sawng

[fflo]

(as in "with a sawng in my haht")

A few weeks ago I found, in the CDs in this house, a burned copy of the soundtrack to a movie (not out on DVD) called Niagara, Niagara. I didn't recognize the handwriting on the disc; probably somebody gave it to Holly. Anyway, I listened, and there was good stuff there.

At first I wasn't sure I liked this one cut. He's almost whiny in the nasally tone, especially in those first few intervals, in the first couplets of each verse---they hit a note on the scale (the 5th, I reckon), at a point in his range, that's practically asking for it that way, somehow or another. And on my little stock Mac speakers, some of the lower guitar notes come out a little muddy-muddled.

But the melodically simple little number has gotten to me. Maybe those lower lines/couplets after the higher ones are a relief/release of tension. Maybe it's partly the lazy but liltingly bouncing beat of his plucking those strings. And maybe, okay yeah, I dig that lyric. And I do like how, singing along, I get to go just about to the bottom of my own range.

Anyway, I keep playing it, and singing along:

.mp3  -->   "Bring Your Sorrow Over Here" -- Jason Morphew (1997)

Why does pain fade? Where does it go?
It's less permanent than Southern snow.
Why do I weep but once a year?
Bring your sorrow over here.

Why do we wish happiness
On the ones we love the best?
Our troubles will draw us near;
Bring your sorrow over here.

All my laughter is rounded by
Yearning to cry.
Our love is deeper, and more dear.
Bring your sorrow over here.

Comments

Re: "sorrow"

[fflo.livejournal.com]

hunh. well, you yourself call it a song, and refer to the possibility of the singer having transcribed it before recording it--- a possibility that cannot exist if there is no "it"---no song---apart from the recording. seems a little like you did yourself in there in terms of your original point.

my point about semantics was in anticipation of a kind of reduction to absurdity that i thought might be in the works if you came back to comment again. and that didn't exactly happen.

the thing about the artist's intentions, to me, is that the cultural milieu can be taken into account such as we know it, as can aspects of audience, and all those other types of factors various forms of criticism consider, but the formalists had a thing---busted though it may've been---about the work itself, and close reading, and giving it a go. maybe my old sympathies to that sort of thing have something to do with my assertion that there is a song.

that stuff you bandy about about standards by which i/we/one judges this thing that's a wholly distinct form of expression is, gotta say, hard for me even to try to get behind. and i don't think that's cuz i'm hungover.

so, do i know you? other than from this little talk we're having?

Re: "sorrow"

[(Anonymous)]

yeah, i don't want to call it a song--it's another unfortunate symptom of the disease of the english language. "recording" is probably more accurate. it's too bad that people get miscontextualized--if either of you two were interested in investigating this singer's work, you'd find that he's not really "folky," though the starbucks-sounding Niagara Niagara soundtrack certainly contextualizes him that way. whatever. folk music is just so boring. everyone needs to feel superior to at least one other group--you seem to feel superior to "bad" singers, or to songmakers whom you suspect lack your knowledge of musical theory, and i feel superior to folkies. everybody's gotta look down on someone.

Re: "sorrow"

[fflo.livejournal.com]

i really don't know where you get that. are you jason morphew, by any chance? i can see how he might, if he's very sensitive, feel attacked. but c'mon. i just said something about that one pitch getting the nasal treatment, and then my not-anonymous lj friend said she also liked his song (which does exist) but was itchin' for him to take it down a step or two so's that top note would be less strained.

on the other hand, i do feel that you have rather a gift with this business of making other people feel superior.

Re: "sorrow"

[(Anonymous)]

well, if i do, it's because i feel superior all the time, and inferior for doing it. i'm not morphew, but i am maybe a lil too sensitive. see ya.