Describing Music

I’m reading Peter Mayle’s ‘a good year’ upon a suggestion from Vero’s sister Anne-Marie and it deals with wine and vineyards. An amusing aspect of the book is how wine connoisseurs try their best to describe the taste of a certain wine in ludicrous talk such as comparing it to music or a favourite action scene of a movie.

I am also reading a LOT of reviews of the new Beatles remasters which are coming out in a few weeks. I am reading how Paul’s bass sounded full and daring or how Harrison’s guitar work squealed with delight.

Is it worth trying to describe music in words?

I have hit a wall when trying to describe how I feel about albums or concerts I’ve been to. It’s virtually impossible to put an emotion into words. Perhaps that’s what makes a good writer a great writer. Their ability to describe emotions.

However, I cringe at every article about the Beatles remasters in which the author is writing about the emotion that Ringo’s bass drum evokes. I can understand if you want to tell us that the songs sound more cleaner and the instruments are more defined…but I feel bad for the poor souls tasked with writing how the remasters SOUND. I hope someone just puts up a couple of examples and simply writes “Hear for yourself.”

So with that, I shall try my darnedest to put the most adjectives I can when describing the soaring guitar solo I heard Mike McCready play last week, or the machine gun fire of Billy Corgan’s guitar attack in his song ‘United States’. But I’ll laugh at myself every time after I write stuff like that. I can’t take myself seriously!

Perhaps that is why I simply stick to classic Palmer adjective…BEST (insert whatever I am talking about) EVER.