Driving down the hill leading away from my home in Cómpeta recently, I found myself stuck behind yet another white-knuckled tourist who was struggling to get his hire car out of first gear; whilst his wife covered her eyes to avoid seeing the long drop just a few feet to her right. At times like this, or for example being stuck behind a herd of goats, it is quite easy to get agitated and try some reckless manoeuvre. The best thing to do is just relax and put the radio on. Considering this is Spain, we are very well served by English-speaking radio (of varying quality). I sometimes listen to REM FM (104.8), but find that the car is not big enough for me and Maurice Boland’s ego.
I would rather listen to some music played by some of the Spanish radio stations, such as Radio 3 (99.8), part of Radio Nacional de España, who play an eclectic mixture of new and old music; from Jazz to avant-garde, visiting classic Rock on the way. Another station often listened to is M80 (101.1) a Spanish, Malaga-based station which plays mainly English and American hits from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
It was whilst listening to M80 recently that I heard ‘Money for Nothing’ by Dire Straits. A song about how hard it is working in the music industry compared to more mundane tasks such as a delivery man. A song that has the line “Now look at them yo-yos, that’s the way you do it”. Now, I am good at swearing (ask my wife) and I can honestly say that “yo yos” is not a term of abuse that I am aware of. Maybe it is a colloquialism from Glasgow where the writer of this song, Mark Knopfler was born, or Newcastle-upon-Tyne where he was raised. Or it could be an example of poor song lyrics. OK, I know what you are thinking Mr Knopfler is a successful and talented man, so what do I know? But I think that if you are willing to put your work into the public domain, then you must expect scrutiny and when relevant, criticism.
My favourite example of poor, sloppy lyrics must be “Jailbreak” by Thin Lizzy. This song has the lyrics “Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak, somewhere in this town”. Now I am no Sherlock Holmes, but I would suggest the jailbreak is probably going to take place at the town’s jail.
Lyrics of a song can be powerful and very important to us all at some stage of our lives. A lost love or indeed a lost loved one can be eased by a song. Take “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong. A beautiful song that makes you realise that although you might be down, there is a fantastic world out there, full of opportunities and excitement. Sorry, I got a bit carried away there! You can watch Louis singing What a Wonderful World” live on the YouTube web site. The link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnRqYMTpXHc
There are some songwriters that who obviously deem lyrics to be a more important part of a song than others. I am sure that the first Spice Girls hit single “Wannabe” would not have been a hit had it been based on the lyrics. To quote the said song: “I wanna really really really wanna zigazig ah”. Say no more.
In my opinion, an example of a fine lyricist is Bob Dylan. I am not a huge fan of his as such, but a former colleague of mine who was, lent me a book of his songs. They read like poetry.
The best example of how powerful a song can be that I can think of happened when I was about 12 years old. My Mum and Dad were divorced so my Mum had joined the single-parent organisation, Gingerbread. Gingerbread arranged a holiday for its members; two weeks at Pontins, Prestatyn in north Wales. One evening in one of the clubs, a female singer was belting out some well known songs and then she began singing the famous Tammy Wynette hit. As she sang the chorus “Stand by your man…” almost every woman in the audience burst into tears. Given the audience, it was probably not the best choice of song to have sung.
