by R0gUE Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:02 pm
On a more serious note, you could take the transition from punk to folk as a thesis... you could write a whole book on that... and how that influenced other bands, what it did for folk music, the controversies involved, what it did for Ireland, etc. This might take a lot of research.
Another approach might be to take a couple of songs that he wrote and really analyze them (like just listen over and over), find out the conditions under which he wrote them and why, how he participated with others in writing them, the circumstances of his life then, the sounds of the music in them, the lyrics in them, and so on. You could potentially take one song from an early album (or before the Pogues), one from a later album (or middle of Pogues) and one of their last album or after he left The Pogues. And look at him through his music... how it changed and how he changed through it or along those lines. You could do it with a lot more songs but it may get to be too long and complicated.
One more way, also through songs, could be to take a fast paced/louder song (or a couple fast paced songs) and one or two slow paced/quieter songs and look at how he treats the songs and the music, how he sings in them, why he wrote them, who he wrote them with, who he collaborates in them with and to what degree, and so on, and go with it that way.
While at the car-wash, I thought of a couple more: take just one song (an older song) and look at how he sung it in different conditions: studio and varying live concerts (for example, fairytale in ny he sang with a variety of different people, such as even his own mother), and look up reviews/critics responses to each time he sang the song and what other people had to say and look at his condition at the time he sang the song and how different the song sounded each time and how that related to where he was in his life - how often did he sing it drunk... This could be a little more difficult than others above because you'd have to get pretty creative.
Another idea is just to look through critic's reviews of him and compare what they say and sort of bring out to view the artificial Shane created in other's eyes/minds who don't know him personally and possibly compare that with stuff you find on how he sees his work or how others close to him see it.
Just some suggestions...
On a more serious note, you could take the transition from punk to folk as a thesis... you could write a whole book on that... and how that influenced other bands, what it did for folk music, the controversies involved, what it did for Ireland, etc. This might take a lot of research.
Another approach might be to take a couple of songs that he wrote and really analyze them (like just listen over and over), find out the conditions under which he wrote them and why, how he participated with others in writing them, the circumstances of his life then, the sounds of the music in them, the lyrics in them, and so on. You could potentially take one song from an early album (or before the Pogues), one from a later album (or middle of Pogues) and one of their last album or after he left The Pogues. And look at him through his music... how it changed and how he changed through it or along those lines. You could do it with a lot more songs but it may get to be too long and complicated.
One more way, also through songs, could be to take a fast paced/louder song (or a couple fast paced songs) and one or two slow paced/quieter songs and look at how he treats the songs and the music, how he sings in them, why he wrote them, who he wrote them with, who he collaborates in them with and to what degree, and so on, and go with it that way.
While at the car-wash, I thought of a couple more: take just one song (an older song) and look at how he sung it in different conditions: studio and varying live concerts (for example, fairytale in ny he sang with a variety of different people, such as even his own mother), and look up reviews/critics responses to each time he sang the song and what other people had to say and look at his condition at the time he sang the song and how different the song sounded each time and how that related to where he was in his life - how often did he sing it drunk... This could be a little more difficult than others above because you'd have to get pretty creative.
Another idea is just to look through critic's reviews of him and compare what they say and sort of bring out to view the artificial Shane created in other's eyes/minds who don't know him personally and possibly compare that with stuff you find on how he sees his work or how others close to him see it.
Just some suggestions...
