With The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (Ziggy Stardust), David Bowie brought glam rock to the masses. Ironically, he didn’t do it as “David Bowie.” To fully deliver this new rock frontier, Bowie crafted a character: the titular “Ziggy Stardust.” Ziggy is a doomed, tragic, Christ-like (we’ll get to that later) character, and the album chronicles his journey to save humanity from itself. Due to its narrative structure, some label Ziggy Stardust a concept album. That idea inspired me to research the album, because I wanted to find the heart of Bowie’s story. After analyzing Ziggy Stardust, I found three major themes: Religion, Love, and Music. Below, you'll find the album tracklist, my analysis, and the data I gathered to write this entry. Tracklist: Religion: 9/11 songs (Five Years, Soul Love, Moonage Daydream, Starman, It Ain’t Easy, Lady Stardust, Hang on to Yourself, Ziggy Stardust, Rock n’ Roll Suicide) On Ziggy Stardust, Bowie isn't one for subtlety. Throughout the album, Bowie's alter-ego, Ziggy, is acts as a prophet who uses rock music to save the human race. He amasses a devoted following, uses the stage as a pulpit for rock n' roll sermons, and eventually sacrifices himself for mankind. Does that remind you of anyone? "Soul love: the priest that tastes the word and / Told of love: and how my God on high is / All love: though reaching up my loneliness / Evolves, by the blindness that surrounds him" Love: 8/11 songs (Five Years, Soul Love, Moonage Daydream, Starman, Lady Stardust, Star, Ziggy Stardust, Rock n’ Roll Suicide) Love is the core of Ziggy Stardust. It motivates the characters to do good, and it's the ultimate factor in Ziggy's sacrifice. Love gives the characters reason to carry on, even without Ziggy. "Love is careless in its choosing / Sweeping over cross a baby / Love descends on those defenseless" Music: 8/11 songs (Five Years, Moonage Daydream, Starman, Lady Stardust, Star, Hang on to Yourself, Ziggy Stardust, Rock n’ Roll Suicide) Ziggy uses his music to enlighten people, and warn them of the impending apocalypse. Of course, this could be a thinly-veiled metaphor for any artist/consumer relationship, but I think it's more of a love letter from Bowie to rock n' roll music. The album occasionally tackles some heavy topics, but it's always kept afloat by Bowie's tangible love for music. "Now Ziggy played guitar / He played it left hand / But made it too far / Became the special man / Then we became Ziggy's Band" Most Thematic Song(s): "Five Years," "Moonage Daydream," "Starman," "Lady Stardust," "Ziggy Stardust," and "Rock n' Roll Suicide" contain all three themes. Least Thematic Song(s): "Suffragette City" contains none of the three themes. Final Thoughts: After analyzing Ziggy Stardust and writing this entry, I don't believe it's a concept album. There is a loose story that unfolds throughout the album, but the themes seem too vast to be beholden to one certain concept. Bowie uses Ziggy to comment on what it means to be a superstar, what it means to love, and what it means to worship something beyond your comprehension. Ziggy Stardust isn't about Ziggy's story. It's about the story of humanity, told through him. Data: Religion: 9/11 songs (Five Years, Soul Love, Moonage Daydream, Starman, It Ain’t Easy, Lady Stardust, Hang on to Yourself, Ziggy Stardust, Rock n’ Roll Suicide)
Love: 8/11 songs (Five Years, Soul Love, Moonage Daydream, Starman, Lady Stardust, Star, Ziggy Stardust, Rock n’ Roll Suicide)
Music: 8/11 songs (Five Years, Moonage Daydream, Starman, Lady Stardust, Star, Hang on to Yourself, Ziggy Stardust, Rock n’ Roll Suicide)
