Monday, February 21, 2005
Gold Mining in Merde
The wine tasting was unassuming, brilliant and unpretentious. I didn't hear too many snobby wine tasting terms that made me snicker. I had to look for those on line and was amused to find that it's complementary to refer to certain Burgundies as merde. There was even a favorable description chronicled by Mad Dog describing a wine as having a cat piss aroma. Try using descriptors like that about your mother's cooking!When I'm trolling for ideas in different scenes like this, I have it in my mind to take away a feeling and try to apply it to a parallel but different situation. I thought I'd mine some rich talk regarding my non-drinking. Can't say that happened. The only comment was, "Did you ever drink?" I was hoping to come up with a suitable parallel to "But I didn't inhale." But the truth is I got pretty loaded for my first semester in college. I learned that throwing up was always the result and not a fair price to pay for becoming loud, making an ass of myself and forgetting most of what I said or did. I'm not at all judgmental about it. It just wasn't for me.
So a theme for a lyric might be in finding myself singly out of place without many people knowing it. The trick, in this situation, is to not let your discomfort show so that the crowd gets on to you. The trick to writing it is do it without getting too specific.
I love the way John Mayer does just that in his "My Stupid Mouth." He lets us know he said idiotic things that destroyed any chance of starting a relationship. He doesn't tell us what it was. The lyric succeeds brilliantly, I feel. He focuses on the reaction not what was said. And he manages not to create an intense sense of mystery about it. I never felt like I had to know what he said to upset his date. Damn clever writing in my opinion.
Here's a quick first run try at what I'm talking about with the Bud-goes-to-a-wine-tasting situation:
Hiding among believers, my indifference concealed in smile
Nodding, humming approval sounds, I hope in the right places
No visible escape, have to deal for a while
It wears you out, Mister Mirror for all those bright faces
I'll try to mine some gold from this merde. I mean that in a Burgundy wine kind of way.
posted by Bud @ 6:37 AM
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