Red Hot Chili Peppers: "Aeroplane"

Because it's the official music video, I can't embed it, so here's the link to it on YouTube.

I learned of this song thanks to participation on Blip (basically a Twitter-for-music social network) and fell in love with it.  In search of shirtless males in music videos, for the sake of my comments on the Mika song, I looked up the Red Hot Chili Peppers on YouTube and found their official page.  So I checked out the video for Aeroplane.  It wasn't the best example of what I wanted, but as I let the song play, I suddenly realized the lyrics seem to relate a LOT to what the chapter on Hildegard's work was talking about.

Now, as is the case with many music videos, I admit I don't have much idea what this one is supposed to mean.  But some of the lyrics in particular hit me.  I'll copy/paste the full lyrics at the end (from Sing365) and pull out a few lines in particular to relate back to the reading.  [Note: pardon the profanity; I've starred-out a few words in the original lyrics.]

I like pleasure spiked with pain - This reminds me of the bodily/erotic pleasure, on one hand, and the pain and strain of pushing the vocal capacity to its limits, found together in singing Hildegard's compositions.

and music is my aeroplane - Music is the vehicle (okay, terrible accidental pun) via which the pleasure and pain merge.

songbird sweet and sour Jane - another pleasure/pain dichotomy.

Someone better slap me,
Before I start to rust,
Before I start to decompose - Clear references to the body and description as if it is literally deteriorating.


My melancholy baby,
The star of mazzy must,
Push her voice inside of me - This is a reference to some female, her singing ability, and penetration (which has a decidedly sexual flavoring).  Unlike Hildegard, though, whom the author interprets as talking about female-only sexuality (and sexual space, in the sense of the womb and flowing of winds in and out), this singer is a male referring to a female's voice interacting with him bodily.

Just one note could make me float,
Could make me float away,
One note from,
The song she wrote,
Could f*** me where I lay - This imbues the music itself - produced by a female (this time composed, not just sung) - with apparently a complete sexual power over him (the singer).  This is interesting actually because it removes entirely the female's body from the scene; the sexuality is transferred to the music she produced.

Just one note,
Could make me choke,
One note that's,
Not a lie,
Just one note,
Could cut my throat,
One note could make
me die. - Now we've lost the sexual meaning of the music and instead it has a power to bring on pain ("choke", "cut my throat") and death.  In the vein of Hildegard, this almost seems like a warning: if you don't do with the music as you should, it will cause the end of you - and in a negative way.  I'm recalling her visions that threatened her to share the messages she was given, or else she would undergo further torture, I assume.


----- 

I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
Songbird sweet and sour Jane and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane
pleasure spiked with pain,
that motherf***ers always spiked with pain.

Looking in my own eyes (hey lord),
I can't find the love I want,
Someone better slap me,
Before I start to rust,
Before I start to decompose,
Looking in my rear view mirror,
Looking in my rear view mirror,
I can make it disappear,
I can make it disappear (have no fear),

I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
Songbird sweet and sour Jane and,
music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
pleasure spiked with pain,
that motherf***ers always spiked with pain,

Sitting in my kitchen (hey girl),
I'm turning into dust again,
My melancholy baby,
The star of mazzy must,
Push her voice inside of me,

I'm overcoming gravity,
I'm overcoming gravity,
(It's easy when you're sad to be,)
It's easy when you're sad, sad like me

I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
Songbird sweet and sour Jane,
and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
pleasure spiked with pain...,

Just one note could make me float,
Could make me float away,
One note from,
The song she wrote,
Could f*** me where I lay,
Just one note,
Could make me choke,
One note that's,
Not a lie,
Just one note,
Could cut my throat,
One note could make
me die.

I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
Songbird sweet and sour Jane,
and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
That's spiked with pain.

(my aeroplane, my aeroplane, my aeroplane, my aeroplane)

...it's my aeroplane..(x8)..

Ride - Samuel R. Hazo

With all the examples of interesting rhythms that we discussed and to which we listened in class today, I could not help but think of this symphonic band composition which I played in high school.  Honestly I am so captivated by listening to the song that I have trouble putting my head into analytical mode to try to determine the meter; the best I can remember from high school is that I think it's 7/8 sometimes but interspersed with measures or sections in other meters.  (I struggled to find any kind of image of just a single page of the score or one instrument's part to this song, but I neither had a scanned page on my computer nor could find anything online.)  To me it all fits together seamlessly, though, and I think therein the piece accomplishes the ultimate goal.  Even if, as a listener, you don't always know how to count along with what you're hearing, the beats and ebb and flow are powerful enough that you can move to it rather easily and intrinsically.  To wax poetic for a second: you just have to remove your mind from the pathway and let the music go straight to your body.  (In other words, don't think.)

For background on the inspiration behind this song, see Sam Hazo's story about it.  I love that it has both a totally physical experience as well as an overarching symbolic meaning attached to it.