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Musician Brian Eno famously said that despite The Velvet Underground & Nico (VU&N) only selling 30,000 copies upon its release, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band." Andy Warhol produced VU&N, and gave The Velvet Underground full creative control. That complete control lead to a wildly revolutionary album. Lou Reed and John Cale served as the primary songwriters, and together they crafted a world of seedy street deals, sexual deviancy, and rampant drug abuse. Reed wrote every lyric, but Cale is responsible for the dark, discordant atmosphere that dominates most of VU&N. Before analyzing VU&N, I wondered if the lyrics were as dark as the album's soundscape, and what themes tied it all together. I found six themes in The Velvet Underground & Nico: Decline, Urbanism, Violence, Religion, Darkness, and Drugs. Below, you'll find the album tracklist, my analysis, and the data I gathered to write the analysis. Tracklist: Decline: 9/11 songs (Sunday Morning, I’m Waiting for the Man, Femme Fatale, Venus in Furs, Run Run Run, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Heroin, There She Goes Again, I’ll Be Your Mirror) New York City is sinking into the sewers, everyone is sick, and the world is wasting away. At least, that's what Lou Reed thinks in VU&N. The 60s were a tumultuous time in American history, and Reed had a front-row seat to the upheaval. In VU&N, he depicts a world on fire. Urbanism: 8/11 songs (Sunday Morning, I’m Waiting for the Man, Femme Fatale, Venus in Furs, Run Run Run, Heroin, There She Goes Again, The Black Angel’s Death Song) New York City is Reed's most prominent muse in VU&N. It serves as the backdrop of almost every song. In "I'm Waiting for the Man," you can almost hear the city's chaotic pressure behind Reed's relentless guitar chords. In "Run Run Run," Reed creates a tragically vivid cast of characters that fall victim to the dangers of urban life. Violence: 8/11 songs (I’m Waiting for the Man, Femme Fatale, Venus in Furs, Run Run Run, Heroin, There She Goes Again, The Black Angel’s Death Song, European Son) In Reed's world, violence is necessary. It's the only reasonable outcome in a system that takes naive dreamers, crushes them, and converts them into drug-dependent nihilists. Most of the violence depicted in VU&N is self-harm. "Venus in Furs" showcases a depressed masochist desperate for human intimacy. "Heroin" depicts a drug addict taking pleasure by stabbing himself with needles. Reed shows that while the outside world is dangerous, it's what's on the inside that hurts us the most. Religion: 8/11 songs (Sunday Morning, Venus in Furs, Run Run Run, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Heroin, I’ll Be Your Mirror, The Black Angel’s Death Song, European Son) Reed uses Christian imagery to make men more than themselves. In "Heroin" the character uses heroin so he can feel "like Jesus' son." In the same song, he also uses so he can "make it to the kingdom." For the characters in Reed's world, grasping for some greater existence is all they have. Darkness: 6/11 songs (I’m Waiting for the Man, Venus in Furs, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Heroin, I’ll Be Your Mirror, The Black Angel’s Death Song) This theme should come as no surprise. Reed is much more concerned with the shadows around every corner than he is the light. John Cale's often disturbing musical arrangements only add to Reed's brutal depictions of urban life. Even in the deceptively sunny opener, "Sunday Morning," the narrator warns to never let your guard down, because there will always be someone to remind you of the darkness. Drugs: 5/11 songs (I’m Waiting for the Man, Run Run Run, Heroin, There She Goes Again, The Black Angel’s Death Song) Drugs drive the action of VU&N. They're a constant problem that can't be fixed; a perpetual thorn in society's side. They cause the decline, violence, and darkness that's depicted on the rest of the album. They're the album's antagonist, yet also the main character. Most Thematic Song: "Heroin" contains all six themes. Least Thematic Song: "European Son" contains only two themes. Final Thoughts: VU&N turned out how I thought it would. While I never picked up on the religious imagery before, I knew the album would be a gritty, unforgiving look at 1960s New York City. I'm still amazed by how lyrically bold it is for an album that came out in 1967. Heroin use and sadomasochism had never been so bluntly depicted in music, and Lou Reed's insistence on writing it ensured The Velvet Underground and Nico was bravely ahead of its time. Raw Data: Decline: 9/11 songs (Sunday Morning, I’m Waiting for the Man, Femme Fatale, Venus in Furs, Run Run Run, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Heroin, There She Goes Again, I’ll Be Your Mirror)
