“Load the car and write the note,” the song "I and Love and You" by the Avett Brothers begins. It’s an imperative: we’re going. What’s not clear here is who the speaker is speaking to. But we’re grabbing our bag and coat, perhaps traveling light, but with a sense of purpose. We’re telling “the ones who need to know.” So maybe we’re going to be gone ( Read more... )

L.A.'s fine, the sun shines most the time
And the feeling is 'lay back'
Palm trees grow, and rents are low
But you know I keep thinkin' about
Making my way back

Well I'm New York City born and raised
But nowadays, I'm lost between two shores
L.A.'s fine, but it ain't home
New York's home, but it ain't mine no more

pkhentz and panoramicgreen were here visiting. Just this morning ( Read more... )

Today, I had my students bring in song lyrics to talk about, as a "soft" entry into poetry. Poetry, like the show choir kids in the TV series Glee, is not one of the popular kids. So having students talk about song lyrics as a way into poetry is sort of a desperate stab at attention, status, cred. But on the other hand, it is a way of introducing ( Read more... )

About a month ago, pkhentz blogged about "Canadian Nationalism" and the music of Stan Rogers. Rogers is a folk singer that I have an interest in, born of hearing his music on radio stations in Canada traveling to and from our grandparents' cottage in Ontario. I remember particularly hearing the song "White Squall" with it's reference to a "Wiarton girl" ( Read more... )

The lyrics of "Pink Houses" by John Mellencamp (listen to the song on Mellencamp's Last.fm page) are a social commentary, packed carefully into the confines of a three-minute pop song. As a songwriter, Mellencamp has kept it simple throughout his career. His songs are not quite as inventive or fine-crafted as a Bob Dylan or a Bruce Springsteen, but ( Read more... )

"Shimmer" is a song from the 1995 Throwing Muses album, University. You can listen to it on this live TV performance on YouTube. I first heard Throwing Muses on the tapes my college roomate M. kept in shoeboxes on his dresser. They were all copies of our friend F.'s prodigious CD collection. There was a tape that had the Muses albums The Real ( Read more... )

Of the songs I put on that tape, the one that's now lodged itself in my head is Liz Phair's "Six Feet One." I don't know when it was when I first heard Liz Phair. I'm sure it was after Juliana Hatfield and the Breeders and Throwing Muses. She's in that same era ( Read more... )