I’m fond of transforming hard rocking tunes into finger picking acoustic numbers. One such song is the Mr. Brightside by The Killers. There’s a clever verse in the song that always makes me smile.
Now I’m falling asleep and she’s calling a cab
While he’s having a smoke and she’s taking a drag
Now they’re going to bed and my stomach is sick
And it’s all in my head but she’s touching his … chest now
We expect a part of the male anatomy that rhymes with sick, not chest. What’s especially nice about The Killers’ unobvious choice here is the change to a minor chord over chest, sending the song in a new direction. When I sing it, I play up the obvious joke, pausing dramatically, further suggesting the expected rhyme, but then going to chest and that B minor chord.
For reasons I only partially grasp, when I’m folding laundry I listen to one of Mark Kozelek’s bands, Red House Painters or Sun Kil Moon. Recently a RHP song played, Revelation Big Sur. This song is almost too painful for me to listen to, but listen to it I do, because he made one choice that always knocks my socks off.
And it’s your love that I steal
And you’re my cuts that won’t close
And this, I’m certain and this, I’m certain
And this I’m certain
Kozelek is not afraid to rhyme in this song. There are the off-rhymes down — found, and meanest — genius and the straight up wonder — thunder. What I always found curious about this verse was the choice of close instead of heal. Heal is a slam dunk, right? The obvious choice.
But by not choosing to rhyme he made me think long and hard about the lyric. Made me think about the difference between healing and closing, and I would not have thought about that if he just went with heal. Mr. Brightside’s unobvious choice is novel and cheeky, Revelation Big Sur’s unobvious choice is lasting and layered.
So, here at Ucross, as I move the A Life’s Works bits and pieces around, I will be thinking about how to make the less obvious, lasting and layered choices.
Here’s Revelation Big Sur. I hope you enjoy it.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx6Zkb89KZE[/youtube]