In this Discussion
- auntscale1 January 2007
- cementsteam8 January 2007
- dollarflame6 January 2007
- KristaMichelle January 2007
- sherib January 2007
- spy9black January 2007
- tenor2barber January 2007
- veinleo09 January 2007
- women60banana January 2007
Ok Go- brilliant
I'm a double major in physics and English literature- and just because ppl always get the wrong impression when I tell them my major, let me preface everything by saying that I'm VERY VERY stupid and have to really struggle in my classes.
But anyway, maybe that background makes me imagine things that aren't really there, but I can't help thinking Ok Go is artistic genius. My friends think I exaggerate, but---
"Oh My Little Kitty" immediately made me think of Thomas Gray's "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat" from the 1700's. Gray's poem was not actually about a cat. The cat was an an allegory for a woman, and I hear the same kind of symbolism in Ok Go's "Oh My Little Kitty." And we studied in my lit class how the cat was a big symbol in poetry of that period. And so I immediately though, "omg! they know 1700s lit! Or if they don't, they think the same way as poetic geniuses from the period!"
"What To Do" made me think of Henry James's "The Bostonians" from the moment I heard it- so much so that I wondered if Damian read the "The Bostonians" and then immediately wrote this song. When I saw the music video, set in the Depression, I was like "omg!" because even though "The Bostonians" is set way earlier than the Depression, the general tone is the same, especially at the end.
In "The Fix is In," I thought for a long time about the meaning of the words. Wine and blood cells- what's the connection? And then it hit me- Catholic transubstantiation (thank you, history class!) And when I saw "A Christian, Two Friends and Some Spiders," I struggled for a second to find some sort of connection and then I was like, "It's Jesus and the betrayal by Judas!"
"Bye, Bye, Baby" reminds me of King Lear with the mad men in the winter.
And then, the physics- I screamed when I heard "a dead star sucking up photons in your brain" in "We Dug a Hole." Nobody outside of my physics classes has ever said the word "photon," much less called a black hole a "dead star." In "Fuzz," when he said "red dwarf" I screamed again.
And in "Hello, My Treacherous Friends," when he says "the center can double the speed of the crust," I was going on for days to all my friends about how he's right: in circular motion, the speed at the center is always less than the speed at the circumference, so if you speed up the center, then you can double the speed at the crust.
And it's not just the allusions and references to things. The lyrics are like, a combination of William Faulkner, David Sedaris and Virginia Woolf- at times, I hear Dostoyevsky and Samuel Beckett in there too. It's like Damian (I read somewhere that he's the one who wrote most of the lyrics) is the very height of all mankind's brilliance: all the master writers of history have come together when you hear Ok Go's lyrics. His style, his technique, his figurative language all make the songs so literary, so poignant.
And the instrumental parts are breathtaking in their own right. So it's not just that the lyrics are poetic. Because poetry and music are 2 different mediums. Ok Go is able to interlock sound and language in such a way as to produce the most powerful combination possible. It's not just good words or good sound- it's that they're able to put these elements together so effectively. The whole becomes more than the sum of the parts.
Am I being really over-dramatic and crazy to think this?
Am I reading way too much into things? Cuz I really do hear Ok Go and think "that's pure genius." The sounds, the words- everything is so brilliant. Am I blind in my girlish infatuation? Am I insanely exaggerating? (which is what all my friends tell me) Or do other people think they're genius too?
But anyway, maybe that background makes me imagine things that aren't really there, but I can't help thinking Ok Go is artistic genius. My friends think I exaggerate, but---
"Oh My Little Kitty" immediately made me think of Thomas Gray's "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat" from the 1700's. Gray's poem was not actually about a cat. The cat was an an allegory for a woman, and I hear the same kind of symbolism in Ok Go's "Oh My Little Kitty." And we studied in my lit class how the cat was a big symbol in poetry of that period. And so I immediately though, "omg! they know 1700s lit! Or if they don't, they think the same way as poetic geniuses from the period!"
"What To Do" made me think of Henry James's "The Bostonians" from the moment I heard it- so much so that I wondered if Damian read the "The Bostonians" and then immediately wrote this song. When I saw the music video, set in the Depression, I was like "omg!" because even though "The Bostonians" is set way earlier than the Depression, the general tone is the same, especially at the end.
In "The Fix is In," I thought for a long time about the meaning of the words. Wine and blood cells- what's the connection? And then it hit me- Catholic transubstantiation (thank you, history class!) And when I saw "A Christian, Two Friends and Some Spiders," I struggled for a second to find some sort of connection and then I was like, "It's Jesus and the betrayal by Judas!"
"Bye, Bye, Baby" reminds me of King Lear with the mad men in the winter.
And then, the physics- I screamed when I heard "a dead star sucking up photons in your brain" in "We Dug a Hole." Nobody outside of my physics classes has ever said the word "photon," much less called a black hole a "dead star." In "Fuzz," when he said "red dwarf" I screamed again.
And in "Hello, My Treacherous Friends," when he says "the center can double the speed of the crust," I was going on for days to all my friends about how he's right: in circular motion, the speed at the center is always less than the speed at the circumference, so if you speed up the center, then you can double the speed at the crust.
