Mehr Musik!

Okay, so Goethe might not have said "Mehr Licht!" on his deathbed. (Alles wird auf dieser deutschsprechenden Webseite für die Neugierigen erklärt.) But on all the days between birth and death, "Mehr Musik!" is the worthier sentiment. If you're ever forced to choose between sight and hearing, do the smart thing: Donate your corneas, and keep your eardrums intact. As it happens, I'm in the mood for a concert.

I'm also making up for lost time. Paul Horwitz posted an item on the Dixie Chicks, and it took me six months to notice. Ye gods.

Paul ultimately pans the Chicks' most recent album, Taking the Long Way. "The righteousness and angry defiance," he concludes, "wear thin pretty quickly over the course of the album."

Although I do like Taking the Long Way, I sympathize with Paul. What Faulkner said of literature applies with equal force to music: The "problems of the human heart in conflict with itself . . . alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat."

In other words, dump the politics and write or sing about human passions. "Ich bin lieber Dichter als Richter" summarizes, again in German, the wisdom I've derived from intensely hating the Mets. Not that I am any closer to being a poet than a judge, but the message is clear. Laws die; Lieder, never.

This is admittedly a huge windup for what is ultimately a very simple blog post. Sometimes you gotta dance, and sometimes you just want to listen to music that speaks to you. For me, right now, I could use some vintage Dixie Chicks. Herewith two videos sandwiched around a sound clip from the Chicks' breakthrough album, Wide Open Spaces:

1. There's Your Trouble:




2. Am I the Only One (Who's Ever Felt This Way?):



The Dixie Chicks cover Maria McKee's "Am I the Only One (Who's Ever Felt This Way)?" (.mp3 file available via Chicks Rock! Chicks Rule!)


3. Wide Open Spaces: