{"id":18617,"date":"2021-11-22T05:55:29","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T12:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=18617"},"modified":"2021-11-22T05:57:17","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T12:57:17","slug":"overnight-news-how-take-it-down-takes-it-down-with-or-without-the-lyrics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18617\/overnight-news-how-take-it-down-takes-it-down-with-or-without-the-lyrics\/","title":{"rendered":"Overnight News: How Take It Down<\/em> takes it down \u2013 with or without the\u00a0lyrics."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ya

\u201cFrench Bulldogs are dutch babies \u2013 simpering pseudo-sucklings. Prove me\u00a0wrong.\u201d<\/p><\/div>I managed to surprise Cathleen the other night: I argued that what makes a song great \u2013 we were talking about Take It Down<\/em><\/a> by John Hiatt \u2013 is not the lyrics but the music.<\/p>\n

That’s a claim I would normally dispute: Popular music \u2013 and all music with a lyrical or performative component \u2013 is narrative first, with the music serving in supportive, ornamental or incidental roles. No story, no opera. No story, no ballet. Grieg wrote music better known than the play he wrote it for, but this is very much the exception, not the rule.<\/p>\n

Cathleen’s complaint is that John Hiatt has lied about the lyrics,<\/a> but in the end, I don’t care. Much as with Wagon Wheel,<\/em> the music is so much better than the lyrics, I just don’t care. Plus which, my love is<\/em> fifty feet tall.<\/p>\n

Why does it work so well? You tell me. It’s not a song, not even a coherent chord progression. It’s a dirge with a bridge. But once I give it to my hands, it’s hard for me to stop playing it.<\/p>\n

I like it when I find out I’ve been wrong, even if only by a little. Without any lyrics at all, Wagon Wheel<\/em> is the perfect American work song, and if you play it enough it will sweep you back to the Irish reels from which it comes.<\/p>\n

Take It Down<\/em> has none of that music theory, and none of that pedigree. What it has is a pain that’s fifty feet deep. It’s easy to see why someone might lie about that…<\/p>\n

In other news:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pacific Research Institute:<\/strong> Los Angeles Is Gearing Up to Ban Wood-Frame Construction. Renters Will Soon Pay the Price.<\/a><\/p>\n

Brad Polumbo:<\/strong> Here\u2019s Everything That\u2019s Wrong With the Build Back Better Spending Bill House Democrats Just Passed.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ron Paul:<\/strong> It’s Time to Get the Federal Welfare-Warfare State Under Control.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFrench Bulldogs are dutch babies \u2013 simpering pseudo-sucklings. Prove me\u00a0wrong.\u201dI managed to surprise Cathleen the other night: I argued that what makes a song great \u2013 we were talking about Take It Down by John Hiatt \u2013 is not the lyrics but the music. That’s a claim I would normally dispute: Popular music \u2013 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,26,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-group-therapy","7":"category-lending","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16848,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16848\/unchained-melody-telling-the-brutal-truth-about-take-it-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":18617,"position":0},"title":"Unchained Melody: Telling the brutal truth about \u201cTake\u00a0It\u00a0Down.\u201d","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 31, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been claimed that John Hiatt wrote this song about cancelling the Confederate flag \u2013 but that's plainly bullshit. This is a brutal divorce song, excruciatingly simple. It's amazing, anyway. I play it on the guitar, sometimes for hours, late at night. The lyrics work, and that's why the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/yOBxDfgDZjI\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2819,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2819\/splendorquest-jesus-christ-superstar\/","url_meta":{"origin":18617,"position":1},"title":"SplendorQuest: Jesus Christ Superstar","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"[I wrote this at Easter in 2003, just short of five years ago. --GSS] Tomorrow is Easter, and all good Catholics will go to Mass. In our parish, every Mass will be packed, and there will be overflow Masses in the school cafeteria. But Catholic or not, Easter calls our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":277,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/277\/peter-pan-at-the-cd-rack-apprehending-the-art-in-pop-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":18617,"position":2},"title":"Peter Pan at the CD rack: Apprehending the art in pop music . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote this almost three years ago, reflecting back on Labor Day 2003. I happened to think of it this week when I heard a piece of Bob Dylan's new album. With a few truly remarkable exceptions, a couple of which are discussed here, Dylan has been phoning it in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13743,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13743\/unchained-melodies-an-ostensive-exposition-of-the-vital-importance-of-shit-kicker-music-to-the-maintenance-of-a-rebel-attitude\/","url_meta":{"origin":18617,"position":3},"title":"Unchained melodies: An ostensive exposition of the vital importance of shit-kicker music to the maintenance of a rebel attitude.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We've been listening to Badlands Country, a rockin' kind of outlaw alt.country internet radio station. You can get it through the link above, but it should be available from just about any internet radio client. I found it first on iTunes, if that helps, and I listen to in on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6957,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6957\/marketing-to-the-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":18617,"position":4},"title":"Marketing to the Music","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"February 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been over two years since the Washington Post decided to have a little fun with people going to work.\u00a0 In January of 2007, they asked Joshua Bell, an internationally acclaimed virtuoso, to play his violin at an entrance to the D.C. metro\u00a0during rush hour.\u00a0 It was conceived as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3282,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3282\/casual-friday-caption-this-photo\/","url_meta":{"origin":18617,"position":5},"title":"Casual Friday: Caption this photo","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My entry: \"Because I happen to like Argyle socks, that's why!\"","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18619,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18617\/revisions\/18619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}