I think that one of my great failings as a music listener is my tendency to not take songs on their own terms, but rather to think of them as being in some way derivative of another band, style, etc. Part of this stems from a real lack of knowledge about music proper, and as such, a melody taken out of context and changed by even one note (such as White Williams’ probably unwitting re-use of a melody that I recognize as being from a Taken By Trees song, but which is probably from some 14th-Century choral piece that neither myself, Mr. Williams, nor Ms. Bergsman have ever heard) sounds to me like it’s exactly like some other pop song I’ve heard before. Maybe I’m just excited about my own ability to note anything at all that links two separate pieces of art, and I can’t get past it. All I know is that I’m already seeing a theme here on this three-day old blog: the need to categorize, however arbitrarily, in some attempt to grip by my fingernails the vast and disparate canon of songs that keep whizzing by my ears. I hope not to be the guy who describes a band by describing two other bands meeting each other at a party and somehow melding their limbs and wills into this third, multi-armed hybrid band. On the other hand, I think that there are certain tunes that speak directly to the listener for reasons many have tried to specify, and which will always work. Sam Cooke spoke of the need to tell a simple story in song, and while I like the complicated ones too, I may not hum them as often.
sounds like
I think that one of my great failings as a music listener is my tendency to not take songs on their own terms, but rather to think of them as being in some way derivative of another band, style, etc. Part of this stems from a real lack of knowledge about music proper, and as such, a melody taken out of context and changed by even one note (such as White Williams’ probably unwitting re-use of a melody that I recognize as being from a Taken By Trees song, but which is probably from some 14th-Century choral piece that neither myself, Mr. Williams, nor Ms. Bergsman have ever heard) sounds to me like it’s exactly like some other pop song I’ve heard before. Maybe I’m just excited about my own ability to note anything at all that links two separate pieces of art, and I can’t get past it. All I know is that I’m already seeing a theme here on this three-day old blog: the need to categorize, however arbitrarily, in some attempt to grip by my fingernails the vast and disparate canon of songs that keep whizzing by my ears. I hope not to be the guy who describes a band by describing two other bands meeting each other at a party and somehow melding their limbs and wills into this third, multi-armed hybrid band. On the other hand, I think that there are certain tunes that speak directly to the listener for reasons many have tried to specify, and which will always work. Sam Cooke spoke of the need to tell a simple story in song, and while I like the complicated ones too, I may not hum them as often.
Taken By Trees – Taken Too Young By TTA
White Williams – Fleetwood Crack