[Beth Curran]

I've loved Mark Knopfler's lyrics for years.

"She tortures taxi drivers just for fun
She like to read their lips.
She says, "Toro, Toro, taxi, see you later my son""

Fabulous.

What makes a lyric good?  For me, it's the strength and immediacy of the
mental picture it gives me, a visual interpretation plus the sound of
the words - the sound and rhythm of the words is important, they have to
provide the support for the picture they form, the breath and heartbeat
of the image.....damn, this is hard to describe.  Multimedia in my
brain.  Another stressed out middle manager tries to sound coherent
after a fuck-all of a day............... - Beth

-----Original Message-----
From: powderworks-admin@cs.colorado.edu
[mailto:powderworks-admin@cs.colorado.edu] On Behalf Of Jim Macdonald
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 10:26 AM
To: Maurice R. Kelly
Cc: powderworks@cs.colorado.edu
Subject: Re: [Powderworks] What lyrics!

Maurice,

I agree totally with you.  If there's one band that does it for me more
than
Midnight Oil, it would be U2, and that's a pretty tall order.

It always seemed like U2 was one step ahead of me and my tastes.  When I
was just
getting idealistic, they started making dark love songs and using
electric sounds. 
When I started having broken hearts, they got all ironic on me and
techno.  Just as
I was getting into that, they got anthemic again.  But, I've always
adored U2 as a
profound band, where music, meets passion, meets lyrics, meets a band
all in one
great amazing union.

I listen to a song like "So Cruel", and I've felt it so many times.  You
don't think
great profound thoughts in the moment of agony.  You find yourself so
hopeless to
come up with words, that the best you can do is say small little phrases
like in
"One" especially when you're trying to give that eloquence yourself.
And, it's the
words, mixed with a voice, mixed in a musical background.  The lyric
fits the song
and the voice.  

Perhaps, because I see U2 and Midnight Oil as sacred cows, I get upset
when someone
sets the one against the other, it's like setting up one part of my soul
against
myself.  We need more bands like both, and it feels too much like a
petty civil war
when the one is against the other.  The bands are different to be sure.
U2 has a
different scope and range than Midnight Oil, a bit of flare for to laugh
in the
glitter, and walk the tightrope of pretentiousness, while Midnight Oil
prefers the
route of sincerity.  Both are so much a part of my own soul that it
would be like
losing my left or right arm, although I'd almost sooner be without
either one of
them than one of the bands.

The funny thing is, the new U2 song, "Electrical Storm" hasn't grown on
me yet.  I
guess I'm not quite in that phase right now.  Midnight Oil's "Breathe"
album first
had that effect on me, but now that's the first album I turn to when I
want to
listen to Midnight Oil and show off the sides of the band I most love.  

Both groups have strong lyrics, strong music, a strong sense of the
deconstructive
and reconstructive mission of rock, and a strong tight band.  Most of
all, both have
an unrelenting passion that drives their music.

Jim Macdonald



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