Songs and So Forth

Disecting song lyrics is rather enjoyable. But one should not do it out of context. The actual music, the notes per se, are vitally important to the words.

Consider the following lyrics sung by Some Girly:

And I miss you
Like the desert missed the rain
And I miss you
Like the desert missed the rain
And I miss you
Like the desert missed the rain
And....etc.

If you analyze what the sentence "the desert missed the rain" means, you might come to the conclusion that she's saying total gibberish. Naturally, the desert is a desert, and doesn't miss the rain. The desert is a place, the practicalist would say, where there is hardly any rain, if it rains at all. So how can the desert miss something it doesn't have, or in fact, doesn't need? Cactus and other such plants and creatures that live in the desert don't need rain. If there was rain in the desert it would cease to be a desert, it would drive these creatures into extinction, and the desert wouldn't miss the rain anymore, if it ever did!

However, the poetical and musical side of me hears a sort of stormy wind in the music, a yearning note. The desert can miss the rain! How? Well, consider this. The desert is a place that is deserted, no joke, by rational people, animals, and only spikey things and kangaroo rats live there. The desert is also deserted by the rain. Because it is a desert it does miss the rain! The poetical side of me likes this explanation. Some Girly was trying to get the impression across that she's been abandoned, nay, deserted (no pun intended) and is likening herself to some place that has long needed to quench its thirst.

To me it works. But I think I can hear Mr. Jones protesting. :-) I disagreed with some of his beefs with the poetry that he presented at disputatio. I'm still trying to figure out why he thought certain styles were bad, and others that took a straightforward, practical approach, were better. More on that later.

Another song, by an Unknown Golden Oldies Singer goes something like this:

I'm a-walking in the rain
Tears are falling and I feel a pain
A-wishing you were here by me
To end this misery

And I wonder
I wo-wo-wo-wo-woooonder
Why
Why-why-why-why-why she ran away
And I wonder where she will stay-ee-yay
My little runaway
A run-run-run-run-runaway

I know it looks pathetic on paper, but try to imagine chipper music playing along, with an upbeat, and something that sounds like a piccolo solo. It's rather amusing, but despite the dumb lyrics I find it enjoyable and useful to sing along in the car while one drives to work. I am tempted to say, that despite the appearence of amateurism in this particular song, it has way better lyrics than Daniel Powter's Bad Day. Don't get me wrong, I like that song a lot, but the chorus to Bad Day gives me the impression that he's trying too hard to rhyme things.