Are songs timeless?

[Jim Colyer]

Writers like to think their songs are timeless, but is there such a thing? I went to Neil Sedaka's site. "Laughter In The Rain" was referred to as timeless. The song reminds me of driving through Chicago in November, 1974, when Neil broke out after a decade of the British dominating radio. Nothing timeless about that! Positive thinking is the theme which, in a human context, can be called timeless. Shakespearean themes are thought of as timeless although his language is obviously not. Dinosaurs ruled 160 million years and passed away. The sun will expend its energy, and the universe will die. Can 3 minute songs be eternal? The ones most closely approaching timelessness are Christmas songs because Christmas returns annually and because no new, good Christmas songs have appeared in the last 50 years. "Silent Night" and "White Christmas" become relevant each December.

[Shawn]

Clearly you've never heard Corey Hart's immaculate reconception of Rudolph the Rednosed reindeer.

I think music itself is timeless but, as the sampling practice has proven, the lyrics aren't.

[DudeAsInCool]

I think it depends on the song. Some classical songs have held up for centuries. Pop tracks vary, depending on what is infashion and what's not. The motown tracks still resonate for me, for example - they don't appear to have gone out of fashion

[Kooperman]

jazz= timeless

[rainbowdemon]

Timeless, sure!!

I was at the mall this evening, and I noticed that the song that was playing on the Muzak system was my wedding song. The original version too. And I've been divorced for three years!!

Is that timeless, or am I just getting old?

[Shawn]

Getting?

[ralfsmith]

Oh its very interesting. Could you provide me more information ?

[email protected]

[slum_goddess]

"Silent Night" and "White Christmas" become relevant each December.

maybe to you and yours. i hear them and i cringe.

[Redneck4sure]

Songs maybe considered timeless until you hear me sing them. One dose of that and you will change your mind.

[Jim Colyer]

Some say The Beatles' Yesterday is timeless. Being a Lennon fan, I regard Imagine as more timeless.

[Shawn]

If I was looking for a Beatle flavoured "timeless" classic it would be While my guitar gently weeps.

[bear]

I think the more tender the nerve that's touched, the more 'timeless' a song will be considered. (through time, of course)

Take a song by one of those 80's hair bands. Think of any one of those sappy power ballads. If you grew up in that era, those songs might have touched a nerve back then. But today? Will you still feel the same sharp, raw nerve being poked?

Maybe, but just a little. You'll also have some nostalgia for that time, and laugh about the clothes and whatever other goofy thing you wore or said or did back then.

But the song itself is a small fraction of it. And let's face it, it's kind of tough to see the deep meaning of the words when you have to automatically have the video image drilled into your brain as well. MTV mde it so your thoughts about a song move in a certain direction because of what you've visually been fed. i say "every rose has it's thorn", and you think of long hair pretty guys walking around in slow motion, drunk onstage. Your mind isn't free to paint your own picture any more.

Having the images accompany the lyrics is to (IMO) cover the fact that most times, the lyrics are weak.

To get an everlasting some, you have to go back. Before MTV.

Bill Withers says "Ain't No Sunshine when she's gone. Aint no sunshine when she's away. Ain't no sunshine when she's gone, and this house just ain't no home anytime, she goes away"

He just says it.

Plainly and to the point. I miss my woman.

Men will always be that hangdog depresses at one time or another about his woman leaving him. And this song will play and he will get it's amplitude and its breadth and width and he'll be enrapt, an actually living part of this song.

That's what makes this particular song timeless. You could play it for a 12 year old who just had his first girlfriend say she liked so-and-so better. He'd get this song.

[Shawn]

Man, you're posts are little piles of gold.

[bear]

No, not really. Some things just make better sense when you look at them from the inside out, rather than from the outside in. More resonance if you start at the core.