As we left the music blogging that day...

Day five of our music blogathon (I trust you've all made your pledges by now) brings to a close our weeklong spree of music posts. And, since I spent yesterday's post talking about bad lyrics, I thought it only fair that I spend today's talking about great ones.

A few words of caution are in order. These are lyrics that I, Jim Dunn, selfmade music putz, find memorable. That doesn't mean time, all of music criticdom, or you personally will find them quite so memorable, and that's fine. Just as I don't find Hemingway all that great (and I'm not trying to be "that guy"), it's quite all right for you to read what lyrics have made a permanent home in my head and scoff, audibly and forcefully, at my choices. I likes what I likes, and you likes what you likes, and the world will keep on spinning either way.

Also, stay tuned to this blog for a review of Tuscaloosa's The Dexateens' forthcoming CD "Singlewide." I got a promo copy of it yesterday, and I'll be slinging up a review of it Monday.

Now, onward to the first type of memorable lyric, which I'm calling...

1. The Creative Writing Harrumph. This is a turn of phrase that expresses, through symbolism, pithiness, or just crystallized genius, what would otherwise be well nigh inexpressible. It's the kind of thing that would earn you a "Harrumph" from a creative writing class, if most members of a creative writing class weren't swirling pools of need that refuse to belch forth much in the form of compliments.

Here's an example of a CWH. In the Drive-by Truckers' song "The Day John Henry Died," Jason Isbell sings of John Henry, "He knew the perfect way to hold a hammer was the way the railroad baron held the deed." That's artistry, is what that is. You get the imagery of both the fabled steel-driving man holding a sledge and the tight-fisted ways of the railroad barons he worked for in one tightly crafted line. Harrumphs all around.

The Gin Blossoms (who, he asserted in an aside, were one of the nineties' most underrated bands) had a few CWHs. In their "Mrs. Rita," Robin Wilson sings, "There's no swimming in the bottle, it's just someplace we all drown." Twelve words that express a lifetime of watching, and participating in, dissipation by alcohol, without either romanticizing alcoholism or being heavyhanded in their criticism. Harrumph.

James McMurtry deserves a Gold Harrumph Award for the opening lines to "Levelland." "Flatter than a tabletop, makes you wonder why they stopped here. Wagon must have lost a wheel or they lacked ambition one." In two lines, you're transported to a place with a lot of history, and not much else. Harrumph.

Moving on, we come to the second type of great lyric, which I'm calling

2. The Nifty Turn of Phrase. NTPs don't necessarily transport you mentally as much as CWHs. They're memorable just for the interplay between the words, or the rhyme scheme, or some other such facet that lodges them in your cortex. For instance, the Gin Blossoms' (told you they were underrated) "Lost Horizons" contains the lines, "She had nothing left to say, so she said she loved me. I stood there grateful for the lie." See? Nothing there that'll change the world or make a great t-shirt, but doggone it, that's good writing. And you do get the sad sack feeling of the protagonist, don't you?

Alliteration, assonance, and rhyme can help in the crafting of an NTP. For an example, let's go to an unlikely source: Jim Stafford. Yep, Mr. Yuk It Up in Branson Himself. I give credit where it's due, and his "Swamp Witch" is just studded with NTPs. (His "Cow Pattie," not so much.)

"Blackwater Hattie lived back in the swamp, where strange green reptiles crawl.
Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees, like sausage on a smokehouse wall.
Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes, an' all of them watching you.
Stay off the track to Hattie's shack in the back of the Black Bayou."

Didn't think the old boy had it in him, did you? Granted, "Swamp Witch" is an anomaly in the Stafford catalog, but give him credit for the good he did. Besides, he married super-sultry Bobbie Gentry, so he'll always have my admiration for that fact alone. (If you want to hear it for yourself, here it be.)

And, even though I mentioned these yesterday, I have to re-point out two gems from Warren Zevon. To wit, the alliteration of "Little old lady got mutilated late last night" from "Werewolves of London," and the sheer pithy genius of "Send lawyers, guns, and money."

This brings us to my third category, which I'm calling

3. The Universal Truth. UTs (not to be confused with UTIs, which are much less welcome) are those shining life lessons-in-a-second that just slap you across the face with their undying wisdom. The best example? In my smarmy opinion, it's the Rolling Stones' "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need." Can anyone argue with that? Nope. Didn't think so. Not that I advocate going to Keef and Mick for your philosophy or theology, but that's pretty airtight, if you ask me.

You can find UTs in the most unlikely of places. For instance, in "Let Her Cry," by Hootie and the Blowfish. (Stop groaning. HATB made great pop songs, and you know it. It's just become fashionable to slag on them. Pbbbtttttt, I say to that.) You're familiar with the setup, since that song got just a wee bit overplayed in the nineties. The protagonist is enduring a blues festival's worth of problems with his woman. But amidst the problems comes a ray of hope when he sings, "Let her go, let her walk right out on me. And if the sun comes up tomorrow, let her be."

It's that last sentence that makes this a UT. The protagonist has just straightened up, wiped his nose on his sleeve, and resolved to tough this situation out. Might as well, because the world will keep on spinning, and the sun will come out anyway.

Full disclosure: My appreciation for this lyric might have been influenced a tad by the fact that I got a mental tow out of the self-pity ditch from it years ago. That was a pretty tough breakup. For me, at least. She skipped merrily out the door.

Want another unlikely source for a UT? How about those noted philosophers The Offspring? (Relax, Dexter fans. I like them, and have several CDs, but you've got to admit they're not exactly breaking much new ground, lyrically.) Remember the moment the loser protagonist in "Self Esteem" began to get a clue that maybe he was being used? "The more you suffer, the more it shows you really care. Right?" There's hope for this young man, because when he said that aloud, he began to realize how much of a schmuck he'd been.

I could go on with more examples, and probably come up with a few more categories, but I see by the clock on the wall that my time is almost up. Please post your categories and examples in the comments. I'm always interested in what others think about things like this.

And, as we close out the first annual music-blogging week, I'll leave you with some lines that exemplify CWHs, NTPs, and UTs, transcending time with the sheer lyrical genius that you and I will forever be richer for the hearing thereof.

"Everybody cut, everybody cut, everybody cut, everybody cut, everybody cut, everybody cut, everybody cut, everybody cut, footloose!"