Sing, Sing, Sing!
Yes, Virginia, the new Dresden Dolls album, came out this past week! I have been eagerly awaiting the second album and now it is finally here, and it has been soooo worth the wait. For those of you who do not know of The Dresden Dolls, they’re a ‘punk cabaret’ duo consisting of Amanda Palmer on piano and Brian Viglione on drums. That’s it. Piano and drums. Drums and piano. Some songs will have a guitar or a bass added, but for the most part it’s just those two instruments. Hearing it, you can’t believe it’s only two, because the melodies and rhythms are so powerful and so complex that sometimes it seems like an entire orchestra is accompanying. Amanda’s lyrics are darkly humorous, intelligent, and ever-so-relevant. But it gets better: not only are Amanda and Brian some of the most talented musicians out there, they are also highly theatrical, complete with makeup, costume, and a retro feel which is a throwback to old cabaret-style music from pre-WWII Germany. Think Marlene Dietrich singing in a smoky bar, with a smoky voice. Only with way more of a sense of humor and with goth/rock sensibilities. I adore their music and their style--completely unlike anyone else. To wit:
One of the songs on the album is called “Sing”. It’s about how we as a culture do not sing out loud and express our musicality (not everyone can play an instrument, but we can all sing). We’re influenced by fear, which keeps us rigid and quiet. But the song encourages us to open up and sing our guts out when we feel like it. This song is very interesting to me, because this is something I have noticed: out in public, I sometimes encounter people who sing to themselves while they’re alone. I’m not talking a soft, obsequious warbling; I’m talking a good, healthy singing, if not belting. The reason I have noticed it is probably because I can’t bring myself to do it.
I am always awestruck by (and rather envious of) the sheer moxie of these folks. Since I was a kid, I have been rather self-conscious about singing in front of people I don’t know well, or complete strangers. One time when I was young, I was doing a song-and-dance routine that my babysitter had just taught me, and just as I finished, my parents came into the room, smiling and applauding. You’d think I’d be beaming, you think I’d be proud. No. I wilted like a morning glory. I didn’t even know they were home, and I was flamingly self-conscious and embarrassed and surprised and I didn’t like being “caught” in the spotlight. So growing up, I felt that anytime my parents were in earshot, they “were listening”, so I would sing very quietly so that they wouldn’t hear me. Totally insane, I know, but that was the self-absorbed thinking of a kid. It was carried over, projected onto strangers and acquaintances. It was like, if I got to know you and trusted you, I would sing in front of you. I’m getting better about singing in front of acquaintances and new friends—I’m starting to get really comfortable singing at work after nearly 3 ½ years there—but singing around strangers, just for my own entertainment, especially when I’m alone in public, is something I’m working up to.
Obviously, I greatly admire the thimbleful of people in the world who do this. Even if it wasn’t a stigma of mine, I still think it’s awesome to behold someone feeling so open in the world that they want to express it through song. A friend of mine has a dear friend who is from India, and he could not believe the way Americans are so close-lipped about singing. In India, singing is natural as eating—everyone just does it, without question or hesitation. And they don’t obsess about the quality of their voices the way we do here. If we don’t think we sound good, we shut up. We give our most talented singers record contracts and TV shows (hello, American Idol!), and the rest of us who have average or even unmelodic voices feel like shit for even attempting to sing. What right do we have to sing in front of others, not being experts, not having any natural talent or training? In India, they just let it go, for the sheer joy of doing it.
So I love the Indians, and I love the man I heard in Starbucks the other day, and I love the people I can count on one hand whom I’ve heard sing wherever they happen to be because they enjoy the act. And I love The Dresden Dolls for calling us to sing. Thank you all, you brave, brave people!
One of the songs on the album is called “Sing”. It’s about how we as a culture do not sing out loud and express our musicality (not everyone can play an instrument, but we can all sing). We’re influenced by fear, which keeps us rigid and quiet. But the song encourages us to open up and sing our guts out when we feel like it. This song is very interesting to me, because this is something I have noticed: out in public, I sometimes encounter people who sing to themselves while they’re alone. I’m not talking a soft, obsequious warbling; I’m talking a good, healthy singing, if not belting. The reason I have noticed it is probably because I can’t bring myself to do it.
I am always awestruck by (and rather envious of) the sheer moxie of these folks. Since I was a kid, I have been rather self-conscious about singing in front of people I don’t know well, or complete strangers. One time when I was young, I was doing a song-and-dance routine that my babysitter had just taught me, and just as I finished, my parents came into the room, smiling and applauding. You’d think I’d be beaming, you think I’d be proud. No. I wilted like a morning glory. I didn’t even know they were home, and I was flamingly self-conscious and embarrassed and surprised and I didn’t like being “caught” in the spotlight. So growing up, I felt that anytime my parents were in earshot, they “were listening”, so I would sing very quietly so that they wouldn’t hear me. Totally insane, I know, but that was the self-absorbed thinking of a kid. It was carried over, projected onto strangers and acquaintances. It was like, if I got to know you and trusted you, I would sing in front of you. I’m getting better about singing in front of acquaintances and new friends—I’m starting to get really comfortable singing at work after nearly 3 ½ years there—but singing around strangers, just for my own entertainment, especially when I’m alone in public, is something I’m working up to.
Obviously, I greatly admire the thimbleful of people in the world who do this. Even if it wasn’t a stigma of mine, I still think it’s awesome to behold someone feeling so open in the world that they want to express it through song. A friend of mine has a dear friend who is from India, and he could not believe the way Americans are so close-lipped about singing. In India, singing is natural as eating—everyone just does it, without question or hesitation. And they don’t obsess about the quality of their voices the way we do here. If we don’t think we sound good, we shut up. We give our most talented singers record contracts and TV shows (hello, American Idol!), and the rest of us who have average or even unmelodic voices feel like shit for even attempting to sing. What right do we have to sing in front of others, not being experts, not having any natural talent or training? In India, they just let it go, for the sheer joy of doing it.
So I love the Indians, and I love the man I heard in Starbucks the other day, and I love the people I can count on one hand whom I’ve heard sing wherever they happen to be because they enjoy the act. And I love The Dresden Dolls for calling us to sing. Thank you all, you brave, brave people!
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