Monday, May 23, 2016

     Four songs for you to track down, assuming they still have them up on YouTube:

THE NAUGHTY LADY OF SHADY LANE
                                       Ames Brothers (1954/55) and Archie Bleyer (1954/55)
                                                
                                                                         and

MY GIRL BILL
                                      Jim Stafford (1974)
                                                                         and
BEAUTIFUL WORLD
                                      Devo (1981)
                                                                         and
WHITE ON WHITE
                                      Danny Williams (1964)


Pay attention to the lyrics now as you listen to each of these four songs.


Don't you appreciate the way some crafty songwriters play upon our penchant for assuming and for jumping to conclusions prematurely?

Now play each song again.
Notice there's nothing inaccurate about the way the main subject matter is described.
But that nothing is explicitly expressed until the very last verse, the deliberately ambiguous nature of the early verses "entrapping" us into revealing certain deep-down inner prejudices we harbor within ourselves.

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