The poetry in lyrics.

It has long been accepted that song lyrics can be as full of emotion and feeling as traditional prose or poetry.  Lyrics can impart political ideals as both Bob Dylan and Rage Against the Machine can attest to.  They can give voice to our ideas of love and friendship as incalculable songs demonstrate.  They can be humorous and downright hilarious as Electric Six and Tenacious D have shown to full advantage and lyrics are backed up by the additional power of music to help lodge them in our minds and which help us to keep repeating them down the years.

Some musicians have also gone one step further and have published books of poetry that at times have given a deeper insight into their music and ideals.  This is before we even consider the numerous musicians who have also written books, mostly autobiographical in nature, but not exclusively so.

The first book of poetry written by a musician I bought was ‘A Night Without Amour’ by Jewel Kilcher.  Jewel had written journals and poetry alongside her songs since childhood and in her first book of poetry she explores the passions of first love, loves betrayal, growing up in Alaska, as well as the various images and scenes from life on the road.  In sometimes brutally honest language she draws you into her inner world.  The tone and feel of her song lyrics are evident throughout her poetry, but you also get a more intimate, personal voice coming through.  For me this has enhanced her music whenever I now hear it and I still go back to this book to browse through at odd moments.

Another book of poetry I have is ‘The Moments, the minutes, the hours’ by Jill Scott.  Jill’s poetry, like her music, is more sexy, soulful and elemental.  Her poetry explores, amongst other things, what it’s like to be an African-American woman and has a raw honestly that hits you straight in your head and heart every time.  Her collection has a wide variety of poetic styles and includes some wonderful haiku, that despite their pithy eloquence manage to leave a great impact upon reading.  The poetry on offer here is more erotic and earthy than that from Jewel, but like Jewels poems, they convey a great deal about the author.  If you feel you know Jill from her music, you will be staggered by the degree of personal information laid bare and shared with you in her poetry.  Poetry is a form of artistic expression that is extremely honest and open and Jill embraces that wholeheartedly.

 One of my favourite poetry collections is ‘Cool Gardens’ by Serj Tankian.  This collection of poetry features original artwork created by Sako Shahinian and these images can be both beautiful and disturbing.  They compliment the poems on offer perfectly.  Some of Serj’s poems can be dense and hard to fully appreciate first time round, but upon repeated reading they start to become clearer and have more impact.  His style is more cutting and cynical, much like the music he has created at times, and deals with subjects as diverse as euthanasia and flatulence!  His style is very uncompromising, which you would always want from an artist and he makes no apologies for his opinions or views.  He has just released a second book of poetry, which I have yet to purchase, called ‘Glaring Through Oblivion’, and if it is anything like ‘Cool Gardens’ it will be a challenging and highly rewarding read.

You can learn so much about an artist from listening to a songs lyrics and whereas some are light hearted and relatively superficial, others can have a depth that can only be fathomed after repeated listening.  The poetry from the musicians I have mentioned here is of a similar nature and augments the music and other art they create in the course of their careers.  It is not necessary to read their poems to appreciate their music, but it has certainly added an extra element for me when hearing their music now.  All three of these collections are very good in their own right and are well worth checking out if you enjoy the artist mentioned and their music.