I've come across two different songs about Jacob's Ladder, both the toy and the biblical story. I found some interesting comparisons to be made between them. The first song is a spiritual hymn* called "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder."
It goes thus:
We are climbing Jacob's ladder, we are climbing Jacob's ladder
We are climbing Jacob's ladder, brothers, sisters, all
Every rung goes higher and higher, every rung goes higher and higher
Every rung goes higher and higher, brothers, sisters, all
Every new one makes us stronger, every new one makes us stronger,
Every new one makes us stronger, brothers, sisters, all
We have toiled in dark and danger, we have toiled in dark and danger,
We have toiled in dark and danger, brothers, sisters, all
We are dancing Sarah's circle, we are dancing Sarah's circle
We are dancing Sarah's circle, brothers, sisters, all**
Every round a generation, every round a generation
Every round a generation, brothers, sisters, all
We are climbing Jacob's ladder, we are climbing Jacob's ladder
We are climbing Jacob's ladder, brothers, sisters, all
Another version I found is a bit simpler:
We are climbing Jacob's Ladder x3
We're soldiers of the Cross
We run goes higher and higher x3
We're soldiers of the Cross
The interesting thing to note is how it talks about either the upward or circular journey, never the downward one. "We are climbing Jacob's Ladder" and " every rung goes higher and higher" are the upward references; "we are dancing Sarah's circle" and " every round a generation" are the circular ones.
Now, compare the old spiritual's lyrics to the modern song about Jacob's Ladder, Patrick Wolf's "Jacob's Ladder," with the lyrics being the following:
Jacob
Jacob ladder's falling down
Heaven is out of reach for us now
The golden gates
The closing clouds
Jacob's ladder's fallen down
The modern song talks about going "down" and "falling" in presumably both the physical as well as the spiritual sense. Is this simply a sign of our pessimistic modern lives compared to the optimistic past? Has the prevelance of the toy Jacob's ladder - which certainly seems to cascade down - influenced the lyrics? Or did I just stumble upon two oddly polar songs by coincidence and I'm reading far too much into this?***
All I know for sure is that both songs miss the point of the biblical story:
And he [Jacob] dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.****
(italics mine)
They went two ways; up and down. I guess I'm puzzling over this: why did the artists***** represent them going only one way and not both?
Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Opinions? Other songs about the subject? If you have any of the above, please give them to me!
*It was labeled to as a "Negro Spiritual" but I'm not sure how PC that is
**Does anyone with more biblical knowledge know what this line means?
***Probably.
****Genesis 28:10-22, King James Version
*****By artists I mean lyricists. Most painters seemed to have little issue depicting the angels going both ways.
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Favorite albums!
Because lists disguise the fact that I barely update this thing. Or at least not enough for my liking.
1. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
A rumination on life, death, the afterlife, God, Anne Frank, love, alienation and who knows what else. This is my favorite album. As a whole it sounds like nothing I've ever heard while each individual piece sounds familiar (except the zanzithophone and singing saw, those were both new to me). There's your standard guitar, bass and drums and added onto that are an assortment of horns, organs, and the afformentioned singing saw and zanzithophone. All of it sounds pretty bad the first time you hear it, especially Jeff Mangum's singing. The lyrics are incomprehensible on first glance as well. If you do what I do and stick with it, hopefully you'll grow to love this as much as I have.
2. The Moon and Antarctica - Modest Mouse
Yet another rumination on life, death, the afterlife and God. This one stops at Anne Frank, though, and goes onto dehumanization and solitude. Isaac Brock's voice takes some getting used to, but it really carries across the desperation he tries to convey. My favorite part of Modest Mouse is their thematic dichotomy (I love that word): trailer trash and poetic musings. They break down when the trailer trash aspects take full force, but thankfully that doesn't happen here.
3. Agaetis Byrjun - Sigur Ros
A third musing on life, de- forget it. I've got no clue what this Icelandic band is singing about, but man is the singing good. These are really slow moving, ethereal sounding songs that, again, take a while to get used to. Sparse drums, simplistic basslines, cool piano and a guitar played with a cello bow, plus a string quartet and an awesome male falsetto.
4. Kid A - Radiohead
Paranoia reigns supreme with Radiohead! Also, good experimental rock music. These dudes are the innovators of rock. There's one truly ambient piece here, but the rest are mostly electronic/rock songs. They're the most accessible so far on this list.
