Cut and Paste

This week on the blog we've been looking at music. I used to think that music had a lot in common with poetry because, at the end of the day, they both have lyrics set to a rhythm but, in trying to piece together the blog today I've noticed that there has always been a lot to learn from music- and that I've always enjoyed learning it, even if I hadn't realised. 

If I told a class of children that poetic analysis might have a lot in common with a club remix, they'd try and eat me alive. I wouldn't get a chance to explain that by unpicking the piece you can work out just what the key parts are and that, given the proper care, they can be highlighted further with an edit. They would probably gawp at me if I asked them whether words have quite the same meaning when not accompanied by a guitar solo, a powerslide or a saxophone. Do these elements of performance translate to poetry and without them, do the lyrics hold true at all or can they be reshaped and take on different values? 

Thinking on these lines led me to compile the kind of list I haven't made since my early twenties. I assembled all the 'influential bands' I could remember, flicked through my records and picked out some of my absolute could not live without artists. Below then, is a compilation of lyrics and words taken from some of my favourite artists- all out of context, all lacking riffs and kicks and all reformed into some kind of cut and paste found, stolen and salvaged poem. 

There are 27 artists in all, with two of them having an extra lyric. I've been nice in alternating the colours when the performer changes so with that in mind, have a go at unpicking the piece below- and don't be using google!

Cut and Paste

I'm so happy 'cause today

I've found my friends ...

They're in my head

Slowly walking down the hall

Faster than a cannon ball

We smoked the last one

An hour ago

I'm pushing an elephant up the stairs

I'm tossing up punchlines that were never there

Get up, stand up

That's how it goes

Everybody knows.

Well, it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe

We gotta move these colour TV's

Smoke some fags and play some pool, 

Pretend you never went to school

We don't need no thought control

The beautiful people

The beautiful people.

Like a drunk in a midnight choir

I've seen fire and I've seen rain

I could be one of your kids, white America

Don't let it go to waste

I love it but I hate the taste

Commencing countdown, engines on.

I don't need your civil war

It feeds the rich while it buries the poor

So if I can shoot rabbits

Then I can shoot fascists

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth

And anyway I told the truth

This is what you get when you mess with us

He's got morning glory, life's a different story

Everything's going jackanory

They call it paradise, I don't know why

You call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye

And you realise then that it's finally the time

To walk back past ten thousand eyes in the line

I'll show you a picture 

A picture of tomorrow

Paradise put up a parking lot

This is our destiny calling now

Smashing up the woodwork tools

Don't think twice, it's alright

Say you stand by your man.

Thanks for reading, S