(Ü/PS) Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle Like a Bowl of Soup: Song Lyrics as Poetry

Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize in Literature triggered a heated debate whether songwriting is, in fact, poetry. British poet Simon Armitage thus claims that “songs are often bad poems. Take the music away and what you’re left with is often an awkward piece of creative writing full of lumpy syllables, cheesy rhymes, exhausted cliches and mixed metaphors” (2008). However, like poems, songs directly speak to people’s sense of self, “[a]nd every one of them words [is ringing] true […] [l]ike it was written in my soul from me to you” (Dylan 1975).

This seminar consequently investigates selected songs of the allegedly “Greatest British Artists of all Times” as modern poems. From Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Beatles, Black Sabbath, Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Elton John, Harry Styles, Led Zeppelin, One Direction, The Police, Queen, Rolling Stones, Spice Girls, to The Who—to name but a few—students are asked to actively contribute to the creation of this seminar’s ‘playlist’. Our aim is to situate and examine the songs in their respective sociohistorical context, to consider their significance to past and present audiences through close readings of their lyrics, and to discuss their ‘literariness’ to establish who else would deserve a Noble Prize.

To prepare for this seminar, think about which British musicians, or even better songs, you would like to discuss, and do not forget to warm up your vocal cords.

The course will take place on Thursdays from 2:50 to 4:20 p.m. at W48/0004/U.