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THE
POWER OF AN AUDIENCE: Trust the Art, Not the Artist
Page 4
The
Artists' Stand
So if the audience is in complete control, why would the songwriter
even trouble themselves with writing a lyric that will inevitably
be misread at some point? The whole concept of song is to connect
with an audience, thus for most songwriters, any interpretation
is a good interpretation. Also, many songwriters are fans themselves
and are overly familiar with the power of the audience. Songwriter
Jay Farrar of Son Volt explains, "Usually I don't like to
explain what was on my mind in terms of writing, in terms of music.
That's the way I prefer to leave it (with the listeners). When
people have explained what they were trying to write about in
a song liked or have listened to, and it's nowhere close to what
I thought it was about, it's disappointing" (Wilkins, 11).
Farrar seems to realize that the power and the imagination of
an audience helps give added depth and meaning to the words that
he writes.
In a similar fashion, Pete Townshend of the Who discussed how
an audience's interpretation can even be more valid than the artist'
original intent. Townshend once remarked, "It somehow goes
to show that 'trust the art, not the artist' tag that people put
on Dylan's silence about his work could be a good idea. To me,
"Mighty Quinn" is about the five Perfect Masters of
age, the best of all being Meher Baba of course, to Dylan it's
probably about gardening, or the joys of placing dog shit in the
garbage to foul up Alan J. Weberman" (Morse, 7). Farrar and
Townshend would both agree that audiences do not manipulate text
or improperly decode lyrics, but they are the ones that actually
give the text its true meaning.
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AUDIENCE: Trust the Art, Not the Artist
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AUDIENCE: Trust the Art, Not the Artist
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AUDIENCE: Trust the Art, Not the Artist
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AUDIENCE: Trust the Art, Not the Artist
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AUDIENCE: Trust the Art, Not the Artist
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