[1341] Carpe Diem Baby
Guest poem sent in by Ajit Narayanan <ajitq@>
Hit dirt
Shake tree
Split sky
Part sea
Strip smile
Lose cool
Bleed the day
And break the rule
Live win
Dare fail
Eat the dirt
And bite the nail
Then make me miss you…
Then make me miss you…
So wash your face away with dirt
It don't feel good until it hurts
So take this world and shake it
Come squeeze and suck the day
Come carpe diem, baby
Draw Lead
Piss wine
Sink teeth
All mine
Stoke fire
Break neck
Suffer through this
Cheat on death
Hug the curve
Lose the time
Tear the map
And shoot the sign
Then make me miss you…
Then make me miss you…
So wash your face away with dirt
It don't feel good until it hurts
So take this world and shake it
Come squeeze and suck the day
Come carpe diem, baby
Live win
Dare fail
Eat dirt
Bite the nail
Strip smile
Lose cool
Bleed the day
And break the rule
Hug the curve
Lose the time
Tear the map
And shoot the sign
Then make me miss you…
Then make me miss you…
So wash your face away with dirt
It don't feel good until it hurts
So take this world and shake it
Come squeeze and suck the day
Come make me miss you…
Come carpe diem baby
Come carpe diem baby
-- James Hetfield
|
(Metallica)
It has become unfashionable to like Metallica these days, but nonetheless,
of all the hard-rock and heavy-metal groups that I have heard, I think
Metallica would rank very high indeed for the power and beauty of their
lyrics. Indeed, they are one of the few bands that I started listening to
because I was very powerfully moved by the _poetry_ of songs like 'Sad But
True', 'Holier Than Thou', 'Fade To Black', 'Sanatarium' etc. 'Carpe Diem
Baby' is one of my favourites -- short lines, chosen and brought together
with a mastery that gives the whole song tremendous coherence and meaning.
In suggesting that you run this song on Minstrels, my judgment is clouded by
the fact that, having listened to the song before having read the lyrics, I
cannot imagine what the words sound like when read as poetry -- despite my
best attempts at self-control, whenever I read it out loud, I lapse into the
languid drawled-out melody of the song. However, reading it, one cannot
under any circumstances mistake it for the scribblings of an illiterate or
unskilled man. Metallica, for all the trappings of the genre that they
chose, still project an image of _culture_, and for that reason, I do think
their work deserves a place among the greats.
- Ajitq
[Martin adds]
Interestingly, until I got to the "then make me miss you..." bit, I didn't
realise it was a song at all. I was even more surprised to hear that the
music was languid and drawled-out; read in isolation the lyrics project a
sort of intense, driven energy, and a rhythm reminiscent of Hood's "No!"
[Poem #251] with its short, choppy and tightly rhymed lines. I ought to hunt
up the song sometime.
martin
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From: Alkemygirl@
Love the rhythm here!
More and more I look forward to Minstrels daily....
Thanks to Sitaram, Martin and Abraham!
From: Reed C Bowman <hammerquill@>
I didn't suspect it was a song until the complete repeats began. Like
Martin, I read the compressed two-word lines as short, explosive little
punches of language. In this it reminded me of the Gwendolyn Brooks poem
"We real cool," but I was if anything more impressed by the variety and
power they got in all those lines of two words. Maybe there is something
to this Metallica stuff, after all...
From: Carolyn McGrath <Carolyn.McGrath@>
Hello all
After Martin's "I ought to hunt out this song sometime", I felt compelled to
hear it and find out how the apparent contradiction between the length of
line and the "languid, drawled out melody" resolved itself. So, I got a
friend to work his magic on the internet to find and play it for me, and was
rewarded with the insistent, pounding drive of the music and the smooth,
melodic tones of the vocals. Very powerful and strangely hypnotic and
poignant. Good fun. Any chance of running more lyrics and can Sitaram add
the sound or put in a link?
Carolyn McGrath
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From: Martin DeMello <martindemello@>
--- Reed C Bowman <hammerquill@> wrote:
> I didn't suspect it was a song until the complete repeats began. Like
> Martin, I read the compressed two-word lines as short, explosive little
> punches of language. In this it reminded me of the Gwendolyn Brooks poem
> "We real cool," but I was if anything more impressed by the variety and
> power they got in all those lines of two words. Maybe there is something
> to this Metallica stuff, after all...
As long as you steer clear of the music :)
martin (just kidding - don't lynch me!)
From: tony landa <darkguitar10@>
this is a true poem about ceasing the day i listen to this song everyday it is available on the re-load album, it is a song by Metallica.
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