Perspectologist

Some time ago I made my first music video. I made it for a singer songwriter acquaintance of mine named Christopher James. I believe it was his first music video as well. We filmed it on the beach and boardwalk in Asbury Park, NJ. The location and theme were his idea. I just tried to create a video true to his vision. It was a lot of work. The video is only a few minutes, but we spent hours shooting. It was quite cold and windy. I brought a camera stabilizer I wanted to use, but abandoned it when I could not get it balanced correctly. I ended up mostly on the tripod with a few handheld shots. The video actually looks decent at this small size. Unfortunately in full size it is more apparent that the focus is off in most of the wide shots. It was a good learning experience. It was fun working with Christopher. I have always enjoyed working with creative people.

You can watch the video bellow. If you like the song then check out Christopher James’s website. He is a very talented singer. He has recently released a new music video. It is very impressive and looks much better than the one I made.

I am a fan of story songs, particularly when they bear a meaningful message.  Today I would like to share two particularly powerful story songs with variations on a common theme.

I have been interested in psychology since my youth.  I am curious about why people are as they are.  It seems likely to me that we are first cut from the cloth of our genetic background.  That is our foundation.  Then our environment shapes us, even before we leave the womb.  Every interaction that we have with the outside world has the potential to impact us in powerful ways.

This world is full of monsters.  I wonder about how they came to be, and whether we could have saved them.  These songs are interesting because they force us to see the world through the eyes of the perpetrator.  This causes them to be disturbing.  They show us a view from a different perspective than we are used to.

The first song is by Harry Chapin, a folk rock master of story songs.  His music has been a great inspiration to me.  His song is based on a tower sniper.  I am not going to discuss the real life event that the song was (loosely) based on because it is a rather more complicated subject than I can comfortably cover in this post.  Listen to the song in the video bellow.  I only chose this video because the sound quality was reasonably decent.  I do not intend to endorse any of the video imagery.  It is a long song, almost 10 minutes.

Sniper

Chapin seems to focus on a lack of early childhood affection leading the antagonist to a feeling of isolation and disconnection.  The shooter never learned how to effectively interact with our world.  The song explores the culmination of his frustration using the analogy of a conversation as he unleashes a brutal killing spree just to prove that he does actually exist.

The next song is by Peter Gabriel. I am also a big fan of his music.  This song is about an assassin who’s impetus is a need for attention.  Once again, I have chosen this video for its audio only.  It actually contains a very disturbing JFK head shot.  If you have a sensitivity to violence consider moving the video off screen as you listen.  There is a twist at the end of the video.  This video is just over four minutes long.

Family Snapshot

The theme of this song seems to be a desire for attention.  An interesting aspect here is that both the victim and the sniper are where they are because they each seek attention.  The end of the song is a flash back to the boy “growing up sad”.

Sometimes we make our own monsters.  I don’t intend to excuse all criminal actions by scapegoating challenging childhoods.  Many of us have had our own challenges, and still grow into moral adults with respect for others.  Yet, I can’t help but wonder if some of this world’s violent transgressors could have had their path altered if they have been loved a little more.  We aught not underestimate the power of love and the destructive vacuum of its absence.

I have rather eclectic musical taste.   When I was a child my grandfather introduced me to Celtic music.  He turned me on to an NPR Celtic music radio program called the Thistle and Shamrock . While my peers were following all the latest pop music I was listening to tradition Celtic music.

The video below is of a very interesting song. It is a type of “Mouth Music”. It is more about the sound of the words than the meaning. The song is called Fionnghuala. The language is Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic). You can see the lyrics (in case you want to sing along ) as well as an English language translation here. The name of the song means “White Shoulder”, and may have Gaelic mythological meaning.

Bothy Band – Fionnaghuala

The next video consists of a few rousing jigs also performed by the Bothy Band.

Old Hag You Have Killed Me – The Bothy Band

Stay tuned for other interesting music from all kinds of genres.