Liz’s Weekly Poetry Series: All I Want is to Dance!

August 10, 2013 in Montana

by lizard

I’ve taken up the issue of song lyrics versus lines of verse before, so I was delighted last month to read the poet/critic/pop-culture junkie Michael Robbins’ take on the issue of Pop lyrics and poetry.

It’s not a piece I can really excerpt from, because the brilliance is in the overall breakdown of what makes great song lyrics stick. For those who are interested in the internal mechanisms of craft, it’s a fun and instructive read, and may explain why certain organized patterns of sound get so obnoxiously lodged in our brains.

I offer a link to an article analyzing quality song craft as a contrast to what I’m about to drop. My garage band of one recently performed a little tune to an audience of Lego spacemen, and because there were only plastic spectators, and no recording devices that I am aware of, all I can offer you tonight are the words. Enjoy!

*

A SONG IN NEED OF A REFRAIN

I’m just pluggin’ away
like the NSA
busy watching me watch porn

then online shopping
and blog shit-talking
about the danger of GMO corn

no warning labels
charts or tables
will make me make any sense

it’s a conspiracy
that I can’t explain
next week you’ll get your rent

unless of course
the occult forces
who take satanic delight

abduct my body
pollute my mind
and then steal my bike

if that happens
I’ll be crappin’
in my skinny-leg hipster pants

the world’s depressing
and has me confessing
all I want is to dance

—William Skink