Wednesday, April 06, 2005

"Hoo Dee Hoo"

I was walking home this evening, listening to this song and it struck me how many good lyrics are obscured, hidden behind the music that's supposed to be the more important part of the synthesis. Here's a great case in point: the Rainmakers were one of the most literary bands to come out of the mid-West during the guitar revival of the 80s and 90s. This is a fairly martial rock workout, but the lyrics take it to another level entirely: "Well one year it was the factory, and one year the farm/We heated with wood and the house caught fire/I reached for a figure through the smoke and the sparks/But which one did I save, the girl or the guitar?" And then: "I made a lot of good money, got a lot of good press/Writing paperback novels like a man possessed/Every name was changed, every story was true/Every priest was me, every stripper was you/And we danced like angels cast out for being lovers/And I wrote their life story on a matchbook cover". Now THAT'S story-telling!

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