so I've been doing that thing where I sit down and try to write lyrics and I realized

[theophile]

that there are number of very specific lyrical gambits that almost always delight me.

Comments

[cataptromancer]

So you're going to write a super-song that includes all those elements?

I think one of my first moments at actual critical analysis was when I sat down in 9th grade and tried to figure out the recipe for U2 songs (in order to then write a series of embarrassingly shameless ripoffs). I think the first thing on the list was "Biblical references." I remember thinking, "hey, yeah, that's definitely going on a lot. Weird."

[theophile]

I noticed that setting things on fire is a recurring theme in most of the lyrics I've written in my life, actually, which is what ended up prompting this line of thinking.

also, I did the same thing you describe, but with Nine Inch Nails lyrics, at one point. I think I have a tape somewhere of the results, but I am hoping that is not the case. and that I will never again have to endure the consequences of my realization that "well, pretty much, every song is how Trent expects something to be good but it turns out to be shitty."

[cataptromancer]

Yes! "I thought X, but Y" is the key NIN structure. For the first albums, it was "I thought you X, but Y." Then in the Downward Spiral it started to become more like "I thought I X, but Y." And now it's something more like "I thought the world/record industry X, but Y."

[theophile]

that is possibly the best analysis of Trent's lyrical technique I've ever seen. my addendum for the Fragile, though, is "I thought it all X, but Y."

[nightspore]

For Number 3, The Soft Parade. ("You cannot petition the Lord with prayer.")

[theophile]

I always heard that line as being rooted more in emphasis than formal grammar. kind of like "you did not just go there!"

[lapsedmodernist]

I am not sure that you are familiar with one of my favorite Susanne Vega songs, which starts:

"watch while the queen in one false move
turns herself into a pawn
Sleepy and shaken, and watching while the blurry night
Turns into a very clear dawn."

[theophile]

I am not sure I am, either.

[theophile]

seriously.

I've been listening to the original Prick album a lot lately. I think "Crack" is the only song on the entire album that I don't love. but, yeah, both "Make Believe" and "No Fair Fights" can make me tremble like nobody's business.

[theophile]

"SideWalking" for me, too!

the self-titled album is produced marvelously (I love those subtle touches like the backing guitars in "I Got It Bad" and the gentle atmospherics in "Make Believe") but his four-tracked stuff somehow captures this immediacy that should be impossible in the light of all the triple- and quadruple-entendres he's sprinkling all over the place.

[legitimatelove]

...strike a match, pour gasoline
ditch the scene and watch the city burn...
- She's My Ride Home, Blue October

[theophile]

it smells of cheap wine & cigarettes,
this place is always such a mess.
sometimes I think I'd like to watch it burn.