrics really damage great melodys/scores . In reverse truely crappy melody/scores can be totally transformed and uplifted by a great set of lyrics. Music dates... but the truth of human experience in the lyrics seems timeless.

A great example is Supertramps 1979 classic 'The logical song'. Early electronic music dates the score terribly – however - in a pub in May 2012, 'A' level students (17-18 yera olds) were belting out the lyrics as if it was just written yesterday.  Seems nothing much has changed since Roger Hodgson wrote this damnation of the British education system over 30 years ago. And despite the simple keyboard music... the lyrics ensure that it resonates with teenagers who think WTF when they go to school:

When I was young
It seemed that life was so wonderful/A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical
And all the birds in the trees/Well they'd be singing so happily
Joyfully, playfully watching me

But then they send me away
To teach me how to be sensible-Logical, responsible, practical
And then they showed me a world/Where I could be so dependable
Clinical, intellectual, cynical
I say, "Now what would you say for they calling you a radical/Liberal, fanatical, criminal?"
Won't you sign up your name? We'd like to feel you're acceptable, respectable, presentable;  a vegetable
And at night when all the world's asleep; The questions run so deep( for such a simple man)
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned?
I know it sounds absurd

 but please tell me who I am: Who I am, who I am, who I am

'Coz I'm feeling so illogical
D-d-digital
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Unbelievable
B-b-bloody marvellous

Words....
Its what we do.
Exclusively.

The apes have a way to go yet!

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