"Delilah" is the sparest song on the album: acoustic guitar, ukulele, bass, and vocals. I added the ukulele at the very end of the recording process. I was actually in the mixing phase, and when I was working on this song, I felt like it could just use a little something. I tuned the ukulele slightly differently than usual, to get an interesting sound; I can't even recall where I tuned the strings, which reminds me of a story I once read about Joni Mitchell. Apparently she did a lot of "random" guitar tunings in her earlier songs. Some time more recently, she was going to re-record some of those old songs, and as she couldn't recall what the tunings were, she had to enlist the help of a musicologist or something to help her analyze the songs to determine how the guitars were tuned!
When I write a song, sometimes I know what it's about, but sometimes I really have no idea. Always, though, a listener will impose their own meaning on a song. Sometimes it's parallel to my understanding of the song, often it is very different. When we listen to songs, we bring our own experiences and ideas to the table. A song can speak to different people in such very different ways. For example, I have no idea what Paul Simon intended by the song "The Myth of Fingerprints" off of Graceland, but to me it reflects the Zen concept of the ego or self as illusory. And in that context, that title phrase seems absolutely brilliant and poetic to me. Of course, as far as I know, he may have intended something entirely different by those lyrics.
I have often alluded to Biblical stories and ideas in my songwriting. Not that I write religious songs at all - after all, I am an atheist. But it's a rich source for shared myths and concepts in our culture. In "Delilah," just the use of that name brings an entire mythos into the meaning of the song. When I sing the line "Delilah have your way with me again," I can allude to that mythos without having to explain the concepts more literally. One could read the line as one of submission - In the story, Delilah cuts Sampson's hair while he is sleeping, which takes away his invincibility - so by telling her she can have her way with me again, it could be seen as an acceptance of her stripping away my "power."
On the other hand, the song can work just as well if the listener doesn't relate "Delilah" to the Biblical story. I could just be singing the song to a woman named Delilah.
I once read an interview with Paul Simon that really affected my approach to writing lyrics. He talked about shifting between vernacular and poetic language. The example used was "You Can Call me Al" from Graceland. The first verse is sort of the ultimate vernacular; the song begins with the language of an old joke or story that immediately jumps from the physical to the metaphysical:
A man walks down the street
He says "why am I soft in the middle,
Why am I soft in the middle when
The rest of my life is so hard?"
By the time we get to the last verse we are in poetic territory:
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity,
He says "Amen, hallelujah"
In the same interview, Simon also validated an approach to lyric writing I had been doing for some time, but had felt vaguely guilty about. He admitted that often he writes lyrics that come out of nonsense; that he searches for syllables that sound good in the melody, and often doesn't know or worry about what they "mean" in a larger sense. Which is probably why so many of his songs can be interpreted in so many different ways.
Which brings me to "Delilah." I'll admit there are certain parts of this song where I do not really know the specific meaning. The first lines, for example:
Did you hear it creeping
Creeping through the night
The stumbling fugitive of the light
Truthfully, I'm not really sure what that means. It evokes ideas and concepts to me, but honestly, I just thought it sounded good, it flowed well. The next lines have more specific meaning to me:
We made it through the whiskey and the smoke
The years of being thin and being broke
That's a concept that's instantly understandable. In the second verse, I'm stepping further outside of the vernacular:
Did you maybe mistake your trials here
For visions of the absolute, glorious flight
Angels and devils running far afield
Gathering round some ancient fright
I'm particularly fond of the poeticism of the bridge:
Oh, the telling of it
Grows with every generation
Oh, the wisest of them
Falls into an open grave
Oh, I'm blinded by
The spangled light of day
Oh, I'm on the edge of
Throwing everything away
If anyone reading this listens to the song, I'd love to hear what your understanding of the song is. I'm always fascinated by how differently we understand song lyrics.
For the production of this song, I started by recording the acoustic guitar. I used two microphones - my modded Studio Projects C1, and one of my MXL 603s. The C1 was positioned at the 12th fret, pointing slightly toward the sound hole. The 603 was to the right of the bottom of the guitar, slightly in front, also pointed toward the sound hole, but farther away. I recorded the part in stereo, with the LDC mic panned far left, and the SDC
In Logic, I can select a section of music and when I press play it will loop that section endlessly. When a section is selected, I can also press record and it will record in an endless loop. It will then break the 'takes' out onto separate tracks. I often select the entire song, hit record, and then play through the entire song six or seven times. Then I'll go back and listen for the best take. I do this with everything from instruments to vocals. I like to be able to capture a single take for the entire song, but sometimes I have to sub in a couple of small sections from one of the other takes - for example, if the take I like best performance-wise has just a couple of glaring errors, I'll grab those bits from another take.
Alright; if you are still awake after that, you now know more than you ever wanted to about this song!
When I write a song, sometimes I know what it's about, but sometimes I really have no idea. Always, though, a listener will impose their own meaning on a song. Sometimes it's parallel to my understanding of the song, often it is very different. When we listen to songs, we bring our own experiences and ideas to the table. A song can speak to different people in such very different ways. For example, I have no idea what Paul Simon intended by the song "The Myth of Fingerprints" off of Graceland, but to me it reflects the Zen concept of the ego or self as illusory. And in that context, that title phrase seems absolutely brilliant and poetic to me. Of course, as far as I know, he may have intended something entirely different by those lyrics.
