VEGANGELICA

You should read the part I wrote about "vug" because you asked...
I looked "vug" up online and it actually does have a relationship to drugs. No, no...Tanner hasn't gone anywhere. He has posted several poems in separate threads (and I've told him how to contact the moderators to ask that they move his posts into one thread). We've MB conversed about his other lyrics. I think he'll understand my suggested changes and why I made them.
-- E.

Freebase Dali

You're like the Mary Poppins of misguided youth's creative inabilities.

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VEGANGELICA

That is really almost a very sweet thing to say/write! Thank you. Except I would prefer to say, "The Mary Poppins of self-guided youth's creative abilities."

Freebase Dali

I meant the youth being misguided, not so much his creative abilities.
It goes to lyrical content as it applies in this thread.

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VEGANGELICA

What do you feel is misguided about the lyrical content of the poem? For example, is it that the "vugs" stanza sounds like humor, but this stanza is embedded in a poem that appears to be serious, thus creating confusion about how the poem should be interpreted?

Freebase Dali

Um... dealing with stress via drugs?

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VEGANGELICA

Yes, the song describes the reality that many (many, many) people deal with stress through drugs (as shown by your Obama picture). This doesn't mean that the song is encouraging this coping mechanism. I see the song as commenting on reality, as most songs do.

Are there topics you feel songs *shouldn't* be written about? I would think if there were such a list, people would want to break those rules right away. I know *I* would, because I stand by art as an expression of anarchy and freedom. Music is a mental playground where you get to make up the rules. That doesn't mean that people will all *like* the same music, of course. What one person sees as crap, another may see as inspiration.
--Erica

Freebase Dali

I kind of get the feeling that this kid isn't mature enough to view it the way you're viewing it.


Again, I'm not looking at it in the perspective of "topics".
I guess the easiest way to understand where I'm coming from is to put yourself in a parental role for the kid and ask yourself whether his writing style is more important than his apparent issues. If you were his parent, how much assumption would you let yourself indulge in until you decided to act on your instinct just to be sure.

I know you're not his parent, but I'm just trying to get you to understand what my point is.

But it doesn't matter.
We're not his parents. We get to assume he's perfectly fine... but just really bad at writing.

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VEGANGELICA

Yes, if my child came to me writing these lyrics, I would act on my fears right away and check to see if the child is depressed, using drugs, etc. What I don't understand, though, is this: if you were unnerved by the apparent issues behind the song (drug use, a sense of life as hell), what would be the reason for turning the lyrics into sport?

Yes, there were some grammar errors in "Drugs," which I corrected, but I don't agree with the notion that creative writing can be classified as bad or good. There are certainly songs and lyrics that I like much better than others--for example, I like songs that reveal the intensity of focused concentration on the part of the author, because those songs let me feel like I am getting to experience someone else's mind beyond my own. And, I like songs that relate somehow to historical trends, even if it is just to break them. This doesn't mean the songs I like are good or bad...it just means that *I* like them. My goal in critiquing a song such as Tanner99's is to try to help that person create the song s/he wants. (Only occasionally do I gush about someone's song.)