Monday, May 13

The Great Gatsby. On music and different perspectives.


So I finished reading The Great Gatsby. I am sure you’ve heard about it somewhere or the other. It’s written by the Scott Fitzgerald. If you haven’t, a movie based on the book is releasing on 17th
So I took up the book because a friend suggested it to me, and I had almost given up on the book after a few pages, but then I saw the trailer of the movie and I saw the book differently. I was almost subconsciously humming the song that plays in the trailer while reading the book. I am hooked to that song.

There are books, which leave you in the state of incompleteness. Yearning. You end up longing for being a character in that book. A mute character who is watching by the sidelines. You are always there in the scene, looking at everything that is going around, feeling important as if you have a say, but nobody ever really asks. But you are there.
There is more to the incompleteness I feel, it is the lack of a muse. Especially after reading ‘The rule of four’ . But that deserves a whole post in itself.


This will not be a book review, and I will not write about the theme of the book because I don’t want to spoil it for you. I’ll keep it pending till I watch the movie.

This post is about 2 songs which I found in the trailer of The Great Gatsby. And mostly about perspectives. How a piece of lyric can be interpreted so differently leading to different songs. Even the same   interpretations can lead to different interpretations by the listeners. It is also about the circumstance in which you hear the song.

 Foremost, Love is blindness by Jack White. He is the guy from White Stripes (no longer). No? Seven Nation Army? The Bayern Munich song? GIJOE trailer song? No? Die.
So it is a cover of the song by the same name from U2. It is a brilliant song. 

Okay lets do something first. I'll just post the lyrics. While reading them, try to form a tune. Try to sing them. Imagine it is your song. Just read it in a tune. Please do it. This post is all about perspectives.


"Love is blindness, 
I don't wanna see
Won't you wrap the night 
Around me
Oh, my heart
Love is blindness.

I'm in a parked car
On a crowded street,
And I see my love
Made complete.
The thread is ripping
The knot is slipping.
Love is blindness.

Love is clockworks,
And it's cold steel
Fingers too numb to feel
Squeeze the handle
Blow out the candle
Blindness"



Here is the original video. I am not a vevo fan, but this video deserves to be seen.

Here is what i found on wikipedia about the song, 
"Author Atara Stein wrote that the song "suggests that love can operate only through a willful self-deception, a voluntary surrender to what one knows is an illusion. The singer begs his lover to 'wrap the night' around him because, as he proclaims, 'I don't want to see.' The singer knows that the image he creates of his loved one is false, but it is the only image that can satisfy him. He must perceive his beloved in idealized terms, so she can reflect back to him the image of himself that he desires to see" 

Now listen to Jack White's version. The difference is worth noting. I am in love with this song. The energy and madness is overwhelming. Especially during the end, when the guitar when the guitar starts screeching. This song is one of the reasons i am waiting so eagerly to watch the movie, and why i didn't give up on the book. Every book should come with OST's. 



Both the songs are so different in a way. The U2 original is more in surrender. More like accepting something and letting it go. While the Jack White version breathes anger. It paints an image of anger and frustration. You know you've screwed and you are reveling in pain.

Its really fascinating. How a piece of lyric, for which initially you can't think of any music, has two or many more such beautiful interpretations.

Similarly, another song from the trailer is "Happy Together" , originally by the Turtles. 

Here is some of the lyric. Do the same above. Just try to read them with a tune in your mind. Make something up.
Happy Together by The Turtles

"Imagine me and you, I do
I think about you day and night, it's only right
To think about the girl you love and hold her tight
So happy together

If I should call you up, invest a dime
And you say you belong to me and ease my mind
Imagine how the world could be, so very fine
So happy together

I can't see me lovin' nobody but you
For all my life
When you're with me, baby the skies'll be blue
For all my life"

Now listen to this, i am going to skip the original, and rather show you 2 different covers.
The Simple Plan one. This was not on the trailer.


And this is the one from the trailer.
It is by a band called Filter.



This version is so powerful and different than the Simple Plan one. More serious. It paints such a strong image. When i was in school, i was hooked on to Simple Plan's version. I used to find it really catchy. But this one is so powerful. Maybe it is the circumstance in which you listen to a song for the first time that defines your relationship with the song. For me this song totally goes with the Gatsby trailer. Whoever decided all the OST's needs to be given a pat on the back.

And finally, the trailer. Don't check the other trailers of this movie. Because they have spoilers in them.


I know there are many other songs with very different covers, if you know any please comment. Please. 

Also, could you please subscribe (hover your mouse to the top right of the screen), so that i don't have to post about this on facebook everyday. Please, old sport? :)

1 comment:

  1. Really liked it :). Was fun to read and great videos :)

    ReplyDelete