And it's not just the allusions and references to things. The lyrics are like, a combination of William Faulkner, David Sedaris and Virginia Woolf- at times, I hear Dostoyevsky and Samuel Beckett in there too. It's like Damian (I read somewhere that he's the one who wrote most of the lyrics) is the very height of all mankind's brilliance: all the master writers of history have come together when you hear Ok Go's lyrics. His style, his technique, his figurative language all make the songs so literary, so poignant.
And the instrumental parts are breathtaking in their own right. So it's not just that the lyrics are poetic. Because poetry and music are 2 different mediums. Ok Go is able to interlock sound and language in such a way as to produce the most powerful combination possible. It's not just good words or good sound- it's that they're able to put these elements together so effectively. The whole becomes more than the sum of the parts.
Am I being really over-dramatic and crazy to think this?
Am I reading way too much into things? Cuz I really do hear Ok Go and think "that's pure genius." The sounds, the words- everything is so brilliant. Am I blind in my girlish infatuation? Am I insanely exaggerating? (which is what all my friends tell me) Or do other people think they're genius too?
Comments
Just kidding.
Thanks for this--I never had a clue what the fuck he was talking about.
Just kidding.
Thanks for this--I never had a clue what the fuck he was talking about.
What do you mean? ugh, I hope I haven't offended him or anyone here. I read somewhere he doesn't like being academic, and I do think the music pulls you on an emotional level above all that, and that's part of why I can't help thinking "genius"... ugh, sorry, sorry, sorry, I'll shut up
No no no, I was just kidding!
You just said what I've been trying to say for days so perfectly! Thanks.
Speaking of Beckett, I always think of Endgame and Waiting for Godot when I hear The House Wins.
But I personally don't think music should be analyzed so much. The effect it can have on people is just too crazy and messy and complicated and wonderful to be examined. But that's just my opinion, and I'm kind of a nut when it comes to music. And their lyrics are really fantastic.
he just really loved his cat =p
bye bye baby is also about said cat
good over thinking on things though!
You put it so perfectly! He's just so brilliant that it naturally comes out in his music.
I once asked an award-winning poet, Roseanna Warren (her father is Robert Penn Warren who wrote the novel "All the King's Men"- I didn't meet him, but it was still pretty cool meeting his daughter) whether she had to labor over her poems or if inspiration just kinda came to her. She said that while she had to work and rework, she had a friend who just let the words come on their own- all his life's experience just sort of poured fourth in this awesome thing.
And I think it's kinda like that for Damian- I don't mean the inspiration thing, I just mean that all his genius just sort of comes out in his work. It wasn't mean to talk about physics or stuff like that- it's just that his genius pulls it all together naturally.
Thanks for putting it so well, Amberdino!
And thank you to everyone else too- you've really given me a lot to think about.
the literature part...I have no clue because I've never read those books (I think) so i can't say if I agree or not with you.
I'm with Sheri, I just wish Damian could read this post and I'd like to know what Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Jorge, Whom I Adore, Whom I Adore, Whom I Adore thinks about it...
Ugh, I know I sound insane, sorry.
Isn't A Christian, Two Friends and Some Spiders an earlier version of Hello, My Treacherous Friends? Damian said that was about himself, his "friends" and the spiders living in his house/his girlfriend adopting them as their own children... I don't know much in the way of Christianity, but if it's Jesus and the betrayal by Judas then we can pretty much assume that Damian is Jesus, amirite!?
Yeah, he really is
I was just thinking about the interview where Damian was making fun of popular rock: "I'm 25 and I'm doing what I always wanted and it suuuucks." And he meant that Ok Go is different- and he's right. Ok Go is something deeper...
In "Television, television", he used the words "tits" and "sedition" in the same line- and that's just so unconventional. I don't think any other rock band would know what the word "sedition" even means- I mean, I didn't know myself-- I've only heard the word "sedition" once, in a history text-book, about some governmental act. And yet, here it is with "tits." It's like...something that shines in the grass under the sun...that's how Ok Go's songs make me feel.
I know I could be completely wrong about this, but somehow, I just feel that Ok Go's songs are way above the level of "a song about a cat." I feel like the songs are meant to say something more and to make you feel something more- that's what brilliant art does. Or at least, that's what it does to me...I'm embarrassed to say this, but "Let It Rain," "1000 Miles Per Hour," and "Return" always make me cry, even though I don't know what they mean; it's the music that does something to you, that makes you see. "No Sign of Life" always makes me feel like no matter how dead hope seems to be, "it's not over yet"- I think a lot about what that means. On paper, it could mean that things could get worse...but in the music, there's this element of hope that always seems to save the listener. And "It's a Disaster"- I've filled pages of my journal thinking about that song. At first the message seemed clear: get off the ship before the shit just runs aground. But then, "smart enough to fail" seemed to suggest the opposite- that no matter how horrible things got, no matter how much you fail, don't fall to fear, to panic...don't give up. And it made me think of all the people in history who worked so hard and failed and failed, but they weren't afraid of their failure- and in the end, they made it. They shined. And there are others songs...
I guess I'm writing this because today I was talking to my friend and she got huffy and said I was way- well, lol, she said I was obsessed. But, it's really the same reason you analyze novels and poetry, and study painting- all art, according to my lit professor, is a human search for meaning. And that's how I feel about Ok Go- their music is art, brilliant art. They're unconventional, non-conformist...the music is genius.
I'm sorry for writing so much here. I'll stop rambling now.