5. Picaresque - The Decemberists
In order... a song about a child monarch, a double suicide by star-crossed lovers, the tragic death of a barrowboy, a song about a second-rate sports player, a love story about a secret agent and a government bureaucrat, a song about an old person waiting for a letter from their long lost love, an anti-war song, one about a novelist, child prostitutes, vengeful sailors in a whales belly and finally a plain old poetic song. All with big and archaic words and folk-rock instruments. Seriously good stuff if you're into that sort of thing.
6. The Runners Four - Deerhoof
Deerhoof! The best Deerhoof! An hour of it! They rock, rock and rock. Their drummer is awesome, their guitarists are awesome, even their high pitched Japanese singer is awesome (especially now that she can sing well)! Either you'll love Deerhoof or hate them.
7. If You're Feeling Sinister - Belle and Sebastian
Bluesy, folksy, rocksy songs. Sexuality, religion and love are covered here. The coolest thing about these songs is that they cover specific characters who are vividly drawn within a few minutes. "Judy and the Dream of Horses" is a definite favorite.
8. F# A# (infinity) - Godspeed You Black Emperor!
Pretentious, long songs that start slow, get fast, climax and then dissolve into ethereal sounding sounds, with rants and monologues put in for good measure. There are three songs on here, but that's still a good hour on the CD. A really good piece of music, if you ask me, but I wouldn't recommend it to most people.
9. The Lemon of Pink - The Books
I bought this on the title alone and I'm really glad I got it. The Lemon of Pink takes acoustic guitars, cello and "foundsound" which is basically voices from movies, TV, video games and wherever else they dug it up and mashes it together into really easy to like songs. As strange as it sounds, this is the kind of music I can relax to.
10. The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place - Explosions in the Sky
Guitar, guitar, bass and drums, all instrumental. More slow build ups to big climaxes. Instrumental music is tough for me to describe, it seems. They follow a pretty set pattern of the intro, build up, climax and rest but they do it so damn well!
So, that's the list of music I like! I think my descriptions petered out at the end. Ah well.
1. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
A rumination on life, death, the afterlife, God, Anne Frank, love, alienation and who knows what else. This is my favorite album. As a whole it sounds like nothing I've ever heard while each individual piece sounds familiar (except the zanzithophone and singing saw, those were both new to me). There's your standard guitar, bass and drums and added onto that are an assortment of horns, organs, and the afformentioned singing saw and zanzithophone. All of it sounds pretty bad the first time you hear it, especially Jeff Mangum's singing. The lyrics are incomprehensible on first glance as well. If you do what I do and stick with it, hopefully you'll grow to love this as much as I have.
2. The Moon and Antarctica - Modest Mouse
Yet another rumination on life, death, the afterlife and God. This one stops at Anne Frank, though, and goes onto dehumanization and solitude. Isaac Brock's voice takes some getting used to, but it really carries across the desperation he tries to convey. My favorite part of Modest Mouse is their thematic dichotomy (I love that word): trailer trash and poetic musings. They break down when the trailer trash aspects take full force, but thankfully that doesn't happen here.
3. Agaetis Byrjun - Sigur Ros
A third musing on life, de- forget it. I've got no clue what this Icelandic band is singing about, but man is the singing good. These are really slow moving, ethereal sounding songs that, again, take a while to get used to. Sparse drums, simplistic basslines, cool piano and a guitar played with a cello bow, plus a string quartet and an awesome male falsetto.
4. Kid A - Radiohead
Paranoia reigns supreme with Radiohead! Also, good experimental rock music. These dudes are the innovators of rock. There's one truly ambient piece here, but the rest are mostly electronic/rock songs. They're the most accessible so far on this list.
5. Picaresque - The Decemberists
In order... a song about a child monarch, a double suicide by star-crossed lovers, the tragic death of a barrowboy, a song about a second-rate sports player, a love story about a secret agent and a government bureaucrat, a song about an old person waiting for a letter from their long lost love, an anti-war song, one about a novelist, child prostitutes, vengeful sailors in a whales belly and finally a plain old poetic song. All with big and archaic words and folk-rock instruments. Seriously good stuff if you're into that sort of thing.
6. The Runners Four - Deerhoof
Deerhoof! The best Deerhoof! An hour of it! They rock, rock and rock. Their drummer is awesome, their guitarists are awesome, even their high pitched Japanese singer is awesome (especially now that she can sing well)! Either you'll love Deerhoof or hate them.
