Ghost of a flea

Sveinur - Somebody That I Used To Know

The real writers I know, the straight up authentic working hacks, have a reverence for stand up comedy and reality television. Much of the best writing - and, critically, editing - is done for genres people are obliged to dismiss when they are too busy trying to be intellectuals to develop a sense of themselves.

What non-writers don't know is that it is much easier to write in a formal style than an informal style and much easier to write something long and complicated than to write something short and simple. Writing pop songs might be the best example; like playing bass, it's easy to do badly but very difficult to do well.

Cover tracks offers a insight into the process, particularly when a cover is either better than, or mistaken for, the original. Levi-Strauss claims that in order to understand a myth you need to compare different versions - see what has been included or excluded, what's been changed - in order to understand its structure and the truths it is trying to convey. Following this logic, the best way to fully appreciate the original version of a pop song would be to see what other artists have done with it. A cover can be soulless and inept, meaningless imitation or merely technically adept.

Or it can express something just as true as what the original artist intended.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at July 8, 2012 06:58 AM