Urbanism: 8/11 songs (Sunday Morning, I’m Waiting for the Man, Femme Fatale, Venus in Furs, Run Run Run, Heroin, There She Goes Again, The Black Angel’s Death Song)
Violence: 8/11 songs (I’m Waiting for the Man, Femme Fatale, Venus in Furs, Run Run Run, Heroin, There She Goes Again, The Black Angel’s Death Song, European Son)
Religion: 8/11 songs (Sunday Morning, Venus in Furs, Run Run Run, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Heroin, I’ll Be Your Mirror, The Black Angel’s Death Song, European Son)
Darkness: 6/11 songs (I’m Waiting for the Man, Venus in Furs, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Heroin, I’ll Be Your Mirror, The Black Angel’s Death Song)
Drugs: 5/11 songs (I’m Waiting for the Man, Run Run Run, Heroin, There She Goes Again, The Black Angel’s Death Song)
Before 1997, most people knew Radiohead for their smash hit, "Creep." OK Computer forced those people to reconsider Radiohead. Radiohead's previous records, Pablo Honey and The Bends, were solid alternative rock albums, but OK Computer was a different beast entirely. Expansive; cold; confident: OK Computer is Radiohead becoming fully realized. Many publications at the time declared the album an instant classic, and it maintains that status today. I'll admit: OK Computer is one of my favorite albums. I've listened to it hundreds of times, and thought I'd scoured every nook and cranny. Before analyzing the album, I didn't expect to learn new things about it. . . but I did. I discovered three major themes in OK Computer: Alienation, Love, and Transportation. Below, you'll find OK Computer's tracklist, my analysis, and the data I gathered to write this blog. Note: This blog is a bit shorter than my usual post. Thom Yorke, Radiohead's chief songwriter and lyricist, uses minimal lyrics to get his point across, so there wasn't as much data to gather. Tracklist: Alienation: 8/12 songs (Paranoid Android, Subterranean Homesick Alien, Exit Music, Let Down, Karma Police, Fitter Happier, Climbing Up the Walls, No Surprises) OK Computer is an album of missed connections. Thom Yorke wrote most of it during extensive touring, and the toll that took on his mental state is obvious. Talking to Rolling Stone, Yorke said, "Everything I was writing was actually a way of trying to reconnect with other human beings when you’re always in transit. That’s what I had to write about because that’s what was going on, which in itself instilled a kind of loneliness and disconnection." Loneliness seethes at the core of almost every song on OK Computer. Yorke was desperate for genuine human connection, and the resulting alienation is palpable across the album. Love: 7/12 songs (Paranoid Android, Subterranean Homesick Alien, Let Down, Karma Police, Fitter Happier, Climbing Up the Walls, Lucky) Despite the sadness prevalent on most of OK Computer, there's usually hope beyond the darkness. Yorke presents love as something integral to the human experience. In "Exit Music (For a Film)," it's worth dying for. In "Lucky," it gives meaning to the narrator's life. Transportation: 6/12 songs (Airbag, Subterranean Homesick Alien, Let Down, Karma Police, Fitter Happier, Lucky) Like with Alienation, Transportation is centered around Yorke's depressing tour experience. Being in constant transit made him feel he was missing out on real human experiences. He references a car accident in "Airbag," and a plane crashing in "Lucky." These scenes are probably inspired by the fears he gained while on tour. In another Rolling Stone article, Yorke stated, "If you spend all your time time traveling on airplanes or on buses or whatever, you’re bound to get this sense like in 'Let Down.' It’s like hanging onto something and having the floors collapse underneath you." In OK Computer, modern transportation makes life faster, but it also makes it isolating. Most Thematic Songs: "Subterranean Homesick Alien," "Let Down," "Karma Police," and "Fitter Happier" contain all three major themes. Least Thematic Songs: "Electioneering" and "The Tourist" do not contain any of the three major themes. Final Thoughts: This research showed me OK Computer has more hope than I previously realized. Yes, it's a bleak examination of modern life, but that doesn't stop it from being optimistic at its center. Yorke suggests that many of our problems can be solved by taking time away from the daily grind. I think his lyrics in "The Tourist" summarize OK Computer's core message: "Idiot, slow down." Raw Data: Alienation 8/12 songs (Paranoid Android, Subterranean Homesick Alien, Exit Music, Let Down, Karma Police, Fitter Happier, Climbing Up the Walls, No Surprises)
