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Here I go: Bryan Adams – ‘Please forgive me.’ I love that song. Of course, there are memories connected with it, but that’s hardly an excuse.
Movie and book are harder to come up with. I love ‘Clueless’, but I don’t mind admitting that. Or should I? [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
Jasper
You can find it on the What Else Is New tabpage, here.
Thanks! [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] As you can see, I just changed my signature. Here’s hoping that I can trust your information. [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
Now, who’s Tom Morgan?
Jasper
Thanks for posting the setlist! Repulsion and Severed Lips are from the first Dinosaur Jr. album, "Dinosaur" (1985). It’s getting hard to find in stores, but there are often copies sold on Ebay.
Jasper
This would be my list of should-definitely-be-on-the-tape-songs:
Kracked
Raisins
Freakscene
Water
Quicksand
Out There
What else is new
Goin’ Home
Get out of this
Over your shoulder
Never bought it
Gotta Know
Waistin’
Ground Me To You
Ammaring(And don’t forget to buy Dinosaur and Quest sometime soon – they’re worth whatever you have to pay for them… [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img])
Jasper
Here you go: J Mascis was born Joseph Donald Mascis Jr., on December 10th, 1965.
Jasper
"Feelings might go unexpressed,
I think that’s probably for the best.
Dig too deep –
Who knows what you will find."– Randy Newman
Check out http://www.hootpage.com for everything that Mike Watt does. And by the way, Watt has now added three weeks to his tour diary for the first Fog tour!
Jasper
"It was never my intention,
to blindly feed the boy/girl game.
I know romance isn’t everything,
but I’m obsessing just the same."– Lou Barlow
<FONT>This message has been edited by jasper on February 10, 2001 at 03:08 PM</font>
Rosa,
Although there are of course many counter-examples, like yourself, I think that Dimpf is right that – in general – for more guys music is a big part of their world, or even something to define themselves through. I see far more guys than girls in every record store I’ve been to.
It’s true that J doesn’t regard his lyrics as the most important element of his songs, but it’s significant that they continually keep discussing the same theme, and I think that his lyrics reflect the theme of his music in general. Furthermore, I don’t think that music is sexless. I think that J’s view on men and women is an integral part of his songwriting, and therefore this view is also part of his music. And although I can sympathize with your point that the lyrics are human/human stories, I think that’s only partly true. I do think that it’s significant that the ‘I’ in his songs is male, and the ‘you’ female. And I do think that, because J is a man, he expresses certain emotions in a certain way. That is, however, in no way to say that guys would have exclusive rights to these emotions.
And that you’re not "acutely aware of being a female" when listening to J’s music, does not mean that for others their gender may matter for how they experience music. After all, "your’s ain’t the only way to feel", as J once told a girl… [img]http://www.freakscene.net/ubb/smilies/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]
Just like you said, J’s music makes me feel better, not worse. But I don’t think that this – for me, at least – is connected with the strength and survival in his songs. What J is doing is not surviving, it’s hanging on because – well, what else can you do? ("But it’s so hard, just hangin’ on!" Not his own words, I know, but still.) And as for the sarcasm and wit: I do think that’s a part of J’s personality, and it’s clearly there in interviews, but I don’t think it can be found in many of his songs. In "Yeah, right" probably, but I can’t think of many others. And I’m convinced that his guitar sounds mainly melancholic, and not sarcastic, but it would be hard to come up with any arguments on such a point.
So why does J’s music make us feel better? It would take hours to explain what I think properly, but basically I follow Schopenhauer’s aesthetics. (I recommend his "The world as will and representation" to anyone interested in philosophy; it’s one of the best books ever written on a number of important philosphical issues.) Art comforts us because it show us the essence of the world, and in this it reliefs us from our individual suffering. That doesn’t make much sense if you haven’t read Schopenhauer, I realize that, but I don’t feel like writing a complete essay on Saturday night. I probably will write that essay someday, though, so I’ll let you know when it’s done… [img]http://www.freakscene.net/ubb/smilies/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]
Jasper
"It was never my intention,
to blindly feed the boy/girl game.
I know romance isn’t everything,
but I’m obsessing just the same."– Lou Barlow
Before we start making lists in the style of "High Fidelity", I think there’s more to say on the original topic. It seems to me that this male/female issue, even if a large part of it can be explained by general differences in the way we listen to music, goes to the heart of what J’s music is about.
The first point I’d like to make is about the world J sketches in his songs. In his world, the speaker – a man – is alone, and almost always because he is left alone by a girl. ("You’ve got things to do / So what else is new / Won’t you give me some") There are a few exceptions to this rule ("Flying Cloud"), but not many. So there is a quite sharp distinction between male and female in J’s songs. Men are always associated with loneliness, unhappiness, insecurity – and the only thing that can save us from this terrible fate is the love of a girl. ("Come on, babe, come on rescue me!") But although the speaker in J’s songs is tired to death of being alone, he’s too scared to really do anything about it. ("You won’t catch me deep in the water / however much I wanna play with you") Women are strong, men are weak.
There also, though it’s not very strong, seems to be some anger and frustration with women in most of J’s songs. The speaker accuses them of not caring enough, of leaving him alone. ("You’re living all over me") Again, men are weak and for their happiness dependent on women. Whether this is a realistic view of the world is not the point; it’s J’s world.I can think of different reasons why this view of the world attracts more guys than girls. First, it might be harder for girls to connect with these (typically male?) feelings, and the melancholic attitude of being isolated and lacking the courage to break out of your isolation. I’m not saying that there are no girls intimately familiar with these feelings, but maybe it’s easier for guys – in general – to relate to what J is singing about. Especially because you can’t just ignore the sharp distinction between male and female in J’s work – the work is telling you that boys are the lonely one’s, and girls are what they long for, and what makes them lonely. So when you’re a female-listener, should you try to relate to the speaker’s feelings of intense loneliness, or should you dream of being the one to rescue him from that loneliness?
Another, and I admit dubious, suggestion is that there are more lonely boys than lonely girls in this world. Maybe more girls are, as Dimpf so eloquently put it, running naked through cornfields, while more guys are at home, alone and frustrated, recognizing what J is singing about. Maybe there’s some truth in J’s view of the world.The arguments I’ve been making, of course, rest on a certain reading of J’s work. I think it’s evident that the theme of loneliness and insecurity is dominant on all of J’s albums, and I therefore expect his fans to be people who recognize this, and can identify with these feelings. Against this background, my arguments about the male/female issue should be understood.
Alright, thanks for reading all of this… [img]http://www.freakscene.net/ubb/smilies/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]
Jasper
"I got by
kinda feeble,
then I grew."– J Mascis
