Legend and Myth in Music

Myth/Legend #1

The legend of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil starts out as him being at the cross roads just south of Rosedale. He is upset because he has just recently played a gig and been booed out of it because his playing was not good. He meets a man (the devil) at the crossroads at midnight and the man’s dog howls a sound that Johnson had never heard before. He tells the man he has to have that sound and the devil says the cost is his soul and Robert Johnson gave him his soul so that he could have that sound and become a guitar player like no one had ever seen before. He wanted to become the King of Delta Blues.

Myth/Legend #2

When Ozzy Osbourne was in the band Black Sabbath he was known to throw animal insides out at the crowd. One day a fan finally had enough of it and threw a live bat at him up on stage. Ozzy believed the bat to be a fake one and put it in his mouth and bit the head off of it. He had to be rushed to a hospital because the bat had bit him back and he needed a rabies shot. The after this incident, Ozzy was trying to get signed a deal because Black Sabbath had broken up and he had done another crazy act. When he walked into CBS records he had two doves and threw one up in the air. The other he, yet again, bit the head off of. He had done this stunt to try and catch the attention of CBS records and he had been drinking prior to the meeting.

Myth/Legend #3

 There is/was a supposed rumor that Paul McCartney had died right after the recording of the Abbey Road album. Rumor has it that a man named “Tom” called into a radio station and that is what first sparked this whole controversy. It is said that in the album cover Lennon is dressed in white which is a sign of the church and of mourning, Ringo was dressed in black which represented the undertaker, Harrison was dressed in work clothes which resembled the gravedigger, and lastly McCartney himself was out of step with the other members and he had no shoes on which most corpses are not buried with their shoes. People also say that he license plate on the back of a Volkswagen says,“ LMW 28IF”, which is interpreted as saying that Paul would have been 28 if he had lived.

Myth/Legend #4

Bob Dylan had just became known as a folksinger back in 1965. He went to the Newport Folk Festivals and played something a little bit different then folk. He used an electric guitar and played new songs from his album Bringing it all Back Home and when he played the songs at the Festival they were not a hit. He was booed while on stage and only had the chance to play four songs before he left the stage. 

Myth/Legend #5

Back in the 70’s believe began to think that Gene Simmons had had a transplant of a cows tongue put into his mouth. During concerts he would alway stick out his long tongue and people did not believe there to be any other explanation for it. What is really true is the fact that Gene Simmons was just born with an abnormally large tongue of 7 inches. There was no way that we had the medical equipment back then in order to transplant a cows tongue into Gene Simmons mouth.

Myth/Legend #6

It is said that in the Sgt. Peppers album cover there is yet again clues to the death of Paul McCartney. McCartney is holding a clarinet which is a sign of mourn. Others also say that there is a left handed guitar made out of yellow flowers and McCartney played the guitar and was left handed. They say that all of the famous people that are there are mourning over McCartney’s death, kind of like a funeral. Three people that I recognize in this is: Marilyn Monroe, Edgar Allen Poe, and Bob Dylan. Marilyn is a famous actress, Poe is a famous poet, and Bob Dylan is an artist. Three people I do not recognize are Albert Stubbins, Max Miller, and Lenny Bruce.

Pop Culter Song top 100

The three songs I chose off of the Billboard Top 100 were “Bottoms Up” by Trez Songz, “September” by Daughtry, and “Stuck Like Glue” by Sugarland. I had never really had an interest in any of these songs until I had to study them for this project. They all have many examples of poetic devices and different meanings behind each song.

In the first song “Bottoms Up” by Trez Song ft. Nicki Minaj it is about enjoying a drink while you are out having a good time at bar. An interesting fact about this song is that Nicki Minaj actually uses her alter-ego Roman Zolanski and that is why her voice is distorted and sounds different from other songs she has had a part in. There are many examples of allusions within this song. One is when Nicki says, “ We give a lotta money to the babies out in Haiti”, which refers to the tragic earthquake that happened in Haiti this year. Then she says,“ Rest in peace to Anna Nicole Smith yes, my dear, you’re so explosive say hi to Mary, Mary and Joseph, now bottoms up and double my dosage” which refers to the death of Anna Nicole Smith and how one of the theories of how she died was an over dosage on prescription pills inside of her hotel room and Mary, Mary, and Joseph are biblical characters.

Daughtry’s song, “ September”, is inspired by Chris Daughry’s childhood with his brother in his small town back in NC.The title of the song was inspired by the lyrics “ Yea we knew we had to leave this town But we never knew when and we we never knew how.” Chris uses a lot of examples of personification in this song. He says, “ Summer’s never looked the same”, and of course summer is just a season so he is giving person character to summer. Then following that line he says, “ The years go by and time just seems to fly”, which is a common cliche that has been used over the years because time can not actually fly, it just puts emphasis on how fast it seems to go by to him.

