Defamiliarizing Music (again? Sheesh)

On my 32nd birthday, I saw American Gangster with an old friend from my childhood. I hadn't seen this man in maybe 15 year or so. When I moved here with my family, we bumped into one another through the most random of events, and have slowly been reconnecting and getting to know one another. It's been a real blessing for my wife and me, because she too is becoming friends with my friend's husband. In economics, we call that the problem of the dual body match. It's not merely enough that I find someone with whom I click, but I must also click with the childhood friend's wife. Furthermore, my wife must click with both my friend and his wife. And, to complicate even more, since this is a twosided matching problem, each of them must like each of us. As you can see, the probabilities of even one match isn't terribly high (or at least, is not high for us, seeing as how we are all four introverts on the spectrum). The probability of all of these, though, is very very low. And that is why it is so precious a thing when two couples become friends. It's statistically rare, and yet such a great thing, because it means we can all fellowship jointly, communally, rather than merely as single nodes.

On that birthday, my friend gave me a mixed CD. And it was perfect. There were oddly enough many songs that were right up my alley - songs I either loved immediately but had never heard, or songs I used to love and had not heard in many years. One song I immediately loved, but had never heard before, was Metasciences' "Four Color Love Song Page" with the subtitle "And Yes I'm Still Bitter Over Sue Dibney. I heard a ton of times before actually paying attention to the lyrics. But yesterday, with my six year old son, I began to notice that this was a song about a superhero who is married to a normal woman, whom he passionately loves. The "four color love song page" is, I'm thinking, a reference to the fact that silver age comics used basically four colors to generate the many colors used on a page. I'm just guessing, though. I know it's at least got something to do with a comic book.

The lyrics can be found here. The first stanza reads

"Another day at work is nearly over
You must've seen the whole thing on T.V.
Seventeen more city blocks and I can almost smell you
Waiting at the windowsill for me
It's our 41st anniversary
But we don't look a day over 23
Not in this life
Not in this universe"

So this is a man who probably is married to this woman. She waits for him on windowsill, suggesting he can fly, and will be flying soon to her through the window. You don't know, from this opening stanza, all of this. You just know he is coming home, that something significant happened in the city which she would know about because of the news, and which he was involved in. Likely, it's a battle with a villain, but we don't know that here. We just know they look young. They are married and their hearts are as "light as the ether" you might say because of their fondness for the other.

"
And we were still in high school when I met you
If you believe the continuity
I rescued you from robots and untied you from the tracks
And you pretended not to know that it was me
We didn't even kiss until issue 26
And this world still feels like 1963
I love this life
I love this universe"

This part is more revealing. It doesn't take much for the reader to learn that he is both a comic book character and a superhero. That is, it's not merely that he is a superhero; he is a comic book superhero. For one, they met in high school and fell in love. This is therefore not Lois Lane and Superman (which we can discern later, as well) as the two of them met in Metropolis. Superman's high school sweetheart was Lana Lang, but he does not go on to marry her, nor become romantically involved with her (beyond some flirtations and short-term things that happen here and there) as an adult. But there's clearly a shadow of Superman in that, since he is unique among comic book superheroes as having a high school experience at all. Of course, they all had one, but few comic book characters actually explored that stage of life (save Peter Parker and a few others, of course).

We also learn here that he is a comic book character. Why? Because, insofar as one believes the "continuity," which is an insider buzz word referring to the lengthy publication duration of a single comic book character, spanning multiple decades, wherein the narrative attempts to maintain internal and external consistency within the comic book universe. It has historically been much more difficult for DC to handle its own continuity because many contradictions across titles and characters than Marvel, which is why DC revamps its universe every 20 years or so (just recently, it did it again). But, back to the song. He once saved her from robots and a speeding train. If you watch the old Max Fleischer Superman cartoons (which are classic and awesome, and which you can get for a dollar in the dollar DVD bin at Wal-mart), then this kind of feels like he is referring those types of adventures in that time. He also is conscious of the fact that he is a comic book character, not merely by referencing "continuity," but by his reference to the fact that their first kiss was in a specific issue. She knew, when he saved her and when they had kiss, his secret alias, but she pretended to be ignorant. And he loves her deeply for it - for that, for everything else - and as a result loves his life with her, and loves the entire world. She makes him a hero, in other words - makes him selfless enough to fight for strangers everyday.

And you'll keep my identity a secret
And you will know the touch beneath my glove
And I may go out every night and risk my life for strangers
But you're the only girl I'll ever love
And Gwen Stacy isn't dead, she's only sleeping
And Elektra isn't evil or insane
And those bastards in the pentagon can't really kill Sue Dibney
No more than they could kill off Lois Lane
And I swear to god there'll be hell to pay
If anybody tries to take you away
Forget this life
Forget this universe
You're everything I need
You are my life
You are my universe
And they'll have to go through me

See he isn't Superman, as you can see, because he wears a glove, which Superman does not. And he is aware that they attempted to kill Lois Lane, which she is not. In fact, it's clear that while this is in the comic book universe, it is not in DC nor is it in Marvel. Sue Dibney is Elongated Man's wife (now deceased). Elektra is Daredevil's lover. Gwen Stacey was Peter Parker's love, before (or during) Mary Jane Watson. So this part is somewhat strange. Stacey isn't dead, she's only sleeping? Where is this? When is this? It's timeless, I guess.

It's a beautiful sung song, and the lyrics combined with the tone of the melody defamiliarizes the love song somewhat. It's a parody, I suppose. But, it's still interesting. It's a love song by a superhero for his wife. She is his life, his universe, she inspires him to be a hero, and God help anyone who tries to hurt her.

This is a good example of a song that defamiliarizes the familiar - and why we always need new artforms and new artists. The love song can quickly become tired and routine, mainly because we are accustomed to it. New artforms, new artists, new songs, but specifically new techniques that defamiliarize these familiar objects, reorient our senses, imagination and understand back to the truth about that which the object references. Namely love. Specifically, relational, romantic, erotic love for a woman. A superhero sings this accompanied by a melodic, acoustic sound, and I see love again, which had been hidden.