Love 7/12 songs (Paranoid Android, Subterranean Homesick Alien, Let Down, Karma Police, Fitter Happier, Climbing Up the Walls, Lucky)
Transportation 6/12 songs (Airbag, Subterranean Homesick Alien, Let Down, Karma Police, Fitter Happier, Lucky)
Funeral is a product of death. The family of a few Arcade Fire members died either immediately before, or during the production of Funeral: Win and Will Butler's grandfather (electric guitar pioneer, Alvino Rey); Regine Chassagne's grandmother; and Richard Reed Parry's aunt. Their deaths permeate almost every song on Funeral, but the album manages to stay bright. The instruments never veer too dark. The melodies never sound defeated. Before analyzing Funeral, I wondered if the lyrics maintained that same optimism. Could an album born from death be a statement of hope and courage? I found five themes in Funeral: Death, Age, Family, Home, and Love. Below, you'll find the album tracklist, my summaries of the themes, and the research I gathered to form my analysis. Tracklist: Death: 9/10 songs (Neighborhood #1, Neighborhood #2, Neighborhood #3, Neighborhood #4, Crown of Love, Wake Up, Haiti, Rebellion, In the Backseat) Death plays a crucial role in Funeral's world. Kids die in the snow. A Haitian dictator murders his people, and buries them in unmarked graves. Vampires run amok. It's impossible not to connect this theme to the deaths affecting Arcade Fire's personnel. Age: 9/10 songs (Neighborhood #1, Neighborhood #2, Une Annee Sans Lumiere, Neighborhood #3, Neighborhood #4, Crown of Love, Wake Up, Haiti, Rebellion) Funeral is a coming-of-age album. Death causes the characters to grow up immediately. They lose their innocence when faced with the cold realities of life. In "Neighborhood #3," kids are swinging from the power lines. The adults are gone, so the children are free to do whatever they please. This freedom is punished later in the song, when children begin freezing to death. This teaches the other characters that everyone is mortal, and life isn't guaranteed. Win Butler, Arcade Fire's primary lyricist, may have learned a similar lesson with the passing of his grandfather. Family: 8/10 songs (Neighborhood #1, Neighborhood #2, Une Annee Sans Lumiere, Neighborhood #3, Crown of Love, Haiti, Rebellion, In the Backseat) Much of the sadness in Funeral involves family members. Cousins are still-born, parents are heard crying in their bedroom, and a brother is compared to Laika. On "In the Backseat," Regine Chassagne sings, "My family tree / is losing all its leaves." The recent passing of her grandmother, and the murders of her family in Haiti, probably inspired those lyrics. Despite those tragedies, family is a beacon of hope in other songs. In "Haiti," Chassagne sings, "My family set me free." In Funeral, family causes you deep pain, but is also your saving grace. Home: 5/10 songs (Neighborhood #1, Neighborhood #2, Neighborhood #3, Neighborhood #4, Crown of Love) The bulk of Funeral takes place in a fictional neighborhood. Little is known about the neighborhood, but it seems to be the result of some apocalyptic winter. Parents inexplicably disappear, and children run the town. Everything is fine, until death forces them to grow up. Eventually, they become just like the adults they initially resented. I think this symbolizes one of the tragedies Funeral displays: age has a way of tainting expectations, which leads to giving up completely. The characters' neighborhood serves as the backdrop for that defeat. Love: 5/10 songs (Neighborhood #1, Neighborhood #3, Crown of Love, Wake Up, Rebellion) Love ties Funeral together. Despite the tragedy, heartbreak, and loss prevalent on the majority of