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Peace & Ecology Festival
St Luke's Church (bombed out church)
Top of Bold St, Liverpool
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Alun Parry Blog
Enough With The Love Songs Already!
Wherever I go people say to me that I'm a political songwriter. It's not a label that I object to. I'm firmly on the left and that world view is clearly reflected in my songs. But I'd say that I was more a songwriter who writes about life. So my songs tend to be "about" something. Not in the sense that they are Das Kapital set to music, but that they tell a story of some sort.
Yet I can sometimes get self conscious about this. When I plan a set I'll look through it and think "oh dear, everything is a song ABOUT something". I worry that, even though the songs are more slice of life and told with a humorous bent, that I'm putting too much onto my audience. Maybe they don't want songs that are about something!!
Yet I've realised that, in fact, when I worry that a song is "about something" I'm really saying "this is not a love song."
Love songs predominate in the world of music. So if its not a love song its considered to be "about something."
And I'll be honest. I'm sick of love songs. They have their place, sure. But given that writers surely will be inspired to write about life, how is it that so many writers talk about love pretty much constantly?
I'm trying to think of the conversations I have with friends. What do we talk about? What do we think about?
If songs are an accurate reflection then we're all chatting away like a group session from Relate, whining away at our respective love lives and romantic conundrums.
But in fact we aren't. We chat about how crap our jobs are, or about the match, or about something in the news, or about something funny that happened the other day, or about something going on in the lives of a mutual friend, or about how their kids are, or a good film or a great book or music or something. Very occasionally we will talk about love related issues. And it's not because we all have some macho veneer that we use to shield ourselves from each other. I don't have those kind of mates.
So if songs reflect our lives, why are they almost all about love. Personally I've had enough.
Is it that commercialism demands that lyrics are frothy and uncontroversial? And what is more sweet and fluffy than "I love you"?
Is it that the love song is now so commonplace and with its' feet so firmly under the musical table that the easy option is for writers to pen something that involves the dreaded lurrrv?
Maybe I'm being tough on the old love song. After all, it's easier to create when surfing on the crest of a powerful emotion, and unrequited love is certainly the kind of misery that can get the creative juices flowing.
But I find love song after love song after love song, well, a bit dull I suppose.
"This is a song about a girl".
"This next song is about another girl."
"This next one is about some other girl I used to see."
It gets a bit tiresome. And the irritating thing is that if someone wrote song after song like that about any other subject they'd be pigeon holed and branded (rightly in my view) as one dimensional.
"This is a song about the combustion engine."
"Here's another song about the combustion engine."
"Here's yet another song.." Oh well you get my drift.
Yet if someone is one dimensionally writing about love, they escape this fate and I don't see why.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not railing against love songs per se. Love is part of life. But thats the key phrase. PART of life. So surely they should feature rather than dominate?
As a listener, I increasingly find myself switching off whenever someone comes on stage and gives me a love song. Especially because the person who was on before them did exactly the same. I think it makes it harder for that artist to catch my attention as a result. The song has to be extraordinarily beautiful or catchy to win me over.
And then there is the added issue of the dominance of male voices in popular music. Thankfully I've found this less of an issue on the Liverpool acoustic music scene which is teeming with talented female artists. But beyond that, is it healthy for us culturally to only get one side of the story about a topic that involves both men and women?
Do I really want to hear yet another testosterone fuelled rant about the supposedly awful woman who most recently had the misfortune to be romantically involved with him?
For me, the answer is not really. And not if that's what the last song was about too. And definitely not if the next song is more of the same. Perhaps this is why I tend to find love songs from female artists that bit more interesting, though even here I could name some that overdo it.
I look back over my recent album, which is naturally forming the core of my live set at the moment, and make a note of what they're about.
A comical number about (oh dear!) love. A song about living in the city. An observation on how good looking people have life that little bit easier. A tribute to Woody Guthrie's philosophy of songwriting. A story of a guy in a dull job tempted into crime. Another about fatherhood and distorted views of masculinity. A ballad urging people to follow their dreams. A comical demand to go drinking on a Thursday night. An anti deportation anthem. And a folk tale about two people from different backgrounds thrown together.
There's not much love topics in there, and even where there is its a sideways look rather than a pledge of devotion. So you can see why I can often get self doubting about the nature of the material.
But the more I think of it, the more I get reassured that I might have got the balance right after all. If I'm writing and singing about life, then pinings of love and failed romance should only feature, not overwhelm.
Leave your comments. I want to know what you think!
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Here Here sloppy smoochy love songs are not what makes the world go round.
Posted by
Anonymous |
Monday, March 12, 2007
Well Alun, on mondays when i'm stuck behind the bar it is the non-love songs that get me singing alone, far more uplifting!
x
Posted by
helen |
Monday, March 12, 2007
I suppose Love songs are more powerful cos EVERYONE can relate to them. No matter where you're from, your religious views, political views, social status etc, you will always fancy someone and someone else will break your heart. So it's not that is the most important part of the life of some songwriters, is just that those love songs will be requested more than anything. And if you think about it, most great songs are "about a girl" but are not soppy and sad, they're also funky, rocky and happy. I suppose is a powerful feeling that everyone shares. Not everyone else shares one's social or political views or life in general. But love? Yeah, we've all been there.
Posted by
The Godmother |
Monday, March 12, 2007
I think Godmother makes a fine point about the universality of love songs. Its true. We've all been there.
But I'd say too that there's many other things that are pretty universal too.
I wasn't saying that people should just sing politics or religion, just that there's other topics that we can all relate to but they don't seem to get the airing they should.
Also, I'd argue that the job of the writer is to make us see the world from another point of view too, not just ones we can recognise and relate to, but to take us beyond our own experiences to stand in someone else's shoes or gain a perspective we may not have gained otherwise.
Some of my favourite songs are love songs too, but I always find myself warming to singers who have a wider range of topics to engage me with.
Any more comments anyone? This has been a good discussion I think :-)
Posted by
Alun Parry |
Saturday, March 17, 2007