OK, I'm our resident Tori Amos admirer. I'd say 'fanatic,' but I simply love her music; I don't follow her around the country on her tours and buy every little plastic merchandise thingy she sells as some fanatical fans do.
I also love other singer-songwriters, particularly of that era, including people like Kate Bush, Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, Regina Spektor, and greats including Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro. (Yes, I have an almost exclusive preference for women musicians.)
But I've always loved pop music, too, and at least during my lifetime, none of the great songwriters above has quite gained the pop-culture currency of pop stars like Madonna and Britney Spears.
Today's version of Madonna and Britney Spears is Taylor Swift. And I find that remarkable because of her writing. Personally, I think Madonna's full package as a performance artist and her imagination are spectacular. She has co-written a lot of the best pop songs ever made. But her lyricism is...er, well, let's just say it's clear she wasn't an AP English student. Her vocabulary is limited, her word choices often very awkward and sometimes nonsensical, and in many of her most recent albums, she seems to really struggle to articulate what she wants to say. She's just not great with words. And Britney...I mean, I won't even get into her lyrics, because what's the point?
I think Taylor Swift is a real phenom because her writing is beyond extraordinary ***for a pop star.***
I decided to post this while listening to her song "The Great War," which really is not one of her best songs, but the metaphor she employs, her extensive vocabulary relating to warfare, the grace of some of the lines, is just...not like anything the huge mainstream pop stars of my era (1990s) ever gave us, and this is effectively one of her throwaway songs. If you think a major pop star like Madonna or Britney Spears or Lady Gaga or Ariana Grande ever even co-wrote a song with lyrics this thoughtful and well articulated, please share the lyrics below. I'm willing to reconsider my opinion, but I do think Taylor is exceptionally talented as a lyricist for someone who has become such a mainstream pop sensation.
Here are some of the lyrics:
You drew up some good-faith treaties
I drew curtains closed, drank my poison all alone
You said I have to trust more freely
But diesel is desire, you were playin' with fire
And maybe it's the past that's talkin'
Screamin' from the crypt
Tellin' me to punish you for things you never did
So I justified it
All that bloodshed, crimson clover
The bombs were close and
My hand was the one you reached for
All throughout the Great War
Always remember
The burning embers
I vowed not to fight anymore
If we survived the Great War
It turned into something bigger
Somewhere in the haze, got a sense I'd been betrayed
Your finger on my hair pin triggers
Soldier down on that icy ground
Looked up at me with honor and truth
Broken and blue, so I called off the troops
That was the night I nearly lost you
I really thought I lost you
We can plant a memory garden
Say a solemn prayer, place a poppy in my hair
There's no morning glory, it was war, it wasn't fair
And we will never go back