The song, “ Stuck Like Glue”, by Sugarland, tells the story of a couple who has the perfect relationship that most people look towards because the couple is so close with each other. The title of the song is a simile and can also be referred to as a cliche since it is used so much. The couple are so close to one another that it would be impossible to pull them away. Then in the line, “ Just a spoon full of sugar make it better real quick”, that is an allusion to the popular movie, Mary Popins.

All of the songs show the different aspects of the American culture. You can see how some people only focus on the fun of going out every night and getting drunk and having good. Whereas some people focus on remember the past because its something they can never let go. And ultimately most people are focused on finding the right guy/girl and falling in love with them. Since these songs are so different in the stories that they give, it is right to say that our generation as consumers of these songs are varied just like the songs because even though they are different they are all on the top 100 on the billboard so people obviously have to have an interest into these songs. The songs all show that success can be measured in different ways. To some it could be just having a good night out with your friends and others it could finding your true love and being happy.

Mine by Taylor Swift (Song Analysis 1)

From the small town of Wyomissing,Pennsylvania, emerged one of the best country singers of the twenty-first century, Taylor Swift. Had she not have made that risky journey to Nashville when she was 11, the grace of her music would not have been enjoyed by the world like it so popularly is today.Both singer and song writer she started off her career playing at local businesses and singing national anthems like many others had started out but, something was special about her and that is why  Sony/ATV Tree publishing house signed her as the youngest staff member to ever be hired. Her hit song “Mine” was leaked to the public weeks before its arrival on the sound track Speak Now and within weeks became number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. She has a way of making her lyrics reach out to her listeners and many can relate the lyrics with experiences they have dealt with. Swift’s song, “Mine”, depicts the narrative of a young couple falling in love and how the girl learns that not all stories are bound to have the same ending along with rhetorical devices that help reinforce what Swift is saying.

Swift’s song starts out with the lyrics, “ You were in college, working part-time, waiting tables” (Swift, 1-3), which begins the narration of her story. Another subtle hint that it is a narration is when Swift says, “ This is what I thought about”(Swift, 6-23). She is using the first person point of view and she is prying into her own mind telling you of her past and what events have gone on before the point in which she is at in her life. Swift uses the persuasive device of alliteration to completely emphasize the meaning in, “ Wondering why we bother with love, if it never lasts” (Swift ,2-6). In her own personal opinion and through person experiences she cannot get a grip on why people put the effort in falling in love with someone when all she has seen is the decline of it in relationships as she was growing up. When talking about the beginning of the young loves romance, “You put your arm around me for the first time, You made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter”(Swift,4-12), she is making sure there is emphasis on the words careless and careful. The words are of value because she has became a careful person due to the fact of how her father was careless and that tore the family apart and cause her to have trust issues.Another essential rhetorical device is that of Anaphora as seen in, “ You learn my secrets and figure our why I’m guarded, You say we’ll never make my parents’ mistakes”(Swift, 5-17). The repetition of you shows that she has on intent and that is to tell her story to whoever “you” is. They know of her families bad past with relationships and promise that this time things will be different and she will see that there is no reason for her to put up a guard.

Swift took a huge step away from her normal love story songs with happy endings and wrote with a whole new aspect. Instead of it being about her either having bad or good relations with a guy, she went into why, when she found the first perfect person she had to hold back and let fear get in the way of her being happy. It was risky for her especially because there was a change in her vocals and she had become a sensation to Americans due to her original vocal stylings.Even though she changed herself not only as a person and song writer but in her vocals, she still has the natural talent to win over the ears of all of her listeners.

lyrics-

Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh

You were in college, working part-time, waiting tables
Left a small town and never looked back
I was a flight risk, afraid of fallin'
Wondering why we bother with love, if it never lasts

I say, "Can you believe it?"
As we're lyin' on the couch
The moment, I can see it
Yes, yes, I can see it now

Do you remember, we were sittin' there, by the water?
You put your arm around me for the fist time
You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter
You are the best thing that's ever been mine

Flash forward, and we're takin' on the world together
And there's a drawer of my things at your place
You learn my secrets and figure out why I'm guarded
You say we'll never make my parents' mistakes

But we got bills to pay
We got nothin' figured out
When it was hard to take
Yes, yes

This is what I thought about:

Do you remember, we were sittin' there, by the water?
You put your arm around me for the fist time
You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter
You are the best thing that's ever been mine

Do you remember all the city lights on the water?
You saw me start to believe for the first time
You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter
You are the best thing that's ever been mine

Oh, oh, oh, oh

And I remember that fight, two-thirty AM
You said everything was slipping right out of our hands
I ran out, crying, and you followed me out into the street

Braced myself for the goodbye, cause that's all I've ever known
Then, you took me by surprise
You said, "I'll never leave you alone."

You said, "I remember how we felt, sitting by the water.
And every time I look at you, it's like the first time.
I fell in love with a careless man's careful daughter.
She is the best thing that's ever been mine."

You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter
You are the best thing that's ever been mine

Do you believe it?
We're gonna make it now
And I can see it

I can see it now