The blog of Michael K.
Pelle Carlberg: hard at work on the song of the summer
| Published Thursday, June 01, 2006 by Michael K..
A while ago I mentioned Swedish singer-songwriter Pelle Carlberg, whose "Riverbank" was one of my favorite songs of last year (and which reminds me, I've got to go back and finally order the CD)
He's posted a new song - or rather, a song in progress - on his site and I think you ought to hear it, if nothing else for the wonderful title of "Clever Girls Like Clever Boys Much More Than Clever Boys Like Clever Girls." Download it here. A pithy, all-too-true statement on the relations between the brainier elements of the sexes. A gentle, jangly buildup, the inevitable handclaps, and a breathlessly-delivered chorus with just a little too much jammed into it, but in the most charming of ways. What's not to like?
It's too long by about a minute, but then he does say it's a rough version and I've got faith that he'll end up with another gem by the end.
"The limits of my language are the limits of my world." - Wittgenstein
But no no, Ludwig, there's a whole universe beyond language, after the pretty, precocious describer-words and bragger-words fall away. There is courage and beauty and so much beyond language. I've been shown this. I know this. I keep trying to touch it.
What do you say, Rainer?
"When the traveler returns from mountain-slopes into the valley, he brings, not a handful of earth, unsayable to others, but instead some pure word, the yellow and blue gentian. Perhaps we are here in order to say: house, bridge, fountain, gate, pitcher, fruit tree, window...Here is the time for the sayable, here is its homeland. Speak and bear witness."
- Rilke
So that's what my mind is rolling around just at the moment - and let's be honest, probably always will be; this tension between the sayable and unsayable. The insufficiency and wonder of words. Always find myself wishing I had more, better, shinier...but look at what you get today, instead. You get this beautiful inscrutable life, and if you're lucky enough to ignite off the right people, you get going living it as fully and interestingly and with as much love as you possibly can.
But no no, Ludwig, there's a whole universe beyond language, after the pretty, precocious describer-words and bragger-words fall away. There is courage and beauty and so much beyond language. I've been shown this. I know this. I keep trying to touch it.
What do you say, Rainer?
"When the traveler returns from mountain-slopes into the valley, he brings, not a handful of earth, unsayable to others, but instead some pure word, the yellow and blue gentian. Perhaps we are here in order to say: house, bridge, fountain, gate, pitcher, fruit tree, window...Here is the time for the sayable, here is its homeland. Speak and bear witness."
- Rilke
So that's what my mind is rolling around just at the moment - and let's be honest, probably always will be; this tension between the sayable and unsayable. The insufficiency and wonder of words. Always find myself wishing I had more, better, shinier...but look at what you get today, instead. You get this beautiful inscrutable life, and if you're lucky enough to ignite off the right people, you get going living it as fully and interestingly and with as much love as you possibly can.
About me
- Michael K.
- Observing the things in my personal cosmos: music of a catchy sort, soccer, hockey and other sports, theories of place, media and culture, academic life, history, nature, politics, the international, the parochial. You never know what you might get. For generosity of the spirit.
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