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80% => The Nevillew General Discussion Forum => Topic started by: walrus on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 13:45:53



Title: Help Me
Post by: walrus on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 13:45:53
I'm writing an essay entitled: Make a Case for the Inclusion of a Topic or Area Connected with your Degree Discipline but not Currently Represented on the Syllabus.

My degree discipline is English, and the only idea I could come up with was for studying musical lyrics!  Which is bloody hard to argue for.  Can anyone think of any song lyrics which have become a key part of culture, such as the line in Hamlet of "To be, or not to be"??


Title: Help Me
Post by: mattboyslim on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 13:48:29
Band Aid as a song and a movement has been influential in the sphere of politics, terrible song though.


Title: Help Me
Post by: fatbury on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 13:49:30
I did an English degree - how about football chants? and what they show of the respective clubs .. I think Desmond Morris studied this once??

CHIM CHIMENY CHIM CHIMNEY CHIM CHIM CHEROOO

I HATE THOSE BASTARDS IN YELLOW AND BLUUUUUUE


Title: Help Me
Post by: STFCBird on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 13:50:50
Imagine?


Title: Help Me
Post by: walrus on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 13:52:00
Cheers I love you all.  I didn't think of football chants, or Band Aid....  Didn't get much sleep last night though!   :D


Title: Help Me
Post by: oxford_fan on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 13:54:01
you still doing the lyrics thing walrus?


Title: Help Me
Post by: walrus on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 13:59:55
Yes - lyrics of anything - football chants and music.

Am thinking of what specifically to cover, something contraversial - considered the Martin Alridge chant but that's pretty dispacable and not really a good argument for supporting reasons for studying it!


Title: Help Me
Post by: Northern Red on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 14:11:21
Feed the World - Live Aid

Argument: Feed the World / Band Aid led to changes in charitable giving on par with Martin Luther King's speech making a movement in civil rights - both are only words one spoken, one sung, but all heard.

Give peace a chance - John Lennon - anti-war songs

Three Lions - Went beyond words and became a sense of national pride

Things can only get better - New Labour - a song which summed up an election pledge and things did change.

Several examples out there - Good luck


Title: Help Me
Post by: Piemonte on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 14:14:18
dont forget "too drunk to fuck" by the dead kennedys. enough said.


Title: Help Me
Post by: Northern Red on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 14:23:08
:D


Title: Help Me
Post by: Ben Wah Balls on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 14:24:38
Find em' fuck em' and flee by N.W.A is very influential.

And of course "treat 'em like a prostitute, don't treat no girlie well until you're sure of the scoop" - wise words by slick rick.


Title: Help Me
Post by: Reg Smeeton on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 14:28:19
A good field of study could be the synergy between music lyrics and football chants to be found in the oeuvre, of a band like The Business.

 Best exemplified in the classic..... Maradona/ You're shit.

 A Derridist.....post modern deconstruction could be applied to their recent work (Aug 05)...here's the title list...

 1.     Hardcore Hooligan     
2.    Southgate (Euro 96)    
3.    Terrace Lost its Soul    
4.    Saturday’s Heroes    
5.    Viva Bobby Moore    
6.    Maradona    
7.    England 5, Germany 1    
8.    Guinness Boys    
9.    Handball    
10.    3 Lions    
11.    Boys Are Out Tonight    
12.    No One Likes Us


Title: Help Me
Post by: sonicyouth on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 20:46:27
I recently did a presentation on taboo lyrics as part of my English language course, there's a lot of songs out there which have been misrepresented due to their lyrical content being misunderstood.


Title: Help Me
Post by: walrus on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 20:50:21
Quote from: "sonicyouth"
I recently did a presentation on taboo lyrics as part of my English language course, there's a lot of songs out there which have been misrepresented due to their lyrical content being misunderstood.


Genius.  Some examples Mr Yuff....   :D


Title: Help Me
Post by: sonicyouth on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 20:56:02
One of the songs I used was Killing an Arab by the Cure.

Standing on the beach
With a gun in my hand
Staring at the sea
Staring at the sand
Staring down the barrel
At the arab on the ground
I can see his open mouth
But I hear no sound

I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm the stranger
Killing an arab

I can turn
And walk away
Or I can fire the gun
Staring at the sky
Staring at the sun
Whichever I chose
It amounts to the same
Absolutely nothing

I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm the stranger
Killing an arab

I feel the steel butt jump
Smooth in my hand
Staring at the sea
Staring at the sand
Staring at myself
Reflected in the eyes
Of the dead man on the beach
The dead man on the beach

I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm the stranger
Killing an arab

It was banned during the Gulf war - simply because of the songtitle - and the National Front and other right-wing political groups adopted it as an anthem. Of course, the song isn't literally about killing Arabs but is an interpretation of a book called The Outsider by Albert Camus.

There's a few Smiths/Morrissey songs which Moz got criticised for because people didn't understand the lyrics - Reel around the Fountain, National Front Disco.

I'll think of some more later


Title: Help Me
Post by: walrus on Thursday, October 27, 2005, 20:57:25
That's quite easy to misinterpret....!

Cheers dog, have a bone!