7. If You're Feeling Sinister - Belle and Sebastian
Bluesy, folksy, rocksy songs. Sexuality, religion and love are covered here. The coolest thing about these songs is that they cover specific characters who are vividly drawn within a few minutes. "Judy and the Dream of Horses" is a definite favorite.
8. F# A# (infinity) - Godspeed You Black Emperor!
Pretentious, long songs that start slow, get fast, climax and then dissolve into ethereal sounding sounds, with rants and monologues put in for good measure. There are three songs on here, but that's still a good hour on the CD. A really good piece of music, if you ask me, but I wouldn't recommend it to most people.
9. The Lemon of Pink - The Books
I bought this on the title alone and I'm really glad I got it. The Lemon of Pink takes acoustic guitars, cello and "foundsound" which is basically voices from movies, TV, video games and wherever else they dug it up and mashes it together into really easy to like songs. As strange as it sounds, this is the kind of music I can relax to.
10. The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place - Explosions in the Sky
Guitar, guitar, bass and drums, all instrumental. More slow build ups to big climaxes. Instrumental music is tough for me to describe, it seems. They follow a pretty set pattern of the intro, build up, climax and rest but they do it so damn well!
So, that's the list of music I like! I think my descriptions petered out at the end. Ah well.
Music and catharsis
Today was a long, miserable day. I get home and the first thing I do is put a CD on, turn the volume up and lie in bed. Forty five minutes, I'm feeling a thousand times better and ready to continue with life. Why? How does a piece of music cause me to feel rejuvenated? For that matter, why do I have such a strong emotional attachment to this album? There doesn't seem to be any rational basis for these things. Frankly, I don't have any good theories on this.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Music and Artistic Integrity
I was watching TV earlier this night when a commercial for Phoenix University came on. I normally tune out commercials, but this one had something that caught my attention: the song playing in the background. The song was the chorus for "The Bleeding Heart Show" by the New Pornographers, a song that I instantly recognized. This got me thinking about artistic integrity. What would constitute a musician "selling out" their artistic integrity? Can musicians ever sell out their artistic integrity?
There are a couple actions that people view as signs of a musician losing their artistic integrity. For starters, many people think that a band selling a song license for use in a commercial would mean that the song or band has lost their artistic integrity. Another commonly considered act of selling out would be when a musician starts writing music for a specific audience in the hopes that they'll earn more money on it. Having someone else write music for you is also considered a way to lose artistic integrity.
Imagine your favorite song, the one that you consider most special to you. Now imagine this song trying to sell you a car. Something that is emotionally powerful and special is being used to peddle merchandise. Surely this is a breach of artistic integrity? Well, maybe not. The music is going to be the same, whether or not it is selling you Pepsi. Besides, what if your favorite musician is a literal "starving artiste" and needs the money to survive? What if it is a choice between letting their music sell a product or the musicians having to take a retail job and therefore have less energy to focus on music making? Wouldn't that be selling out?
What if an artist starts writing catchy popular tunes with no emotional value just so that they can make more money? Is this selling out? To give a real world example, the band Modest Mouse has been writing pop tunes that really lack a lot of the emotional qualities of their earlier work and they're becoming more mainstream and doubtlessly making more money because of it. But if writing your music to a larger audience so that you can make more money takes your artistic integrity away, then Mozart, Bach and almost every other classical composer has no artistic integrity. Pretty much everything they wrote was paid for by rich men or churches who wanted a specific song for a specific mood. Mozart wrote some tunes for some rich guys kids, tunes that are considered to be "art" by a large number of people. The same example can also be applied to architecture: the architect is getting paid to design a building in a specific way, but it is still considered art. Just because the composer wants to make a living off of music does not mean that it is not art.
Thirdly, there is the claim that if you have something written for you by someone else, it has no artistic integrity. I don't think that there is much to this claim. Dividing up the work of writing a song does not make the song less artistic. I like writing songs and poems, but I'm a bad singer. Does that mean that nobody can sing the songs I write? Or that if they do, those songs have no artistic value? I hope not. I still put a lot of time and effort into the songs, even if I can't sing them.
I think that for the first two claims - licensing and changing what you play - there is some validity. I think I'd feel sick and cry if any Neutral Milk Hotel songs were playing on a commercial. Those songs have a lot of meaning to me and, yeah, they're special to me. Context changes the song to some extent; music videos, for example, add new meaning to songs. I think the same would happen if a song is in a commercial, the context would be changed and whenever you heard the song you'd think "Pepsi." This is only a problem for some songs. I don't think it matters much for the New Pornographers song that was advertising a college. It's a good power pop song, but it doesn't mean much to me. It is only when the song has a meaning to the listener when it becomes a problem.
