Lot of opinions and that is good. Everyone has their own take based upon their preferences and experiences. That is what music does, pushes us to draw our own conclusion.
I had been told about this song and actually have heard it a couple of times over the past few months or years, I don't know which. But I had the same opinions then that I have now. it is a nice song and puts many things on the page. But I have the same problems with it I have with most songs because they are doing much of the exact same thing. World War II is a pretty popular subject among writers, many who have interests in history and are distposed to write something about an event in history, especially if they have a personal connection to it. Why you get a lot of Vietnam and Gulf war songs. Many people lived through that. With WWII their parents or Grandparents did.
And then there is the fact that there are so many channels with history, movies, televisions, books, newsreels, the Internet, etc. The information is out there a lot. I love em. The problem that creates is the biggest problem we have overall with songwriting, television, movies, etc. in all cases. The public has a very much "BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, GOT THE T-SHIRT" mentality. This song does that. It gives the same scenes. same emotions, same furniture that we have seen in any one of those black and white movies from that day. While it gives a first hand experience, I feel the opposite of Ott, that he is not showing anything I haven't seen so many times before. Just telling me the same thing I already know.
And by taking the focus on to himself instead of focusing on the things of the ship, he loses the point of title and hook, THE ARIZONA. If he had given all of that information possibly through the EYES of the BATTLESHIP that might have been different. And all the stuff he is going to do on the "other side' has nothing to do with the Arizona. Just drifts around.
The style is most assuredly folk. And the reason Mary recognizes it in a European sense is that they have never veered far from that old style story teller longer songs in those countries, particularly England, Ireland. Scotland. Works very well because that is what they do in those countries. We have a lot of those people come here and the songs are very similar. Much more depressing, but very similar. The problem that has is the SUBJECT MATTER, as Europeans are going to want to hear something about THEIR country as opposed to what happened in our country.American is not most of their favorite subject. But that is a subject for another time.
The bottom line in the point of view of someone like Kevin is that this song hits him and he has great effection for it. That is the target audience. It is a nice folk song that would work well sitting around the room, passing the guitar around and people swapping stories and songs. Would work well on something like the KERREVILLE FOLK FESTIVAL,where they like a lot of these types of songs. Same in places like the West, Texas, where people like Justin, have a predilection to longer,story oriented songs. It would have a market. And of course there is always the place it happened.
When I went to Pearl Harbor a couple years ago, stood there, I was struck by the Veterans walking around. Some were guides, telling their stories, selling their books. Was a very moving experience. Those guys would enjoy a song like this. Most about music is identifying your market and then going where that market is.
On a related note, Big Ed has formed a new project, a band and a web site, dedicated to our song 24 NOTES. It is going to be involved in the BUGLES OVER AMERICA project, trying to get people to perform the song TAPS for Veterans funerals across the Nation. That song has the elements that I talk about in it. You see, I always am very concerned with what I have outlined here. When I approach an idea, I have to find a "twist, or a different perspective than we have all heard a billion times before. There has to be something different, interesting or I simply avoid the idea altogether.
On that song, Ed brought the idea that the song TAPS is only 24 NOTES. That is what took me to a different place. It was something I had never thought about before and had never heard done. So the song was taken to outline that. And because it doesn't really focus on any particular war, can be used as long as people know that song.
We're all trying to do the same things here. Come up with something that represents us well. We all have favorites. We all have things that hit us. We all have things that we like and everyone else does too, and we all have things that we like and others don't quite get. Nice to have some start a dialogue. Thanks Kevin for bringing it up and thanks to all who commented.
MAB
