Atmosphere
Yes, the largest of all topics - atmosphere would take a decade to catalog and still another to edit. It is as thin as air and as heavy as time and when the two combine (air and time) we are treated to a glimpse of the word.
Codeine recorded the famed Joy Division song and in their version they rearranged some of the words and by doing so created a variant, which I personally find to be more enjoyable than a carbon-copy cover. Not a mis-translation, what Codeine did was take the song and embody it in much the same way that I figure Ian Curtis did when he was first writing it -- the changes made are enfolded into the song so fittingly that if the two were read side by side without a caption as to who wrote which (and without prior knowledge of the song, of course) one almost cannot tell who's is who's. Codeine sings it slow, like all of their songs, and the bass is of the Joy Division sort (though not as rumbling or pushing) and in the end, they have created a variation on the original that demands its own little place in the slim and slow history of music.
Below are the two songs, presented chronologically with my own useless notes pinned to them like so much ill fitting plumage. What is the atmosphere of each? Do they match? Isn't it wrong to besmirch the original by adding or excising a word or two? There is a famous story about Igor Stravinsky and his protection over the things he made: a fellow composer wished to perform one of Stravinsky's compositions and had assumed it would not offend the master if he substituted one note for another and clipped a few seconds off of a seemingly minor fugue, to which Stravinsky famously protested, "You are not at home here, my dear fellow." The master would not allow a single note to be played, instead of allowing his creation to be minorly tampered with at the hands of some bumbling almost-artist. So, what then of this particular case? I think there is a difference with Codeine and Joy Division and it is that Codeine, when faced with the problem of recording someone else's music, decided to respectfully knock at the door and entered the home of the song with a delicate sense of purpose, rather than repainting without thinking and hanging appallingly tasteless drapes to block the pretty view. Their changes were made in the spirit of the song, and in some regard they simply deepened it nicely rather than adding a crude pile of words and sound atop it.
Joy Division's Atmosphere:
Walk in silence
Don't walk away - in silence
See the danger - always danger
Endless talking - life rebuilding
Don't walk away
Walk in silence
Don't turn away - in silence
Your confusion - my illusion
Worn like a mask of self-hate
Confronts and then dies
Don't walk away
People like you, find it easy
Naked to see - walking on air
Hunting by the rivers, through the streets, every corner
Abandoned too soon
Set down with due care
Don't walk away - in silence
Don't walk away
Notes of note:
-Each stanza ends with the repeated "Don't walk away" (3 times) coupled with the economy within each of the stanzas (hyphens used in place of words, no prepositions, abundance of verbs) as well as the total lack of "setting" (inside? outside? time? place? who?)
-The structure of the song, assuming the lines are broken as the writer intended them to be, mimics the "life re-building" that are characteristic of Joy Division songs: stanza 1=5 lines, stanza 2=6 lines, stanza 3=7 lines --- one could assume that it would have an 8 line stanza next, and would continue in this fashion indefinitely ("endless talking".)
-Confusion of tense: present, past, future. Last but not least, the song is a perfect definition of "ambiguity", but not the vague kind for the sake of invoking vagueness, but the fuzzy but focused kind that (only) Ian Curtis was capable of capturing in just a handful of words: "People like you find it easy / naked to see - walking on air." Yes, in only 12 words we know exactly the type of person the song is addressed to (transparent, light as a feather.)
Codeine's Atmosphere:
Walk in silence
Don't walk away - in silence
Danger - always danger
Endless talking of life rebuilding
Don't walk away - in silence
Don't walk away - in silence
Walk in silence
Don't walk away - in silence
Your illusion - my confusion
And in the mask of self-hate
Confronts itself and then dies
Don't walk away - in silence
People like you, have it easy
Face like the sun - walking on air
Haunted by your face, every street, every corner
Abandoned too soon
Don't walk away - in silence
Don't walk away - in silence
Notes of note:
-Repetition is treated more traditionally. Codeine decided to repeat the repeated parts a bit more, thus reinforcing the message. Though they have removed the "don't turn away - in silence" from the second stanza, however.
