Best Vocab Lesson Ever!

Hats off to The Atlantic for their piece 24 Songs The Prematurely Expanded Our Vocabularies. Here's how it begins.

Lyrics in popular music have been blamed for social ills ranging from drug use to the London riots. But as back-to-school season approaches, it's worth pointing out how Top 40 radio can make people smarter—by teaching them new words. 

Check out the article for songs, lyrics, and video clips. You'll find the Beatles, Blink 182, Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie, Paul Simon, Liz Phair, Rihanna, and more. What fun!

Poems Set to Music - Are They Still Poetry?

When you have about 30 minutes, head on over to the TED web site and watch this video of Natalie Merchant singing some old poems to life. If you want to read the "lyrics," you can find the poems in print at Merchant's web site.

The songs Merchant sings in the video are from her new album, Leave Your Sleep. The lyrics come from "near-forgotten 19th-century poetry." Near forgotten? You'll find e.e. cummings among the selections, as well as Gerard Manley Hopkins, Edward Lear and Jack Prelutsky. I'd say this is more a collection of 19th and 20th century poetry.

In an article in the LA Times, writer Carolyn Kellogg considers if there's anything new here and asks whether this format enhances the poems in any way. Here's an excerpt.

Seems to me that poems set to music are a nice novelty, but that doesn't make them new and improved. It transmutes them as lyrics, but it would be a mistake to think this improves on their original form.

If you prefer not to watch the video, head over to Merchant's web site and listen to the songs. Then come back and tell me what you think. Is this a new way to listen to poetry? Is it still poetry? Lest you think me already a naysayer, I think it fair to warn you that one of my favorite songs EVER is Loreena McKennitt's version of The Highwayman.

For Lovers of Books and Music

For a while now I've been hooked on the Book Notes series at Largehearted Boy. In it, authors create and describe a playlist of songs that in some way relates to a recently published work. Recent entries include:

• David Small's list for Stitches
• Frank Portman's list for Andromeda Klein
• Lev Grossman's list for The Magician's

There are lots of great lists here for a huge range of books. If you love music as much as you like to read, don't miss this series.

Rock and Roll Lyrics Like You've Never Read Them

I do love McSweeney's. Today they have me laughing over "thesaurusized" lyrics to rock songs. Here's an excerpt. Can you guess the name of the song?

In the recent past, every one of my dilemmas gave the impression of being so distantly absent.

At the present, it seems as though they're at this time to hang about.

Oh, I accept as true the recent past.

Abruptly, I'm not partially the gentleman I used to exist as.

There's a silhouette suspended on top of me.

Oh, the recent past approached abruptly.

Head on over and check out Rock and Roll, Thesaurusized.

Music and Marcelo

I don't read many YA books, but I do have a few on my TBR pile. One is Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork.

After reading Living with Music: A Playlist by Francisco X. Stork, I'm happy to report that it's just moved up in the pile.

To learn more about the book, read Behind the Book at Cheryl Klein's blog. She's the editor and has written a mighty fine piece about it.