the most potent poetic image of the young century
 

this thread is your chance to convince me it's not Danny Brown's "octopus in a straightjacket"; best of luck my friends

https://youtu.be/EnfPzODj1kI?t=66

I think my favorite Arctic Monkeys title is "perhaps vampires is a bit strong but...": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjzOUf0AEiQ
A great song. This I don't think matches octopus in a straitjacket, which is indeed splendid IMO.

On the other hand. It's not my favorite Amy Winehouse song, but I think my favorite image of hers is in "Some Unholy War": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAD0WNBTA0Y
Now this song opens,

If my man was fighting
Some unholy war
I would be behind him ...

which I think is pretty damn cool.

Cheers,
John

Hi Aaron,

So ... are you convinced or not? You seem to have abdicated here!

Cheers,
John

The Winehouse is a nice sentiment, but "octopus in a straightjacket" is raw power.

The straightjacket gives you constraint; that it's an octopus, with its eight arms, shows you viscerally just how much potential is being inhibited. Plus, the image is just straight up hilarious.

This last point is important, because the whole song is about Brown using his pain for others' entertainment. This is clear from the official video for the song (which I didn't post initially because the verse with the image in question is cut in the video). So "octopus in a straightjacket" is basically the entire song in miniature. Incredibly powerful four words. The Winehouse doesn't come close.

Yes, you make a fine argument for octopus in a straitjacket. But I've never seen a partner assume her beloved might be "fighting some unholy war," as say the fallen angels did, and announce her allegiance to it. Winehouse was dead at 27 and the image to my mind goes some way to illustrating how she viewed her notoriously toxic relationship. I think it's more powerful than you've yet given it credit for.

Cheers,
John

It's a bit Captain Beefheart, isn't it?

"A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous."

Great tune though!

I had intended to post the video, but forgot. It's very good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L4JnAuW00k

Good morning Aaron,

I guess you were convinced by my explanation, because you haven't responded to it. That is, if what you were looking for was discussion of your challenge to others, instead of ex cathedra pronouncements from you.

Cheers,
John

Update: just to add, this approach reminds me a bit of the Italian national team in the 1991 European Ultimate Championships. They'd make a pass, and then pose for a moment. It'a a natural temptation. Meanwhile, the disc would be caught, or not caught, or intercepted. Play went on. The team did not do well in that tournament.

Winehouse's image, a lightly gussied up cliché, is too boring to be worth the knock-down, drag-out argument you seem to want. :)

Hi Aaron,

Sure, that's a little bit of dialogue from you. Well done!
I enjoy dialogue, I think it's why I enjoy teaching.

Cheers,
John

I've always liked (without understanding) Amy's pipe image in Back to Black:

I love you much
It's not enough
You love blow and I love puff
And life is like a pipe
And I'm a tiny penny rolling up the walls inside

Hi Roger,

Yeah, nice! I guess googling can see how much there may be drug imagery (blow...), but the tiny penny is pretty compelling.

Cheers,
John

Update: the first drug image I remember sailing over my head in rock music was The Eagles, "Life in the Fast Lane": "There were lines on the mirror, lines on her face." I had no idea what lines on the mirror were. I was probably about fifteen, and in boarding school in the UK. Not a lot of blow there to my knowledge.

Aaron, it also reminds me, in its humour and surreal juxtaposition, of Dylan's image in 'Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat' of the way the hat balances on the woman's head

"like a mattress balances on a bottle of wine".

But that's more wry, whereas yours is more desperate, contextually.

I'll try to think of something more current ha...

I've always liked this moment from Nick Cave's 'The Curse of Milhaven', where the little girl is revealed to be a monster/murderer:

"Like, my eyes ain't green and my hair ain't yellow
It's more like the other way around"

The whole song is a masterpiece of black jokes and grand guignol narrative.

https://youtu.be/bWym2YoiiWk

Danny might have been playing 'drawception' in his misspent youth...

https://drawception.com/game/teHbXLH...-straitjacket/

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For pure poetic imagery, I think it's hard to match Antony and the Johnsons’ "Epilepsy Is Dancing" (she got quite a bit of flack for the song). I don't know that I agree with it, but it is powerful -- albeit bizarrely visualized. I saw her do it on stage and the ending was as close to a dream state as I've ever heard.

She (now known as Anohni) is a gentle soul who has written some pretty potent poetically charged stuff. Not everyone’s cup of tea, mind you, but I like mine to alter my thinking.

Aaron, the "Octopus In A Straitjacket" piece you hold up as being the best poetic imagery of this young century just doesn’t do it for me. Maybe I’m misinterpreting what it is you are using to gauge poetic imagery. Would you tell me why you think it is a paragon of 21st century poetic imagery?

John, Amy Winehouse is/was a beautiful singer, writer and soul, no doubt about it. One of the best. The Arctic Monkeys, not so much to my ear. Nick Cave definitely.
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Jim, I don't have much more to say than what I've already said in the thread. The whole song ("Ain't it Funny") is about using his pain for the entertainment of others, and that image packs so much pain and so much humor into so small a space, it's like the whole song in miniature. Of course I understand if you disagree.

Hi Jim,

Just to say that Anthony and the Johnsons are unique in music. I'm afraid I have just one album of theirs, the debut I believe, but it is superb.

Thanks for reminding me,
John

Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys does write brilliant lyrics, Jim. They're a great band.

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John, I too like ATJ's early work. Now she has gone solo and has become musically/sonically experimental to the edge and that loses me for the most part. But the early work is striking stuff.

I can't help but think someday I will finally find myself having stumbled into the music of the Arctic Monkeys (and Alex Turner's lyrics) and be sent. Maybe tonight. I've got nothing else to do.
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Hi Jim,

The ATJ album I have is I Am a Bird Now. Superb, eerie, haunting, unique. I have two Arctic Monkeys albums and prefer the first: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. They do have some quiet songs - I'll see if I can link "Riot Van" here, which has nice triple rhymes, besides all else.
Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j052-ROwPFM

Cheers,
John

Oh - not sure if it's obvious, but that's a strong Sheffield accent (and dialect) you'll hear.

Hey Jim,

Some Arctic Monkeys! Turner is a great songwriter. He started off with a kind of working class teenage kitchen-sink realism and got progressively weirder. But he's a romantic at heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcBfg4NmqzA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY6tMFFk6FM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj-Ut0_dz1k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YLFakwWwt8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjkUcuJZX6s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4sDpPiQ9as

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aq28LLZus4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XmdQNvCp80

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Thanks for this, Mark (and John).
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