Get a room

[Johnny Stew]

With my agoraphobic tendencies, my life is lived inside rooms. I guess it's just one more thing that I can relate to in Stevie's lyrics.

"For in these rooms, she would live and die...."

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by Jyqm

....but there's a point for me where the weight of the same imagery over and over again becomes a little overwhelming, and you start to wonder if she's actually capable of writing anything else or coming up with something new. We know she can, and a lot of the times her best songs are the ones that completely eschew her usual bag of tricks, but there are definitely times when it seems she was just feeling lazy and uninspired, and pulled a card out of a hat filled with stereotypical Stevie vocabulary.

This is a topic I find interesting... I suppose because there's no right or wrong viewpoint. But I've noticed others criticize Stevie for what they consider "overuse" of certain imagery... rooms (including walls & windows), mirrors, water (rain, rivers, oceans), and so forth.

Myself, it's something I enjoy... that thematic connection. Rather than seeming like random vignettes, each song is like a chapter in a book (forgive me for using Stevie's own simile), as a larger story is being chronicled.

So I guess I don't tend to view it as laziness, because I simply see it as her artistic voice. Much like Hemingway or Steinbeck had their recurring themes.

[Jyqm]

Originally Posted by Johnny Stew

So I guess I don't tend to view it as laziness, because I simply see it as her artistic voice. Much like Hemingway or Steinbeck had their recurring themes.

As I said, I like the recurring themes - and when Stevie's at her best, she'll grab one of her usual metaphors and use it in an interesting way that allows you to connect it to her other work - but she's certainly got plenty of songs where her use of the same old tropes is uninspired and heavy-handed.

Look at "Thousand Days": "The closest you've ever come to me / Was to help me up the stairs / You stood in the middle of the stairway / You nearly dragged me up the stairs." Thanks, dear, you can stop beating me over the head with that stick now, we all get it.

[seekerj]

Originally Posted by Jyqm

I'll push it in this direction: Rooms for Stevie are always intensely personal places - "my room" is at least as common as "the room" in her lyrics. They provide a specific location for her characters, not just physically but also emotionally and psychologically. They're an outer representation of her characters' inner worlds, and as such they provide her with a simpler language that she can use to describe how each character's inner world is changed or affected by different people or events - people walk in and out of the room, they do different things in or to the room, doors are opened or closed, sounds are heard from inside or outside the room. It's a nice way of bringing a character's emotions and experiences outside the self; there's something physical to latch onto, plus a bit more space provided, instead of feeling trapped inside the character's head or heart. Of course sometimes the room metaphor can get pretty claustrophobic as well...

In psychology and dream interpretation, "house" and "room" are symbols for the "self".

- Jim

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by Jyqm

Look at "Thousand Days": "The closest you've ever come to me / Was to help me up the stairs / You stood in the middle of the stairway / You nearly dragged me up the stairs." Thanks, dear, you can stop beating me over the head with that stick now, we all get it.

I definitely agree with you on the heavy-handedness there (though I do love the way her voice sounds on those lines).

It always tends to bug me when a word is repeated several times in the same sentence... whether it be in songs, poems, books, wherever. It took me a long time to not cringe while listening to "Blue Denim," with all of the "hes," "hims" and "ways."

I knew him another way
I knew him another day
In some ways he'd forgotten me
In many ways he got to me
I turned away so he couldn't see
I turned away...it could never be
I never thought he could walk away
But I lost him again...yesterday

[Jyqm]

Originally Posted by Johnny Stew

It always tends to bug me when a word is repeated several times in the same sentence... whether it be in songs, poems, books, wherever. It took me a long time to not cringe while listening to "Blue Denim," with all of the "hes," "hims" and "ways."

It's a technique that I actually really like, because when it's done well (and part of "well" includes "sparingly"), the effect can be either intensely disconcerting or very soothing. But yeah, a lot of the times that Stevie does it, I just want to hand her a stack of vocabulary cards.

[Janis_no1]

Originally Posted by Jyqm

Look at "Thousand Days": "The closest you've ever come to me / Was to help me up the stairs / You stood in the middle of the stairway / You nearly dragged me up the stairs." Thanks, dear, you can stop beating me over the head with that stick now, we all get it.

i absolutely hate those lyrics in thousand days!! Would have to be the only lyrics i really feel that way about!

[Janis_no1]

Originally Posted by Johnny Stew

I definitely agree with you on the heavy-handedness there (though I do love the way her voice sounds on those lines).

It always tends to bug me when a word is repeated several times in the same sentence... whether it be in songs, poems, books, wherever. It took me a long time to not cringe while listening to "Blue Denim," with all of the "hes," "hims" and "ways."

I knew him another way
I knew him another day
In some ways he'd forgotten me
In many ways he got to me
I turned away so he couldn't see
I turned away...it could never be
I never thought he could walk away
But I lost him again...yesterday

yes i find this a little irritating at times.... if im singing along i can stomach it, but i cannot let myself pay too much attention as it does bother me a little... not as much as it does you but to some extent yes