The second claim, that a musician changing what they write for the sake of money, has more weight to it. This is a case where a musician is willingly deciding to stop making "art" and to start making a product. The difference between a contemporary musician selling out and, say, Bach selling out is that there wasn't a concept of selling out a few hundred years ago. Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse can sell out because there is a concept of selling out, Bach couldn't because the norm was to make your art on commissions from rich noblemen.
So, while there is some validity to the claims that some musicians are selling out, I think that a lot of the arguments are weaker than they appear. A lot of the cases they should not even apply. With Modest Mouse, their older songs are darker and a lot more depressed while the newer ones are happier and more upbeat. Maybe Isaac Brock isn't selling out, maybe he's just happier? Or maybe he did just want more money. Maybe the folks in the New Pornographers needed the money to pay the rent or maybe they wanted a jacuzzi. There's really no way to know when a musician loses their artistic integrity except when their songs and the emotions they are trying to express ring hollow to you.
There are a couple actions that people view as signs of a musician losing their artistic integrity. For starters, many people think that a band selling a song license for use in a commercial would mean that the song or band has lost their artistic integrity. Another commonly considered act of selling out would be when a musician starts writing music for a specific audience in the hopes that they'll earn more money on it. Having someone else write music for you is also considered a way to lose artistic integrity.
Imagine your favorite song, the one that you consider most special to you. Now imagine this song trying to sell you a car. Something that is emotionally powerful and special is being used to peddle merchandise. Surely this is a breach of artistic integrity? Well, maybe not. The music is going to be the same, whether or not it is selling you Pepsi. Besides, what if your favorite musician is a literal "starving artiste" and needs the money to survive? What if it is a choice between letting their music sell a product or the musicians having to take a retail job and therefore have less energy to focus on music making? Wouldn't that be selling out?
What if an artist starts writing catchy popular tunes with no emotional value just so that they can make more money? Is this selling out? To give a real world example, the band Modest Mouse has been writing pop tunes that really lack a lot of the emotional qualities of their earlier work and they're becoming more mainstream and doubtlessly making more money because of it. But if writing your music to a larger audience so that you can make more money takes your artistic integrity away, then Mozart, Bach and almost every other classical composer has no artistic integrity. Pretty much everything they wrote was paid for by rich men or churches who wanted a specific song for a specific mood. Mozart wrote some tunes for some rich guys kids, tunes that are considered to be "art" by a large number of people. The same example can also be applied to architecture: the architect is getting paid to design a building in a specific way, but it is still considered art. Just because the composer wants to make a living off of music does not mean that it is not art.
Thirdly, there is the claim that if you have something written for you by someone else, it has no artistic integrity. I don't think that there is much to this claim. Dividing up the work of writing a song does not make the song less artistic. I like writing songs and poems, but I'm a bad singer. Does that mean that nobody can sing the songs I write? Or that if they do, those songs have no artistic value? I hope not. I still put a lot of time and effort into the songs, even if I can't sing them.
I think that for the first two claims - licensing and changing what you play - there is some validity. I think I'd feel sick and cry if any Neutral Milk Hotel songs were playing on a commercial. Those songs have a lot of meaning to me and, yeah, they're special to me. Context changes the song to some extent; music videos, for example, add new meaning to songs. I think the same would happen if a song is in a commercial, the context would be changed and whenever you heard the song you'd think "Pepsi." This is only a problem for some songs. I don't think it matters much for the New Pornographers song that was advertising a college. It's a good power pop song, but it doesn't mean much to me. It is only when the song has a meaning to the listener when it becomes a problem.
The second claim, that a musician changing what they write for the sake of money, has more weight to it. This is a case where a musician is willingly deciding to stop making "art" and to start making a product. The difference between a contemporary musician selling out and, say, Bach selling out is that there wasn't a concept of selling out a few hundred years ago. Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse can sell out because there is a concept of selling out, Bach couldn't because the norm was to make your art on commissions from rich noblemen.
So, while there is some validity to the claims that some musicians are selling out, I think that a lot of the arguments are weaker than they appear. A lot of the cases they should not even apply. With Modest Mouse, their older songs are darker and a lot more depressed while the newer ones are happier and more upbeat. Maybe Isaac Brock isn't selling out, maybe he's just happier? Or maybe he did just want more money. Maybe the folks in the New Pornographers needed the money to pay the rent or maybe they wanted a jacuzzi. There's really no way to know when a musician loses their artistic integrity except when their songs and the emotions they are trying to express ring hollow to you.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Music of '06
Since everyone is making their "top 10 albums of 2006" lists, I thought I'd join in. The only problem is, I only got eleven albums from this year and two of them were local bands that didn't so much as publish their music as burn CDs and give them to people. That being said, I'll make a nice list of albums I like without conforming to any silly predetermined set of numbers!
