Thursday, December 4, 2014

Exploration #8 (My Own Design) Collin Blevins

Part 1.

The piece of writing that i'm the most proud of is the poem that I wrote about Philip Petite closer to the beginning of the year. I titled it, "True Love Between My Concrete Wives."


I liked this passage the most:

"  "Let's dance on top of the world",
I say
And without restraint,
I wiggle my feet as if to paint
A picture in the sky
Of what true love,
In my mind can be described

As I look steadily ahead
The color of my face begins to shift,
To a beautiful hue of red

And in that very moment,
I knew my fate was swayed
My love for this temple in the clouds,
Would never be whisked away "


I chose to share this passage because this is the first time that i actually felt happy about a poem that i've written. I chose to inserI imagery within this poem because I thought it would add "flavor" to the piece as a whole, and overall I thought it was a great decision on my part. But I will forever keep this poem with me, because I feel like it shows a stepping stone that i've conquered, and I feel like it portrays--in great detail--the steps I take when constructing a piece of writing. I take great pride in this poem.   


Part 2.

It took me awhile to think of a topic that we as people could be more "literate" in, or understanding towards. But then it hit me. We live in a culture where music is very prevalent, and sometimes I feel as if people just listen to a song because they are interested in the groovy bass lines, or the intense lead guitar riffs. But here's the thing, the instruments are just the support for what's really important. That my friends is the singer. The lyrics that come out of the lead man are what drives the mood of the song! Yes, the drums keep the beat, and yes, the bass fills in the notes to create a "Wall of Sound" (these are very important). But the singer (male/female) has the important job of telling the actual story. Behind every lyric, there is often an important meaning. That is why I strongly believe in lyrical literacy when listening to a piece of music. With a great lyrical literacy, I feel like people would come to enjoy music THAT much more. Because in turn, it's better to know the whole story rather than only half the story.

Knowing this fact, I decided to take it upon myself to interpret the lyrics of one of my favorite songs in the music world. The song is titled, "Morocco" and it is performed by a band named Moon Taxi.

The lyrics for this song are as follows:

http://youtu.be/JMrmAq5sHTI     (<------ You can watch a performance of this song through this link!)

Morocco 
"So sick and tired of the pouring rain
I took a train to Morocco just to kill the pain
Oh it might help a little, it might help a lot
I don't know, but it's all I got

Ran down the aisle to find a window by the bar
I blew a cigarette to pieces so I lit up a cigar
Oh this might hurt a little, this might hurt a lot
I don't know, but it's all I got

(x2)
Oh, Morocco
Tell me where you've been
Won't you tell me what you know

Crossing the desert when I lost the caravan
I found a compass in a box buried underneath the sand
Oh it might help a little, it might help a lot
I don't know, but it's all I've got

Running in circles I was losing my mind
When you found me and you led me to the water just in time
Oh this might hurt a little, this might hurt a lot
I don't know, but it's all I got

(x3)
Oh, Morocco
Tell me where you've been
Won't you tell me what you know

Oh, Morocco
Oh, Morocco

(x3)
Oh, Morocco
Tell me where you've been
Won't you tell me what you know

Oh, Morocco
Oh, Morocco

I find this song to be really interesting because in the lyrics the singer talks about leaving a place, that is unnamed, because of the fact that he's tired with all the rain that has been getting dumped on it. So, like every other person, he decides to leave via train to a place that he hopes will provide him solace from the frequent rainfall. This place just happens to be Morocco! But once he reaches Morocco, he figures out that it's not as nice as he thought it would be. After he gets off the train, he finds a caravan to ride along with for the time being, but unfortunately he ends up getting lost in the Moroccan desert. While he's lost, he finds a compass, and he claims that someone led him to water just in time. This leads us to believe that he was very bad off at this point, and if not for someone leading him to the water, he might be in a more miserable condition. Throughout the song he sings lines that go like this, "Oh it might help a little, It might help a lot. I don't know, but it's all I got" and "Oh this might hurt a little, This might hurt a lot. I don't know but it's all i've got." These lines alone lead me to believe that the singer is very unsure of whether or not things will work out in many scenarios. But in the end he states that these things are all that he has, and whether they help or not is just another mystery. As a whole, it's as if he's singing to Morocco as if it's a person. That's why I think this song is so interesting! In my opinion, I feel like the moral of this song is the notion that you don't know what you have until it's gone. He left a place that was flourishing with water (rain), and when he got sick and tired of it, he took a trip to Morocco only to find out that it's not as great a place as the place he previously left. There could be multiple interpretations of this song, but that's the beauty of becoming literate when lyrics of a song are involved! You can find so much more meaning in a song when you actively take the time and decipher what the key message of it is. This is why I think we should take steps toward understanding the individual "stories" that each song brings, instead of only observing the instrumental portions of them. 

2 comments:

  1. it was very interest song. i like Morocco song, first three stanza lines.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really liked the song you chose. I think all of us in some ways want the freedom that the singer has, to take a trip somewhere else to help lighten our burdens.

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