Music to My Ears

Sometimes, the best poems are not meant as poems at all. They are intended for ears rather than eyes, but still aimed at the heart. There are some songs that, when read aloud, one wouldn’t think it was ever set to music unless they’d heard it.

This week was finals week at my college, and in my Oral Communication class taught by the very talented Cristina Trapani-Scott, our final was an interpretive reading. I haven’t done a reading like this, save for my one (and only, so far) poetry reading, since high school Theatre Arts class. This was a fun way to finish the class, and I got to hear some really interesting stuff, including some of my favorites, like Edgar Allen Poe’s “Annabel Lee,” which is a classic interpretive reading piece.

Nobody read Edna St. Vincent Millay, though. I was a little disappointed.

What I did hear, however, were a lot of songs. I heard a lot of music in the words, but not even the music it was set to for the radio. There were a handful of really good interpretations of these pieces that I wouldn’t have associated with the words otherwise.

I can say this – I won’t hear “Stairway to Heaven” the same way ever again. I love Led Zeppelin, and I unabashedly love this song. I don’t think much about the lyrics while it’s playing in the car, though. Maybe because it’s an eight minute song, it just starts to blur into throbbing guitar and whimsical storytelling tones. That’s what happens for me, and for most Zeppelin music. The words are somehow lost in the “muchness” of the whole. After this class, though, I feel like I have a better connection with the song because I’ve heard the lyrics written as I feel they were originally written: as a poem.

A great example of a songwriter who makes beautiful music with lyrics that seem better equipped for poetry is Tom Waits. I love the way his voice growls, rambling on into tangents and bringing real personality to his work. “Kentucky Avenue” is one of my very favorite songs and I love the way the lyrics tumble out. You can really imagine him as a bright-eyed smart-mouthed kid. When I first discovered this song, everyone was citing it as a love song. But check out the words:

“Kentucky Avenue” by Tom Waits

Eddie Graces Buick got 4 bullet holes in the side
Charlie De lisle sittin' at the top of an avocado tree
Mrs Storm'll stab you with a steak knife if you step on her lawn
I got a half pack of lucky strikes man, come along with me

Let's fill our pockets with macadamia nuts
Then go over to Bobby Goodmansons and jump off the roof
Hilda plays strip poker and her mama's across the street
Joey Navinski says, "She put her tongue in his mouth"

Dicky Faulkner's got a switchblade and some goose neck risers
That eucalyptus is a hunchback, there's a wind up from the south
Let me tie you up with kite string and I'll show you the scabs on my knee

Watch out for the broken glass, put your shoes and socks on
And come along with me

Let’s follow that fire track, I think your house is burnin' down
Then go down to the hobo jungle and kill some rattle, snakes with a trowel
We'll break all the windows in the old Anderson place
And steal a bunch of boysenberrys and smear 'em on our face

I'll get a dollar from my mama's purse
And buy that skull and crossbones ring
And you can wear it around your neck on an old piece of string
Then we'll spit on Ronnie Arnold and flip him the bird
And slash the tires on the school bus now don't say a word

I'll take a rusty nail and scratch your initials on my arm
And I'll show you how to sneak up on the roof of the drugstore
I'll take those spokes from your wheelchair and a magpies wings
And I'll tie 'em to your shoulders and your feet

I'll steal a hacksaw from my dad and cut the braces off your legs
And we'll bury them tonight load in the cornfield
Just put a church key in your pocket, we'll hop that freight train in the hall
We'll slide all the way down the drain to New Orleans in the fall.

Is it the words, or the melody, that makes the song? I think this can be argued in both directions, really. Sometimes, the song is worth more in music than it is in words. I feel this way about rap sometimes. I can’t always follow the lyrics, maybe because I literally can’t keep up, or because I can’t identify with them (I’m a little white girl, I don’t know much about bitches and money) but the melody keeps me tuned into the station. So let’s not discount it entirely, because I think that’s where a lot of rap comes from, too. It starts as poetry, evolves into spoken word, and once a track is put behind it, there’s the magic formula that sells.

If you know me, you know I can't waste any opportunity to plug my absolute favorite rock band of all time, NIRVANA. There are several examples in their discography like this. Kurt Cobain is a often-quoted lyricist, and often ridiculed for his writing style. Which is funny, because he would be the first to admit that his writing style lacks style at all. He used to say that he didn't much care about the lyrics, as long as the music made sense. This is how we ended up with such lyrical gems such as "aqua sea foam shame."

(Which actually does mean something, by the way. In his journals, Cobain wrote of the side effects of heroin, one of which was a fuzzy sea-foam green blur over his vision. So, consider yourself educated!)

Have you ever heard a song that had such lyrics you’d think they were a poem? There’s a basic formula to write a song. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus. You can take a few, leave a few, but those are the basic parts. Some of my favorite songs are the ones that break away from this pattern. It’s pretty recognizable when someone reads a song aloud as a poem. But sometimes, it’s not. Sometimes, a song is so well-written that it stands alone as poetry, and today, I celebrate poetic music. (And my sister’s birthday – Happy Birthday, Katelyn!)

Which musical poems (or poetic songs) are your favorites? Please comment!

Thanks for reading, and ya’ll have a great week. xoxo : )