1. "The Crane Wife" by The Decemberists. Three movement songs based on Japanese poems? Twelve minute long epics about kidnapping and murder on a mysterious island? Civil War songs with wordplay on Stonewall Jackson? Yes on all accounts! The Decemberists hop around genres more than they usually do in this album with usually good results. The best part about them is that they're almost the only band that has me rushing to the dictionary while listening to songs.
2. "Fox Confessor Brings The Flood" By Neko Case. This entire album is carried by Neko Case's voice. It's kind of alternative countryish and it isn't something that I would ever see myself liking a lot, but her voice is one of the best out there. She's an incredible singer and a pretty good songwriter. The instruments kind of sit in the background and provide atmosphere and beat, but the album does not need any catchy hooks or verse/chorus/verse structure. Everything seems to work even though it abandons a lot of the general song format.
3. "Return To The Sea" by Islands. Fun, quirky pop. Lots of catchy music with fun yet semi-morbid lyrics. Its all fun and games with Islands, even when they're singing about the end of humanity.
4. "IBM 1401 a User's Manual" by Johann Johannsson. A modern classical album? I'm not really sure what the exact genre for this kind of stuff is, but it has lots of strings and no backbeat. The album opens with a really mournful phrase that was recorded way back in the sixties or seventies on one of the earliest IBM computers (hence the title). The phrase continues throughout the first song while an orchestra build up the music around it. The songs here are really great and emotional, but the album is plagued by the composers need to have a minute or two before and after almost all the songs were the music slowly gets louder and then slowly fades away. Even if you don't listen to the album you really ought to check out "The Sun's Gone Dim And The Sky's Turned Black" which is a really moving piece of music.
That is it! My recommended music from the year 2006. There were a couple other albums that I liked from this year, but they weren't really all that great. 2007 looks like it will be a fun year, with new Deerhoof, Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, the inevitable Fiery Furnaces, the probable Decemberists and the likely Animal Collective, the pretty likely Feist and the Explosions in the Sky albums! Plus new bands I've never heard of!
1. "The Crane Wife" by The Decemberists. Three movement songs based on Japanese poems? Twelve minute long epics about kidnapping and murder on a mysterious island? Civil War songs with wordplay on Stonewall Jackson? Yes on all accounts! The Decemberists hop around genres more than they usually do in this album with usually good results. The best part about them is that they're almost the only band that has me rushing to the dictionary while listening to songs.
2. "Fox Confessor Brings The Flood" By Neko Case. This entire album is carried by Neko Case's voice. It's kind of alternative countryish and it isn't something that I would ever see myself liking a lot, but her voice is one of the best out there. She's an incredible singer and a pretty good songwriter. The instruments kind of sit in the background and provide atmosphere and beat, but the album does not need any catchy hooks or verse/chorus/verse structure. Everything seems to work even though it abandons a lot of the general song format.
3. "Return To The Sea" by Islands. Fun, quirky pop. Lots of catchy music with fun yet semi-morbid lyrics. Its all fun and games with Islands, even when they're singing about the end of humanity.
4. "IBM 1401 a User's Manual" by Johann Johannsson. A modern classical album? I'm not really sure what the exact genre for this kind of stuff is, but it has lots of strings and no backbeat. The album opens with a really mournful phrase that was recorded way back in the sixties or seventies on one of the earliest IBM computers (hence the title). The phrase continues throughout the first song while an orchestra build up the music around it. The songs here are really great and emotional, but the album is plagued by the composers need to have a minute or two before and after almost all the songs were the music slowly gets louder and then slowly fades away. Even if you don't listen to the album you really ought to check out "The Sun's Gone Dim And The Sky's Turned Black" which is a really moving piece of music.
That is it! My recommended music from the year 2006. There were a couple other albums that I liked from this year, but they weren't really all that great. 2007 looks like it will be a fun year, with new Deerhoof, Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, the inevitable Fiery Furnaces, the probable Decemberists and the likely Animal Collective, the pretty likely Feist and the Explosions in the Sky albums! Plus new bands I've never heard of!
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