Mp3 Rediscovery

So I found one of my old CD's the other day... one of those old compact discs that you used to put tons of "legally paid for" mp3 songs on that only worked with a few select players? Well I happened upon a song I hadn't heard in awhile.

A little song called "Popular" by a little band called Nada Surf.

Not sure if you remember the song, but aside from the chorus, it's mostly spoken word. As I listened to this particular song over and over, I thought, "I wonder if this dude wrote these words or found them in a book or something."

Well with a little more research, I found that the spoken word portions were ripped straight from an old 1964 etiquette book by Gloria Winters (a teenage actress) called "Penny's Guide to Teen-Age Charm and Popularity."

It's a clever song in that respect.

I'd love to find an obscure piece of literature and incorporate it into a song... rather, I'd love to incorporate it effectively. I'm sure I can write a song about Asimov's Laws of Robotics and somehow tell a story, but man, would it be a piece of shit.

That's one cool thing about some of the older bands though, and something I feel is lacking in the music scene nowadays... storytelling. Not the I love you, you love this girl, girl doesn't love you back type songwriting... but bands like Led Zepplin, Rush, Deep Purple and Blue Oyster Cult, telling actual stories with their music. They utilized literature (like Tolkien for example) in their writing, and enhanced it with some spectacular music. I'm sure that skill-set exists somewhere still, but I'm too busy avoiding Poker Face to search it out.

Fin

P.S. As an added bonus, on that old cd I found one of the best covers of Enjoy the Silence by Failure, an under-appreciated band from the mid-90's. Give that a listen if you're up to it.