Hannah's Song Analysis Presentation

Punk style song analysis

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“Ghost Rider”/ Suicide:

            Suicide—formed in New York in 1970—was composed of vocalist Alan Vega and synthesizer/drum machine player (a sort of proto-dance-DJ?) Martin Rev. The band draws their name from a Ghost Rider comic titled, “Satan Suicide.” Although they never garnered much commercial success, Suicide was hugely influential to modern indie rock, post-punk, and electronic music. Musicians from The Jesus and Mary Chain to Bruce Springsteen cite the band as an influence, and in fact Bruce Springsteen has covered Suicide songs in the past. Suicide is largely notable for being the first band to advertise themselves as “punk music.”

The song “Ghost Rider” clocks in at 2:35, and is characteristic of the band’s subtle yet spastic style of music. Rev’s steady electro-groove changes little throughout the course of the song, providing the base for Vega’s random, jerky lyrical delivery. The length and lyrical content of the song (“America America’s killing its youth”) are certainly punk, and the band was notorious for their violent, confrontational performances. This, I think, “cancels out the synthetic nature of the song to make it solidly punk.

“Blue Monday”/ New Order

            Following the 1980 death of lead singer Ian Curtis, Joy Division was no more. However, the proto-Goth electro-rockers quickly re-emerged onto the music scene, reborn as New Order. Unlike the sulkier, more rock-influenced previous incarnation of their band, New Order embraced the synthesizer and, eventually, the dance floor.

            “Blue Monday,” released in 1983, is notable for being the best-selling 12” single of all time. This is largely due to its cutting edge, dance-floor ready beats and moody synthesizers. The vocals, in this song, are somewhat secondary to the beat, which is a style emulated by much modern electronic music. The song takes a whopping seven minutes and twenty-five seconds to complete its run, which is about five minutes too long for a punk song. “Blue Monday” is definitely an electro postpunk song. The lyrics are heavy, and seem to be offering a criticism of society and an older generation (“those who came before me/lived through their vocation/ from the past until completion/they will turn away no more”), but there’s nothing terribly punk about the style of the song or the band. New Order was hugely influential on the modern dance and electronic styles of music, as with many of their postpunk contemporaries.

“Love Meant to Die”/Jazz Destroyers

            There is virtually no information on the Jazz Destroyers available on the Internet, which speaks to the obscurity of the band. What I have gathered is that Jazz Destroyers come from the oddly-rock-and-roll city of Cleveland, and that they functioned in some capacity during the 1980s. They were composed of Dave E. McManus and James Ellis. Other than that, the band may or may not actually exist, as far as the Internet is concerned. The band obviously never achieved any sort of notoriety; it wasn’t really clear to me whether they actually even released an album.

            The song “Love Meant to Die” is a paltry 1:24 in length—perfect for a punk song. The song is composed of sloppy, horrible guitars with gargled, tuneless lyrics about death and society thrown over the top (“I tried so hard to live with a love that was meant to die,” “In the terminal of pretty dreams/everybody loves you when you’re lying”). The last twenty or so seconds of the song feature a distorted, harder instrumental breakdown as the song dissolves into chaos. The whole affair is rather punk, in my opinion. The band name is certainly punk enough—the concept of destroying jazz was something that punks were all over. The song also seems to be mocking jazz, in a way; the song features some random mouth noises that could be interpreted as perverted scatting. Additionally, the song is a bit of a distorted, disgusting mess—as was the punk scene in general, really.