On replicants and the dysfunctional relationships outlined in jazz standards
I watched Blade Runner again tonight. It didn't seem as good as last time. Oh well. I still liked it a lot, but rather than being cool or interesting the constant darkness frustrated me.
I love Joni Mitchell's voice when she sings jazz. I mean, I love her voice anyway, but I'm so used to hearing it with her own songs and there's something about it that fits with old standards really well.
I have to say that despite loving her voice, I hate the words to The Man I Love. I'm not trying to be all psycho-feminist or psycho-anything, but it's demeaning.
We'll build a little home fit for two
From which I'll never roam: who would, would you?
For some reason I hear something more sinister than faithfulness there. Why?
But that's nothing new. Most jazz standards have awful words. Usually they tend toward insipid, uninspired, desperate declarations of love over and over again, or supposedly clever combinations of silly similes, or really dated stuff (after all, they are old songs) but occasionally they seem to describe situations that really shouldn't fly.
I was attempting some piano yesterday, and I played Mean To Me (written 1929), which is a great example of a song about an emotionally abusive relationship. Maybe I read too much into it, but I see a woman pleading with her abusive boyfriend, but she is emotionally trapped and can't let go and get out of a potentially disastrous situation. I usually imagine a woman and a man but it might be any other combination and it would still be a bad situation.
You're mean to me
Why must you be mean to me?
Gee, honey it seems to me
You like to see me crying.
I don't know why.
I stay home,
Each night when you say you'll phone,
You don't and I'm left alone,
Singing the blues and sighing.
You treat me coldly
each day in the year,
You always scold me
Whenever somebody is near, dear,
It must be great fun
to be mean to me,
You shouldn't, for can't you see
What you mean to me.
The bolded line in particular: I've always read it as someone controlling his lover's interactions with other people, not allowing her to talk to or associate with anyone else. It only recently occurred to me that they might mean the scolder is scolding the scoldee in earshot of other people and that is embarrassing for the victim. Either way, I guess.
It's late. I'm thinking too much and objecting too much. Maybe I need an attitude adjustment. I'm pretty negative. Everything seems to demand a contrary.
I love Joni Mitchell's voice when she sings jazz. I mean, I love her voice anyway, but I'm so used to hearing it with her own songs and there's something about it that fits with old standards really well.
I have to say that despite loving her voice, I hate the words to The Man I Love. I'm not trying to be all psycho-feminist or psycho-anything, but it's demeaning.
We'll build a little home fit for two
From which I'll never roam: who would, would you?
For some reason I hear something more sinister than faithfulness there. Why?
But that's nothing new. Most jazz standards have awful words. Usually they tend toward insipid, uninspired, desperate declarations of love over and over again, or supposedly clever combinations of silly similes, or really dated stuff (after all, they are old songs) but occasionally they seem to describe situations that really shouldn't fly.
I was attempting some piano yesterday, and I played Mean To Me (written 1929), which is a great example of a song about an emotionally abusive relationship. Maybe I read too much into it, but I see a woman pleading with her abusive boyfriend, but she is emotionally trapped and can't let go and get out of a potentially disastrous situation. I usually imagine a woman and a man but it might be any other combination and it would still be a bad situation.
You're mean to me
Why must you be mean to me?
Gee, honey it seems to me
You like to see me crying.
I don't know why.
I stay home,
Each night when you say you'll phone,
You don't and I'm left alone,
Singing the blues and sighing.
You treat me coldly
each day in the year,
You always scold me
Whenever somebody is near, dear,
It must be great fun
to be mean to me,
You shouldn't, for can't you see
What you mean to me.
The bolded line in particular: I've always read it as someone controlling his lover's interactions with other people, not allowing her to talk to or associate with anyone else. It only recently occurred to me that they might mean the scolder is scolding the scoldee in earshot of other people and that is embarrassing for the victim. Either way, I guess.
It's late. I'm thinking too much and objecting too much. Maybe I need an attitude adjustment. I'm pretty negative. Everything seems to demand a contrary.