In Praise of Nonsense

Soul Coughing
Album: Irresistible Bliss
Super Bon Bon

Loudon Wainwright III
Album: Fame and Wealth
Dump the Dog

Much of the greatest art is a synthesis of music and text.  From Purcell (Dido and Aeneas) to Schubert (Die Winterreise) to Leonard Cohen (Hallelujah) music and text have been treated as equal partners, each illuminating the other.  Would Beethoven's Ninth Symphony be as moving without Schiller's paean to joy?  Would Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin' compel us at all without his poetic call to arms?

Nope.

But, thank god, not every artist takes himself so seriously.  In praise of nonsense.

Post WWII, in the glow of the promise of better times and a chicken in every pot, there was an influx of slithy silliness in songs like Mairzy Doats, here sung by The Innocence.  Playful and disingenuous, and really fun to sing, this is one of the first songs I remember from my childhood, and I still thrill to the lovely wordplay.  Jazz represents -- and then some -- with scat singing (the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald, One Note Samba), and even contemporary, critically acclaimed and hipster validated musicians revel in the shape and texture and slipperiness of language without ever veering into the sticky literalness of meaning (Sigur Ros, Von).  But this is nothing new.  From its first tentative steps into the popular consciousness, rock music focused attention away from the lyrics and onto its driving rhythmic essence with songs like Little Richard's Tutti Frutti.  Still, many were reluctant to grant nonsensical lyrics viable artistic license.  For example, John Lennon had to be convinced of the intrinsic merits of Paul McCartney's Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, arguing that it was complete nonsense, before finally relenting and allowing it on The White Album.  

Funk music, meanwhile, with its emphasis on groove, unsurprisingly provides us many interesting examples.  This is my favorite, by the great and wholly under-appreciated band The Meters: Look-Ka-Py-Py.  And finally, neither is contemporary classical music immune to the charms of wordplay for its own sake.  Here is a light-hearted example by one of my favorite composers, Gyorgy Ligeti: The Lobster Quadrille.

I have yet to talk about my two favorite nonsense songs, the links to which are at the top of this post.  And I don't think I will.  Just revel in the silliness.