"All your money won't buy another minute".
I've never owned a recording by Kansas. That includes their biggest hit single - Dust in the Wind - the song from which the lyric above is lifted. Always liked the tune - nice acoustic guitar, inventive violin lines, subtle vocal harmony, moderately bleak but largely solid lyric - but I'd mostly stopped buying singles by 1978 and their other music didn't grab me enough to invest in an LP.
My disinterest in Kansas aside, I submit that terse phrase will outlive composer/lyricist Kerry Livgren. I hope he'll forgive the fact that I transplanted the word buy from the end of his phrase to the middle. In the original, Livgren needed buy to complete a rhyming couplet (with "sky"). But for me, the clumsy syntax of "...won't another minute buy" dulls the impact and lands with a thud. However, at least one faithful reader and good friend pushed back at my presumptuousness when I shared this notion. She gently chastised me for minimizing "artistic license". We agreed to disagree.
You decide where you want to land, then place the word buy where it suits you. No matter really because in the end, those concise seven words stand alone and contain a universal truth. They are words for the ages, clumsy syntax or artistic license notwithstanding.
Kerry Livgren, the Kansas songwriter who wrote "...won't another minute buy" was clever by writing this lyric with an unusual syntax. It catches the ear. Hmmm, now I'm paying attention! Clumsy? Not if you're paying attention. The dull and ordinary --"All your money won't buy another minute" -- sounds like grampa in his rocker droning on to a youngin. Yawn.... Lyricists gotta grab 'em by the lapels. Or balls. Whatever your preference.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous; Well, even if Livgren's syntax still strikes me as clumsy and rhyme-dependent - this is grampa droning while seated in his dull and ordinary rocker, stifling a yawn - your comment certainly grabbed me. I felt a yank somewhere between my lapels and ahem ... that other place you so indelicately mentioned.
DeleteBhahahahaha! Glad I grabbed your .... attention! :-)
DeleteHey Pat. I have to admit that I like the music Kansas has put out over the years. I tend to have a fairly eclectic range in my music tastes. Not just by genre but also by instruments used. Where would Jethro Tull be without that Flute. Eddie Money's frequent use of saxophones (as so many others have also used) as well as any bands use of strong horns of all types. However, this particular song has a special meaning to me as it was the favorite song of a dear friend of mine and was played at his memorial service. It took a while for me to listen to it after that day 7 years ago, but since then has taken on a whole new meaning. Especially the line you reference. Both for the sentiment and the irony. Definitely words for the ages. Good choice.
ReplyDeleteBe well,
Bob
Bob; Thanks for the comment. And as a eulogy song, "Dust in the Wind" is an apt choice that I'm sure brought a tear to many a mourner's eye.
Delete