Pop Music Copy
I Own this One on Vinyl too. Peter Suderman provides a wonderful example of the literary tropes of heavy metal promotional copy - particularly self-promotional copy.
This got me to thinking about my favorite liner notes of all time ( a subject of grand scope). If I were (still) a real hipster when it came to music this would be the one album I could honestly say "Changed, my life man (nod), changed my life."
Here are the liner notes to "Whatever and Ever Amen" by Ben Folds Five.
This recording was made with the utmost care and professionalism. Microphones were chosen and placed in the general vicinity of each instrument in order to capture the sonic characteristics of the music performed. Each instrument was tuned before and often during the recording sessions and arrangements were rehearsed or at least discussed.
The lyrics or text were created to detract from the repetition inherent in modern instrumental pop music. Iambic pentameter was not always an option, however when possible, the last syllable of a line was manipulated in order to rhyme with the last syllable of the preceding line. Where this technique has served to distort the meaning of the original text, the fuzz tone of the electric bass guitar or a virtuosic drum fill has been inserted to detract the listener temporarily from the actual song.
Finally, the best takes were chosen and the others were culled and thrown away or erased, otherwise this record could have easily been hundreds of hours long; much longer than the generally accepted running time of a modern commercial recording. Every measure was taken to keep this record mistake-free. The mixing engineer, Andy Wallace, who has mixd many top notch famous recording stars, often took the initiative and muted or "ducked" missed notes and unsavory textures.
The band and producer are confident that your money was well spent on an album relatively free of major sonic and musical problems.
Some time ago I promised my readers and myself to write an essay about being a Ben Folds Five fan and what that meant for me between the ages of 17 and 19. There are hilarious stories to tell of sneaking through live television sets, getting backstage, onto the bus, falling in love with the ever present ladyfriend who lingers over half my prose anyway. (I can here Kleinheider already saying "Tarry not, mofo! You must marry this woman.") Also there was an amazing series of concerts that took me quickly from NYC to Hartford, to Quinnipiac College and then to Scranton in a matter of days - which relates closely to my other love affair in these days: my first car.
Michael Brendan Dougherty
in Culture
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Reader Comments (2)
Satire was one of Ronald Knox's many talents.(Franklin introduced me as the President of the Ronald Knox Society so I will make bold to speak of what I know).
An example of his satire, although completely off subject:
a passage from 'Reunion All Round'(modern Englished
by yours truly, it was written in the style of Swift):
"There is some doubt in this connection whether or not the churches of Russia and Greece, arrogantly styled Orthodox, can have any part in the Church of the future. Their very title is, it must be confessed, most horrid and repellant to our ears; for how can a man proclaim his own tenets to be orthodox, without thereby implying that other people's opinions are less likely to be true than his own? We must have no more of this; I leave it to themselves to pitch
upon a new designation, with the suggestion that they would do well to alter their present style to that of Symphorodox, which is to assert no more than that they find their own doctrines helpful. As to our old quarrel about the clause Filioque, it will clearly have disappeared at the time of which we speak: for, as tradition avers
that the Apostles, when they first formed a Creed, did not all profess it together, but each supplied his contribution, Peter leading the way with I Believe In God, so in this new Church nobody will be expected to recite the whole Creed, but only such clauses as he finds relish in; it being anticipated that, with good fortune, a large congregation will usually manage in this way to recite the
whole formula between them."
But perhaps by now you consider me an importunate guest at your party.