Adventures in Close Reading #2: Dolphin’s Cry

Dedicated as we at Reading Too Much Into It are to bringing light to the dark corners of post-grunge rock lyrics, I was delighted to find, somewhere lurking at the back of my consciousness, the memory of this Live song. 

Now, of course no one outside of VH1 talking heads paid any attention to Live after 1994’s Throwing Copper, which had their one legitimate mainstream radio hit (“Lightning Crashes”) and several other modern-rock hits (“I Alone,” “Selling the Drama”).  And let’s face it; in hindsight it’s pretty embarrassing that anyone paid attention to such overwrought angsty silliness in the first place.  Though I do still get a touch a riled up remembering that my local Montana radio station bleeped out the word “placenta” in the first line of “Lightning Crashes.”

However, let’s not dwell on “Lightning Crashes” since it’s lyrical content is pretty cut-and-dried, by modern-rock standards at least.  ”Dolphin’s Cry” is late-period Live anyhow, and, watching the video, one has to admire Ed Kowalczyk’s commitment to such deeply, deeply stupid lyrics (seriously, you guys, how hilarious are those sub-Scott Stapp facial expressions?).  Beyond that, though, I was thrilled to find a genuine controversy surrounding the lyrics.  As per usual, it involves using confusing pseudo-religious metaphors to make a dumb sex joke sound all, ya know, poetical and shit. 

Adventures in Close Reading: A New Series

The other day I ran across the enclosed, a close reading of The Verve Pipe’s late-90s modern-rock radio hit “The Freshmen.”  Now, there are few cultural artifacts less worthy of scrutiny.  I’m quite confident that parsing the lyrics of “How Bizarre?” would yield more enlightening results.  Yet our man on the scene, Brian Vander Ark, an actual member of The Verve Pipe wanted to leave no ambiguity.  So moved, was I, that I decided to inaugurate a new series on this blog, one where I focus all my insights on the most disposable pop cult possible.  On the things themselves, in fact.  Thank Brian Vander Ark, for ushering in this new era. 

To recap: 1)  Brian Vander Ark wrote the lyric:  ”Stop a baby’s breath and a shoe full of rice, NO”

2)  Brian Vander Ark then felt the need to explain to you the lyric’s metaphorical content. 

Enjoy: