domingo, 18 de mayo de 2008
Interesting facts of life!
Last class discussion was about analyzing songs. It is so interesting to read and understand that there are facts of life hidden in the messages of some songs. For example, Beatle's song Lusy in the Sky with Diamond. After analyzing the song, it turned out to be that this song was a REAL SURPRISE! A suprise for me because it states a fact of life, or I would say a contemporary issue, which is drug addiction. I can honestly say that I had not heard that song before. So it was schocking, amazing and I may say facsinating to vizualize what a person thinks, does, or reacts when using drugs. The lyrics of the song clearly show that the person, within the song, is living another life in another unique place for him/ her, perhaps for us a stange place. This person has another perception of reality because of drug abuse. I agree with Prof. Vielma when he claims that perception of reality is a topic addressed by contemporary writers. I can end this posting by saying that drugs, as a fact of life, is a topic addressed by contemporary singers.
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The truth is that now in the 21st century it has become easier to talk about drug abuse. When "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was written - circa 1966 - songwriters wanted to emphasize that their craft was all about becoming more artistically proficient. John Lennon, pressed by the record label and his manager, insisted on the idea that this song title made reference to a drawing by his young son, Julian, who was about 3-4 years old. Alledgedly the picture showed a friend of Julian's sunbathing and wearing diamond jewelry. Of course nobody believed him, as the last time he had some contact with his son was a couple of years earlier.
Yes, it is true that drug use and abuse is an issue in most pop/rock songs of contemporary ages, but it has been a sort of taboo topic - nobody was supposed to talk about it, but everybody knew what it was like - until recent years, after the emergence of HIV and AIDS.
The only person from The Beatles who ever admitted his drug use was Paul McCartney. He did so in 1967, a few months after their manager, Brian Epstein, had died, presumably as a result of medication overdose. McCartney was vehemently critized in the media, and had to sort of apologize for his "ode" to drugs. Later came the deaths of Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, and Jim Morrison, all of them 27 years old at the time, all of them dead as a result of overdose.
I could go on and on, but I'm afraid I might be deviating a bit from the topic.
My final point, and the reason I have written my comment is that today we can easily interpret and comment on literary texts or song lyrics, discussing topics that were not openly addressed by the writers/songwriters in the first place. Do we know for sure whether or not John Lennon was under the influence of LSD as he was writing "Lucy in the...."? My bet is that we will never know. So I woould be cautious in my interpretation of the text from the perspective of drug abuse.
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