A Good Man is Hard to Find - Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans

i posted this a while back in another blog. i thought it might be nice to revisit and share it with this community of readers.

in an odd coincidental sequence of events, (i realize that's a bit of an oxymoron), I read a story by Flannery O'Connor called A Good Man is Hard to Find, and then heard a Sufjan Stevens song with the same title. I'm not quite sure if the song is based on the story, but i'm pretty sure it is. O'Connor's stories have a gruesomely realistic tone to them, where the worst that could happen happens, in the worst way it could have happened. Her language is dark, her themes are dark, her characters are self-righteously despicable. And yet, her stories are somehow appealing, gripping in an incomprehensible way. A Good Man is Hard to Find is a quintessential prototype of the blandly horrific stories O'Connor writes, a feeling-less story about a serial killer and his victims. When i read the story, it left me with a hollow feeling inside, neither pity nor sorrow. Just hollowness, emptiness. Revulsion of sorts, I suppose one could call it. But it seems that that is not what Stevens found in the story.
Stevens' song gives an impression of delicacy, a mellow retrospective fraught with pleasant nostalgia. He starts off with his usual harmonious guitar chords with a sweet rhythm. His breathy voice joins in, with not even a hint of murder or hatred or rancor. But on a closer listen, the phrase "when I killed them" rolls into the air, an insidious reminder of the repulsive, self-righteous amorality in the society O'Connor writes about.
This has been a sort of multi-dimensional experience of a story that made an impact on me through its complete lack of impact and its inability to produce emotion in me, turning into a song that moves me, a song about hell and remorse.
The experience is odd for me because I've heard the song many times before and never paid much mind to it. But now that I've read the story, the song has a new meaning, creates new images in my mind.
In the end, I suppose a good man is hard to find, but a good song - not so hard.

If you're interested, read the story and then hear the song.

Last Night I Dreamt of Mississippi - Nicolai Dunger - Late Nights with Turin Brakes

I came across Last Night I Dreamt of Mississippi by Nicolai Dunger on the compilation Late Nights with Turin Brakes. A pleasantly careworn song, sung with a nonchalant, sleepy attitude, it quickly ended up on my list of compulsively repeated songs. It starts off with a generally incomprehensible voice-over of an air hostess speaking right before takeoff, which actually has nothing to do with the rest of the song, it seems. The whole tone of the piece quickly changes with bluesy guitar chords and a catchy rhythm, which sound slightly hazy and drunk. Some unexpected notes here and there keep your attention until the fiddle starts up, with some lazy slides. The whole ensemble, even after the vocals start, has an almost trancelike cohesiveness, with very little countermelody or counterpoint. All the instrumentals follow almost the same trajectory, with Dunger's cigarette-and-Jack-Daniels-filled voice joining right in, making the whole thing sound smooth and round. Pictures of moonless nights in the rocking chair on the porch almost fill my head but then some vague sense of desperation kicks in. It could be a much more run-of-the-mill song but somehow manages to amaze with its transparency. I haven't heard anything else by Dunger, but I bet there's incredible stuff out there.

listen to the song here.

x-posted here and here.

and so it begins.

hi everyone-

this little project has been in the works for almost a year now - albeit only in my head. I think I was waiting for some sort of magnificent inspiration to strike, that was going to make me into a fabulous music blogger, an all-in-one last.fm/pitchfork/hype machine or something. I guess after waiting for so long, I've realized that this is more about my personal reflections on what a particular piece of music has been doing for me, rather than my ability to form a cult following or fan club, either for myself or for the music being discussed. So I'm going to dive straight into it, without careful consideration for whether or not I'm doing it the "right" way.

I think that talking about a particular artist or a particular album probably isn't the best way for me to express my thoughts about the music I enjoy. So I'll just talk about one song at a time, about what it says to me and how it makes me feel. I hope I'll be able to convey at least a little bit of the expanse of what goes inside my head when I hear a great piece of music.

I hope that you will all enjoy reading what I write, and I also hope that the music I love will find a few more fans. If I go delinquent on this at any point, feel free to harass me into writing again. And if anyone has any suggestions about music you've heard me rave about before, be sure to remind me that I have something good to write about.

Thanks and let's see where this goes!