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Will Sheff writes real good
Inlander:
--- Quote from: Johnny C on 04 Dec 2007, 17:59 ---Outside of "Westfall" I don't think we're on the same page on this one. Even then, Sheff writes characters for the most part.
--- End quote ---
It manifests itself most obviously on the Overboard and Down E.P. Aside from a live version of "Westfall", the E.P. also includes a cover of "O, Dana" (sample lyric: "I'd rather shoot a woman than a man" - and the fact that Sheff didn't write it is irrelevant here, as he or the band still chose to perform it) and "Love to a Monster":
--- Quote ---Lover, now that you've left me, I'm glad you're unlovely
. . .
Yeah I hope that you get angry, and hurt, and have the hardest of landings.
And I hope your new man thinks of me when he sees what a number I did on you.
I grow tired of this song, I turn my eyes to the blonde in the bleachers
She's a lovely young creature
I think she's seeking adventure.
I think she's ready to see that the world isn't so sweet or so tender
I won't break her just bend her, and make her into my new ringer for you.
--- End quote ---
Perhaps "violence" is too strong a word, but there seems to be a visceral dislike of or anger towards women that comes through again and again in Okkervil River's work.
Now, arguing that he writes in character is perfectly valid, but in that case what allows him to single out anybody else for criticism? How do we know the singers and song-writers whose work he attacks aren't also "in character"?
Johnny C:
We have two things that we can take from this piece to distinguish Okkervil River's catalogue from those soft-rock hits though. To quote from that article:
--- Quote ---The great hypocrisy is that many of these soft-rock artists' self-congratulatory reflections are far from deserved. Jackson Browne, for example, is famous for both co-writing "Take It Easy," and brutally beating his wife, Daryl Hannah, while soft-rock figurehead James Taylor was hardly soft on Carly Simon. Easy-listening patriarch Glen Campbell was a notorious wife-beater, and John Denver, my favorite soft-rock artist, is semi-infamous for being unremittingly cruel, if not physically abusive, to his wife Annie Martell of "Annie's Song" fame.
--- End quote ---
So, that's genuine physical and emotional violence rather than characterized emotional and physical violence. Second is this.
--- Quote ---Not surprisingly, the pantheon of soft-rock hits is full of dubious treatises on gender, often disguised as tender love songs. Take Cat Stevens's "Wild World," for example, in which the hardened male narrator condescends to his wife even as she leaves him, sarcastically telling her "I hope you have a lot of nice things to wear," sneering "it's hard to get by just upon a smile," and finally pronouncing her a "child."
Sometimes, the jaded moral numbness in soft-rock rises to the level of campy hilarity. One such moment is the breezy "Take a Letter, Maria," by R.B. Greaves (nephew, notably, of smooth crooner and reported rapist Sam Cooke), whose swingin' Vegas-y production wraps around a song spoken from the point-of-view of a businessman dictating to his secretary the divorce letter he plans to send his wife. The song ends, of course, with the businessman hitting on the secretary. You'd hardly notice, though, for all the Herb Alpert-y horns and soulful background vocals. And then there's the AM radio station staple "Young Girl," by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, which is hilarious in its Humbert-Humbertesque fever pitch of pederasty. To the accompaniment of swooning strings, Puckett croons to his "baby in disguise:" "my love for you is way out of line. Better run, girl!…Get out of here before I have the time to change my mind!"
--- End quote ---
Sheff doesn't hide his violence under sappiness, and his characters and songs aren't morally numb. He writes about fuck-ups fucking up.
There is an awful lot of darkness in Sheff's lyrics, I don't disagree there. And sometimes it's probably intended to cause discomfort. Mostly, I don't want to characterize Okkervil River as this awful band of woman-haters.
Ishotdanieljohnston:
--- Quote from: Inlander on 04 Dec 2007, 18:16 ---
--- Quote from: Johnny C on 04 Dec 2007, 17:59 ---Outside of "Westfall" I don't think we're on the same page on this one. Even then, Sheff writes characters for the most part.
--- End quote ---
It manifests itself most obviously on the Overboard and Down E.P. Aside from a live version of "Westfall", the E.P. also includes a cover of "O, Dana" (sample lyric: "I'd rather shoot a woman than a man" - and the fact that Sheff didn't write it is irrelevant here, as he or the band still chose to perform it) and "Love to a Monster":
--- Quote ---Lover, now that you've left me, I'm glad you're unlovely
. . .
Yeah I hope that you get angry, and hurt, and have the hardest of landings.
And I hope your new man thinks of me when he sees what a number I did on you.
I grow tired of this song, I turn my eyes to the blonde in the bleachers
She's a lovely young creature
I think she's seeking adventure.
I think she's ready to see that the world isn't so sweet or so tender
I won't break her just bend her, and make her into my new ringer for you.
--- End quote ---
Perhaps "violence" is too strong a word, but there seems to be a visceral dislike of or anger towards women that comes through again and again in Okkervil River's work.
Now, arguing that he writes in character is perfectly valid, but in that case what allows him to single out anybody else for criticism? How do we know the singers and song-writers whose work he attacks aren't also "in character"?
--- End quote ---
and here's an example of another sort of those characters:
Let fall your soft and swaying skirt
Let fall your shoes
Let fall your shirt
I'm not the lady killing sort
Enough to hurt the girl in port
And before Holly made her way
Over the sea and far away
She's telling me inside her car
Driving us back from crystal cornevar
WelI lost it then, well I fell from health
I cut fresh new pieces from myself
And for a second something in me
Said leave today it's time Holly
It's time
Well I'm a weak and lonely sort
But I'm not sailing just for sport
I've come to feel out on the sea
These urgent lies pressed against me
I'm just against, I'm not apart
With my tender head
With my easy heart
These several years out on the sea
Have made me empty cold and clear
Pour yourself into me
Inlander:
--- Quote from: Johnny C on 04 Dec 2007, 18:35 ---Mostly, I don't want to characterize Okkervil River as this awful band of woman-haters.
--- End quote ---
No indeed, but nor should we look the other way when something disturbs us just because we like the band.
RandomTax:
Wow, I bet in the President's dead, the President really is a woman. That fucking sexist!
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