Post by solveig7 on Nov 6, 2013 8:22:01 GMT -5
so much better than schultz...
"The question Smith's songs posed was, 'How could you do this to yourself?' - or 'How could I do this to myself?' Taking his songs as cautionary tales sells them short. They have less to do with avoiding the wrong path than figuring out what to do when you end up there. Telling someone 'nodoby broke your heart, you broke your own 'cos you can't finish what you start' carries the implicit demand to cast aside victimhood and take responsibility for the consequence of your actions.
These sentiments come bathed in a teeth-grit disappointment, again tinged with a kind of defiance. The people his songs picked apart have ultimately committed the crime of squandering potential. Smith doesn't say you crawling on your belly; he calls you a 'future butterfly'. Without saying it plainly, each song is a little call to arms, asking the lost souls of the world to pick themselves up and make themselves better. We all feel like lost souls sometimes, and to hold out, even in the most desolate moments, some hope for redemption is on the one hand hard to bear, but on the other hand the deepest kindness.
Songs about death are also songs about life. The bleakest depiction of the human ability to sink into degradation also carries its inverse image, the chance to take broken pieces and make a functioning whole. After the mourning, Smith's music remains - with its opportunity for us to do as he said, not as he did."
Wayne Lewis
"The question Smith's songs posed was, 'How could you do this to yourself?' - or 'How could I do this to myself?' Taking his songs as cautionary tales sells them short. They have less to do with avoiding the wrong path than figuring out what to do when you end up there. Telling someone 'nodoby broke your heart, you broke your own 'cos you can't finish what you start' carries the implicit demand to cast aside victimhood and take responsibility for the consequence of your actions.
These sentiments come bathed in a teeth-grit disappointment, again tinged with a kind of defiance. The people his songs picked apart have ultimately committed the crime of squandering potential. Smith doesn't say you crawling on your belly; he calls you a 'future butterfly'. Without saying it plainly, each song is a little call to arms, asking the lost souls of the world to pick themselves up and make themselves better. We all feel like lost souls sometimes, and to hold out, even in the most desolate moments, some hope for redemption is on the one hand hard to bear, but on the other hand the deepest kindness.
Songs about death are also songs about life. The bleakest depiction of the human ability to sink into degradation also carries its inverse image, the chance to take broken pieces and make a functioning whole. After the mourning, Smith's music remains - with its opportunity for us to do as he said, not as he did."
Wayne Lewis