Well it’s time for my 2nd runner up in this Walrus or first W!
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My season in not hell! I got a bit obsessed with this track after I heard it. I agree lyrically it could have been stronger, but I couldn’t resist the M factor either.
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flip a coin, it honestly could have gone either way.
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I know this song! They have another song called “Bedroom Eyes” that’s fun.
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OK, here’s the big tie. It’s so funny because literally none of the other places tied, when they very easily could have. I’ll explain why I chose the winner in the write-up of that one, but honestly, I love both of these songs. One was a surprise, one was not.
In 2nd place, earning 11 points: The Decemberists – Cutting Stone (L=10, M=10, F=11, R=3.4)
When I saw this song submitted, I really tried hard to avoid bias, but I knew it would probably place high. I hadn’t heard this particular track, but I generally like what I’ve heard from this band, and I had a feeling the music would definitely be near the top in that column. I wasn’t expecting the…ahem…cutting lyrics. I think you can interpret these a couple of different ways, which is always intriguing with a poem, and when combined with the music, the feel of the song serves as kind of a counterpoint to what the lyrics are about. This was obviously a deliberate choice, and I love it. Great submission.
Dreamed I had a cutting stone
Dreamed I held it all my own
It cut through wire, wood, and bone
I’ll cut you down, my cutting stone
Cutting stone oh fear me none
Whether wild or whether won
Though I travel far from home
I’ll always have my cutting stone
Wandering, I chanced upon
A wayward child lost anon
And when he laid across my chest
My cutting stone it did the rest
Cutting stone oh fear me none
Whether wild or whether won
Though I travel far from home
I’ll always have my cutting stone
In a valley green and wide
A suitor wept for a dying bride
And when he turned his eyes on me
A cutting stone did set him free
Cutting stone oh fear me none
Whether wild or whether won
Though I travel far from home
I’ll always have my cutting stone
Cutting stone oh fear me none
Whether wild or whether won
Though I travel far from home
I’ll always have my cutting stone
There upon a mountaintop
I looked down on to what I’d wrought
And when I saw my labors through
I cut my cutting stone in two
Cutting stone oh fear me none
Whether wild or whether won
Though I travel far from home
I’ll always have my cutting stone
I’ll always have my cutting stone
I’ll cut you down, my cutting stone
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Noooooo!! Runner up again!
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Like I said, when I saw your category, I was submitting a song from The Decemberists. It was just a matter of choosing which one. I went with this because it’s newer so not as well known as some of their older stuff and it felt like a great fit for your category for all of the reasons you picked out.
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heh, I actually got into an “argument” with someone about the meaning of these lyrics. But great art is subjective, right?
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In 1st place, earning 12 points is a song I never expected to be here: Taylor Swift – ivy (L=9, M=11, F=12, R=3.4)
OK, This was the biggest shock of the category. For this one, I was probably biased the opposite way as 2nd place. I saw Taylor Swift and before I even listened I had discounted it as “unserious pop.” I’m sorry, Taylor, I was wrong. I really should have known, since I liked her previous album. I just hadn’t listened to evermore yet and I guess I thought there’s no way it could be as good, coming so soon after the last one.
Here’s the thing: this music, combined with these lyrics, take me away to a far off land in a time long past and makes me feel everything the narrator is feeling. I’ve never cheated in my life and yet, there I was, listening to this song and feeling guilty, wanting to hide something from my husband! Reading the lyrics by themselves didn’t do that, and listening to the instrumentation didn’t do that, but put together, the combination became profound. This feeling of being carried away and put right in the middle of the setting is what broke the tie for me.
How’s one to know?
I’d meet you where the spirit meets the bones
In a faith forgotten land
In from the snow
Your touch brought forth an incandescent glow
Tarnished but so grand
And the old widow goes to the stone every day
But I don’t, I just sit here and wait
Grieving for the living
Oh, goddamn
My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand
Taking mine, but it’s been promised to another
Oh, I can’t
Stop you putting roots in my dreamland
My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I’m covered in you
I wish to know
The fatal flaw that makes you long to be
Magnificently cursed
He’s in the room
Your opal eyes are all I wish to see
He wants what’s only yours
Oh, goddamn
My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand
Taking mine, but it’s been promised to another
Oh, I can’t
Stop you putting roots in my dreamland
My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I’m covered
Clover blooms in the fields
Spring breaks loose, the time is near
What would he do if he found us out?
Crescent moon, coast is clear
Spring breaks loose, but so does fear
He’s gonna burn this house to the ground
How’s one to know?
I’d live and die for moments that we stole
On begged and borrowed time
So tell me to run
Or dare to sit and watch what we’ll become
And drink my husband’s wine
Oh, goddamn
My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand
Taking mine, but it’s been promised to another
Oh, I can’t
Stop you putting roots in my dreamland
My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I’m covered in you
And I’m covered in you
So yeah, it’s a fire
It’s a goddamn blaze in the dark
And you started it
You started it
So yeah, it’s a war
It’s the goddamn fight of my life
And you started it
You started it
Oh, I can’t
Stop you putting roots in my dreamland
My house of stone, your ivy grows
And now I’m covered
In you
In you, you
Now I’m covered in you
In you
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Nice surprise reveal.
My favorite part was when I thought I might do well but instead got 10th place for the 4th time.
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Awesome reveal.
I thought about submitting some Robert Burns for ya.
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whew, done! Thanks everyone, I really enjoyed this category and found a lot of songs to add to my list. Thanks for being creative and not giving me 7 Dylan songs and 5 Joni Mitchell. LOL
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might not have podiumed, but would probably have still ranked top half. I like your original submission a little better.
Who submitted T Swift do we think?
I dunno but if it’s Louis I’m gonna commit seppuku
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A classic day of Walrus - one last place, one victory
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Double reveal, what a treat. Well, maybe if I’d done better, but I suppose I can take something from having submitted the best poetry to a round about poetic lyrics. Though not the rightful 12 points!
Anyway, as predicted skydiver falls all the way to second place. It’s fairly close now from 2 to 8 so runners up is anyone’s.
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I think we just have different tastes in poetry. I shy away from confessional poetry. I had my teenage bad poetry phase and it involved writing a lot of very structured stuff–I wrote 100s of sonnets–and a strong avoidance of “I” statements. I was never ever going to submit a song here where the lyrics where an exploration of self, a paean of pain, or a love song to trauma. It was always going to be a song with the poet/lyricist as a third-person observer of something that wasn’t a romantic relationship.
Put my reveal down for Saturday, not going to make tomorrow
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