Friday, November 19, 2021

We Were All There

(NOTE: I will eventually be closing this blog down for public viewing. Never miss a post by subscribing to my daily newsletter: https://davidweir.substack.com/.)

If I wrote more often about popular music, it would be about the lyrics, since I'm hardly competent to comment on the rest. But I have always had a certain fascination with the occasional long song that breaks through -- like the best Bob Dylan pieces. They resemble long-form journalism, which is largely a thing of the past now. 

In this context I recently watched Taylor Swift perform her 10-minute song, "All Too Well," on SNL, and it immediately struck me as an instant classic. I checked with my resident pop music expert and he agreed.

At the time I was ignorant about the song's origin but in this regard YouTube is a great research tool. It turns out that Swift first performed it at the age of 21 during a session not meant for recording but that engineers recorded anyway. 

That was ten years ago.

She was in a down state at the time, apparently over a failed relationship. As much as older people may minimize youthful love affairs, they often carry emotional consequences that can be especially devastating. 

This song reflects that.

Now, according to conventional wisdom, a ten minute song is much too long to get much commercial playing time, but there are exceptions to that rule. Recall "American Pie," "Alice's Restaurant," and others.

This song of Swift's, I suspect, may be such an exception.

Story-telling in song can have a greater emotional impact than other types of writing due to the way our brains respond to music. Neuroscientists have been able to map how certain musical patterns match the way neurons fire in out brains, and while the cause-and-effect may be unclear, the patterns are clear.

And as anyone who has ever been moved by opera will attest, you don't even have to know the language of a song to be deeply moved by it.

There are plenty of things to complain about with YouTube, like all of the big Internet services, but the ability to get lost in the archives of almost any genre of music is unparalleled there. Spotify is pretty damn good too.

As to why I would devote space and time to a pop song today as my "commentary on the news," all I can do is quote Ms. Swift: "I was there, I remember it all too well."


***

FRIDAY'S HEADLINES:

• First Known Covid Case Was Vendor at Wuhan Market, Scientist Says (NYT)

* Dems’ sweeping social, climate bill passes divided House (AP)

* VIDEO: Colorado Wildfire Prompts Evacuations -- The fast-moving Kruger Rock fire in northern parts of the state led to the death of a pilot who was fighting the blaze. (AP, Storyful and Reuters)

* Bipartisan state attorneys general launch investigation into Meta (Politico)

* In Charlottesville trial, jurors learn to decode the secret slang of white supremacists (WP)

* Vancouver storm: A state of emergency has been declared in British Columbia (BBC)


* Residents brace for torrential rains in already flooded western Canada (Guardian)



* The massive rains that unleashed floods and mudslides in the Canadian province of British Columbia exposed the country’s supply chain vulnerability as crucial railways and roads were severed from the country's biggest port. (Reuters)



* California faces another dry winter, and without precipitation to nourish the state’s reservoirs, federal officials say water rationing will continue for another year. (SFC)



* Can Russia's Press Ever Be Free? (New Yorker)

* Oklahoma governor commutes Julius Jones’ death sentence (AP/Politico)

* China uses water cannon against Philippine boats (NHK)

* Travis McMichael says Ahmaud Arbery was no threat during chase (BBC)


* Revealed: the places humanity must not destroy to avoid climate chaos (Guardian)

* Alleged hackers from Iran charged with targeting U.S. voters in disinformation campaign in 2020 (WP)

* Austria will become the first country in western Europe to reimpose a full COVID-19 lockdown, it said as neighboring Germany warned it may follow suit, sending shivers through financial markets worried about the economic fallout. (Reuters)

* How widespread is Covid in animals and what are the risks to humans? (Financial Times)

* UN concerned about ISIL threat in Afghanistan (NHK)

* Say goodbye to swing districts. Lawmakers are drawing easy wins in dozens of states. (Politico)




* Shocking new details emerged after a Manhattan judge exonerated two men convicted of killing revolutionary civil rights icon Malcolm X. Documents suggest that the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover ordered multiple witnesses in the trial not to tell police or prosecutors they were FBI informants. “I apologize for what were serious, unacceptable violations of law and the public trust,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. told the court, saying the men were wrongfully convicted. [AP]

* Young people more optimistic about the world than older generations – Unicef (Guardian)


* A prominent scientist who said lab theory of covid-19 origin should be probed now says evidence points to Wuhan market (WP)

* Biden’s war on inflation is a battle to change human behavior (Politico)

* Pandemic creating long-term joblessness (NHK)

* Biden says U.S. is ‘considering’ a diplomatic boycott of Winter Olympics in China (WP)

* US states investigate Instagram’s targeting of younger users (Financial Times)

* Shopping online surged during Covid. Now the environmental costs are becoming clearer. (Politico)

* Japanese researcher films frog croaking underwater (NHK)

* FBI Solving 80% More Cases After Getting Great Big Magnifying Glass (The Onion) 

***

"All Too Well"

By Elisabeth Wagner Rose  and Taylor Alison Swift


I walked through the door with you
The air was cold
But something about it felt like home somehow
And I, left my scarf there at your sister's house
And you've still got it in your drawer even now
Oh, your sweet disposition
And my wide-eyed gaze
We're singing in the car, getting lost upstate
Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place
And I can picture it after all these days
And I know it's long gone and that magic's not here no more
And I might be okay but I'm not fine at all
'Cause there we are again on that little town street
You almost ran the red 'cause you were lookin' over at me
Wind in my hair, I was there
I remember it all too well
Photo album on the counter
Your cheeks were turning red
You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin-sized bed
And your mother's telling stories 'bout you on the tee-ball team
You told me 'bout your past thinking your future was me
And I know it's long gone and there was nothing else I could do
And I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to
'Cause there we are again in the middle of the night
We're dancing 'round the kitchen in the refrigerator light
Down the stairs, I was there
I remember it all too well, yeah
And maybe we got lost in translation
Maybe I asked for too much
But maybe this thing was a masterpiece 'til you tore it all up
Running scared, I was there
I remember it all too well
And you call me up again just to break me like a promise
So casually cruel in the name of being honest
I'm a crumpled up piece of paper lying here
'Cause I remember it all, all, all
Too well
Time won't fly, it's like I'm paralyzed by it
I'd like to be my old self again
But I'm still trying to find it
After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own
Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone
But you keep my old scarf from that very first week
'Cause it reminds you of innocence
And it smells like me
You can't get rid of it
'Cause you remember it all too well, yeah
'Cause there we are again when I loved you so
Back before you lost the one real thing you've ever known
It was rare, I was there, I remember it all too well
Wind in my hair, you were there, you remember it all
Down the stairs, you were there, you remember it all
It was rare, I was there, I remember it all too well
at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)