the album, the lyrics often resolve by overcoming those things. Every defeat is met with acceptance. On "Wake Up," Win Butler sings, "With my lightning bolts glowing / I can see where I am going." That line perfectly summarizes what Funeral is. The characters, and band members, suffered personal losses. They took those losses and turned them into strengths. The character used lightning bolts. Arcade Fire used their art. Love transforms the tragedies into something beyond mortality. Most Thematic Song(s): "Neighborhood #1," "Neighborhood #3," and "Crown of Love" contain all five themes. Least Thematic Song(s): "Une Annee Sans Lumiere" and "In the Backseat" contain only two of the five themes. Final Thoughts: I was very familiar with Funeral before researching it, but its sheer darkness still managed to surprise me. The music is so triumphant that it's easy to forget the pain bubbling from the center of the album. It's an album born from pain, so its pain makes sense. That's what makes it beautiful. Arcade Fire take death and make it a celebration of life. They don't want to stew in agony. They'd rather get on their feet, raise their voices, and live while they still can. The deaths of their family members cost them a piece of their innocence, but it also showed them the value of life. Raw Data: Death: 9/10 songs (Neighborhood #1, Neighborhood #2, Neighborhood #3, Neighborhood #4, Crown of Love, Wake Up, Haiti, Rebellion, In the Backseat)
Age: 9/10 songs (Neighborhood #1, Neighborhood #2, Une Annee Sans Lumiere, Neighborhood #3, Neighborhood #4, Crown of Love, Wake Up, Haiti, Rebellion)
Family: 8/10 songs (Neighborhood #1, Neighborhood #2, Une Annee Sans Lumiere, Neighborhood #3, Crown of Love, Haiti, Rebellion, In the Backseat)
Home: 5/10 songs (Neighborhood #1, Neighborhood #2, Neighborhood #3, Neighborhood #4, Crown of Love)
Love: 5/10 songs (Neighborhood #1, Neighborhood #3, Crown of Love, Wake Up, Rebellion)
In 1980, Talking Heads were at a crossroad. After releasing 1979's dystopian epic, Fear of Music, the band was ready for a new direction. Looped, African rhythms, and stream-of-consciousness lyrics would be that new direction. Talking Heads experimented with African styles on Fear of Music, in songs like "I Zimbra," but that influence became fully realized on 1980's Remain in Light. Lyrically, Remain in Light is fractured and dense. It's often hard to tell what David Byrne, the chief songwriter and lyricist, is saying. In many songs, his lyrics come off as free word association. With that in mind, I didn't know what to expect when I first approached this album. After analyzing Remain in Light, I found three major themes: Time, Motion, and Identity. Below, you'll find the tracklist, a download file for the audio version of this blog, and my analysis.
Tracklist: Time: 8/8 songs (Born Under Punches, Crosseyed and Painless, The Great Curve, Once in a Lifetime, Houses in Motion, Seen and Not Seen, Listening Wind, The Overload)
Motion: 8/8 songs (Born Under Punches, Crosseyed and Painless, The Great Curve, Once in a Lifetime, Houses in Motion, Seen and Not Seen, Listening Wind, The Overload)
Identity: 7/8 songs (Born Under Punches, Crosseyed and Painless, The Great Curve, Houses in Motion, Seen and Not Seen, Listening Wind, The Overload)
Least Thematic Song: "Once in a Lifetime" is the only song that doesn't contain all three themes. It's one of my favorite music videos though: Final Thoughts: Remain in Light surprised me. I'd listened to the album before, but I rarely knew what David Byrne was saying. Despite the freewheeling nature in which the lyrics were composed, they don't hide anything. Once examined, the themes become shockingly apparent. It tells the story of people attempting to change their realities. In "Seen and Not Seen," the character sees an ideal life in magazines, TV, and books. He sees the faces of people he'd like to be. The character desperately desires that artificial reality, so he tries to mold his face according to it. The character only gets halfway there, before desiring a new reality. This leaves his face in some grotesque limbo, neither original nor desired. He wonders if others have made the same mistake. |