I haven't listened to Dead Can Dance for a while, but I discovered this morning that they will be performing at The Hollywood Bowl on Sept 25, and I was very happy.
I'm no more current with music than I am with TV shows - (I have one more DVD to watch and I'm done with 24 Season 1) so it's rare when a group I enjoy actually tours.
I usually discover a group that recently broke up or crashed their private plane into a mountain. Dead Can Dance had stopped touring as a group to work solo projects.
Dead Can Dance makes beautiful music and an odd mixture of lyrics. Some of the lyrics are in English, and the rest is - how to say it - 'Emotica', I suppose. It's more 'sounds' than words.
What's interesting to me is that the sounds are the same every time the song is performed. They're not just skatting random sounds, they're performing in their own personal languages.
The fact that I can't understand these languages might make me enjoy a song more - there's no rhyme-scheme for me to pick apart, no double-entendre's to mull and consider, it's as if the voice component is simply another instrument for them.
I wonder if a similar approach could be used in writing. Short of using sounds, perhaps descriptions of the ping received from each line of the story...
Attention grabbing intro. Cleverly redirected - the first line didn't mean quite what you thought. Enticed to read on.
Obscure reference to a rare literary work. Smug satisfaction as you realize you are one of the few people to 'get' that reference. Respect for writer goes up a smidgen, half for the reference, and half because it feels like a pat on the back for you.
Unexpected emotional revelation about childhood trauma. You identify with the writer, and acknowledge how hard such admissions are. Never told anyone. Suffering.
Deep exhalation. Knowing pain. The taste of truth is rare and right and welcome and you feel justified in your own sorrow.
Sanguine, maudlin. Joke! Hilarious ray of light! The warming bite of Scotch. Sorry. Sad. Sad.
Sad. Frustration. Long-burning guilt and outrage. Motivation, Need. Proud-doubt. Vengeance. Loneliness.
Resolute.
I'm no more current with music than I am with TV shows - (I have one more DVD to watch and I'm done with 24 Season 1) so it's rare when a group I enjoy actually tours.
I usually discover a group that recently broke up or crashed their private plane into a mountain. Dead Can Dance had stopped touring as a group to work solo projects.
Dead Can Dance makes beautiful music and an odd mixture of lyrics. Some of the lyrics are in English, and the rest is - how to say it - 'Emotica', I suppose. It's more 'sounds' than words.
What's interesting to me is that the sounds are the same every time the song is performed. They're not just skatting random sounds, they're performing in their own personal languages.
The fact that I can't understand these languages might make me enjoy a song more - there's no rhyme-scheme for me to pick apart, no double-entendre's to mull and consider, it's as if the voice component is simply another instrument for them.
I wonder if a similar approach could be used in writing. Short of using sounds, perhaps descriptions of the ping received from each line of the story...
Attention grabbing intro. Cleverly redirected - the first line didn't mean quite what you thought. Enticed to read on.
Obscure reference to a rare literary work. Smug satisfaction as you realize you are one of the few people to 'get' that reference. Respect for writer goes up a smidgen, half for the reference, and half because it feels like a pat on the back for you.
Unexpected emotional revelation about childhood trauma. You identify with the writer, and acknowledge how hard such admissions are. Never told anyone. Suffering.
Deep exhalation. Knowing pain. The taste of truth is rare and right and welcome and you feel justified in your own sorrow.
Sanguine, maudlin. Joke! Hilarious ray of light! The warming bite of Scotch. Sorry. Sad. Sad.
Sad. Frustration. Long-burning guilt and outrage. Motivation, Need. Proud-doubt. Vengeance. Loneliness.
Resolute.
Their 'own personal language' thing scares me a little.
ReplyDeleteI'd be thinking the same thing listening to their music as I do when I hear someone near me say something in a language I don't understand, and then laugh:
"They're talking about me, I know they are!"
I once actually caught someone doing that, who thought I couldn't speak french. The look on their face when I turned around and chewed them out was priceless
Lisa Gerrard (of Dead Can Dance) has also done a lot of great music/lyrics for movies lately.
ReplyDeleteOne great example is Gladiator.
You did not just write that?!?
ReplyDelete[A crooked grin fills my face--this is usable Mike. Hold onto it.]
Yeah, just babbled off the top my head as per usual.
ReplyDeleteYou like it?
I was bound to babble something decent eventually.
Oh my....out of the loop again.
ReplyDeleteWho ARE these people and why have I never heard of their music?
:-P
Dead can Dance are usually at the top of my personal play list. I actually have a mammoth playlist dedicated just to DCD and This Mortal Coil - (its tough sometimes to weave them with the other contemporary music I listen to.) I know some of their stuff is ressurected Medieval music - I've heard Lisa Gerrard sing in Persian and Latin. Aion and the Serpant's Egg are my favorite albums. Please please review your concert experience! I've never lived anywhere near where DCD tours - it would be a concert of a lifetime for me.
ReplyDeleteWOW...its gonna blow your mind! And Lisa Gerrard is a goddess incarnate.