Re: Maturity=clarity? -- A Minor Place - The Will Oldham Message Board

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Date Posted: 21:23:12 12/24/01 Mon
Author: raymond raposa
Subject: Re: Maturity=clarity?
In reply to: J. Bond 's message, "Maturity=clarity?" on 19:52:05 11/10/01 Sat

>In response to the question "is Oldham on a
>downslide?" someone implied that those fans who are
>not 'with him' right now(ie. "feeling his new
>shit")suffer from this due to a lack of maturity(re:
>"I feel Will has matured and grown to be more at ease
>with the world"[paraphrase]). It seems, rather, that
>with time Oldham has become much more straight-ahead
>with his lyrical approach, almost to the point of
>banality or, worse, making the songs become
>observation-only sing-a-longs rather than the THERE IS
>through ARISE stage cryptic nuggets that allowed the
>listener his or her own take on the words(just me?).
>
>Why it is so easy to dislike the bluntness of R&B "I
>love you baby yeah yeah" and to appreciate the akward
>phrasings of early Oldham(take your fucking pick of a
>line) is the essence behind most of the success within
>'indie-music': it is not rife with obvious
>generalities, but 'new' ones. One that feel less like
>a call for listener identification than a call from
>YOUR(as in you, ______) long last lover.
>
>This element, poorly explained above, is perhaps why
>I'm so upset with Oldham's more recent releases. JOYA,
>while decent musically(not really a reason why we
>listen to Will though, I think), is so blatantly
>linear in it's words(song and not) that one gets(got)
>the feeling they may finally understand his name
>changes= PALACE: elusive, hence the various
>incarnations still maintaining that one word, WILL:
>straight-forward narratives, were it a person(will)
>explaining there own stories, BPB:an amalgamation of
>both in that the PRINCE could very well live in a
>palace and that BILLY can also be referred to as Will
>and that many songs have that hammer-on-the-head
>lyrical approach("I SEE A DARKNESS", "JUST TO SEE MY
>HOLLY HOME", the song about the 'blacks') and others
>still achieve the PALACE characteristics
>supra("KNOCKTURNE", "A WHOREHOUSE", "BLUE LOTUS
>FEET"). Does this seem right?
>
>Can we also assume that Will's EP GET ON JOLLY,
>containing lyrics written by another man in extremely
>blunt prose, is, in fact, an indicator of where his
>new lyrical stylings rest. Are we seeing the
>'rootless' become 'rooted'? Are we watching the
>maturity of a man or the diluting? Are you reading a
>post that is coming off way-too-pretentious, therefore
>easily dissmissable?
>
>My dear friends, I think the answer to all these 3
>questions is quite simple: "Um, well, that depends."

good to see some discourse goin on. were it not christmas eve and if i didnt have a six pack and three egg nog/grand marnier mixes in my belly maybe i could contribute.
will rooted? possible. though if the drunken chaos of some recent showings and his persistent denial in interviews that he has "settled" (good one at pitchfork media) are any indication, we needn't worry.
real quick: friend was interviewing will at some college "folk" (no shit!) thing in wisconsin. she was kinda nervous, interview was trudging along etc... will offers up a joke, "what the clown say to the little boy?" what?
"my dick looks so big in your little hands" ha.
arise therefore, tho released originally as palace, was fairly quickly changed to a "will oldham" release so the cryptic palace vs straightforward will thing might not hold . and what, "i had a good mother and a father" wasn't blunt prose enough? "ohio river boat song"? some mick turner git loopings replacing a banjo or lap steel does not a less cryptic or enlightening experience make.

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Replies:

Re: Maturity=clarity? -- raymond raposa, 22:25:14 12/24/01 Mon

Re: Maturity=clarity? -- aaron, 20:56:41 07/28/02 Sun

Re: Maturity=clarity? -- me, 16:41:44 07/29/02 Mon
Re: Maturity=clarity? -- Jog-Toward A. Face, 09:47:05 08/09/02 Fri