Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks and Here Comes the Rain Again by Eurythmics
Note: I'll probably keep doing song posts as time goes on but less frequently and less restricted as to period after this.
These songs have a few things in common and some rather more significant differences and I thought they would make a good wrap up.
Both feature lyrics that are about as purely lyrical as they can be. That is to say that both lyrics evoke emotions rather than trying to be about anything. The only way you'd ever figure out that "Edge of Seventeen" is about dealing with the death of people close to us is if someone told you. You'd have a better chance in figuring out that "Here Comes the Rain Again" has something to do with unrequited love but what exactly it has to say about unrequited love is anyone's guess.
Both singers share a similar sort of romantic persona. The difference is that this is the only persona that Nicks ever had while Annie Lennox assumed a bunch of different stances depending on the song, the point in her career and what was most likely to sell at the time. This is an old theme of mine: the authentic versus the cultivated self.
And what I'd like you to notice as you listen to the two is the difference in skill. Take enunciation. The Stevie Nicks song is often given as an example of a misheard lyric but it's actually a mis-sung lyric. Consider the opening phrase. The words are supposed to be, "Just like the white-winged dove". What Nicks actually sings is more like "Juss like duh wide wing of". Listen to the Eurythmics song and you can pick out every word. Lennox's enunciation, intonation and timing are always good. Nicks is always a sloppy performer.
Anything Stevie Nicks can do, Annie Lennox can do better. I'm not going to argue the point here but I'd like to suggest that Nicks' shortcomings as a singer are a likely consequence of pursuing a authentic rather than a cultivated self.
Stevie Nicks was, as I noted before, the essential role model for the smooth, clean girls of my generation. Annie Lennox's carefully cultivated talent made that role model tired and obsolete.
Authenticity is a romantic idea and it will never go away in a narcissistic culture like ours. To really grow up, however, is to leave authenticity behind and it was at this point in time that the smooth, clean girls pack up there stuff and leave campus and start really living their lives.
The series starts here.
Note: I'll probably keep doing song posts as time goes on but less frequently and less restricted as to period after this.
These songs have a few things in common and some rather more significant differences and I thought they would make a good wrap up.
Both feature lyrics that are about as purely lyrical as they can be. That is to say that both lyrics evoke emotions rather than trying to be about anything. The only way you'd ever figure out that "Edge of Seventeen" is about dealing with the death of people close to us is if someone told you. You'd have a better chance in figuring out that "Here Comes the Rain Again" has something to do with unrequited love but what exactly it has to say about unrequited love is anyone's guess.
Both singers share a similar sort of romantic persona. The difference is that this is the only persona that Nicks ever had while Annie Lennox assumed a bunch of different stances depending on the song, the point in her career and what was most likely to sell at the time. This is an old theme of mine: the authentic versus the cultivated self.
And what I'd like you to notice as you listen to the two is the difference in skill. Take enunciation. The Stevie Nicks song is often given as an example of a misheard lyric but it's actually a mis-sung lyric. Consider the opening phrase. The words are supposed to be, "Just like the white-winged dove". What Nicks actually sings is more like "Juss like duh wide wing of". Listen to the Eurythmics song and you can pick out every word. Lennox's enunciation, intonation and timing are always good. Nicks is always a sloppy performer.
Anything Stevie Nicks can do, Annie Lennox can do better. I'm not going to argue the point here but I'd like to suggest that Nicks' shortcomings as a singer are a likely consequence of pursuing a authentic rather than a cultivated self.
Stevie Nicks was, as I noted before, the essential role model for the smooth, clean girls of my generation. Annie Lennox's carefully cultivated talent made that role model tired and obsolete.
Authenticity is a romantic idea and it will never go away in a narcissistic culture like ours. To really grow up, however, is to leave authenticity behind and it was at this point in time that the smooth, clean girls pack up there stuff and leave campus and start really living their lives.
The series starts here.
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