Comments on: Carl’s Rock Songbook #4: The Poetic Wisdom Paradox, Amplified

By: Carl’s Rock Songbook #72: The Beatles, “It’s Only Love” » Postmodern Conservative | A First Things Blog

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:48:24 +0000

[...] the lyrics already mentioned, the attempted transition is fraught with certain problems, certain paradoxes of poetry. The music of “It’s Only Love” drains most of the emotional sense of the possible reality of [...]

By: Carl’s Rock Songbook #14: Rock, Rock, Rock, Rock, Rock n’ Roll Grad School » Postmodern Conservative | A First Things Blog

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:45:21 +0000

[...] Allan Bloom’s claim of a Dantean/Shakespearean tradition of philosophic poetry, touched upon in Songbook #4, and how such efforts might distinguish the “fine.” I admit that questions about how jazz, some [...]

By: Andrew B.

Andrew B. — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:47:57 +0000

That’s also why there is really no such thing as an anti-war film. The scenes of battle will ultimately end up being far more exhilarating than the message that “war is bad.”

Hence Full Metal Jacket being used for its one-liners and Apocalypse Now being remembered for the ride of the Valkyries.

By: Carl Eric Scott

Carl Eric Scott — Sun, 22 May 2011 02:23:30 +0000

Chan, your last sentence pretty much expresses the way I think “Time” is meant to work with the rest of the album.

Paul, a good point. And not so long ago, the insightful young artists (a limited class, yes!) were far more aware of it–in a song we’ll be looking at soon, “Masters of War,” Bob Dylan (happy 70th birthday!) sang …you might say that I’m YOUNG, you might say I’m unlearned… That is not expressing a mindless “don’t trust anyone over 30″ sentiment, rather, there’s anger about the abject failure on this war-establishment-issue of the age/wisdom correlation. That correlation is assumed to be the way things ought to be.

What I’m saying is that those with much less wisdom than, say, Homer (we’ll leave The Philosophers out for the moment) still get certain things right. Given genuine giftedness, more experiences, more careful observation, some lucky reading, some wise peers, parents, and teachers, etc., there are some twenty-or-so-year olds who are not merely blessed with the potential to become wise, but who on many topics simply do have excellent judgment/insight about the world they live. Perhaps especially when that’s combined with having a better sense of what “their generation” is attuned to or facing, it can be a kind of wisdom, a piece of wisdom. It lacks seasoning, but it is not afflicted by the many sorts of corrupting seasoning. When all this, plus the young’s passion, comes together right, the result can be poetic art so powerful, so apparently partaking of wisdom–both classic and right-on-time–, as to be called “prophetic,” as happened to young Dylan.

And yet, the conviction that this had happened to baby-faced Dylan proved a rather fraught inspiration, nay expectation, for others. Your Van and Joni, and Bob’s own adult artistic retrenchment, are happy examples of that inspiration, but the Songbook will be revealing many unfortunate ones.

Argent and White of the Zombies really saw into some important things, and the insight of “Time” is an instance of that. But it fails nonetheless fails in the way I’ve described. The PWP is hard for a young mind to grasp, indeed it’s hard for anyone who’s come up with something good to say to realize that certain arenas/modes are not good to say it in. Especially with so many boors ruling the roost.

By: paul seaton

paul seaton — Sat, 21 May 2011 13:16:56 +0000

Great statement of ur framework, Carl. A few questions/topics concerning essential differences between Traditional Poetics and rock: 1) the distinctive musical media of rock; 2) its being addressed exclusively to youth. Among other things, they seem to considerably dumb-down what can be done in, and with, rock. (I’m aware there are potentials, and virtuosities, in an electric guitar not found in acoustical ones. Still, on balance … .) Homer was wise. The rock guitar gods and lead singers, not so much, because who can be wise at 20? (Im open to an Ion-discussion about inspiration.) On another hand, I like the 60s musicians (Joni and Van) who’ve remained true to their muses and have explored and sung life’s cycle with growing insight and wisdom.

By: Chan S.

Chan S. — Fri, 20 May 2011 23:39:41 +0000

Without getting into the larger PWP theme here, I want to suggest a different way of “hearing” Time of the Season, as the patter of the serpent before the Fall–repellent and seductive, because that’s how he rolls. “What’s your name/ Who’s your daddy/ Is he rich like me?/ Has he taken/ Any time/ To show you what you need to live.” The music starts in a minor key and sequences step by step toward the bright final major chord signifying the promise of false love (false promise of love?). If the final song of Odessey & Oracle is about the rupture from “home,” the rest of the album is the yearning for homecoming (=love+home) and the failures or imperfect successes in making that, er, Odyssey.