First off, in the spirit of transparency and full disclosure, I must admit that I was raised on Tom Waits songs.  Yes, the singer/songwriter who has given us such great lines as:

• Paws his inside P-coat pocket for a welcome twenty-five cents,
  And the last bent butt from a package of Kents,
  As he dreams of a waitress with Maxwell House eyes
  And marmalade thighs with scrambled yellow hair.

• the classified section offered no direction
  it’s a cold caffeine in a nicotine cloud
  now the touch of your fingers
  lingers burning in my memory
  I’ve been 86ed from your scheme
  I’m in a melodramatic nocturnal scene
  I’m a refugee from a disconcerted affair
  as the lead pipe morning falls
  and the waitress calls

• Well he came home from the war
  with a party in his head
  and modified Brougham DeVille
  and a pair of legs that opened up
  like butterfly wings
  and a mad dog that wouldn’t
  sit still
  he went and took up with a Salvation Army
  Band girl
  who played dirty water
  on a swordfishtrombone
  he went to sleep at the bottom of
  Tenkiller lake
  and he said “gee, but it’s
  great to be home.”

• He has no friends
  But he gets a lot of mail
  I’ll bet he spent a little
  Time in jail…
  I heard he was up on the
  Roof last night
  Signaling with a flashlight
  And what’s that tune he’s
  Always whistling…
  What’s he building in there?
  What’s he building in there?

So it takes a lot to make me go “hmm?” when I’m listening to music these days (okay, so I will also admit to it taking me at least two playings of each Waits album before I totally get all his lyrics 😉 )

What is music these days? Catchy “beats” created on electronic boxes awash with switches and dials where the lyrics leap at you? Real instruments played with heart where the lyrics are just along for the ride? MOR combinations of riffs and lyrics that are so formalistic you can swear they must have come out of a MIT-created hit song generator?

Yes, the current musical scene does appear rather bleak from my lyrical seat in the stands. Is there hope for us after all?  For your consideration, I present the following:

• “I’m a happy idiot waving at cars”

• “When I say nothing I say everything”

• “We all sing along but the notes are all wrong”

• “Why do you only call me when you’re high?”

• “Even Da Vinci couldn’t paint you
  And Stephen Hawking can’t explain you
  Rosetta Stone could not translate you
  I’m at a loss for words, I’m at a loss for words
  I couldn’t put it in a novel
  I wrote a page, but it was awful”

• “I’m on a train, going nowhere
  I ran away, to make you care
  This ain’t my house, this ain’t your home
  Not when I’m feeling, this alone”

(TOTR, Jack White, Matt&Kim, Arctic Monkeys, Weezer, Royal Blood)

What do you think? Me? I’m going back to listen to my Waits albums and maybe dip into some old school hip-hop (Naz and Rakim, anyone?)

Keep challenging your musical perspectives!

altproposalguy