Ordinary World
I am not a big fan of pop music. I find it to be vapid and I mean that in every meaning that you can assign to the word.
However there come along the exceptions. And I think one of the best, was brought to us from Duran Duran. The song is Ordinary World. Let me digress.
This song starts in such a "woe is me" tone. "I turned on the lights, the TV and the radio still I can't escape the ghost of you". You can almost imagine Simon LeBon writhing around on the ground in a manner that is only befitting of Morrisey.
They start to crawl out of their morass of self pity with the chorus of "But I won't cry for yesterday there's an ordinary world somehow I have to find and as I try to make my way to the ordinary world I will learn to survive". Although if you only heard the chorus, you could interpret it in a couple of ways, one of which is boo-hoo, my life is hard, however will I do this, boo-hoo.
The second verse, they almost lost me. "pride's gone out the window cross the rooftops run away left me in the vacuum of my heart" almost makes me want to vomit, but then again, love hurts. But, I hate sentimentality and this is borderline schlock.
Again the chorus runs the risk of making you want to make children cry for no good reason.
Now the final verse. The lyrics, "Papers in the roadside tell of suffering and greed, here today, forgot tomorrow, here besides the news of holy war and holy need ours is just a little sorrowed talk", speaks to an awareness of the place that we are taking up in this moment in time. It goes from a very pin pointed example to a very broad stroke in a seamless and beautiful way. The final verse most importantly puts the chorus into a bigger context.
The fact that this song starts out in this self indulgent tone, and ends on a note of self awareness speaks to Duran Duran's genius. The ability to convey something that everyone can relate to, a broken heart, as well as self awareness, something that pop culture in general is not aware of, and define it in such simple terms, on top of being a catchy tune, is nothing short of sublime.
However there come along the exceptions. And I think one of the best, was brought to us from Duran Duran. The song is Ordinary World. Let me digress.
This song starts in such a "woe is me" tone. "I turned on the lights, the TV and the radio still I can't escape the ghost of you". You can almost imagine Simon LeBon writhing around on the ground in a manner that is only befitting of Morrisey.
They start to crawl out of their morass of self pity with the chorus of "But I won't cry for yesterday there's an ordinary world somehow I have to find and as I try to make my way to the ordinary world I will learn to survive". Although if you only heard the chorus, you could interpret it in a couple of ways, one of which is boo-hoo, my life is hard, however will I do this, boo-hoo.
The second verse, they almost lost me. "pride's gone out the window cross the rooftops run away left me in the vacuum of my heart" almost makes me want to vomit, but then again, love hurts. But, I hate sentimentality and this is borderline schlock.
Again the chorus runs the risk of making you want to make children cry for no good reason.
Now the final verse. The lyrics, "Papers in the roadside tell of suffering and greed, here today, forgot tomorrow, here besides the news of holy war and holy need ours is just a little sorrowed talk", speaks to an awareness of the place that we are taking up in this moment in time. It goes from a very pin pointed example to a very broad stroke in a seamless and beautiful way. The final verse most importantly puts the chorus into a bigger context.
The fact that this song starts out in this self indulgent tone, and ends on a note of self awareness speaks to Duran Duran's genius. The ability to convey something that everyone can relate to, a broken heart, as well as self awareness, something that pop culture in general is not aware of, and define it in such simple terms, on top of being a catchy tune, is nothing short of sublime.
posted by yellowcracker @ 3:18 PM
0 comments