I have often alluded to Biblical stories and ideas in my songwriting. Not that I write religious songs at all - after all, I am an atheist. But it's a rich source for shared myths and concepts in our culture. In "Delilah," just the use of that name brings an entire mythos into the meaning of the song. When I sing the line "Delilah have your way with me again," I can allude to that mythos without having to explain the concepts more literally. One could read the line as one of submission - In the story, Delilah cuts Sampson's hair while he is sleeping, which takes away his invincibility - so by telling her she can have her way with me again, it could be seen as an acceptance of her stripping away my "power."
On the other hand, the song can work just as well if the listener doesn't relate "Delilah" to the Biblical story. I could just be singing the song to a woman named Delilah.
I once read an interview with Paul Simon that really affected my approach to writing lyrics. He talked about shifting between vernacular and poetic language. The example used was "You Can Call me Al" from Graceland. The first verse is sort of the ultimate vernacular; the song begins with the language of an old joke or story that immediately jumps from the physical to the metaphysical:
A man walks down the street
He says "why am I soft in the middle,
Why am I soft in the middle when
The rest of my life is so hard?"
By the time we get to the last verse we are in poetic territory:
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity,
He says "Amen, hallelujah"
In the same interview, Simon also validated an approach to lyric writing I had been doing for some time, but had felt vaguely guilty about. He admitted that often he writes lyrics that come out of nonsense; that he searches for syllables that sound good in the melody, and often doesn't know or worry about what they "mean" in a larger sense. Which is probably why so many of his songs can be interpreted in so many different ways.
Which brings me to "Delilah." I'll admit there are certain parts of this song where I do not really know the specific meaning. The first lines, for example:
Did you hear it creeping
Creeping through the night
The stumbling fugitive of the light
Truthfully, I'm not really sure what that means. It evokes ideas and concepts to me, but honestly, I just thought it sounded good, it flowed well. The next lines have more specific meaning to me:
We made it through the whiskey and the smoke
The years of being thin and being broke
That's a concept that's instantly understandable. In the second verse, I'm stepping further outside of the vernacular:
Did you maybe mistake your trials here
For visions of the absolute, glorious flight
Angels and devils running far afield
Gathering round some ancient fright
I'm particularly fond of the poeticism of the bridge:
Oh, the telling of it
Grows with every generation
Oh, the wisest of them
Falls into an open grave
Oh, I'm blinded by
The spangled light of day
Oh, I'm on the edge of
Throwing everything away
If anyone reading this listens to the song, I'd love to hear what your understanding of the song is. I'm always fascinated by how differently we understand song lyrics.
For the production of this song, I started by recording the acoustic guitar. I used two microphones - my modded Studio Projects C1, and one of my MXL 603s. The C1 was positioned at the 12th fret, pointing slightly toward the sound hole. The 603 was to the right of the bottom of the guitar, slightly in front, also pointed toward the sound hole, but farther away. I recorded the part in stereo, with the LDC mic panned far left, and the SDC
In Logic, I can select a section of music and when I press play it will loop that section endlessly. When a section is selected, I can also press record and it will record in an endless loop. It will then break the 'takes' out onto separate tracks. I often select the entire song, hit record, and then play through the entire song six or seven times. Then I'll go back and listen for the best take. I do this with everything from instruments to vocals. I like to be able to capture a single take for the entire song, but sometimes I have to sub in a couple of small sections from one of the other takes - for example, if the take I like best performance-wise has just a couple of glaring errors, I'll grab those bits from another take.
Alright; if you are still awake after that, you now know more than you ever wanted to about this song!
5 comments:
Interesting. I always wondered. It is nice to know that it is ok for me to bring my interpretation to the song and not be wrong. :)
Reading this is a little like finding out their is no God. I feel at once relieved that some lyrics have no specific "meaning", and disappointed that there isn't always some greater "plan." :-) But seriously, I've always had a strong desire to know where the lyrics of the music I enjoy come from and it's neat to get a window into this. I've enjoyed listening to Division Street over the last few days...
Julia, I'm glad you're enjoying the music! As you'll see with some of my upcoming "song breakdowns," each one is different. Sometimes I know exactly what I want to say with the lyrics, and other times, it just comes out, and I'm left figuring it out the same as any other listener! Ultimately, the only thing that matters is that it has some meaning or evokes some feeling to the specific listener, in any case. Even if I do have a specific meaning when I write a song, there's no guarantee that will be the way some or even most listeners will understand the song.
Jim, thanks for reading. It was wonderful to see you at the show in Charlottesville!
Oh lol I just clicked your name. And here I thought you were just some random reader. Hey cousin! Clicked to follow your bog. I have to hit the sack, but I'll read through it tomorrow.
Ha ha--too funny. I guess "Julia" is pretty anonymous. I'm looking forward to hearing more of the song breakdowns. Very interesting! If you want to see anything recent with my blog, go to our website from Uncle Matthew's site. I was doing a duel thing for awhile but found it easier to keep up with from iWeb.
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