I am beginning to realize that this blog might end up becoming decidedly moody.
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If you've ever known the feeling of what feels like an actual intense, brief crush on a pop song
you will understand how hard it can be resist the urge to fall in love with the pop song equivalent of the manic pixie dream girl.
You know, the song that is SO beautiful and SO ridiculous and SO serious?
You know, the kind of song that if it were a person could use the word "mocktail" with no irony.
(No irony at ALL!)
This is where I confess that I am about to post my third song in less than a month from Hall & Oates' 1975 album Daryl Hall and John Oates.
(Previously: "Sara Smile"; "Camellia")
If you enjoy musicians with great technical skill and passion but no innate sense of irony (Billy Joel, Morrissey, Elton John [but only intriguingly rarely with him, to be precise], Radiohead), you have GOT to get to this album ASAP.
In other words, if the thought of
- a soaringly beautiful song featuring the refrain Sitting. And staring. And sitting. And staring.
- or a snappy ditty with the refrain But isn't it a bit like oxygen? Too much will make you high, but not enough will make you die
- or a sentimental breakup song in which an apparently straight man laments never being able to go window shopping with his girlfriend again (and it's called "(You Know) It Doesn't Matter Anymore")
makes ANY part of your brain light up at ALL,
this one goes out to you,
brother/sister.
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You see our lives are likethe ice inside
this paper cup
We both start out with a job to do
but age
and fade away
until we are swallowed up
The song: Hall & Oates, "Ice" (demo; released as bonus track on remastered album); 1975
The moment: It is a perfect pop song about how human mortality is like the ICE inside a PAPER CUP. THE WHOLE SONG IS A MOMENT.
Daryl Hall and John Oates: musical beauty for those of us who like sitting and staring and contemplating our mortality and the importance of oxygen
What a potent mocktail!
Yrs,
AW
