Five Songs: Named after people
Sometimes, songs about specific people can be incredibly insightful, whether it is a fictional character that has been created for the basis of the song’s meaning or whether it is actually a real person. On the other hand, songs can be named after people with good reason or with very little reason other than the fact that it sounds cool as a song name. These five songs are some of the best examples.
1. Untitled 1 (Vaka) by Sigur Rós – This gorgeous yet minimal lullaby named after the daughter after Orri, the drummer, opens up the lush and atmospheric ‘brackets album’ by Sigur Rós. Powered by a lush-sounding organ and simple piano notes it builds to a brilliantly awe-inspiring climax and Jonsi’s falsetto something to behold.
2. Lucy by The Divine Comedy – This summery-sounding pop song is one of the early Neil Hannon classics and has aged well after its initial release in 1993 on Liberation. The song itself is an amalgam of three poetic fragments by William Wordsworth and has long been a fan favourite.
3. Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz – The introduction to Damon Albarn’s cartoon creation of genius, and what a track to start their career with. As far as pop songs goes it is one of the best this decade with a simple chorus sung against a superb dub/hip-hop backing track with awesome rapping from Del Tha Funkee Homosapien.
4. Mandy Goes To Med School by The Dresden Dolls – A fine example of brilliant black humour courtesy of The Dresden Dolls. To quote the press release, ‘[Amanda] Palmer and [Brian] Viglione play a lighthearted and childish game of let’s-pretend-we’re-back-alley-abortionists.’
5. Jacqueline by Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand have a bucketload of songs relating to people that they know but this is probably the best of the lot. After Alex Kapranos’ wistful introduction, bass and drums kick in followed by a guitar riff that has slayed live crowds since 2004.
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Posted on March 17th, 2009 by Max
Filed under: Five Songs, Tracks
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