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Carole R.
Higher and Higher
United Kingdom
12681 Posts |
 Posted - 31/07/2007 : 09:05:41
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Read this article...Where Dusty, once again, is quoted as not being 'interested' in the lyrics of a song.
Spoke to Neil Tennant today for a Radio Four programme I'm doing about things you can learn from pop music. He worked with Dusty Springfield who assured him that she never thought about the words while she was singing them. We talked a bit about the importance of just being able to perform or write without agonising about it. It puts a question mark against a lot of critical appraisal which sets great store by the apparent level of engagement between the song and the performer...
I find this SOOO hard to believe.
What do you think?...
Carole xx
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Loony
Wishing And Hoping
United Kingdom
224 Posts |
Posted - 31/07/2007 : 10:47:11
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I'm having trouble believing this as well Carole - how on earth could Dusty have sang with such emotion without thinking of the words?
Also, I've seen a clip where Neil Tennant was asked about working with Dusty and was absolutely amazed that she took absolutely AGES just to record the word 'Mandy' when they were working on 'Nothing Has Been Proved', because she wanted to get it just right.
Elaine x
Smile - Life's FAR too short to waste time frowning! |
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Janie
Administrator
United Kingdom
5819 Posts |
Posted - 31/07/2007 : 18:41:06
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This is a different slant on how I had interpreted the point about Dusty and lyrics. I had understood that she wasn't interested in the lyric in terms of choice of song rather than when she was singing them.
Either way, I've always thought it a bit strange. In terms of choice of song, it seems to me that you can detect a resonance between particular periods in her life and what we now know was going on, and the songs she sang. Coincidence or intentional choice of song? I don't know.
In respect of the point 'she never thought about the words while she was singing them'...well, I think that is complete twaddle. One of the great things about Dusty was always her skill in interpretation. Now, as anybody who knows me will tell, I know diddlysquat about music, but it beats me how anybody can interpret a lyric so brilliantly time and time again, without thinking about it! 
Janie  x53 |
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Sara
Higher and Higher
United Kingdom
8664 Posts |
Posted - 31/07/2007 : 22:59:44
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I just think she meant, it didn't matter so much about the lyrics cos it's the melody that's gonna sell the song.
Sara x |
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furtivenudist
Wishing And Hoping
182 Posts |
Posted - 01/08/2007 : 02:19:22
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I've mentioned this before, but lyrics are absolutely meaningless - most pop songs are about love, more love, never ending love. They're crap and Dusty knew it.
Case in point:
Review by Dave Thompson
Serge Gainsbourg's fascination with the noisier bodily functions has been well-documented, both by his biographers and by his own records. Who else, after all, would commission Sly & Robbie to lay down their earthiest, dubbiest reggae rhythm, then punctuate it with nonstop farting noises ("Evguenie Sokolov" from 1981's Mauvaises Nouvelles des Etoiles album)? Who else would write a novel about a gas-stricken painter who turns his body-burps to his artistic advantage? And whose else could conceive an album dedicated in its near-entirety to...well, the song titles tell that story: "La Poupee Qui Fait" translates as "The Doll That Goes to the Toilet," the title track documents the messier consequences of anal sex, and "Des Vents, des Pets, des Boums" means, simply, "Wind, Farts, Booms." "Titicaca" is, of course, smuttily self-explanatory. So, it's dirty, filthy, scatological fun, but it's all wrapped so smoothly, so sweetly, and so irresistibly seductively that even the backing musicians -- a team of crack English musicians led by Alan Hawkshaw -- were not aware what he was singing about. The melodies are as lush as any, the performances as immaculate, and the soundscapes as varied. Vu de l'Exterieur ranges from gentle rock to mild funk, from dreamy ballads to heart-stopping tunefulness, and it's all delivered so romantically straight-faced that one cannot help but shudder for all those suave non-French-speaking lotharios who woo their ladies with low lights and Gainsbourg. "Sensuelle et Sans Suite" might feel like a beautiful Beatlesque ballad, but that's where the resemblance ends. Lyrically, it laments -- you guessed it -- the barrage of flatulence that bedeviled a one-night stand. It is a joyful album and one of Gainsbourg's best, edging the critically acclaimed (but possibly overrated) Melody Nelson and possibly nudging Aux Armes Etcaetera. And higher praise than that would be difficult to find. |
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Lindakron
Sweet Inspiration
Canada
2539 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2007 : 19:48:07
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I was under the same impression as Janie, that Dusty would tend to listen to the music as she scanned for songs to record, and not really think much about the lyric until later.
I don't mind simple lyrics, but a bad lyric can ruin the entire song for me.
Linda |
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