-The insertion of an "of" in the first stanza to make "endless talking of life rebuilding" and how this does change the meaning from the sort of vague double burst of two seemingly unrelated lamentations into the more linear phrase. Though the "of" does make the phrase a bit more coherent, one wonders in hindsight if that is what Ian Curtis had meant it to mean in the first place: his hyphen is unable to speak for itself, sadly, so we won't really know. I, for one, would not like to witness any sort of endless talking of life rebuilding --- I hate hearing about people reinventing themselves, it is no wonder that Ian sang the words with such a sense of emptiness and his voice was always audibly frowning.
-Stanza 2 is where the departure becomes more apparent, yet it also happens to be where the variant begins to be a bit more solid than its predecessor. Codeine has quietly rearranged the "your confusion - my illusion" for its opposite "your illusion - my confusion" and this takes on a bit more cause-effect relationship, which though might not have been intended originally, the happy coincidence provides a nice smile of recognition. The "mask of self hate" is dived into just a bit deeper in the second draft - it becomes more of a thing and its thingness is apparent: "Confronts itself and then dies," again another gap that is linked via the insertion of a word - we have a hint as to why it dies (perhaps because it confronts itself.)
-While I personally love the "Naked to see" from the prior song for its simplicity and conveyance of the feeling of being transparent, "Face like the sun" matches the "walking on air" a bit better. The following line is completely new and provides the entire fulcrum on which the whole variant is balanced: "hunting" becomes "haunted" (wonderful for the following reasons: present progressive is devolved pleasantly into the simple past, and the words mirror one another nicely homophonically as well as in meaning - a person can hunt and haunt and the two actions are similarly matched, yet "haunt" contains the trace of adjective that makes all the difference) and the implied "I" of the song/poem seems caught in some strange middle-space because the face could be hunting/haunting him or he could be hunting/haunting it and the unease that rises out of this ambiguity is matched beautifully in the more concrete repeated close of the song. Also: by removing the "set down with due care" Codeine has eliminated the confusion created by the "Abandoned too soon" image, which is the stronger one.
I attended my last "poetry workshop" some five years ago now, so please do forgive me if my notes and methods for picking apart the two songs seem a bit muddled --- the old "compare/contrast" essay was never my strong suit (nor was using the proper poetic terms for the right things, apparently.)
Yes, the largest of all topics - atmosphere would take a decade to catalog and still another to edit. It is as thin as air and as heavy as time and when the two combine (air and time) we are treated to a glimpse of the word.
Codeine recorded the famed Joy Division song and in their version they rearranged some of the words and by doing so created a variant, which I personally find to be more enjoyable than a carbon-copy cover. Not a mis-translation, what Codeine did was take the song and embody it in much the same way that I figure Ian Curtis did when he was first writing it -- the changes made are enfolded into the song so fittingly that if the two were read side by side without a caption as to who wrote which (and without prior knowledge of the song, of course) one almost cannot tell who's is who's. Codeine sings it slow, like all of their songs, and the bass is of the Joy Division sort (though not as rumbling or pushing) and in the end, they have created a variation on the original that demands its own little place in the slim and slow history of music.
Below are the two songs, presented chronologically with my own useless notes pinned to them like so much ill fitting plumage. What is the atmosphere of each? Do they match? Isn't it wrong to besmirch the original by adding or excising a word or two? There is a famous story about Igor Stravinsky and his protection over the things he made: a fellow composer wished to perform one of Stravinsky's compositions and had assumed it would not offend the master if he substituted one note for another and clipped a few seconds off of a seemingly minor fugue, to which Stravinsky famously protested, "You are not at home here, my dear fellow." The master would not allow a single note to be played, instead of allowing his creation to be minorly tampered with at the hands of some bumbling almost-artist. So, what then of this particular case? I think there is a difference with Codeine and Joy Division and it is that Codeine, when faced with the problem of recording someone else's music, decided to respectfully knock at the door and entered the home of the song with a delicate sense of purpose, rather than repainting without thinking and hanging appallingly tasteless drapes to block the pretty view. Their changes were made in the spirit of the song, and in some regard they simply deepened it nicely rather than adding a crude pile of words and sound atop it.
