Category Archives: Words
Power Notebook: The Honeydogs, “Sour Grapes” (2001)
You know the phenomenon of notebook dumping. A songwriter has obviously been jotting down lines in a notebook, ideas and phrases with random charms, and then one day decides on a chord progression and dumps a bunch of the lines … Continue reading
The Contents of Time: Free, “Don’t Say You Love Me” (1970)
For something that doesn’t exist, time plays an enormous role in our calculations. It’s because we’re always off – we won’t be able to complete an action (time is short), or keep waiting (it’s long), or meet someone (it’s missing), … Continue reading
The Direct: Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul, “Solidarity” (1984) and Comet Gain, “We’re All Fucking Morons” (2019)
There’s a feeling like the sun has come out when someone just says it, or finally says it, that thing that maybe shouldn’t even need to be said but is one of those main things. End of blather, of levity, … Continue reading
Plain: Sloan, “Underwhelmed” (1992)
In popular song, as in old-fashioned poetry, we expect a tight rhyme scheme. It seems to come naturally with the almost inescapable line/stanza form of verses and choruses. And so there can be a significant surprise, an unexpected intrigue, even … Continue reading
Jumbled: Amazing Rhythm Aces, “Hit The Nail On The Head” (1975)
I recently recommended the Amazing Rhythm Aces’ album Stacked Deck to a female acquaintance who, alas! was not nearly as charmed with it as I am. Could the problem partly be here, in “Hit The Nail On The Head”? Saw you last … Continue reading
Logical Investigations: Everything Everything, “Fortune 500” (2015)
In Aristotelian logic, you can get a result this way: If p, then q (suppose it’s true that “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”) p (there’s smoke) Therefore q (there’s fire) or this way: If p, then q (suppose it’s true that … Continue reading
The Greatest/Worst “I”: John Lennon, “I Found Out” (1970)
We already covered the “I” of “Gloria” and “Psycho Killer,” but that was in two special contexts. What about the first-person pronoun as something generally meaningful, one of our top go-to words? Can you get excited about the “I”? Can … Continue reading
Greatest Dylan Hooks
What a great day, in a categorically confusing way: a popular songwriter has won the Nobel Prize for literature! We must pay our respects! What for you is the greatest hook in Dylan’s lyrics, and why do you pick it? … Continue reading
Classic Unique: Fiona Apple, “Extraordinary Machine” (2005)
Our words wait quietly in the dictionary with their meanings ready, paws tucked under. When we take them out, sometimes we try to make them sit still there, there, and there, like in info-speak; or let them run, like in poetry; … Continue reading
Hooks 