Musical thoughts...

[gridlore]

Is it just me, or does metal get the really short end of the stick when it comes to discussing lyrics. Everyone assumes that because it's loud, and tends to be shouted, that the lyrics never rise above the "Glory to the Dark Lord, eat raw meat!" level (and there are bands that do that, but most of the good ones write surprisingly deep and well-informed songs.

For example, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Iron Maiden. Compare it to the original poem by Coleridge. The literary connections don't stop there! Metallica does Hemmingway and Lovecraft and do it quite well. The also wrote a song based on the greatest antiwar novel of all time, Johnny Got His Gun

Speaking of war, and back to Iron Maiden, we have Aces High, a tribute to the pilots of the Battle of Britain. Maiden opened the album and their concerts with Churchills "We Shall Never Surrender Speech, and then played this tune. Very effective. They also wrote a song about the Indian Wars, Run To The Hills which manages to show both sides of the conflict.

Just saying, don't diss metal under you've heard and understood what they are singing about. Some of it is very, very good.

Comments

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

Lars has said that "One" was written before any of them knew about the book or movie of _Johnny Got His Gun_.

Meanwhile, Bruce Dickinson is a novelist. And a gaming buddy of mine slipped some John Osbourne poetry into his HS English class, and when no one commented, he pulls out the boom box and says, "but you might be more familiar with his work as performed under the name Ozzy!"