Joy Division's Atmosphere:
Walk in silence
Don't walk away - in silence
See the danger - always danger
Endless talking - life rebuilding
Don't walk away
Walk in silence
Don't turn away - in silence
Your confusion - my illusion
Worn like a mask of self-hate
Confronts and then dies
Don't walk away
People like you, find it easy
Naked to see - walking on air
Hunting by the rivers, through the streets, every corner
Abandoned too soon
Set down with due care
Don't walk away - in silence
Don't walk away
Notes of note:
-Each stanza ends with the repeated "Don't walk away" (3 times) coupled with the economy within each of the stanzas (hyphens used in place of words, no prepositions, abundance of verbs) as well as the total lack of "setting" (inside? outside? time? place? who?)
-The structure of the song, assuming the lines are broken as the writer intended them to be, mimics the "life re-building" that are characteristic of Joy Division songs: stanza 1=5 lines, stanza 2=6 lines, stanza 3=7 lines --- one could assume that it would have an 8 line stanza next, and would continue in this fashion indefinitely ("endless talking".)
-Confusion of tense: present, past, future. Last but not least, the song is a perfect definition of "ambiguity", but not the vague kind for the sake of invoking vagueness, but the fuzzy but focused kind that (only) Ian Curtis was capable of capturing in just a handful of words: "People like you find it easy / naked to see - walking on air." Yes, in only 12 words we know exactly the type of person the song is addressed to (transparent, light as a feather.)
Codeine's Atmosphere:
Walk in silence
Don't walk away - in silence
Danger - always danger
Endless talking of life rebuilding
Don't walk away - in silence
Don't walk away - in silence
Walk in silence
Don't walk away - in silence
Your illusion - my confusion
And in the mask of self-hate
Confronts itself and then dies
Don't walk away - in silence
People like you, have it easy
Face like the sun - walking on air
Haunted by your face, every street, every corner
Abandoned too soon
Don't walk away - in silence
Don't walk away - in silence
Notes of note:
-Repetition is treated more traditionally. Codeine decided to repeat the repeated parts a bit more, thus reinforcing the message. Though they have removed the "don't turn away - in silence" from the second stanza, however.
-The insertion of an "of" in the first stanza to make "endless talking of life rebuilding" and how this does change the meaning from the sort of vague double burst of two seemingly unrelated lamentations into the more linear phrase. Though the "of" does make the phrase a bit more coherent, one wonders in hindsight if that is what Ian Curtis had meant it to mean in the first place: his hyphen is unable to speak for itself, sadly, so we won't really know. I, for one, would not like to witness any sort of endless talking of life rebuilding --- I hate hearing about people reinventing themselves, it is no wonder that Ian sang the words with such a sense of emptiness and his voice was always audibly frowning.
-Stanza 2 is where the departure becomes more apparent, yet it also happens to be where the variant begins to be a bit more solid than its predecessor. Codeine has quietly rearranged the "your confusion - my illusion" for its opposite "your illusion - my confusion" and this takes on a bit more cause-effect relationship, which though might not have been intended originally, the happy coincidence provides a nice smile of recognition. The "mask of self hate" is dived into just a bit deeper in the second draft - it becomes more of a thing and its thingness is apparent: "Confronts itself and then dies," again another gap that is linked via the insertion of a word - we have a hint as to why it dies (perhaps because it confronts itself.)
-While I personally love the "Naked to see" from the prior song for its simplicity and conveyance of the feeling of being transparent, "Face like the sun" matches the "walking on air" a bit better. The following line is completely new and provides the entire fulcrum on which the whole variant is balanced: "hunting" becomes "haunted" (wonderful for the following reasons: present progressive is devolved pleasantly into the simple past, and the words mirror one another nicely homophonically as well as in meaning - a person can hunt and haunt and the two actions are similarly matched, yet "haunt" contains the trace of adjective that makes all the difference) and the implied "I" of the song/poem seems caught in some strange middle-space because the face could be hunting/haunting him or he could be hunting/haunting it and the unease that rises out of this ambiguity is matched beautifully in the more concrete repeated close of the song. Also: by removing the "set down with due care" Codeine has eliminated the confusion created by the "Abandoned too soon" image, which is the stronger one.
I attended my last "poetry workshop" some five years ago now, so please do forgive me if my notes and methods for picking apart the two songs seem a bit muddled --- the old "compare/contrast" essay was never my strong suit (nor was using the proper poetic terms for the right things, apparently.)
