Twentieth century foxing

There was a feeling in the nineties of drawing to a close and wondering what it would be like on the other side of the curtain so there is likely to be some of that doom-stalking, along with a continued desire to be cool or alternative or whatever is part of the impulse of noisy youth.

As the nineties don’t lend themselves to wordplay quite so much, I had to think a bit and was originally hovering around Pen ultimate as this was the last part of a remarkable century whatever was happening then. Then I thought that the twentieth century was so important for song that it would be acceptable to pan out and so the clear message that records from the time – paper ones – were old enough for foxing. And there’s the big movie studio and the Doors song.

That’s the title of the post. Here’s a stab at nineties rock

Recursive

I said the same thing in another way on a different day
I spoke at one stroke it was in the play
The dialogue that's been dialed from God
the need for a feed of usual expectation
Round about found out the poor relation
You repeated and then entreated 
a pitted pattern please be conceited
a jab or a swipe brings back the gripe
the scene on the screen where your memories wiped

We swore as once before relented repented as we reached shore
a mostly ghostly host who rang once more
we know the score
and what's in store

They had some headstrong hidden calling 
the dreams where it always seems 
the way you're falling
Inviting invasive invested information
on that very suggested situation
or to coin a phrase by coincidence
 join in praise of the first instance
of the well plowed field of endeavour
going back to whenever

Bluesed and bettered

As with the other significant genres, blues has many variations: jump blues, country blues, folk blues, Chicago blues. I have delved as far as I care to in the appropriated form (and I know that all the great genres and offshoots are appropriated)

I think some of the language in death cafe is a little dense for the blues, which comes right out and says it. Or, at least, provides a colourful metaphor that gives us the full nudge and wink.

The humour is earthy not esoteric. The drama is in real life depiction of what the songwriter experiences. Stories are about the protagonist in situations. There’s a lot of first person: I’m a back door man, I’m a hoochie coochie man, I’m the seventh son

You know and I know that that is the same man. One Willie Dixon. In my opinion the greatest blues songwriter.

The blues has such diversity that these observations can’t cover all of the genre all the time. But they’re a good field guide.

Theme of a some place

What immediately rushes to mind whenever I think of concept is the concept album. The way I would describe the concept is in taking the whole thing into consideration. ‘The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth’ could as easily serve as theme, subject, topic, as for title. There’s a mental shorthand we do when we think of the unfortunate spouses of a monarch with near absolute power and their respective fates. Whether this means a true critic would ignore what we know of the subject and divide each facet of this part of royal history up. I don’t see the need; not when it comes to knowing how to craft a song with the requisite strong concept driving the process.
The concept would be an LP (probably taking the natural division of the two sides into account) dealing with each of the wives in turn and framing this in a keyboard saturated musical environment that compliments each ‘story’

Likewise the concept of ‘Tommy’ is a rock opera about a deaf, dumb and blind boy who is amazingly proficient at the cool fad of the day, which happens to be pinball. That may not be the case, and there could be various reasons why he’s a pinball wizard and not a Mario kart wizard or Pacman prestidigitater (apart from Pete Townshend not being able to see into the gaming future)

So I see the concept as including the medium that the work is produced in and the way it is constructed, as well as the subject and theme. Concept is also a feature of preparation; often pre-dating the piece itself. You come up with the concept and from that a work emerges, with its own features. Obviously BBC producers and biographers have an interest in the six wives of Henry VIII and their concept would be different, even if the theme, subject, topic were the same as the Rick Wakeman album.

To draw in those other songs we’ve investigated under the topic of subject and the subject of topic, the concept is a little harder to get to in the space of one song but we can still say the concept of ‘Good Year for the Roses’ is a country song about suburbia. A feature of country songs is the repeated shattering of domestic bliss so that has to go in there.
The concept of ‘Rambling Man’ is a song celebrating the life of the drifter (with the songwriter having also masqueraded as a character called Luke the Drifter)

As with most synonyms, there is an easy passing between concept and theme, even if theme doesn’t take in the canvas or music sheet; the details of the narrative. A concept can also be cursory, needing the details to be filled in.