21. A Perfect Sonnet

Song:  "A Perfect Sonnet"
Artist:  Bright Eyes
Album:  Every Day and Every Night (EP)
Length:  3:42
Label:  Saddle Creek
Year: 1999

• Download Bright Eyes - "A Perfect Sonnet".mp3

Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst wears his heart on his sleeve, to say the least.  While his sometimes overblown emoting has been toned down in recent efforts, his plaintive caterwauling fills the speakers on most of his early records.  He can go too far of course, but when he hits it, such as in the screaming catharsis of "If Winter Ends" or the triumphant wail of "The Center of the World", you can't help but be moved.  Or at least I can't.  This song, off a 5-song EP released between his debut full length Letting Off the Happiness and the fevered sophomore masterpiece Fevers & Mirrors, is my favorite Bright Eyes single, an amazing piece of music spouting anger at those whose happiness does not always please those without such joy.  According to the wikipedia entry on the song - the only source I could find - "A Perfect Sonnet" was recorded in memory of Oberst's former friend Jason Ikarde, the lyrics being centered around Oberst's jealousy of Ikarde's long term relationship with his girlfriend at the time.  I'm not sure of the accuracy of the entry, but with lines like "I believe that lovers should be chained together, thrown into a fire with their songs and letters, left there to burn, left there to burn in their arrogance," it certainly seems possible.  Take a listen and enjoy.

#21 Favorite Song of All-Time

Lately I've been wishing I had one desire
something that would make me never want another
something that would make it so that nothing mattered
all would be clear then

but I guess i'll have to settle for a few brief moments
and watch it all dissolve into a single second
I try to write it down into a perfect sonnet
or one foolish line

'cause that's all that you'll get so you'll have to accept
you are here then you're gone

but i believe that lovers should be tied together
thrown into the ocean in the worst of weather
left there to drown
left there to drown
in their innocence

but as for me i'm coming to the final chapter
i read all of the pages and there's still no answer
only all that was before i know must soon come after
that's the only way it can be

so I stand in the sun
and I breathe with my lungs
trying to spare me the weight of the truth

Saying everything you've ever seen was just a mirror
spent your whole life sweating in an endless fever
now you're laying in a bathtub full of freezing water
wishing you were a ghost

But once you knew a girl and you named her lover
danced with her in kitchens through the greenest summer
autumn came, she disappeared
you can't remember where she said she was going to

but you know that she is gone 'cause she left you a song
that you don't want to sing

singing I believe that lovers should be chained together
thrown into a fire with their songs and letters
left there to burn
left there to burn
in their arrogance

but as for me i'm coming to my final failure
killed myself with changes trying to make things better
ended up becoming something other than what I had planned to be

now i believe that lovers should be draped in flowers
and layed entwined together on a bed of clover
left there to sleep
left there to dream of their happiness

Comments

[LegFuJohnson]

Fantastic list, I can't even take only one at a time, I'm begging for the next one. How about posting 3 of these on Sunday?

[Air Jordan]

I don't think there's anything to be afraid of. Failure brings great rewards -- in the life of an artist. Do you agree?

[Pandora]

Why are there no African-American groups in this list? Are you saying black people don't make good music?